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, which are 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-host-basic

DOCA functionality is limited by the specific device capabilities.

profiles Apr26.png

Which Profile to Install?

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

For BlueField devices:

NVIDIA recommends the doca-all profile
If you require the smallest installation package for networking-only purposes, use doca-networking
For MLNX_OFED-like installations, use doca-ofed (no additional DOCA functionality)
For RoCE functionality only, install doca-roce
doca-host-basic will provide the common basic networking functionality, similar to doca-roce but without MFT and FW-Updater

For ConnectX devices:

NVIDIA recommends the doca-networking profile
For deployments with both BlueField and ConnectX devices, use doca-all. This is also a good, scalable option for deployments that do not currently use either BlueField or ConnectX devices but eventually might.
For MLNX_OFED-like installation use doca-ofed (no additional DOCA functionality)
For RoCE functionality only, install doca-roce
For common networking functionality without the added Tools, install doca-host-basic

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 all DOCA functionalities Future-proof mixed BlueField/ConnectX environments

Some components may require additional manual installation after the default package is installed.

doca-networking

Purpose	Networking-specific installation without full DOCA library overhead
Includes	MLNX_OFED DOCA Core DOCA-PCC OVS-DOCA DOCA Flow DOCA Perftest
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 perftest
Recommended for	RoCE-only applications Low-footprint installations

doca-host-basic

Purpose	Lightweight Ethernet only functionality
Includes	rdma-core mlnx-tools mlnx-ofa_kernel perftest mlnx-ethtool mlnx-iproute2
Recommended for	Low-footprint installations with basic Ethernet networking

Supported Devices

All profiles support the following NVIDIA hardware:

BlueField-3
BlueField-2
ConnectX-8
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 Supported Host OS per DOCA-Host Installation Profile for device-specific compatibility information. To install a profile, follow the installation steps in DOCA-Host Installation and Upgrade.

Last updated: May 27, 2026