Deploying BlueField Software Using BFB from Host
It is recommended to upgrade your BlueField product to the latest software and firmware versions available to benefit from new features and latest bug fixes.
This procedure assumes that a BlueField DPU has already been installed in a server according to the instructions detailed in the DPU's hardware user guide.
The following table lists an overview of the steps required to install Ubuntu BFB on your DPU:
|
Step |
Procedure |
Link to Section |
|
1 |
Install RShim on the host |
|
|
2 |
Verify that RShim is running on the host |
|
|
3 |
Change the default credentials using bf.cfg file (optional) |
|
|
4 |
Install the Ubuntu BFB image |
|
|
5 |
Verify installation completed successfully |
|
|
6 |
Upgrade the firmware on your DPU |
It is is important to learn your DPU's device-id for performing some of the software installations or upgrades in this guide.
To determine the device ID of the DPUs on your setup, run:
mst start
mst status -v
Example output:
MST modules:
------------
MST PCI module is not loaded
MST PCI configuration module loaded
PCI devices:
------------
DEVICE_TYPE MST PCI RDMA NET NUMA
BlueField2(rev:1) /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0.1 3b:00.1 mlx5_1 net-ens1f1 0
BlueField2(rev:1) /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0 3b:00.0 mlx5_0 net-ens1f0 0
BlueField3(rev:1) /dev/mst/mt41692_pciconf0.1 e2:00.1 mlx5_1 net-ens7f1np1 4
BlueField3(rev:1) /dev/mst/mt41692_pciconf0 e2:00.0 mlx5_0 net-ens7f0np0 4
The device IDs for the BlueField-2 and BlueField-3 DPUs in this example are /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0 and /dev/mst/mt41692_pciconf0 respectively.
Before installing the RShim driver, verify that the RShim devices, which will be probed by the driver, are listed under lsusb or lspci.
lspci | grep -i nox
Output example:
27:00.0 Ethernet controller: Mellanox Technologies MT42822 BlueField-2 integrated ConnectX-6 Dx network controller
27:00.1 Ethernet controller: Mellanox Technologies MT42822 BlueField-2 integrated ConnectX-6 Dx network controller
27:00.2 Non-Volatile memory controller: Mellanox Technologies NVMe SNAP Controller
27:00.3 DMA controller: Mellanox Technologies MT42822 BlueField-2 SoC Management Interface // This is the RShim PF
RShim is compiled as part of the doca-tools package in the doca-host-repo-ubuntu<version>_amd64 file (.deb or .rpm).
To install doca-tools:
|
OS |
Procedure |
|
Ubuntu/Debian |
|
|
CentOS/RHEL 7.x |
|
|
CentOS/RHEL 8.x or Rocky 8.6 |
|
Verify RShim status. Run:
sudo systemctl status rshim
Expected output:
active (running) ... Probing pcie-0000:<DPU’s PCIe Bus address on host> create rshim pcie-0000:<DPU’s PCIe Bus address on host> rshim<N> attached
Where <N> denotes RShim enumeration starting with 0 (then 1, 2, etc.) for every additional DPU installed on the server.
If the text "another backend already attached" is displayed, users will not be able to use RShim on the host. Please refer to "RShim Troubleshooting and How-Tos" to troubleshoot RShim issues.
If the previous command displays inactive or another error, restart RShim service. Run:
sudo systemctl restart rshim
Verify RShim status again. Run:
sudo systemctl status rshim
If this command does not display "active (running)", then refer to "RShim Troubleshooting and How-Tos".
Display the current setting. Run:
# cat /dev/rshim<N>/misc | grep DEV_NAME DEV_NAME pcie-0000:04:00.2
This output indicates that the RShim service is ready to use.
Changing Default Credentials Using bf.cfg
Ubuntu users are prompted to change the default password (ubuntu) for the default user (ubuntu) upon first login. Logging in will not be possible even if the login prompt appears until all services are up ("DPU is ready" message appears in /dev/rshim0/misc).
