Appendix – Firmware Configuration

Before configuring mlnx_snap, the user must ensure all FW configuration requirements are met. By default, mlnx_snap is disabled, and needs to be enabled by running both common mlnx-snap configuration, and additional protocol-specific configuration depending on the expected usage of the application (e.g. Hotplug, SR-IOV, UEFI boot, etc).

After all configuration is finished, power-cycling the host is required for these changes to take effect.

Note

To verify that all configuration requirements are satisfied, users may query the current/next configuration by running the following:

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            mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0 -e query

Basic Configuration

(Optional) Reset all previous configuration.
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```
            
            [dpu] mst start
[dpu] mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0 reset
        
```
Note

This will return your product to its default configurations. Do this only if you were not able to get SNAP to work.

Set general basic parameters.

On BlueField-2:

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            [dpu] mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0 s INTERNAL_CPU_MODEL=1

On BlueField:

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            [dpu] sudo mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt41682_pciconf0 s INTERNAL_CPU_MODEL=1 PF_BAR2_ENABLE=1 PF_BAR2_SIZE=1

When using RDMA/RoCE transport, additional parameters must be configured:

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            [dpu] mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0 s PER_PF_NUM_SF=1 
[dpu] mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0 s PF_SF_BAR_SIZE=8 PF_TOTAL_SF=2 
[dpu] mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0.1 s PF_SF_BAR_SIZE=8 PF_TOTAL_SF=2

System Configuration Parameters

Parameter	Description	Possible Values	Comments
SRIOV_EN	Enable SR-IOV	0/1
NUM_OF_VFS	Number of VFs per emulated PF	[0-127]
NUM_PF_MSIX	Number of MSIX assigned to emulated PF	[0-63]
NUM_VF_MSIX	Number of MSIX assigned to emulated VF	[0-63]
PCI_SWITCH_EMULATION_ENABLE	Enable PCI switch for emulated PFs	0/1
PCI_SWITCH_EMULATION_NUM_PORT	Max number of emulated PFs	[0-32]	Single port is reserved for all static PFs

Note

SRIOV_EN is valid only for static PFs

NVMe Configuration

Parameter	Description	Possible Values	Comments
NVME_EMULATION_ENABLE	Enable NVMe device emulation	0/1
NVME_EMULATION_NUM_PF	Number of static emulated nvme PFs	[0-2]
NVME_EMULATION_NUM_MSIX	Number of MSIX assigned to emulated NVMe PF/VF	[0-63]
NVME_EMULATION_NUM_VF	Number of VFs per emulated NVMe PF	[0-127]	If not 0, overrides `NUM_OF_VFS`; valid only when `SRIOV_EN=1`
EXP_ROM_NVME_UEFI_x86_ENABLE	Enable NVMe UEFI exprom driver	0/1	Used for UEFI boot process

VirtIO-blk Configuration

Warning

Due to virtio-blk protocol limitations, using bad configuration while working with static virtio-blk PFs may cause the host server OS to fail on boot.

Before continuing, make sure you have configured:

A working channel to access Arm even when the host is shut down. Setting such channel is out of the scope of this document. Please refer to "NVIDIA BlueField DPU Family Software Documentation" for more details.
Add the following line to /etc/mlnx_snap/snap_rpc_init.conf:
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```
            
            controller_virtio_blk_create mlx5_0 --pf_id 0 --bdev_type none
        
```
For more information, please refer to section “VirtIO-blk Controller Management”.

Parameter	Description	Possible Values	Comments
VIRTIO_BLK_EMULATION_ENABLE	Enable virtio-blk device emulation	0/1
VIRTIO_BLK_EMULATION_NUM_PF	Number of static emulated virtio-blk PFs	[0-2]	See WARNING above
VIRTIO_BLK_EMULATION_NUM_MSIX	Number of MSIX assigned to emulated virtio-blk PF/VF	[0-63]
VIRTIO_BLK_EMULATION_NUM_VF	Number of VFs per emulated virtio-blk PF	[0-127]	If not 0, overrides `NUM_OF_VFS`; valid only when `SRIOV_EN=1`
EXP_ROM_VIRTIO_BLK_UEFI_x86_ENABLE	Enable virtio-blk UEFI exprom driver	0/1	Used for UEFI boot process

On This Page

Appendix – Firmware Configuration

Basic Configuration

System Configuration Parameters

NVMe Configuration

VirtIO-blk Configuration