MLNX_OFED Documentation Rev 4.7-3.2.9.0
1.0

Changes and New Features

The following are the changes and/or new features that have been added to this version of MLNX_OFED.

HCAs

Feature/Change

Description

ConnectX-5 and above

Uplink Representor Modes

Added support for new_netdev and nic_netdev uplink representor modes.

For further information on how to configure these modes, please refer to Configuring Uplink Representor Mode.

ConnectX-5

mlx5_core

Added new mlx5_core module parameter "num_of_groups", which controls the number of large groups in the FDB flow table.

Note: The default value of num_of_groups may change per MLNX_OFED driver version. The following table lists the values that must be set when upgrading the MLNX_OFED version prior to driver load, in order to achieve the same OOB experience.

MLNX_OFED Version

num_of_groups Default Value

v4.7-3.2.9.0

4

v4.6-3.1.9.0.14

15

v4.6-3.1.9.0.15

15

v4.5-1.0.1.0.19

63

For further information, please refer to Performance Tuning Based on Traffic Patterns section in MLNX_OFED User Manual.

VFs Groups Minimum Bandwidth Rate

Added support for setting a minimum bandwidth rate on a group of VFs (BW guarantee) to ensure this group is able to transmit at least the amount of bandwidth specified on the wire.

Direct Verbs Support for Batch Counters on Root Table

Added support for mlx5dv_dr API to set batch counters for root tables.

ConnectX-5 & BlueField

Modify Header

Added support for mlx5dv_dr_actions to support up to 32 modify actions.

mlx5dv_dr Memory Consumption

Reduced the mlx5dv_dr API memory consumption by improving the memory allocator.

mlx5dv_dr Memory Allocation

Reduced memory allocation time when using the mlx5dv_dr API. This is particularly significant for the first inserted rules on which memory is allocated.

BlueField

Mediated Devices

Added support for mediated devices that allows the creation of accelerated devices without SR-IOV on the Bluefield® system.

For further information on mediated devices and how to configure them, please refer to Mediated Devices section in MLNX_OFED User Manual.

All

Bug Fixes

See “Bug Fixes" section.

For additional information on the new features, please refer to MLNX_OFED User Manual.

MLNX_OFED Verbs API Migration

As of MLNX_OFED v5.0 release (Q1 of the year 2020), the following MLNX_OFED Verbs API will migrate from the legacy version of user space verbs libraries (libibervs, libmlx5, etc.) to the Upstream version rdma-core.
For further details on how to install Upstream rdma-core libraries, refer to Installing Upstream rdma-core Libraries section in the User Manual.

  • ibv_exp_alloc_ec_calc

  • ibv_exp_dealloc_ec_calc

  • ibv_exp_ec_encode_async

  • ibv_exp_ec_encode_sync

  • ibv_exp_ec_decode_async

  • ibv_exp_ec_decode_sync

  • intibv_exp_ec_update_async

  • intibv_exp_ec_update_sync

  • ibv_exp_ec_poll

  • ibv_exp_ec_encode_send

  • ibv_exp_create_qp

  • ibv_exp_use_priv_env

  • ibv_exp_poll_dc_info

  • ibv_exp_setenv

  • ibv_exp_query_device

  • ibv_exp_create_dct

  • ibv_exp_destroy_dct

  • ibv_exp_query_dct

  • ibv_exp_arm_dct

  • ibv_exp_query_port

  • ibv_exp_post_task

  • ibv_exp_query_values

  • ibv_exp_cqe_ts_to_ns

  • ibv_exp_create_flow

  • ibv_exp_destroy_flow

  • ibv_exp_poll_cq

  • ibv_exp_post_send

  • ibv_exp_reg_shared_mr

  • ibv_exp_modify_cq

  • ibv_exp_create_cq

  • ibv_exp_modify_qp

  • ibv_exp_reg_mr

  • ibv_exp_bind_mw

  • ibv_exp_prefetch_mr

  • ibv_exp_get_provider_func

  • ibv_exp_create_mr

  • ibv_exp_query_mkey

  • ibv_exp_dealloc_mkey_list_memory

  • ibv_exp_alloc_mkey_list_memory

  • ibv_exp_create_srq

  • ibv_exp_create_res_domain

  • ibv_exp_destroy_res_domain

  • ibv_exp_query_intf

  • ibv_exp_release_intf

  • ibv_exp_create_wq

  • ibv_exp_modify_wq

  • ibv_exp_destroy_wq

  • ibv_exp_create_rwq_ind_table

  • ibv_exp_destroy_rwq_ind_table

  • ibv_exp_query_gid_attr

  • ibv_exp_open_device

  • ibv_exp_post_srq_ops

  • ibv_exp_alloc_dm

  • ibv_exp_free_dm

  • ibv_exp_memcpy_dm

Deprecated APIs

Warning

Note that the following APIs are deprecated and replaced with the new APIs as of MLNX-OFED version 4.0, as listed in the table below.

Feature

Type

Current API

New API

Rereg MR

Verb

ibv_exp_rereg_mr

ibv_rereg_mr

Memory Window

Verb

ibv_exp_bind_mw

ibv_bind_mw

Structure

ibv_exp_send_wr -> bind_mw

ibv_send_wr -> bind_mw

Opcodes

IBV_EXP_WR_SEND_WITH_INV

IBV_WR_SEND_WITH_INV

IBV_EXP_WR_LOCAL_INV

IBV_WR_LOCAL_INV

IBV_EXP_WR_BIND_MW

IBV_WR_BIND_MW

Capability

IBV_EXP_DEVICE_MEM_WIN- DOW

IBV_DEVICE_MEM_WIN- DOW

Completion

IBV_EXP_WC_WITH_INV

IBV_WC_WITH_INV


The following are the unsupported functionalities/features/HCAs in MLNX_OFED:

  • ConnectX®-2 Adapter Card

  • Relational Database Service (RDS)

  • Ethernet over InfiniBand (EoIB) - mlx4_vnic

  • mthca InfiniBand driver

  • Ethernet IPoIB (eIPoIB)

The following are the unsupported features/functionalities of OVS Offload using ASAP2 on ConnectX-5 onwards adapter cards:

  • VXLAN decapsulation drop rule offloading

  • A single VLAN is supported per VF for offloading VLAN push/pop actions

  • FIB updates for VXLAN offloads. If a flow is offloaded and then the IP of the PF is changed, it will not be un-offloaded, and vice versa

  • Offloading more than 4 VXLAN ports

  • Next-hop routes for tunnel destination are not supported

  • TC priorities are ignored

  • OVS dump-flows does not report HW offloading status

  • Weight is not supported in multi-path routing

  • Rules with IP fragment first/later matching are not supported

© Copyright 2023, NVIDIA. Last updated on Oct 23, 2023.