NVIDIA Firmware Tools (MFT) Documentation v4.26
NVIDIA ConnectX-5 Adapter Cards Firmware Release Notes v16.35.3502 LTS

General Information

The following is a list of the available tools in the package, together with a brief description of each tool. The tools apply to single switch systems or adapter cards.

The MFT tools do not provide cluster wide functionality.

Category

Tool

Description

Operating System

MST Service

mst

  • Lists the available mst devices

  • Start/stop the register access driver for Linux and VMware ESXi OSs.

All

Firmware Update and Configuration

mlxburn

This tool provides the following functions:

  • Generating a standard or customized firmware image for burning in .bin format

  • Burning an image to the Flash attached to an HCA or switch device

  • Querying the firmware version loaded on a device

  • Displaying the Vital Product Data (VPD) of a network adapter

All

flint

This tool burns a firmware binary image or an expansion ROM image to the Flash of a network adapter/ switch device. It includes query functions to the burnt firmware image and to the binary image file.

All

mlxconfig

Allows the user to change some of the device configurations without having to create and burn a new firmware.

All

mlxfwmanager

The mlxfwmanager is a firmware update and query utility. It provides a simple 'single click' firmware update functionality.

Note: The same tool with embedded firmware binaries is released separately and is named mlxup.

All

mlxarchive

The mlxarchive tool allows the user to create a file with the mfa2 extension. The new file contains several binary files of a given firmware for different adapter cards.

Linux Windows FreeBSD

mlxphyburn

A tool for burning externally managed PHY

Linux

mlx_fpga

A tool for burning and debugging devices with FPGA. It allows the user to burn their own hardware code on an FPGA integrated with HCA board. It also provides the user with read/write registers in the QDR memory of the FPGA.

Linux

cpldupdate

A tool for programing on board CPLDs for NVIDIA devices for the OEM packages only.

Linux

Debug and Diagnostics Utilities

itrace

Extracts and prints trace messages generated by the firmware of a ConnectX-3 adapter cards.

All

fwtrace

Extracts and prints trace messages generated by the firmware of 5th generation devices

Linux Windows FreeBSD

mlxtrace

Dumps trace messages generated by the device hardware.

All

mlxdump

Dumps device internal configuration registers. The dump file can be used by the Support team for hardware troubleshooting.

All

mlxmcg

Displays the current multicast groups and flow steering rules configured in the device.

Target users: Developers of Flow Steering aware applications.

All

wqdump

Dumps the current QP contexts and Work Queues of ConnectX family network adapter cards and Connect-IB adapter cards.

All

i2c

Generates an i2c transaction using an mtusb usb to i2c adapter or using the device internal i2c compatible master

Linux Windows FreeBSD

mlxi2c

Scans the i2c bus

Routes the i2c bus of an externally managed InfiniscaleIV/SwitchX system to connect to the switch silicon.

Linux Windows

mget_temp

Reads the hardware temperature from NVIDIA devices internal sensors and prints the reading in Celsius degrees.

All

pckt_drop

Corrupts the next transmitted packet from the ConnectX family network adapter cards and Connect-IB adapter cards.

All

mlxuptime

Prints NVIDIA devices' up time and measured/configured core clock frequency

All

mlxfwreset

Loads the firmware after firmware update on ISFU capable devices. (5th generation devices)

Linux Windows FreeBSD

mlxmdio

Reads/writes MDIO registers (Clause 45) on boards with externally managed PHY

All

mlxreg

Exposes supported access registers, and allows users to obtain information regarding the registers fields and attributes, and to set and get data with specific register.

All

mstdump

Dumps device internal configuration data.

All

mcra

Reads/writes a single word from/to a device configuration register space

All

mlxcables

Reads/writes NVIDIA cable registers and queries the cables info

All

mlxlink

Displays and configures port related data at the physical layer.

All

mlxvpd

Reads PCI device VPD

All

mlxprivhost

Enables the user to restrict the hosts from configuring the NIC.

Linux

resourcedump

Extracts and prints data segments generated by the firmware.

Linux

Windows

resourceparse

Parses and prints data segments content.

Linux

Windows

stedump

A packet simulator for host NIC steering solutions.

Linux

Detailed installation instructions along with complete descriptions of the various tools in the package can be found in the Firmware Tools User Manual.

Software Package

Required Version

Linux

Kernel sources

Machine’s kernel version

OFED / MLNX_OFED 1, 2

1.5.0 or later

Perl

5.24 or later

Python3

2.6 or later

lsusb4

rpmbuild

xz5

Windows

NVIDIA WinOF6

3.0.0 or later

VMware ESXi

Python

2.6 or later

Notes:

  1. OFED can be downloaded from http://www.openfabrics.org. Note that installing OFED is not required if you wish to install MFT without In-Band capabilities.

  2. For the ‘mst ib add’ command to run, one of the MLN_OFED packages “ibutils” or “ibutils2” or “infiniband-diags” should be installed and available in the PATH. (For details on MLNX_OFED installation, visit https://docs.nvidia.com/networking/category/mlnxofedib.)

  3. Required for the mlxmcg tool only.

  4. Required for the mtusb device usage.

  5. For creating UPMF (update package for NVIDIA firmware).

  6. WinOF is required only for In-Band access. The package can be downloaded fromthe WinOF page..

  7. Python 2.x is now end-of-life and no longer supported by MFT. To use the latest and up-to-date MFT tools, we recommend you use Python 3.x.

© Copyright 2023, NVIDIA. Last updated on Feb 5, 2024.