Attempting to log in before all services are up prints the following message: "Permission denied, please try again."
Alternatively, Ubuntu users can provide a unique password that will be applied at the end of the BFB installation. This password would need to be defined in a bf.cfg configuration file. To set the password for the ubuntu user:
Create password hash. Run:
# openssl passwd -1 Password: Verifying - Password: $1$3B0RIrfX$TlHry93NFUJzg3Nya00rE1
Add the password hash in quotes to the bf.cfg file:
# vim bf.cfg ubuntu_PASSWORD='$1$3B0RIrfX$TlHry93NFUJzg3Nya00rE1'
The bf.cfg file will be used with the bfb-install script in the following step.
WarningPassword policy:
Minimum password length – 8
At least one upper-case letter
At least one lower-case letter
At least one numerical character
For a comprehensive list of the supported parameters to customize bf.cfg during BFB installation, refer to section "bf.cfg Parameters".
GRUB Password Protection
GRUB menu entries are protected by a username and password to prevent unwanted changes to the default boot options or parameters.
The default credentials are as follows:
|
Username |
admin |
|
Password |
BlueField |
The password can be changed during BFB installation by providing a new grub_admin_PASSWORD parameter in bf.cfg:
# vim bf.cfg
grub_admin_PASSWORD=’ grub.pbkdf2.sha512.10000.5EB1FF92FDD89BDAF3395174282C77430656A6DBEC1F9289D5F5DAD17811AD0E2196D0E49B49EF31C21972669D180713E265BB2D1D4452B2EA9C7413C3471C53.F533423479EE7465785CC2C79B637BDF77004B5CC16C1DDE806BCEA50BF411DE04DFCCE42279E2E1F605459F1ABA3A0928CE9271F2C84E7FE7BF575DC22935B1’
To get a new encrypted password value use the command grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2.
After the installation, the password can be updated by editing the file /etc/grub.d/40_custom and then running the command update-grub which updates the file /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
BFB Installation
Installing the BFB does not update the firmware. To do that, refer to section Firmware Upgrade.
A pre-built BFB of Ubuntu 20.04 with DOCA Runtime and DOCA packages installed is available on the NVIDIA DOCA SDK developer zone page.
All new BlueField-2 devices are secure boot enabled, hence all SW images must be signed by NVIDIA in order to boot. All formally published SW images are signed.
To install Ubuntu BFB, run on the host side:
# bfb-install -h
syntax: bfb-install --bfb|-b <BFBFILE> [--config|-c <bf.cfg>] \
[--rootfs|-f <rootfs.tar.xz>] --rshim|-r <rshimN> [--help|-h]
The bfb-install utility is installed by the RShim package.
This utility script pushes the BFB image and optional configuration to the BlueField side and checks and prints the BFB installation progress. To see the BFB installation progress, please install the pv Linux tool.
The first boot after BFB installation includes OS configuration. If BlueField is restarted before the configuration is complete, it will not operate as expected. For example, it may not be accessible using SSH.
The following is an output example of Ubuntu 20.04 installation with the bfb-install script assuming pv has been installed.
# bfb-install --bfb <BlueField-OS>.bfb --config bf.cfg --rshim rshim0
Pushing bfb + cfg
1.21GiB 0:01:14 [16.5MiB/s] [ <=> ]
Collecting BlueField booting status. Press Ctrl+C to stop…
INFO[PSC]: PSC BL1 START
INFO[BL2]: start
INFO[BL2]: DDR POST passed
INFO[BL2]: UEFI loaded
INFO[BL31]: start
INFO[BL31]: lifecycle Production
INFO[BL31]: VDD adjustment complete
INFO[BL31]: VDD adjustment complete
INFO[BL31]: power capping disabled
INFO[BL31]: runtime
INFO[UEFI]: eMMC init
INFO[UEFI]: eMMC probed
INFO[UEFI]: UPVS valid
INFO[UEFI]: PMI: updates started
INFO[UEFI]: PMI: boot image update
INFO[UEFI]: PMI: updates completed, status 0
INFO[UEFI]: PCIe enum start
INFO[UEFI]: PCIe enum end
INFO[UEFI]: exit Boot Service
INFO[MISC]: Found bf.cfg
INFO[MISC]: Ubuntu installation started
INFO[MISC]: Installing OS image
INFO[MISC]: Changing the default password for user ubuntu
INFO[MISC]: Running bfb_modify_os from bf.cfg
INFO[MISC]: ===================== bfb_modify_os =====================
INFO[MISC]: Installation finished
INFO[MISC]: Rebooting...
