DOCA Platform Framework v25.10.0

This is the GA release of the DOCA Platform Framework (DPF). It includes bug fixes and improvements to enhance the provisioning and orchestration of NVIDIA BlueField DPUs in Kubernetes environments.

Features

• Multi-DPU Support:Enhancements to support multiple DPUs throughout DPF componentsSupport provisioning multiple DPUs on the same host with node effect and reboot synchronization

• Networking:RDMA CNI support for DPU workloads

• DPF Operator:Support Resource configuration for DPF components

• Support for DPUDeployment disruptive upgrades:Support for triggering node effect on update of disruptive standard or in-cluster DPUServices and DPUServiceChainsSupport for removing the node effect only after all the DPUServices have Pods that are ReadySupport for removing the node effect only after all the DPUServiceChains have ServiceChains that are Ready

• Provisioning Enhancements:New Host Agent component to handle host operations

• Upgrade Support:DPF now supports upgrades from previous GA releases

• DPF Storage Enhancements:Support VirtioFS for Trusted and Zero Trust casesSupport for static PF PCI emulated functionsSupport for multiple DPUs on same host

• OVN VPC DPUService:(tech preview) OVN HA supportZero downtime upgrade guide

• dpfctl:Enhancements to reflect the status of additional DPF objects such as storage, dpunode, dpudevice

Fixed Issues from Previous Release

• DPUSet and BFB removal leaves DPU CRs in OS Installing Phase indefinitely

• DPUFlavor nvconfig.hostPowerCycleRequired is not used

• [VPC OVN DPUService] E/W Traffic Not Passing within Same VPC after DPU Reprovisioning

• DPUServiceInterface doesn't wait for ServiceInterface to be deleted

• DPUDeployment disruptive upgrade handling is not always graceful

Supported DPU Services:

• OVN-Kubernetes

• DOCA Host-Based Networking (HBN)

• DOCA Telemetry Service (DTS)

• DOCA BlueMan

• DOCA SNAP

• DOCA Firefly

• DOCA Argus

• OVN VPC

Dependencies

Hardware and Software Requirements

• DPU Hardware: NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs

• Minimal DOCA BFB Image: DOCA v2.5 or higher (must be pre-installed on DPUs to support DPF provisioning)

• Supported DOCA BFB Image: bf-bundle-3.2.1

Installation & Upgrade Notes

Installation Notes

None.

Upgrade Notes

• [Zero-Trust] DpuDiscovery no longer creates DPUNodes:Description: DpuDiscovery no longer creates DPUNodes by default. Site-admin can enable it by setting skipDPUNodeDiscovery to false in DPFOperatorConfig.Example: Set skipDPUNodeDiscovery to false in DPFOperatorConfig:

apiVersion: operator.dpu.nvidia.com/v1alpha1
kind: DPFOperatorConfig
metadata:
  name: dpfoperatorconfig
  namespace: dpf-operator-system
spec:
  provisioningController:
    installInterface:
      installViaRedfish:
        skipDPUNodeDiscovery: false

• Required field changes in DPUSet:

  • Description: The following fields in DPUSet are now required and must be specified:spec.dpuTemplate is now requiredspec.dpuTemplate.spec.dpuFlavor is now required

  • Impact: Existing DPUSet resources that do not specify these fields will need to be updated before upgrading.

  • Note: These fields were made required because DPUSet resources cannot function properly without them. This change enforces validation that should have been in place from the beginning, making this effectively a bug fix rather than a breaking change for properly configured resources.

• MTU minimum value changes:

  • Description: The minimum MTU value has been increased from 1000 to 1280 bytes across multiple API fields. Additionally, maximum MTU constraints have been added where applicable.

  • Affected Fields:

    • DPUServiceChain.spec.template.spec.template.spec.switches[*].serviceMTU - minimum increased: 1000 → 1280

    • DPUDeployment.spec.serviceChains.switches[*].serviceMTU - minimum increased: 1000 → 1280

    • ServiceChain.spec.switches[*].serviceMTU - minimum increased: 1000 → 1280

    • ServiceChainSet.spec.template.spec.switches[*].serviceMTU - minimum increased: 1000 → 1280

    • DPFOperatorConfig.spec.networking.controlPlaneMTU - minimum increased: 1000 → 1280

    • DPFOperatorConfig.spec.networking.highSpeedMTU - minimum increased: 1000 → 1280

    • DPUFlavor.spec.hostNetworkInterfaceConfigs[*].mtu - minimum increased: 1000 → 1280

    • DPUServiceNAD.spec.serviceMTU - minimum constraint added: 1280, maximum constraint added: 9216

  • Impact: Existing resources with MTU values below 1280 will need to be updated. The system will reject values below the new minimum during validation.

