DOCA Installation Guide for Linux
These pages detail the steps necessary to set up NVIDIA DOCA on your Linux environment.
For BlueField® networking platform (DPU or SuperNIC) - Deployment of the BF-Bundle software requires installing/upgrading DOCA on the host side before installing/upgrading the BF-bundle on the BlueField
Supported Networking Platforms
The following networking platforms are supported with DOCA.
BlueField Platforms
The BlueField networking platforms supported with this DOCA version can be found in the BlueField hardware manuals.
ConnectX Platforms
The NVIDIA® ConnectX® NICs supported with DOCA-Host version can be found in the ConnectX hardware manuals.
Hardware Prerequisites
For BlueField Platform users, this guide assumes that a BlueField device has been installed in a server according to the instructions detailed in your DPU's hardware user guide .
DOCA Packages
See information in the NVIDIA DOCA Release Notes.
Supported Host OS per DOCA-Host Installation Profile
Refer to section "Supported Host OS per DOCA-Host Installation Profile" in the release notes to learn which profiles are supported with a specific OS.
For full instructions about setting up a development environment, refer to the DOCA Developer Guide.
| Methods | Description | Purpose | Scope | Tool | Capability | Links |
| BFB Image | BlueField bootstream (BFB) image for OS deployment on the BlueField DPUs | Production | All OSs |
BFB installation (install.sh)
| Installs OS, Kernel, and pre-built binaries | BF-Bundle Installation and Upgrade |
| Standard Linux tools | Enables upgrading DOCA components using standard Linux tools (e.g.,
apt update
and
yum update
). This process
utilizes native package manager repositories to upgrade DPUs without the need for a full installation
. | Day 2/ Production | All OSs | Based on Linux tools (apt/yum) | Updates components that include changes only | |
| ISO | ISO image | Installation | Ubuntu 22.04 | PXE | Installs OS, Kernel, and pre-built binaries | Deploying BlueField Software Using ISO with PXE |
| Bfb-build | Meant for BlueField users wishing to build their own BFB image for OS deployment on BlueField DPUs | To create custom BFB with special kernel and compile additional packages | All OSs | bfb-build | Installs OS, Kernel, and pre-built binaries | Bfb-build github |
| BF-FW bundle | A firmware-only BFB image which includes UEFI, NIC firmware, and BMC firmware | Upgrade only firmware components | Only firmware |
BFB installation (install.sh)
| Upgrade firmware components only | NVIDIA DOCA Downloads BF-FW Bundle |