Interrupting the update process during its " Pushing bfb " stage may cause issues that render the DPU inoperable. To recover the DPU, re-initiate the update process with bfb-install .
Verify BFB is Installed
After installation of the Ubuntu OS is complete, the following note appears in /dev/rshim0/misc on first boot:
...
INFO[MISC]: Linux up
INFO[MISC]: DPU is ready
"DPU is ready" indicates that all the relevant services are up and users can login the system.
After the installation of the Ubuntu 20.04 BFB, the configuration detailed in the following sections is generated.
Make sure all the services (including cloud-init) are started on BlueField before power cycling the host server.
BlueField OS image version is stored under /etc/mlnx-release in the DPU.
# cat /etc/mlnx-release
DOCA_v1.1_BlueField_OS_Ubuntu_20.04-<version>
Firmware Upgrade
mlxfwreset is not supported in this release. Please power cycle the host where mlxfwreset is requested.
To upgrade firmware:
Set a temporary static IP on the host. Run:
sudo ip addr add 192.168.100.1/24 dev tmfifo_net0
SSH to your DPU via 192.168.100.2 (preconfigured). The default credentials for Ubuntu are as follows.
Username
Password
ubuntu
Set during installation
For example:
ssh ubuntu@192.168.100.2 Password: <unique-password>
Upgrade the firmware on the DPU. Run:
sudo /opt/mellanox/mlnx-fw-updater/mlnx_fw_updater.pl --force-fw-update
Example output:
Device #1: ---------- Device Type: BlueField-2 [...] Versions: Current Available FW <Old_FW> <New_FW>
WarningImportant! To apply NVConfig changes, stop here and follow the steps in section "Updating NVConfig Params".
Power cycle the host for the changes to take effect.
Updating NVConfig Params
Reset the nvconfig params to their default values:
# sudo mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/<device-name> -y reset Reset configuration for device /dev/mst/<device-name>? (y/n) [n] : y Applying... Done! -I- Please reboot machine to load new configurations.
(Optional) Enable NVMe emulation. Run:
sudo mlxconfig -d <device-name> s NVME_EMULATION_ENABLE=1
Skip this step if your BlueField DPU is Ethernet only. Please refer to section "Supported Platforms and Interoperability" under the Release Notes to learn your DPU type.
If you have a VPI DPU, the default link type of the ports will be configured to IB. If you want to change the link type to Ethernet, please run the following configuration:
sudo mlxconfig -d <device-name> s LINK_TYPE_P1=2 LINK_TYPE_P2=2
Power cycle the host for the mlxconfig settings to take effect.
Customizations During BFB Installation
Using configuration parameters in the bf.cfg file, the BlueField's boot options and OS can be further customized. For a full list of the supported parameters to customize your DPU system during BFB installation, refer to section "bf.cfg Parameters". In addition to parameters, the bf.cfg file offers control over customization of the BlueField firmware and OS through scripting.
Add any of the following functions to the bf.cfg file for them to be called by the install.sh script embedded in the BFB:
bfb_modify_os – called after file the system is extracted on the target partitions. It can be used to modify files or create new files on the target file system mounted under /mnt. So the file path should look as follows: /mnt/<expected_path_on_target_OS>. This can be used to run a specific tool from the target OS (remember to add /mnt to the path for the tool).
bfb_pre_install – called before EMMC partitions format and OS filesystem is extracted
bfb_post_install – called as a last step before reboot. All EMMC partitions are unmounted at this stage.
