Release Notes Change Log History
Feature/Change |
Description |
Rev 23.4.50020 (DRV 23.4.26054) |
|
Multi Prio Sent Queue |
Added a "MultiPrioSq" registry key to enable and disable the MultiPrioSq feature. The "MultiPrioSq" controls the SL-Diff feature in which the firmware modifies the priority (SL - Service Level) of the HW send-queue to match the one of the sent packet (QoS). For further information, refer to Multi Prio Send Queue. |
Counters |
Added two new error counters (Generated Packets dropped due to steering failure & Handled Packets dropped due to steering failure) to "Mellanox WinOF-2 Diagnostics Ext 1“ and "Mellanox WinOF-2 VF Diagnostics“ counter sets. For further information, refer to Adapter Cards Counters. |
NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU |
Added support for NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU devices. |
RSHIM |
The RShimCmd Tool for supports 2 additional capabilities:
Additionally, updated the Print of the Driver's and DPU's Variables when the verbosity is 1. For further information, refer to RShim Drivers and Usage. |
Bug Fixes |
See Bug Fixes. |
Rev 3.20.50010 (DRV 3.20.25915) |
|
DevxFsRules DPDK |
Enables the creation of flow rules with patterns with the exact match on both the destination and the source ports for UDP and TCP. This new functionality is available via the new bit added to the Regkey DevxFsRules: bit 19 - MLX5_DEVX_FS_RULE_DST_PORTS. Note: Both the destination and source ports must be both specified. |
Debuggability |
Added support for callback of type KbCallbackTriageDumpData to collect mst dump as part of live dump, and in case of bugcheck. Note: This new capability is supported in Windows Client 10 version 1903 and Windows Server 2022 and above. |
RSHIM |
RSHIM host driver alignment for all the drivers (Windows/Linux/Arm). For further information, see RShim Drivers and Usage. |
Rev 3.10.51000 (DRV 3.10.25798) |
|
General |
Updated the MFT and firmware versions. For the updated version see Supported Network Adapter Cards and MFT Tools. |
Rev 3.10.50000 (DRV 3.10.25798) |
|
Adapter Cards |
ConnectX-4 adapter card will no longer be supported as of WinOF-2 v3.10. |
Installation Package |
As of WinOF-2 v3.10, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 Client will have a separate installation package from other supported OS. |
NDK |
Added support for NDK 2.1 (NDIS 6.85) AcceptEx and CompleteConnectEx. |
BlueField UEFI System Boot Customizations during Installation |
Bluefield's UEFI system boot options and more can be customized during the BFB Installation through the use of configuration parameters in the bf.cfg file. For further information on the bf.cfg file, refer to the BlueField Documentation. For further information, see sections "BlueField UEFI System Boot Customizations during Installation". |
Hibernation: ConnectX-6 Dx Active Cooled Cards |
Added support for hibernation for ConnectX-6 Dx active cooled card in Windows workstations. |
Counters |
Added new performance counters: RDMA Connection Errors & CM DREQ. For further information see, Adapter Cards Counters. |
Counters |
Added new counters to query ICMC counters. For further information see, Mellanox WinOF-2 ICMC Diag Counters Ext1. |
ZTT Register |
Added support for setting a ZTT operation flag using a dynamic registry key. Note: Before sending the get/set request for the ZTT registry [mlx5cmd], make sure ZTT is supported by the firmware. For further information on the registry key, see "EnableZtt" in section Performance Registry Keys. |
Bug Fixes |
See Bug Fixes |
Rev 3.0.50000 (DRV 3.0. 25668 ) |
|
FwWaWqeTooSmallMode |
Added a new mode to FwWaWqeTooSmallMode. In this mode the firmware will not generate a WQE completion and will discard the arrived packet (Discard Wqe No Cqe) when VF WQE is too small . By exposing the WqeTooSmall counter in the VM, the new mode enables the counter to count the number of times this action is successfully performed by the firmware. |
NVIDIA BlueField-2 NIC Mode |