• DPUDeployment now requires at least one and up to 50 services:

  • Description: Previously, it was possible to define a DPUDeployment without any service. This was a bug in the validation which is now fixed. DPUDeployment now requires more than 1 and up 50 services.

  • Affected Fields:

    • DPUDeployment.spec.services - minimum constraint added when there was none previously : 1

    • DPUDeployment.spec.services - maximum constraint added when there was none previously : 50

  • Impact: Existing DPUDeployments without services should be replaced with a DPUSet instead. The system will reject creation or update of a DPUDeployment with none or more than 50 services.

Deprecated API Fields

The following API fields have been deprecated and will be removed in future releases. Users should migrate to the recommended alternatives.

• DPFOperatorConfig Fields:

  • Description: Multiple fields in DPFOperatorConfig have been deprecated.The top-level image fields have been replaced with container-specific image override fields for more granular control.Registry configuration fields under installViaRedfish have been deprecated in favor of the top-level registry field.The deployInTargetCluster field is deprecated and not supported.

  • Deprecated Fields:

    • Image fields (replaced with container-specific overrides):

    • spec.provisioningController.image → Use spec.provisioningController.controller.image instead

    • spec.dpuServiceController.image → Use spec.dpuServiceController.controller.image instead

    • spec.dpuDetector.image → Use spec.dpuDetector.daemon.image instead

    • spec.kamajiClusterManager.image → Use spec.kamajiClusterManager.controller.image instead

    • spec.staticClusterManager.image → Use spec.staticClusterManager.controller.image instead

    • spec.serviceSetController.image → Use spec.serviceSetController.controller.image instead

    • spec.flannel.image → Use spec.flannel.cni.image and spec.flannel.daemon.image instead

    • spec.multus.image → Use spec.multus.cni.image instead

    • spec.nvipam.image → Use spec.nvipam.controller.image instead

    • spec.sriovDevicePlugin.image → Use spec.sriovDevicePlugin.deviceplugin.image instead

    • spec.ovsCNI.image → Use spec.ovsCNI.cni.image instead

    • spec.sfcController.image → Use spec.sfcController.controller.image instead

    • ProvisioningController registry fields:

    • spec.provisioningController.installInterface.installViaRedfish.bfbRegistryAddress → Use spec.provisioningController.registry.address instead

    • spec.provisioningController.installInterface.installViaRedfish.bfbRegistry → Use spec.provisioningController.registry instead

    • DeployInTargetCluster fields (not supported):

    • spec.serviceSetController.deployInTargetCluster → This field is not supported and will be removed

    • spec.flannel.deployInTargetCluster → This field is not supported and will be removed

    • spec.multus.deployInTargetCluster → This field is not supported and will be removed

    • spec.nvipam.deployInTargetCluster → This field is not supported and will be removed

    • spec.sriovDevicePlugin.deployInTargetCluster → This field is not supported and will be removed

    • spec.ovsCNI.deployInTargetCluster → This field is not supported and will be removed

    • spec.sfcController.deployInTargetCluster → This field is not supported and will be removed

    • spec.cniInstaller.deployInTargetCluster → This field is not supported and will be removed

• DPUDevice Fields:

  • Description: The following fields in DPUDevice.spec have been deprecated in favor of their corresponding status fields, which are automatically populated by the system.

  • Deprecated Fields:

    • spec.psid → Use status.psid instead

    • spec.opn → Use status.opn instead

    • spec.pf0Name → Use status.pf0Name instead

  • Note: The status fields are considered read-only and automatically populated by the system. Users should not attempt to modify these fields.

• DPUNode Fields:

  • Description: The gNOI reboot method and nodeDMSAddress field have been deprecated.

  • Deprecated Fields:

    • spec.nodeRebootMethod.gNOI → Use spec.nodeRebootMethod.hostAgent instead

    • spec.nodeDMSAddress → This field is no longer used

• DPUSet Fields:

  • Description: The maxUnavailable field in rolling update strategy has been deprecated.