For example, using the bf.cfg script below configures the BlueField DPU with Separated Host mode and disables the port owner from the Arm side:
# cat /root/bf.cfg
bfb_modify_os()
{
log ===================== bfb_modify_os =====================
log "Disable OVS bridges creation upon boot"
sed -i -r -e 's/(CREATE_OVS_BRIDGES=).*/\1"no"/' /mnt/etc/mellanox/mlnx-ovs.conf
}
bfb_pre_install()
{
log ===================== bfb_pre_install =====================
}
bfb_post_install()
{
log ===================== bfb_post_install =====================
mst start
mst_device=$(/bin/ls /dev/mst/mt*pciconf0 2> /dev/null)
log "Setting Separated Host mode for $mst_device"
mlxconfig -y -d $mst_device s INTERNAL_CPU_MODEL=0
for mst_device in /dev/mst/mt*pciconf*
do
log "Disable port owner from ARM side for $mst_device"
mlxconfig -y -d $mst_device s PORT_OWNER=0
done}
# bfb-install -b /tmp/<BlueField-OS>.bfb -c /root/bf.cfg -r rshim0
Pushing bfb + cfg
1.18GiB 0:01:11 [17.0MiB/s] [ <=> ]
Collecting BlueField booting status. Press Ctrl+C to stop…
INFO[BL2]: start
INFO[BL2]: DDR POST passed
INFO[BL2]: UEFI loaded
INFO[BL31]: start
INFO[BL31]: runtime
INFO[UEFI]: eMMC init
INFO[UEFI]: eMMC probed
INFO[UEFI]: PMI: updates started
INFO[UEFI]: PMI: boot image update
INFO[UEFI]: PMI: updates completed, status 0
INFO[UEFI]: PCIe enum start
INFO[UEFI]: PCIe enum end
INFO[MISC]: Found bf.cfg
INFO[MISC]: Ubuntu installation started
INFO[MISC]: Installing OS image
INFO[MISC]: Disable OVS bridges creation upon boot
INFO[MISC]: Setting Separated Host mode for /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0
INFO[MISC]: Disable port owner from ARM side for /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0
INFO[MISC]: Disable port owner from ARM side for /dev/mst/mt41686_pciconf0.1
INFO[MISC]: Installation finished
INFO[MISC]: Rebooting...
After modifying files on the BlueField DPU, run the command sync to flush file system buffers to EMMC flash memory to avoid data loss during reboot or power cycle.
Default Ports and OVS Configuration
The /sbin/mlnx_bf_configure script runs automatically with ib_umad kernel module loaded (see /etc/modprobe.d/mlnx-bf.conf) and performs the following configurations:
Ports are configured with switchdev mode and software steering.
RDMA device isolation in network namespace is enabled.
Two scalable function (SF) interfaces are created (one per port) if BlueField is configured with Embedded CPU mode (default):
# mlnx-sf -a show SF Index: pci/0000:03:00.0/229408 Parent PCI dev: 0000:03:00.0 Representor netdev: en3f0pf0sf0 Function HWADDR: 02:61:f6:21:32:8c Auxiliary device: mlx5_core.sf.2 netdev: enp3s0f0s0 RDMA dev: mlx5_2 SF Index: pci/0000:03:00.1/294944 Parent PCI dev: 0000:03:00.1 Representor netdev: en3f1pf1sf0 Function HWADDR: 02:30:13:6a:2d:2c Auxiliary device: mlx5_core.sf.3 netdev: enp3s0f1s0 RDMA dev: mlx5_3
The parameters for these SFs are defined in configuration file /etc/mellanox/mlnx-sf.conf.
