DOCA Installation Guide for Linux
Follow the steps in this section to set up NVIDIA DOCA in your Linux environment.
To deploy the BF-Bundle software on the BlueField networking platform (DPU or SuperNIC), you must:
Install or upgrade DOCA on the host side.
Install or upgrade BF-Bundle on the BlueField device.
DOCA supports the following networking platforms:
BlueField: refer to the BlueField hardware manuals for version-specific support information
ConnectX: refer to the ConnectX hardware manuals for version-specific DOCA-Host support information
For BlueField platform users, this guide assumes that a BlueField device has been installed in a server according to the instructions in your DPU's hardware user guide .
See information in the DOCA Release Notes.
Refer to Supported Host OS per DOCA-Host Installation Profile in the release notes to for OS-specific profile support information.
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 ( | Installs OS, Kernel, and pre-built binaries | |
Standard Linux tools | Enables upgrading DOCA components using standard Linux tools (e.g.,
| 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 | |
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 | |
BF-FW bundle | A firmware-only BFB image which includes UEFI, NIC firmware, and BMC firmware | Upgrade only firmware components | Only firmware |
BFB installation ( | Upgrade firmware components only |