  • Deprecated Fields:

    • spec.strategy.rollingUpdate.maxUnavailable → Use dpfoperatorconfig.spec.provisioningController.maxUnavailableDPUNodes instead

• DPUFlavor Fields:

  • Description: The hostPowerCycleRequired field in NVConfig has been deprecated as it is unused.

  • Deprecated Fields:

    • spec.nvconfig[].hostPowerCycleRequired → This field is unused and deprecated

• DPU Fields:

  • Description: The bmcIP field in DPU spec should be obtained from the associated DPUDevice instead.

  • Deprecated Fields:

    • spec.bmcIP → Use DPUDevice.spec.bmcIp or DPUDevice.status.bmcIp instead

• DPUServiceNAD Fields:

  • Description: The spec.metadata field in DPUServiceNAD has been deprecated. The standard Kubernetes metadata field at the resource level remains available.

  • Deprecated Fields:

    • spec.metadata → This field is unused and deprecated

Known Issues and Limitations

• On initial deployment DPF CRs maybe stuck in initial state (Pending, Initializing, etc.) and not progressing

  • In case DPF CRs were created before DPF components are running they may be stuck in their initial state. DPF CRs need to be created after the DPF components have been deployed. In case CRs were created before they may remain in an initial state.

  • Internal Ref #4241297

  • Workaround: Delete any CRs that were created before the System components have been deployed and recreate them.

• Stale ports after DPU reboot

  • When rebooting DPU, the old DPU service ports won’t get deleted from DPU’s OVS and would be stale

  • Internal Ref #4174183

  • Workaround: No workaround, known issue, shouldn’t affect performance.

• DPU Cluster control-plane connectivity is lost when physical port P0 is down on the worker node

  • Link down of p0 port on the DPU will result in DPU control plane connectivity loss of DPU components.

  • Internal Ref #3751863

  • Workaround: Make sure P0 link is up on the DPU, if down either restart DPU or refer to DOCA troubleshooting https://docs.nvidia.com/networking/display/bfswtroubleshooting.
    Note: This issue is relevant for Host Trusted deployments only.

• nvidia-k8s-ipam and servicechainset-controller DPF system DPUServices are in “Pending” phase

  • As long as there are no provisioned DPUs in the system, the nvidia-k8s-ipam and servicechainset-controller will appear as not ready / pending when querying dpuservices. This has no impact on performance or functionality since DPF system components are only relevant when there are DPUs to provision services on.

  • Internal Ref #4241324

  • Workaround: No workaround, known issue

• System doesn't recover after DPU Reset

  • When the user triggers a reset of a DPU in any way other than using DPF APIs (e.g. recreation of a DPU CR), the system may not recover.

  • Internal Ref #4521178, #4188044, #4732664

  • Workaround: Power cycle the host. Note that this operation is dangerous and there might be file system corruption which will require triggering the reprovisioning of the DPU. If the system does not recover, reprovision the DPU by deleting the DPU CR (it will be recreated and DPU provisioning will happen).
    Note: This issue is relevant for Host Trusted deployments where OVN-Kubernetes is used as a primary CNI.

• Leftover CRs if worker is removed from the cluster permanently

  • When a worker was added to a cluster, optionally had DPU provisioned and later was removed from the host cluster permanently, there may be leftover DPF related CRs in both the host cluster and the DPU cluster.

  • Internal Ref #4403130, #4571788

  • Workaround: No workaround, known issue.

• DPUDeployment or DPUSet created in namespace different from the dpf-operator-system namespace do not trigger DPU provisioning

  • When creating a DPUDeployment or a DPUSet in a namespace other than dpf-operator-system, there are no DPU CRs created due to the DPUNode CRs residing in the dpf-operator-system namespace.

  • Internal Ref #4427091

  • Workaround: Create the DPUDeployment or DPUSet in the dpf-operator-system namespace.

• DPUService stops reconciling when DPUCluster is unavailable for long time

  • When the DPUCluster is unavailable for long time (more than 5 mins), changes to DPUServices (also generated ones via DPUDeployment or DPFOperatorConfig) that have happened during that time might not be reflected to the DPUCluster.

  • Internal Ref #4359857

  • Workaround: Recreate DPUServices that are stuck.

• DPUFlavor nvconfig limitations

  • DPUFlavor doesn't support assigning nvconfig parameters to only a specific device(s). Currently, it assigns the same parameters across all devices (i.e., '*')

  • Internal Ref #4583584

• [OVN-Kubernetes DPUService] Nodes marked as NotReady

  • When installing OVN-Kubernetes as a CNI on a node running containerd version 1.7.0 and above the Node never becomes ready.