/sbin/mlnx-sf --action create --device 0000:03:00.0 --sfnum 0 --hwaddr 02:61:f6:21:32:8c /sbin/mlnx-sf --action create --device 0000:03:00.1 --sfnum 0 --hwaddr 02:30:13:6a:2d:2c
WarningTo avoid repeating a MAC address in the your network, the SF MAC address is set randomly upon BFB installation. You may choose to configure a different MAC address that better suit your network needs.
Two OVS bridges are created:
# ovs-vsctl show f08652a8-92bf-4000-ba0b-7996c772aff6 Bridge ovsbr2 Port ovsbr2 Interface ovsbr2 type: internal Port p1 Interface p1 Port en3f1pf1sf0 Interface en3f1pf1sf0 Port pf1hpf Interface pf1hpf Bridge ovsbr1 Port p0 Interface p0 Port pf0hpf Interface pf0hpf Port ovsbr1 Interface ovsbr1 type: internal Port en3f0pf0sf0 Interface en3f0pf0sf0 ovs_version: "2.14.1"
The parameters for these bridges are defined in configuration file /etc/mellanox/mlnx-ovs.conf:
CREATE_OVS_BRIDGES="yes" OVS_BRIDGE1="ovsbr1" OVS_BRIDGE1_PORTS="p0 pf0hpf en3f0pf0sf0" OVS_BRIDGE2="ovsbr2" OVS_BRIDGE2_PORTS="p1 pf1hpf en3f1pf1sf0" OVS_HW_OFFLOAD="yes" OVS_START_TIMEOUT=30
WarningIf failures occur in /sbin/mlnx_bf_configure or configuration changes happen (e.g. switching to separated host mode) OVS bridges are not created even if CREATE_OVS_BRIDGES="yes".
OVS HW offload is configured.
Default Network Interface Configuration
Network interfaces are configured using the netplan utility:
# cat /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml
# This file is generated from information provided by the datasource. Changes
# to it will not persist across an instance reboot. To disable cloud-init's
# network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}
network:
ethernets:
tmfifo_net0:
addresses:
- 192.168.100.2/30
dhcp4: false
nameservers:
addresses:
- 192.168.100.1
routes:
- metric: 1025
to: 0.0.0.0/0
via: 192.168.100.1
oob_net0:
dhcp4: true
renderer: NetworkManager
version: 2
# cat /etc/netplan/60-mlnx.yaml
network:
ethernets:
enp3s0f0s0:
dhcp4: 'true'
enp3s0f1s0:
dhcp4: 'true'
renderer: networkd
version: 2
ssh -6 ubuntu@fe80::21a:caff:feff:ff01%tmfifo_net<n>
If tmfifo_net<n> on the host does not have an LLv6 address, restart the RShim driver:
systemctl restart rshim
To improve the boot time, the following optimizations were made to Ubuntu OS image:
# cat /etc/systemd/system/systemd-networkd-wait-online.service.d/override.conf
[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/bin/nm-online -s -q --timeout=5
# cat /etc/systemd/system/NetworkManager-wait-online.service.d/override.conf
[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-networkd-wait-online --timeout=5
# cat /etc/systemd/system/networking.service.d/override.conf
[Service]
TimeoutStartSec=5
ExecStop=
ExecStop=/sbin/ifdown -a --read-environment --exclude=lo --force --ignore-errors
This configuration may affect network interface configuration if DHCP is used. If a network device fails to get configuration from the DHCP server, then the timeout value in the two files above must be increased.
Grub Configuration:
Added quiet to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX under /etc/default/grub which disables kernel output on the screen.
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="console=hvc0 console=ttyAMA0 earlycon=pl011,0x01000000 fixrtc quiet"
Setting the Grub timeout at 2 seconds with GRUB_TIMEOUT=2 under /etc/default/grub. In conjunction with the GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=countdown parameter, Grub will show the countdown of 2 seconds in the console before booting Ubuntu. Please note that, with this short timeout, the standard Grub method for entering the Grub menu (i.e., SHIFT or Esc) does not work. Function key F4 can be used to enter the Grub menu.
