Appendix – DPU Firmware Configuration
Before configuring SNAP, the user must ensure that all firmware configuration requirements are met. By default, SNAP is disabled and must be enabled by running both common SNAP configurations and additional protocol-specific configurations depending on the expected usage of the application (e.g., hot-plug, SR-IOV, UEFI boot, etc).
After configuration is finished, the host must be power cycled for the changes to take effect.
To verify that all configuration requirements are satisfied, users may query the current/next configuration by running the following:
mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt41692_pciconf0 -e query
|
Parameter |
Description |
Possible Values |
|
INTERNAL_CPU_MODEL |
Enable BlueField to work in internal CPU model Note
Must be set to 1 for storage emulations.
|
0/1 |
|
SRIOV_EN |
Enable SR-IOV |
0/1 |
|
PCI_SWITCH_EMULATION_ENABLE |
Enable PCI switch for emulated PFs |
0/1 |
|
PCI_SWITCH_EMULATION_NUM_PORT |
The maximum number of hotplug emulated PFs which equals PCI_SWITCH_EMULATION_NUM_PORT–2. For example, if PCI_SWITCH_EMULATION_NUM_PORT=16, then the maximum number of hotplug emulated PFs would be 14. Note
One switch port is reserved for all static PFs.
|
[0,3-16] |
SRIOV_EN is valid only for static PFs.
BlueField's RDMA/RoCE communication is blocked for BlueField's default OS interfaces (nameds ECPFs, typically mlx5_0 and mlx5_1). If RoCE traffic is required, additional network functions (scalable functions) must be added which support RDMA/RoCE traffic.
The following is not required when working over TCP or even RDMA/IB.
To enable RoCE interfaces, run the following from within the DPU:
[dpu] mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt41692_pciconf0 s PER_PF_NUM_SF=1
[dpu] mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt41692_pciconf0 s PF_SF_BAR_SIZE=8 PF_TOTAL_SF=2
[dpu] mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt41692_pciconf0.1 s PF_SF_BAR_SIZE=8 PF_TOTAL_SF=2
|
Parameter |
Description |
Possible Values |
|
NVME_EMULATION_ENABLE |
Enable NVMe device emulation |
0/1 |
|
NVME_EMULATION_NUM_PF |
Number of static emulated NVMe PFs |
[0-4] |
|
NVME_EMULATION_NUM_MSIX |
Number of MSIX assigned to emulated NVMe PF/VF Note
The firmware treats this value as a best effort value. The effective number of MSI-X given to the function should be queried as part of the nvme_controller_list RPC command.
|
[0-63] |
|
NVME_EMULATION_NUM_VF |
Number of VFs per emulated NVMe PF Note
If not 0, overrides NUM_OF_VFS; valid only when SRIOV_EN=1.
|
[0-512] |
|
EXP_ROM_NVME_UEFI_x86_ENABLE |
Enable NVMe UEFI exprom driver Note
Used for UEFI boot process.
|
0/1 |
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 BSP documentation for more details.
Add the following line to /etc/nvda_snap/snap_rpc_init.conf:
virtio_blk_controller_create –pf_id 0
For more information, please refer to section "Virtio-blk Emulation Management".
|
Parameter |
Description |
Possible Values |
|
VIRTIO_BLK_EMULATION_ENABLE |
Enable virtio-blk device emulation |
0/1 |
|
VIRTIO_BLK_EMULATION_NUM_PF |
Number of static emulated virtio-blk PFs Note
See WARNING above.
|
[0-4] |
|
VIRTIO_BLK_EMULATION_NUM_MSIX |
Number of MSIX assigned to emulated virtio-blk PF/VF Note
The firmware treats this value as a best effort value. The effective number of MSI-X given to the function should be queried as part of the virtio_blk_controller_list RPC command.
|
[0-63] |
|
VIRTIO_BLK_EMULATION_NUM_VF |
Number of VFs per emulated virtio-blk PF Note
If not 0, overrides NUM_OF_VFS; valid only when SRIOV_EN=1
|
[0-1000] |
|
EXP_ROM_VIRTIO_BLK_UEFI_x86_ENABLE |
Enable virtio-blk UEFI exprom driver Note
Used for UEFI boot process.
|
0/1 |