  • Internal Ref #4178221

  • Workaround:

    • Option 1: Use containerd version below v1.7.0 when using OVN-Kubernetes as a primary CNI.

    • Option 2: Manually restart containerd on the host.

• [OVN-Kubernetes DPUService] Lost traffic from workloads to control plane components or Kubernetes services after dpu reboot, port flapping, ovs restart or manual network configuration

  • Connectivity issues between workload pods to control plane components or Kubernetes services may occur after the following events: DPU reboot without host reboot, high speed port flapping (link down/up), ovs restart, DPU network configuration change (for example using "netplan apply" command on DPU). The issues are caused by network configuration that was applied by ovn CNI on DPUs and won't get reapplied automatically.

  • Internal Ref #4188044, #4521178

  • Workaround: Recreate the OVN-Kubernetes node pod on the host to reapply the configuration.

• [OVN-Kubernetes DPUService] host network configuration may result in lost traffic from host workloads (on overlay)

  • When changing host network (for example with netplan apply) custom network configuration which is done by the host CNI components may be lost and won’t reapply automatically.

  • Internal Ref #4188044

  • Workaround: Recreate the OVN-Kubernetes node pod on the host to reapply the configuration.

• [OVN-Kubernetes DPUService] InternalTrafficPolicy and ExternalTrafficPolicy Service options are not handled correctly

  • When external traffic reaches a NodePort Kubernetes Service on the host cluster via the OOB Network of the host, the user won't see the relevant policy option working as expected. The same applies for traffic originating from a Pod on the overlay network hitting the same type of service.

  • Internal Ref #4320953

  • Workaround: No workaround, known issue.

• [OVN-Kubernetes DPUService] No network connectivity for SR-IOV accelerated workload pods after DPU reboot

  • SR-IOV accelerated workload pod is losing its VF interface upon DPU reboot. VF is available on the host however not injected back into the pod.

  • Internal Ref #4236521

  • Workaround: Recreate the SR-IOV accelerated workload pods.

• [HBN DPUService] Invalid HBN configuration is not reflected to user in case it is syntactically valid

  • If the HBN YAML configuration is valid but contains values that are illegal from an NVUE perspective then the HBN service will start with the last known valid configuration and it won’t be reflected to the end user.

  • Internal Ref #4555216

  • Workaround: No workaround, known issue.

• [Firefly DPUService] Deletion of the Firefly DPUService leaves stale flows in OVS

  • When the Firefly DPUService is deleted after successful deployment or the labels of the serviceDaemonSet are modified, flows are not cleaned up from OVS.

  • Internal Ref #4382535

  • Workaround: Although these flows are very unlikely to cause an issue, reprovisioning the DPU or power cycling the host will bring the OVS in good state. Note that power cycling the host is dangerous and there might be file system corruption which will require triggering the reprovisioning of the DPU.

• Changing DPUNode nodeRebootMethod during DPU provisioning is not supported

  • When a DPU is not in Ready or Error phase, updating the DPUNode spec.nodeRebootMethod is not supported. Updating spec.nodeRebootMethod at this time may cause the DPU to get stuck in Rebooting phase.

  • Internal Ref: #4641260

  • Workaround: Delete the DPU object to trigger reprovisioning.

• DPU may fail to reboot during Rebooting phase if firmware version is too old

  • If the firmware version of the DPU is older than version 32.41.1000 (released April 2024), DPUs may fail to provision with an error during the DPU reboot phase.

  • Internal Ref: #4634335

  • Workaround: Manually upgrade the firmware version of the DPU to 32.41.1000 or later, or set spec.nodeRebootMethod to external (and reboot the node at the correct time).

• [DPUDeployment] Pods of service referenced in spec.serviceChain are restarted when serviceChain changes, causing disruption

  • When updating DPUDeployment.spec.serviceChain with a disruptive upgrade, the affected pods are restarted but DPUDeployment does not remove the node effect from the corev1.Node in the host cluster. This causes the node to be marked as ready and accept workloads before DPU services are fully operational.

  • Internal Ref: #4686635

  • Workaround: No workaround, known issue.

• [DPUDeployment] Invalid configuration in service and service chain related configuration may lead to DPUDeployment making no progress, even after reverting to a working configuration.