System Services:
The following services were disabled in the default Ubuntu OS image as they dramatically affect the boot time:
docker.service
containerd.service
The kexec utility can be used to reduce the reboot time. Script /usr/sbin/kexec_reboot is included in the default Ubuntu 20.04 OS image to run corresponding kexec commands.
# kexec_reboot
/etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf:
send vendor-class-identifier "NVIDIA/BF/DP";
interface "oob_net0" {
send vendor-class-identifier "NVIDIA/BF/OOB";
}
BlueField DPU may be installed with support for dual boot. That is, two identical images of the BlueField OS may be installed using BFB.
Proposed EMMC partitioning layout for 64GB EMMC is:
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1 2048 104447 102400 50M EFI System
/dev/mmcblk0p2 104448 50660334 50555887 24.1G Linux filesystem
/dev/mmcblk0p3 50660335 50762734 102400 50M EFI System
/dev/mmcblk0p4 50762735 101318621 50555887 24.1G Linux filesystem
/dev/mmcblk0p5 101318622 122290141 20971520 10G Linux filesystem
Where:
/dev/mmcblk0p1 - boot EFI partition for the first OS image
/dev/mmcblk0p2 - root FS partition for the first OS image
/dev/mmcblk0p3 - boot EFI partition for the second OS image
/dev/mmcblk0p4 - root FS partition for the second OS image
/dev/mmcblk0p5 - common partition for both OS images
WarningThe common partition can be used to store BFB files that will be used for OS image update on the non-active OS partition.
Installing Ubuntu OS Image Using Dual Boot
For software upgrade procedure, please refer to section "Upgrading Ubuntu OS Image Using Dual Boot".
Add the values below to the bf.cfg configuration file (see section "bf.cfg Parameters" for more information).
DUAL_BOOT=yes
If EMMC size is ≤16GB, dual boot support is disabled by default, but it can be forced by setting the following parameter in bf.cfg:
FORCE_DUAL_BOOT=yes
To modify the default size of the /common partition, add the following parameter:
COMMON_SIZE_SECTORS=<number-of-sectors>
The number of sectors is the size in bytes divided by the block size (512). For example, for 10GB, the COMMON_SIZE_SECTORS=$((10*2**30/512)).
After assigning size for the /common partition, what remains is divided equally between the two OS images.
# bfb-install --bfb <BFB> --config bf.cfg --rshim rshim0
This will result in the Ubuntu OS image to be installed twice on the BlueField DPU.
For comprehensive list of the supported parameters to customize bf.cfg during BFB installation, refer to section "bf.cfg Parameters".
Upgrading Ubuntu OS Image Using Dual Boot
Download the new BFB to the BlueField DPU into the /common partition. Use bfb_tool.py script to install the new BFB on the inactive BlueField DPU partition:
/opt/mellanox/mlnx_snap/exec_files/bfb_tool.py --op fw_activate_bfb --bfb <BFB>
Reset BlueField DPU to load the new OS image:
/sbin/shutdown -r 0
BlueField DPU will now boot into the new OS image.
Use efibootmgr utility to manage the boot order if necessary.
Change the boot order with:
# efibootmgr -o
Remove stale boot entries with:
# efibootmgr -b <E> -B
Where <E> is the last character of the boot entry (i.e., Boot000<E>). You can find that by running:
# efibootmgr BootCurrent: 0040 Timeout: 3 seconds BootOrder: 0040,0000,0001,0002,0003 Boot0000* NET-NIC_P0-IPV4 Boot0001* NET-NIC_P0-IPV6 Boot0002* NET-NIC_P1-IPV4 Boot0003* NET-NIC_P1-IPV6 Boot0040* focal0 ....2
Modifying the boot order with efibootmgr -o does not remove unused boot options. For example, changing a boot order from 0001,0002, 0003 to just 0001 does not actually remove 0002 and 0003. 0002 and 0003 need to be explicitly removed using efibootmgr -B .