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DOCA Documentation v2.10.0

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

  1. DOCA-Host installation and upgrade.

  2. BF-Bundle installation and upgrade.

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 DescriptionPurposeScopeToolCapabilityLinks
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 DPUsTo create custom BFB with special kernel and compile additional packages All OSsbfb-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

© Copyright 2025, NVIDIA. Last updated on May 18, 2025.