  • When an invalid change is introduced in DPUServiceConfiguration/DPUServiceTemplate or the DPUDeployment.spec.serviceChain, the DPUDeployment may get stuck. This happens when one or more DPUs get to the Node Effect Removal state. The DPU is stuck because the underlying component doesn't become ready (Pod/ServiceChain). Even reverting to the working configuration won't work because the DPU controller doesn't adjust the labels on the corev1.Node in the DPUCluster when the DPU is in Node Effect Removal state.

  • Internal Ref: #4713965

  • Workaround: Revert to a working configuration and remove the requestors from the DPUNodeMaintenance objects.

• No network traffic through DPU when the system is properly configured and all related DPF resources are ready

  • In rare cases, a race condition during the initialization of the OVS instance running on the DPU may prevent traffic from passing through the DPU.

  • Internal Ref: #4719221

  • Workaround: The following workarounds are possible:Step 1: Powercycle the hostStep 2: Add the following command to DPUFlavor spec.ovs field: ovs-appctl dpctl/del-dp system@ovs-system

• DPU provisioning in Zero-Trust may fail if the provisioning controller has restarted during DPU provisioning

  • If the provisioning controller restarts while a DPU is being provisioned, the DPU will transition to the Error phase. In the provisioning controller logs, a 400 Bad Request error is seen with message An update is in progress. while communicating with the DPU BMC.

  • Internal Ref: #4723795

  • Workaround: Wait a few minutes for the current in-flight DPU provisioning process to be completed by the DPU BMC, then delete the DPU object to restart provisioning.

• DOCA SNAP may fail to reattach a DPUVolumeAttachment that uses VirtioFS on hot-plugged PFs after a host power cycle

  • After a host power cycle, a DPUVolumeAttachment that uses VirtioFS on hot-plugged PFs can become not ready and might not be restored automatically.

  • Internal Ref: #4734537

  • Workaround:

    • Step 1: Delete failed DPUVolumeAttachment.

    • Step 2: Create a new DPUVolumeAttachment with the same configuration.

• DOCA SNAP may fail to reattach a DPUVolumeAttachment that uses emulated NVMe devices on hot-plugged PFs after a host power cycle

  • After a host power cycle, a DPUVolumeAttachment that uses emulated NVMe devices on hot-plugged PFs can become not ready and might not be restored automatically.

  • Internal Ref: #4734514

  • Workaround:

    • Step 1: Mark the DPUVolumeAttachment for deletion. The object removal will be blocked by the finalizer at this step.

    • Step 2: Access the API of the DPU cluster and remove the finalizer from the VolumeAttachment CR that has the same name as the DPUVolumeAttachment CR in the host cluster.

    • Step 3: Wait for the DPUVolumeAttachment to be fully removed in the host cluster.

    • Step 4: Power cycle the host.

    • Step 5: After the host is fully booted, create a new DPUVolumeAttachment with the same configuration.

• In rare cases, a DPUVolumeAttachment that uses emulated NVMe devices on hot-plugged PFs may reach the Ready state but have an invalid (00:00.0) PCI device address in the CR status

  • If the host is still booting while a DPUVolumeAttachment is in progress, the DPUVolumeAttachment may reach the Ready state but have an invalid (00:00.0) PCI device address, which prevents the volume from being consumed by workloads on the host.

  • Internal Ref: #4734509

  • Workaround:

    • Step 1: Mark the DPUVolumeAttachment for deletion. The object removal will be blocked by the finalizer at this step.

    • Step 2: Access the API of the DPU cluster and remove the finalizer from the VolumeAttachment CR that has the same name as the DPUVolumeAttachment CR in the host cluster.

    • Step 3: Wait for the DPUVolumeAttachment to be fully removed in the host cluster.

    • Step 4: Power cycle the host.

    • Step 5: After the host is fully booted, create a new DPUVolumeAttachment with the same configuration.

• Long DPU provisioning time when multiple DPUs are provisioned on the same node

  • In some cases, it may take a long amount of time to provision multiple DPUs on the same node.

  • Internal Ref: #4757191

  • Workaround: If the DPU is stuck in DPU Cluster Config phase after a long installation, please reprovision the DPU and make sure no other DPUs on the same node are being provisioned at the same time

• DPF does not support HBN with EVPN configuration together with OVN-Kubernetes or DPF OVN VPC services

  • Mixing GENEVE(OVN) and VXLAN(EVPN) tunnel types in HBN will cause traffic failure

  • Internal Ref: #4776088

  • Workaround: No workaround. This configuration should be avoided.

Last updated: June 10, 2026