The driver now supports NVIDIA BlueField-2 devices over IPoB running in NIC mode. In this mode, the DPU behaves exactly like an adapter card from the perspective of the external host. For further information, see section "NVIDIA BlueField-2 DPU NIC Operation Mode" in the NVIDIA BlueField-2 Firmware Release Notes. |
Port Traffic Counters |
Added new counters to "Mellanox WinOF-2 VF Port Traffic". For further information see section Adapter Cards Counters. |
Diagnostic Counters |
Added a new counter "Packets Received dropped due to lack of receive WQEs" to the "Mellanox WinOF-2 VF Diagnostics" counters set. For further information see section Adapter Cards Counters. |
DOCA |
As of WinOF-2 v3.0, the DOCA module will be published on a separate package. DOCA comm channel and socket relay applications were moved to the new DOCA, thus they are removed from the WinOF-2 package. Note: A DOCA developer should install the DOCA SDK package and not the DevX SDK package. For more information please see the DOCA documentation. |
Bug Fixes |
See Bug Fixes. |
Rev 2.90.50010 (DRV 2.90.25506) |
|
Adapter Cards |
Added support for NVIDIA ConnectX-7 adapter cards. |
NVIDIA BlueField-2 NIC Mode |
The driver now supports NVIDIA BlueField-2 devices running in NIC mode. In this mode, the DPU behaves exactly like an adapter card from the perspective of the external host. For further information, see section "NVIDIA BlueField-2 DPU NIC Operation Mode" in the NVIDIA BlueField-2 Firmware Release Notes. |
DOCA Socket Relay |
Added support for an AF_UNIX connection between applications that run on the Windows host and services that run inside the the DPU. For further information, see DOCA Socket Relay. |
DOCA Communication Channel API |
DOCA communication channel API in NVIDIA BlueField-2 SmartNIC adapter cards is now at GA level. For further information, see DOCA Communication Channel API. |
DPKD DevX |
Added new interfaces for DevX library to set:
For further information, see Offload Capabilities for Windows DPDK. |
NVIDIA BlueField-2 DevX |
Added support for flex parser to the DevX steering rule. |
Enhanced Connection Establishment |
Enhanced Connection Establishment (ECE) is a new negotiation scheme introduced in IBTA v1.4 to exchange extra information about nodes capabilities and later negotiate them at the connection establishment phase. ECE is intended for RDMA connection, i.e., it works in ND and NDK connections. For further information, see Enhanced Connection Establishment. |
CM Packets |
This new capability provides the option of ignoring RoCE connections that have differences in the source IP address. Now the user can decide whether or not to allow differences between the IB header source IP and the private data source IP. To activate this option, the 'EnableCmAntiSpoofing' key must be set to 1 (default value is 0). For further information, see "RDMA Registry Keys" in section Configuring the Driver Registry Keys. |
DriverVersion Utility |
Changed the output of mlx5cmd -driverVersion command. Instead of presenting the OS name, now the tool will present the OS build number + Server\Client information. |
Rivermax |
Enabled multiple Rivermax applications to listen on the same stream. |
Bug Fixes |
See Bug Fixes |
Rev 2.80.50000 (DRV 2.80.25134) |
|
Operating Systems |
Removed support for Windows Server 2012. |
DOCA Communication Channel API |
[Alpha Level] Added support for DOCA communication channel API in NVIDIA BlueField-2 SmartNIC adapter cards. DOCA Communication Channel API allows developers to write client applications running on Windows native hosts or Windows Virtual Machines to exchange messages with service applications running on BlueField-2 DPU. For further information see DOCA Communication Channel API. |
GPU Memory Registration |
Added support for large GPU memory registration through ibv_reg_mr() and ibv_reg_mr_iova2(). |
DPU Time Service |
Added support for "PTP like" for BlueField-2 devices when using the REAL_TIME timestamping ability. For further information, see DevX Utility. |
Hardware QoS Offload |
Added Hardware QoS Offload support to allow egress bandwidth management entirely in the hardware. For further information, see Hardware QoS Offload. |
