DOCA SDK Documentation
DOCA SDK Documentation
Breadcrumbs

DOCA Profiles


The following document provides an introduction to the various supported DOCA-Host profiles.

Introduction

NVIDIA DOCA™ can be installed on the host and used by a variety of customers who have different workloads and requirements. The DOCA-Host package includes drivers, libraries, and tools to support NVIDIA® BlueField® Networking Platform and NVIDIA® ConnectX® SmartNIC, Ethernet and InfiniBand, with both kernel and user-space components. Depending on their specific needs, customers may choose not to install the full DOCA-Host package on their host server but only the subset of components and tools relevant for their use case (whether to have a smaller installation size, lower integration/validation effort, etc).

To support the different use cases, DOCA includes DOCA-Host Installation Profiles, which are a subset of the full DOCA installation. DOCA-Host profiles are validated and tested installation packages. The following are the available DOCA profiles:

  • doca-all

  • doca-networking 

  • doca-ofed

  • doca-roce

DOCA-Host supports the following NVIDIA devices:

  • BlueField-3

  • BlueField-2

  • ConnectX-7

  • ConnectX-6 DX

  • ConnectX-6 LX

  • ConnectX-6

  • ConnectX-5

  • ConnectX-4 LX

  • ConnectX-4

For hardware details on these devices, refer to the following pages:

DOCA functionality is limited by the specific device capabilities.

DOCA Host profiles ROCE.jpg

For information about DOCA Meta-Packages please refer to section "DOCA Meta-packages" in the NVIDIA DOCA Installation Guide for Linux.

doca-all

The full DOCA-Host installation is intended for users who wish to utilize the full extent of DOCA libs and drivers.

This profile is the super-set of components, which also includes the content of doca-ofed and doca-networking. 

All DOCA libraries, drivers and tools are included in doca-all. 

When installing doca-all on host, BlueField Platforms can utilize all DOCA libs and drivers whereas ConnectX devices can utilize only doca-ofed and doca-networking subset of functions from within the super-set of doca-all, depending on the device's capabilities. 

doca-networking

The doca-networking profile is intended for users who wish to benefit only from the networking functionality of DOCA. 

The content of the doca-networking package is the following:

  • MLNX_OFED

  • DOCA Core

  • MLNX-DPDK

  • OVS-DOCA

  • DOCA Flow

BlueField DPUs, BlueField SuperNICs, and ConnectX devices can utilize all included libs and drivers in the doca-networking profile, based on the device's capabilities.

doca-ofed

This profile is intended for users who wish to have the same user experience and content as MLNX_OFED but with DOCA package. doca-ofed installs the MLNX_OFED drivers and tools and does not include any other DOCA components.

The content of the doca-ofed package is:

  • MLNX_OFED drivers and tools

BlueField Platforms and ConnectX devices can utilize only the drivers in doca-ofed, based on the device's capabilities. No added DOCA libs are supported with any of the devices with doca-ofed profile installation. 

doca-roce

The doca-roce (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) profile is intended for users who wish to benefit only from the Ethernet and RDMA functionality. doca-roce is a subset of doca-ofed. 

The content for doca-roce package is:

  • rdma-core

  • ofed-scripts

  • mlnx-tools

  • mlnx-ofa_kernel

  • libibverbs

  • libibumad

  • librdmacm

  • perftest

BlueField platforms and ConnectX devices can utilize the drivers in doca-roce. No added DOCA libs are supported with any of the devices with doca-roce profile installation.

Which Profile to Install?

Selecting the right DOCA-Host installation profile is important to fully utilize the capabilities of your BlueField Platforms or ConnectX.

The functionality of DOCA-Host is limited by the device capabilities (e.g., ConnectX devices cannot utilize DOCA libs such as DPA, even if doca-all is installed on the host).

For BlueField devices:

  • It is recommended to use doca-all

  • If you require the smallest installation package for networking-only purposes, use doca-networking

  • For MLNX_OFED-like installation, use doca-ofed (no additional DOCA functionality)

  • For ROCE functionality only, install doca-roce 

For ConnectX devices:

  • It is recommended to use doca-networking

  • For future-proof and mixed BlueField/ConnectX deployments, use doca-all

  • For MLNX_OFED-like installation use doca-ofed (no additional DOCA functionality)

  • For ROCE functionality only, install doca-roce 

DOCA-Host Profile Installation

DOCA-Host can be installed on specific host OSs. Each of the Host Installation Profiles has specific OSs on which is can be installed as specified in section "DOCA Profiles | id (2.9.1)DOCAProfiles SupportedHostOSperDOCA HostInstallationProfile".

Follow the instructions under section "Installing Software on Host" in the NVIDIA DOCA Installation Guide for Linux.

Supported Host OS per DOCA-Host Installation Profile

Refer to the "General Support" page of the release notes for information.

Last updated: