NVIDIA BlueField DPU BSP v3.9.6 LTS

Deploying BlueField Software Using BFB from BMC

Note

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.

Warning

This section 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

Direct Link

1

Verify that RShim is already running on BMC

Ensure RShim is Running on BMC

2

Change the default credentials using bf.cfg file (optional)

Changing Default Credentials Using bf.cfg

3

Install the Ubuntu BFB image

BFB Installation

4

Verify installation completed successfully

Verify BFB is Installed

5

Upgrade the firmware on your DPU

Firmware Upgrade

Warning

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:

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mst start mst status -v

Example output:

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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.

Display the current setting. Run:

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# cat /dev/rshim<N>/misc | grep DEV_NAME DEV_NAME usb-1.0

This output indicates that the RShim service is ready to use. If you do not receive this output:

  1. Restart RShim service:

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    sudo systemctl restart rshim

  2. Verify the current setting again. Run:

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    # cat /dev/rshim<N>/misc | grep DEV_NAME

    If DEV_NAME does not appear, then proceed to "RShim driver not loading on DPU with integrated BMC".

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).

Warning

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:

  1. Create password hash. Run:

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    # openssl passwd -1 Password: Verifying - Password: $1$3B0RIrfX$TlHry93NFUJzg3Nya00rE1

  2. Add the password hash in quotes to the bf.cfg file:

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    # vim bf.cfg ubuntu_PASSWORD='$1$3B0RIrfX$TlHry93NFUJzg3Nya00rE1'

    The bf.cfg file will be used with the bfb-install script in the following step.

    Warning

    Password policy:

    • Minimum password length – 8

    • At least one upper-case letter

    • At least one lower-case letter

    • At least one numerical character

Warning

For comprehensive list of the supported parameters to customize bf.cfg during BFB installation, refer to section "bf.cfg Parameters".

To update the software on the BlueField Arm cores, the DPU must be booted up without mounting the eMMC flash device. This requires an external boot flow where a BFB (which includes ATF, UEFI, Linux kernel, and initramfs) is pushed from an external host via USB or PCIe. On BlueField DPUs with an integrated BMC, the USB interface is internally connected to the BMC and is enabled by default. Therefore, you must verify that the RShim driver is running on the BMC. This provides the ability to push a bootstream over the USB interface to perform an external boot.

  1. Disable RShim on the host. Run on the host:

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    systemctl stop rshim systemctl disable rshim

  2. Enable RShim on the BMC. Run on the BMC shell:

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    ipmitool raw 0x32 0x6a 1

  3. Verify that the RShim service is running and that the /dev/rshim0 device is present.

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    ipmitool raw 0x32 0x69

    The expected output for this command is 0x01.

  4. Normally, the BFB is first copied to the USB host and then written to the RShim device. However, since the BFB is too big to be stored on the BMC flash or tmpfs, these two steps can be combined, and the image can be written to the RShim device from the remote server directly.

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    scp <path_to_bfb> root@<bmc_ip>:/dev/rshim0/boot

    This initiates a soft reset on the BlueField-2 and then pushes the bootstream. For Ubuntu BFBs, the eMMC is flashed automatically once the bootstream is pushed.

    If bf.cfg is needed as part of the boot process, run:

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    cat <path_to_bfb> bf.cfg > new.bfb scp <path to new.bfb> root@<bmc_ip>:/dev/rshim0/boot

Warning

For comprehensive list of the supported parameters to customize bf.cfg during BFB installation, refer to section "bf.cfg Parameters".

After installation of the Ubuntu OS is complete, the following note appears in /dev/rshim0/misc on first boot:

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... 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.

Warning

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.

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# cat /etc/mlnx-release DOCA_v1.1_BlueField_OS_Ubuntu_20.04-<version>

Warning

mlxfwreset is not supported in this release. Please power cycle the host where mlxfwreset is requested.

To upgrade firmware:

  1. Set a temporary static IP on the host. Run:

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    sudo ip addr add 192.168.100.1/24 dev tmfifo_net0

  2. 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:

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    ssh ubuntu@192.168.100.2 Password: <unique-password>

  3. Upgrade the firmware on the DPU. Run:

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    sudo /opt/mellanox/mlnx-fw-updater/mlnx_fw_updater.pl --force-fw-update

    Example output:

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    Device #1: ----------   Device Type: BlueField-2 [...] Versions: Current Available FW <Old_FW> <New_FW>

    Warning

    Important! To apply NVConfig changes, stop here and follow the steps in section "Updating NVConfig Params".

  4. Power cycle the host for the changes to take effect.

  1. Reset the nvconfig params to their default values:

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    # 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.

  2. (Optional) Enable NVMe emulation. Run:

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    sudo mlxconfig -d <device-name> s NVME_EMULATION_ENABLE=1

  3. 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:

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    sudo mlxconfig -d <device-name> s LINK_TYPE_P1=2 LINK_TYPE_P2=2

  4. Power cycle the host for the mlxconfig settings to take effect.

© Copyright 2023, NVIDIA. Last updated on Sep 5, 2023.