NVIDIA BlueField DPU BSP v4.6.0
1.0

Updating DPU Software Packages Using Standard Linux Tools

This dpu-upgrade procedure enables upgrading DOCA components using standard Linux tools (e.g., apt update and yum update). This process utilizes native package manager repositories to upgrade DPUs without the need for a full installation, and has the following benefits :

  • Only updates components that include modifications

    • Configurable – user can select specific components (e.g., UEFI-ATF, NIC-FW)

  • Includes upgrade of:

    • DOCA drivers and libraries

    • DOCA reference applications

    • BSP (UEFI/ATF) upgrade while maintaining the configuration

    • NIC firmware upgrade while maintaining the configuration

  • Does not:

    • Impact user binaries

    • Upgrade non-Ubuntu OS kernels

    • Upgrade DPU BMC firmware

  • After completion of DPU upgrade:

    • If NIC firmware was not updated, perform DPU Arm reset (software reset / reboot DPU)

    • If NIC firmware was updated, perform firmware reset (mlxfwreset) or perform a graceful shutdown and power cycle

OS

Action

Instructions

Ubuntu/

Debian

Remove mlxbf-bootimages package

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<dpu> $ apt remove --purge mlxbf-bootimages* -y

Install the the GPG key

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<dpu> $ apt update <dpu> $ apt install gnupg2

Export the desired distribution

Export DOCA_REPO with the relevant URL. The following is an example for Ubuntu 22.04:

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<dpu> $ export DOCA_REPO="https://linux.mellanox.com/public/repo/doca/2.6.0/ubuntu22.04/dpu-arm64"

Add GPG key to APT trusted keyring

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<dpu> $ curl $DOCA_REPO/GPG-KEY-Mellanox.pub | gpg --dearmor > /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/GPG-KEY-Mellanox.pub

Add DOCA online repository

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<dpu> $ echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/GPG-KEY-Mellanox.pub] $DOCA_REPO ./" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/doca.list

Update index

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<dpu> $ apt update

Upgrade UEFI/ATF firmware

Run:

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<dpu> $ apt install mlxbf-bootimages-signed

Then i nitiate upgrade for UEFI/ATF firmware:

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<dpu> $ bfrec

Upgrade BlueField DPU NIC firmware

Run:

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<dpu> $ apt install mlnx-fw-updater-signed.aarch64

Warning

This immediately starts NIC firmware upgrade.

To prevent automatic upgrade, run:

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<dpu> $ export RUN_FW_UPDATER=no

Upgrade system

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<dpu> $ apt upgrade

Apply the new changes,

NIC firmware, and UEFI/ATF

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<dpu> $ mlxfwreset -d /dev/mst/mt*_pciconf0 -y -l 3 --sync 1 r

Warning

If mlxfwreset is not supported, graceful shutdown and host power cycle are required for the NIC firmware upgrade to take effect.

CentOS/RHEL/

Anolis/Rocky

Remove mlxbf-bootimages package

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<dpu> $ yum -y remove mlxbf-bootimages* <dpu> $ yum makecache

Export the desired distribution

Export DOCA_REPO with the relevant URL. The following is an example for Rocky Linux 8.6:

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<dpu> $ export DOCA_REPO="https://linux.mellanox.com/public/repo/doca/2.6.0/rhel8.6/dpu-arm64/"

Add DOCA online repository

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echo "[doca] name=DOCA Online Repo baseurl=$DOCA_REPO enabled=1 gpgcheck=0 priority=10 cost=10" > /etc/yum.repos.d/doca.repo

A file is created under /etc/yum.repos.d/doca.repo .

Update index

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<dpu> $ yum makecache

Upgrade UEFI/ATF firmware

Run:

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<dpu> $ yum install mlxbf-bootimages-signed.aarch64 mlxbf-bfscripts

Then i nitiate the upgrade for UEFI/ATF firmware:

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<dpu> $ bfrec

Upgrade BlueField DPU NIC firmware

The following command updates the firmware package and automatically attempts to flash the firmware to the NIC:

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<dpu> $ yum install mlnx-fw-updater-signed.aarch64

Warning

To prevent automatic flashing of the firmware to the NIC, run the following first:

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<dpu> $ export RUN_FW_UPDATER=no

Note

This step can be used as a standalone firmware update. In any case, it is performed as part of the upgrade flow.

Note

Flashing the firmware to the NIC can be performed manually by running the following command, after the firmware package had been updated:

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

Upgrade system

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<dpu> $ yum upgrade --nobest

Apply the new changes,

NIC firmware, and UEFI/ATF

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<dpu> $ mlxfwreset -d /dev/mst/mt*_pciconf0 -y -l 3 --sync 1 r

Warning

If mlxfwreset is not supported, a graceful shutdown and host power cycle are required for the NIC firmware upgrade to take effect.

© Copyright 2023, NVIDIA. Last updated on Mar 6, 2024.