Reduced RoCE Latency for SMBDirect using Two Queues: One for FRWR and the other for Send |
Added a new configuration value ('NdkFmrDedicatedQp') to control whether or not a separated QP is used for NDK fast-register operations. The dedicated QP will improve latency on systems that phase latency issues. Warning: The feature is useful only for SMBDirect and can be harmful for other applications using NDK. Note: This capability is supported in ConnectX-4 and ConnectX-4-Lx adapter cards when in Ethernet (RoCE) mode. Note: This value is OFF by default. For further information, see Configuring the Driver Registry Keys. |
Asymmetric Number of VFs per PF |
This new capability allows the user to set an asymmetric Number of VFs per PF using IOCTL. When using IOCTL to open a second PF on the same port, the new PF will be opened with '0' VFs. The number of VFs can be modified by using the mlxconfig tool, as long as the total number of VFs (on all PFs together) will not exceed the maximum number of VFs allowed. |
GPUDirect for Windows |
GPUDirect support in Windows is now at GA level. For further information, see GPUDirect. |
Bug Fixes |
|
Rev 2.70.53000 (DRV 2.70. 24739 ) |
|
Bug Fixes |
|
Rev 2.70.51000 (DRV 2.70.24728) |
|
Bug Fixes |
|
Rev 2.70.50000 (DRV 2.70. 24708 ) |
|
GPUDirect for Windows |
[Beta] Added GPUDirect support in Windows to allow the NIC direct access to the GPU memory. For further information, see GPUDirect. |
Operating System |
Added support for Windows Server 2022 Operating System. |
ND, MlxNdPerf |
Added a new performance benchmark tool called MlxNdPerf that replaces all old ND performance tools (e.g. nd_send_bw...). For further information see MlxNdPerf Utility. |
Real Time PTP |
Added support for fetching the real_time value from the init_segment. |
VXLAN Offloading |
VXLAN offloading is now supported on multiple ports. Port configuration can be done through the use of "Mlx5Cmd -Vxlan" command and you can configure up to 4 ports for offloading. For further information see VXLAN Offloading Configuration Utility. |
Vport, Promiscuous mode, DPDK |
Added support for promiscuous mode enablement on a Vport when using DPDK. Note: This capability is support in PF only. |
PDDR Cable Information |
Added support for cable information in ConnectX-6 / ConnectX-6 Dx / ConnectX-6 Lx and Bluefield-2 adapter cards. |
DSFP Connector |
Added support for DSFP connector. |
Bug Fixes |
|
Rev 2.60.51000 (DRV 2.60.23957) |
|
Bug Fixes |
|
Rev 2.60.50000 (DRV 2.60.23957) |
|
Adapter Cards |
Added support for NVIDIA® BlueField SmartNIC at GA level. |
Hardware vPort Context |
Added the option to dump hardware vPort context using mlx5cmd. |
Configuration Validator |
This tool validates the configuration of registry keys provided in the configuration file. For further information see Configuration Validator |
Link FEC Configuration Utility |
The Link FEC Configuration utility provides the ability to query supported link FEC modes by the adapter for the current link speed and for all supported link speeds. For further information see Link FEC Configuration Utility |
Packet Pacing Capabilities |
This tools query allocated Packet Pacing objects. For further information see Packet Pacing Capabilities |
DevX Registry Keys |
Added new registry keys that configure the DevX feature. For further information see DevX Registry Keys |
NDIS Poll Mode |
Windows introduced a new poll mode feature starting NDIS 6.85 onwards. The poll API handles Datapath processing for both TX and/or RX side. When the feature is enabled, the driver registers with NDIS for call backs to poll RX and/or TX data. For further information see NDIS Poll Mode. |
smpquery Utility |
smpquery allows querying of various information about the InfiniBand network. For further information see smpquery Utility. |
Counters |
Added the following new counters:
For further information see Mellanox WinOF-2 Receive Datapath & Mellanox WinOF-2 Transmit Datapath / Mellanox WinOF-2 PCI Device Diagnostic & Mellanox WinOF-2 Diagnostics Extension 1 |
Non-encapsulated Packets Steering |
