C9h Strings File

Overview

The C9h Strings File is a vendor-supplied binary file that the nvme-cli OCP Plugin combines with raw telemetry binary data pulled from a drive to produce the human-readable, pretty-printed output described in OCP SEC-22. It is what makes "human readable" telemetry possible: after the tool runs and combines the strings file with the binary drive data and pretty-prints the result, "mere mortals can read it," even though the data coming off the drive is itself binary. Because the strings file is not time-critical, Micron implemented a pre-pull methodology so it can be fetched at any time when latency is not critical — including ahead of need — fully decoupling it from the time-sensitive telemetry binary collection required for debug. This separation enables a distributed debug model: binary telemetry data is collected on one system, transferred to another (such as a customer's Windows laptop), and decoded there using the strings file.