DOCA Profiles

This document introduces and compares the different NVIDIA DOCA™ Host installation profiles, helping users select the most suitable configuration for their workloads and environments.

Introduction

NVIDIA DOCA™ can be installed on host machines to support a range of NVIDIA® BlueField® DPUs and NVIDIA® ConnectX® SmartNICs. To meet the needs of different deployment scenarios, DOCA offers installation profiles—validated packages that streamline setup based on the desired functionality.

The following are the available DOCA profiles:

doca-all
doca-networking
doca-ofed
doca-roce

DOCA functionality is limited by the specific device capabilities.

DOCA Host profiles ROCE.jpg

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

Profile Details

doca-all

Purpose	Install the full DOCA suite, including all libraries, drivers, and tools
Includes	All DOCA libraries and drivers MLNX_OFED DOCA Core MLNX-DPDK OVS-DOCA DOCA Flow
Recommended for	Full-featured BlueField deployments Users needing access to every DOCA capability Future-proof mixed BlueField/ConnectX environments

Some components may require manual installation after the default package.

doca-networking

Purpose	Networking-specific installation without full DOCA library overhead
Includes	MLNX_OFED DOCA Core MLNX-DPDK OVS-DOCA DOCA Flow
Recommended for	Users focused on accelerated networking BlueField or ConnectX environments where only networking functionality is required

doca-ofed

Purpose	Driver-only installation equivalent to MLNX_OFED
Includes	MLNX_OFED drivers and tools
Recommended for	Minimalist setups with no DOCA user-space components Compatibility-focused deployments

doca-roce

Purpose	Lightweight RDMA-over-Ethernet (ROCE) functionality
Includes	rdma-core ofed-scripts mlnx-tools mlnx-ofa_kernel libibverbs, libibumad, librdmacm perftest
Recommended for	RoCE-only applications Low-footprint installs

Supported Devices

All profiles support the following NVIDIA hardware:

BlueField-3
BlueField-2
ConnectX-7
ConnectX-6 DX / LX / standard
ConnectX-5
ConnectX-4 LX

DOCA functionality is limited by the specific device capabilities. For example, ConnectX devices cannot use certain DOCA libraries such as DPA.

Profile Installation Notes

Each DOCA-Host profile is supported on a subset of operating systems. Refer to the "DOCA Profiles | id (3.0.0)DOCAProfiles SupportedHostOSperDOCA HostInstallationProfile" section in the DOCA Host Installation and Upgrade Guide.

Follow the installation steps under "Installing Software on Host" in the DOCA-HOST Installation and Upgrade for details on how to install the selected profile.

Supported Host OS per DOCA-Host Installation Profile

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

Last updated: April 14, 2025