Non-encapsulated packet handling enables the user to facilitate the following main flows:
For further information, see Non-encapsulated Packets Steering. |
Driver Events |
The following event logs severity status was changed from "Error" to "Warning" as they are not fatal errors:
|
Registry Keys |
Added new registry keys to control moving to DPC mode once the maximum RX/TX packet processing limit is reached. For further information, see Performance Registry Keys. |
Counters |
Removed "Mellanox WinOF-2 VF Internal Traffic Counters" from Virtual Functions. Note: Mellanox WinOF-2 VF Internal Traffic Counters are relevant for Physical Functions ONLY. |
PCIe Transfer Speed |
Added PCIe transfer speed units for event MLX_PCIE_LINK. For further information, see event 0x0191 in Reported Driver Events. |
IPoIB Teaming |
Added support for IPoIB Teaming in failover mode. |
Bug Fixes |
|
Rev 2.50.50000 (DRV 2.50.23282) |
|
Adapter Cards |
Added support for NVIDIA® Mellanox® ConnectX®-6 Lx adapter card. |
Adapter Cards |
Added support for NVIDIA® Mellanox® BlueField SmartNIC mode. For further information see NVIDIA BlueField SmartNIC Mode. |
Adapter Cards |
[Beta] Added support for NVIDIA® Mellanox® BlueField-2 SmartNIC adapter card. For further information see NVIDIA BlueField SmartNIC Mode. |
Bluefield Settings |
When using Bluefield in SmartNIC mode, encapsulation offload is done by the SoC, therefore, the encapsulation offload registry keys does not have any impact . For this reason, the following encapsulation offload registry keys for Bluefield device are not advertised.
|
INF Modifications |
As part of disabling the offloads for Bluefield devices, the following changes we applied to the inf:
|
Windows Mode Sleep/Hibernation Detection |
[Beta] Added support for device removal while the system is in sleep/hibernation mode. |
VF’s DHCP Redirections |
This feature forces every received\sent DHCP packet to be redirected to PF, including DHCP packets sent or received for VFs. The detection of a packet as a DHCP is done by checking UDP-Ports 67 and 68. For further information see VF's DHCP Redirections. |
Mellanox WinOF-2 PCI Device Diagnostic |
The "Available PCI BW" and "Used PCI BW" counters are now deprecated and replaced by "Available PCI BW/Sec" and "Used PCI BW/Sec". For further information see Mellanox WinOF-2 PCI Device Diagnostic. |
DevX SDK |
Added a DevX SDK executable file to develop code on top of DevX. The capability requires manual installation. For further information see DevX Interface. |
Features Status Utility |
The utility displays the status of driver features. For further information see Features Status Utility. |
Temperature Utility |
Mlx5Cmd can now query the external ASIC temperature sensor to get temperature readings using the "Mlx5Cmd -Temperature" command. For further information see Temperature Utility. |
DSCP Based QoS |
DSCP Based QoS enables the user to map DSCP to certain priority. For further information see DSCP Based QoS. |
ECN Marking |
The driver now updates the IP header with ECN bits based on hints received from the hardware. Additionally, software counters were also added for number of such packets marked and updated by the driver. |
Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) Hint in CQE |
In a multi-host system, a single receive buffer is used for all hosts. If one or more host(s) are being congested, the congested host(s) can exhaust the device’s receive buffer and cause service degradation for the other host(s). In order to manage this situation, the device can mark the ECN (Explicit Congestion Notification) bits in the IP header for the congested hosts. When ECN is enabled on the host, the host will sense the ECN marking and will reduce the TCP traffic and by that will throttle the traffic. Additionally, software counters were also added for number of such packets marked and updated by the driver. The device is capable to either drop or mark the packet (ECN) based on the Aggressive Mode or Dynamic Mode. For further information see Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) Hint in CQE. |
