Day 2 Management Operations

After provisioning and deploying the BlueField for the first time, there are several activities required from time-to-time throughout the BlueField's lifecycle.

This 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 BlueField networking platforms (DPUs or SuperNICs) without the need for a full installation.

This process 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 BlueField BMC firmware

• After completion of BlueField upgrade:

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

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

            

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

            

            
<bf> $ apt update
<bf> $ apt install gnupg2
        

            

            
<bf> $ export DOCA_REPO="https://linux.mellanox.com/public/repo/doca/2.7.0/ubuntu22.04/dpu-arm64"
        

            

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

            

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

            

            
<bf> $ apt update
        

            

            
<bf> $ apt install mlxbf-bootimages-signed
        

            

            
<bf> $ apt install mlxbf-scripts
<bf> $ bfrec
        

            

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

            

            
<bf> $ export RUN_FW_UPDATER=no
        

            

            
<bf> $ apt-get remove doca-tools doca-sdk doca-runtime -y
        

            

            
<bf> $ apt-get install doca-runtime doca-devel -y
        

            

            
<bf> $ apt upgrade
        

            

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

            

            
<bf> $ export DOCA_REPO="https://linux.mellanox.com/public/repo/doca/2.7.0/rhel8.6/dpu-arm64/"
        

            

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

            

            
<bf> $ yum makecache
        

            

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

            

            
<bf> $ bfrec
        

            

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

            

            
<bf> $ export RUN_FW_UPDATER=no
        

            

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

            

            
<bf> $ yum -y remove doca-tools doca-sdk doca-runtime
        

            

            
<bf> $ yum -y install doca-runtime doca-devel
        

            

            
<bf> $ yum upgrade --nobest
        

Users may want to reset the BlueField to factory defaults. To do that, it is necessary to reset to default the BlueField BMC, BlueField UEFI, NIC, and the Arm. Follow the steps in the subsections below for more.

Step 1 – Reset BlueField BMC to Factory Default

1. Run the following command:

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   curl -k -u root:'<password>' -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST https://<BF-BMC-IP>/redfish/v1/Managers/Bluefield_BMC/Actions/Manager.ResetToDefaults -d '{"ResetToDefaultsType": "ResetAll"}' 
   { 
     "@Message.ExtendedInfo": [ 
       { 
         "@odata.type": "#Message.v1_1_1.Message", 
         "Message": "The request completed successfully.", 
         "MessageArgs": [], 
         "MessageId": "Base.1.15.0.Success", 
         "MessageSeverity": "OK", 
         "Resolution": "None" 
       } 
     ] 
   }
           

2. Reboot the BMC for the factory reset to take effect:

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   > curl -k -u root:'<password>' -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"ResetType": "GracefulRestart"}' https://<BF-BMC-IP>/redfish/v1/Managers/Bluefield_BMC/Actions/Manager.Reset
   {
     "@Message.ExtendedInfo": [
       {
         "@odata.type": "#Message.v1_1_1.Message",
         "Message": "The request completed successfully.",
         "MessageArgs": [],
         "MessageId": "Base.1.13.0.Success",
         "MessageSeverity": "OK",
         "Resolution": "None"
       }
     ]
           

Step 2 – Wipe BlueField eMMC and SSD Storage

Users may wipe their eMMC and NVMe storage using the following Redfish commands:

• eMMC:

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  curl -k -u root:<password> -X PATCH -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://<bmc_ip>/redfish/v1/Systems/Bluefield/Bios/Settings -d '{"Attributes":{"EmmcWipe":  true}}'
          

• NVMe:

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  curl -k -u root:<password> -X PATCH -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://<bmc_ip>/redfish/v1/Systems/Bluefield/Bios/Settings -d '{"Attributes":{"NvmeWipe":  true}}'
          

Step 3 – Reset UEFI to Factory Default

Use the Redfish BIOS Settings PATCH command:

            

            
curl -k -u root:'<password>' -X PATCH -d '{"Attributes":{"ResetEfiVars": true}}' https://<BF-BMC-IP>/redfish/v1/Systems/<SystemID>/Bios/Settings | python3 -m json.tool
        

Step 4 – Reset NIC TLVs to Factory Default

Run the following from the Arm console:

            

            
bf> mlxconfig -d <device> -y reset