Additional MAC Addresses in RSS (Native Mode) |
This feature allows the user to configure additional MAC addresses for the network adapter without setting the adapter to promiscuous mode. Registering MAC addresses for a network adapter will allow the adapter to accept packets with the registered MAC address. For further information see Additional MAC Addresses for the Network Adapter. |
Limiting the Event Log from Flooding the Event Viewer |
This new capability prevents the event log from flooding the event viewer in case of an unrecoverable error. This will limit printing similar events up to a defined amount in a defined time range. The users can enable/disable it per their needs. In addition, users can also configure the time range and threshold events count. |
Resource Dump (Debuggability) |
Resource Dump is a debuggability utility that extracts and prints data segments generated by the firmware/hardware. For further information see Resource Dump. |
vPort RSS Configuration |
RSS information is now displayed from the driver. On the Hyper-V it will also display Vport's VMMQ configurations. For further information see Display RSS Information. |
DMN Offline Debug Improvements (Debuggability) |
Improved the driver's debug information by the following means: Dump-Me-Now collected information, driver traces and mlx5cmd commands. |
SR-IOV ATS |
Added ATS support on Virtual Functions. |
Rshim Drivers |
Added support for NVIDIA® Mellanox® RShim drivers. The NVIDIA® Mellanox® BlueField® family of SoC devices combines an array of Arm processors coupled with the Mellanox ConnectX® interconnect. Standard Linux distributions run on the Arm cores allowing common open source development tools to be used. The SoC can be accessed via USB (external cable) or PCIe driven by our RShim drivers. RShim drivers provides functionalities like resetting the Arm cores, pushing a bootstream image, networking functionality and console functionality. For further information see .RShim Drivers and Usage v2.80. |
Dump Me Now |
Added a new registry key "DumpMeNowDumpMask" to control the DMN dumps. For further information see Dump Me Now (DMN) Registry Keys. |
Bug Fixes |
See Bug Fixes. |
Rev 2.40.51000 (DRV 2.40.22533) |
|
Link Speed |
Added support for InfiniBand link with 2x lanes width. |
Software Parsing |
Software Parsing is now enabled by default. Meaning, the TCP checksum over IP-in-IP encapsulation of IPv4/6 sent packets calculation is now enabled by default. |
Bug Fixes |
See Bug Fixes. |
Rev 2.40.50000 (DRV 2.40.22511) |
|
Adapter Cards |
Added support for ConnectX-6 Dx adapter card. |
VM Supported Enhancement |
Allows the user to to use a single UAR resource for all Tx priorities queues on the PCI bar, to allow using up to 8 times more RSS queues. |
VF Commands Failures Debuggability |
The driver generates a detailed (including the command's failure details) Dump-Me-Now file in case it receives error commands from the VF. |
Striding RQ |
Striding RQ handles the burst of received packets with few PCI access. For further information, see Striding RQ. |
Live Firmware Patch Update (LFWP) |
Firmware can be patched with critical bugs fixes live with minimal serviceability impact. The patching can be down only within the same major branch. For further information, see Live Firmware Patch. |
Relaxed Ordering (Read/Write) |
Enables the Relaxed Ordering capability for Window hosts and SR-IOV VFs using a new registry key. Additionally, a second registry key allows the host to control the exposure of the relaxed ordering feature (read and write) for VFs. For further information, see Ethernet Registry Keys. |
Nested Virtualization |
Added support for Mellanox VF in a VM with Hyper-V enabled |
VF BlueFlame |
Added support to the ND to execute BlueFlame packet from the VF to achieve low latency. |
VF Counters (Anti Spoofing Counters) |
Added 3 new counters (see Mellanox WinOF-2 VF Port Traffic) per Virtual Function that count the dropped packets:
For further information, see .Adapter Cards Counters v2.70. |
PCI Device Diagnostic Counters |
Added the counter below that report the number of PCI width and lane speed as part of PCI diagnostic counter. Additionally, in case of unexpected speed/width, an event log will generated. Mellanox WinOF-2 PCI Device Diagnostic:
For further information, see .Adapter Cards Counters v2.70. |
Silently Dropped Counters |
Added the following counters that will count all dropped packets:
For further information, see .Adapter Cards Counters v2.70. |
Lossy QPs Reporting |
Upon creating of a new ND or NDK QP, the driver will send a message to System Event Log if the assigned QP's priority is lossy (=disabled). The rate of the messages can be limited using the registry parameter RoCEOnLossyPrioEvtRate. For further information, see Lossy QPs Reporting |
Bug Fixes |
|
Rev 2.30.51000 (DRV 2.30.21713) |
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Windows Client 10 |
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Rev 2.30.50000 (DRV 2.30.21713) |
|
NIC Teaming |
NIC Teaming allows you to group between one and 32 physical Ethernet network adapters into one or more software-based virtual network adapters. Note: This capability is supported only on Windows 10 Client. For further information, refer to section NIC Teaming. |
Zero Touch RoCE |
Zero Touch RoCE is at GA level. For further information see Zero Touch RoCE. |
Zero Touch RoCE |
Added new Diagnostic Counters. For further information, refer to section Mellanox WinOF-2 Diagnostics Extension 1. |
Zero Touch RoCE |
Added a new parameter to configure Zero Touch RoCE Facilities. For further information, refer to section Zero Touch RoCE Parameters. |
ETL |
Changed the maximum size of the ETL files (MaxFileSize) to 500MB. |
Counters |
Added a counter for packets that their checksum was calculated by the software. |
Ethernet Registry Keys |
Renamed the RoceMaxFrameSize registry keys to RoceFrameSize and updated its values. For further information, refer to section Ethernet Registry Keys. |
Performance Registry Keys |
Added a new performance registry key (MaxCallsToNdisIndicate). For further information, refer to section Performance Registry Keys. |
Adapter Cards: Link Speed |
[Alpha] Added support for ConnectX-6 200GbE link speed only when in Force mode (non-Auto-Negotiation). |
Adapter Cards |
Updated several ConnectX-6 adapter cards description displayed in the Device Manager window. |
Bug Fixes |
|
Rev 2.20.50000 (DRV2.20.21096) |
|
Zero Touch RoCE |
[Beta] Zero Touch RoCE enables RoCE to operate on fabrics where no PFC nor ECN are configured. This makes RoCE configuration a breeze while still maintaining its superior high performance. Note: This capability is disabled by default. For further information see Zero Touch RoCE. |
Driver Events (PCIe Power) |
Added 3 new events that indicate the PCIe power status. For further information see the events below in section .Reported Driver Events v2.60. |
Hardware Timestamping |
Hardware Timestamping is used to implement time-stamping functionality directly into the hardware of the Ethernet physical layer (PHY) using Precision Time Protocol (PTP). Time stamping is performed in the PTP stack when receiving packets from the Ethernet buffer queue. For further information see Hardware Timestamping. |
Troubleshooting (GetNetView Tool) |
Added support to the mlx5cmd utility for the Microsoft SDN diagnostic script Get-NetView. |
mlx5cmd (Registry Keys) |
The "mlx5cmd -regkey" command displays now the minimal and maximal optional values for each registry key. |
Receive Context Data (RFD) |
Increased the minimum size of ReceiveBuffers to 64 to avoid extra barrier at the DataPath. |
Event Log |
Added new warning event log on the recommended firmware version. If the firmware version running on the system is less than the defined firmware version it will prompt a warning event stating the minimal recommended firmware version. Note: The driver supports older firmware version, thus updating the firmware version is not mandatory. |
eSwitch Manager (BlueField) |
Added support in driver to enable Arm when using BlueField adapter cards to be the eSwitch Manager (eswitch_manager). |
Bug Fixes |