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NVIDIA DOCA: zero to FAE

Nine modules, foundations to capstone. Dots: grey not started, blue in progress, green complete with quiz ≥ 80%, amber complete but below 80%. Each module ends in a checkpoint that unlocks the next.

1. Foundations: DPUs, BlueField, and where DOCA fits

Explain to a Dell account team what a DPU is, what the BlueField-3 product line contains, and what DOCA is, with correct vocabulary.

  1. 1.1 Why infrastructure moved onto the NIC (coming)
  2. 1.2 The NVIDIA networking portfolio (coming)
  3. 1.3 BlueField-3 under the hood (coming)
  4. 1.4 Modes of operation: DPU, NIC, Zero-Trust (coming)
  5. 1.5 The DOCA framework map, versions and LTS (coming)
  6. Checkpoint

2. Bring-up and lifecycle on a Dell host

Provision, verify, upgrade, and recover a BlueField-3 in a PowerEdge safely, and know the Dell-side prerequisites.

  1. 2.1 DOCA-Host install and profiles (coming)
  2. 2.2 The MFT toolbox: read-only vs mutating (coming)
  3. 2.3 rshim and the BFB path (coming)
  4. 2.4 Out-of-band: BMC, Redfish, and the BlueField-4 path (coming)
  5. 2.5 Switching modes safely (coming)
  6. 2.6 Dell-specific bring-up: iDRAC, BIOS, CPLD, aux power, DSE (coming)
  7. Checkpoint

3. The DOCA programming model

Read and modify a DOCA C sample with confidence and explain the object lifecycle to a developer customer.

  1. 3.1 Development environments (coming)
  2. 3.2 DOCA Core objects and lifecycle (coming)
  3. 3.3 Tasks, the progress engine, and completion (coming)
  4. 3.4 First programs: dma_copy and secure_channel (coming)
  5. 3.5 Debugging and measuring with DOCA Bench (coming)
  6. Checkpoint

4. Data-path networking: Flow, Ethernet, OVS-DOCA, DPL

Design a hardware-offloaded packet pipeline and explain why OVS-DOCA and HBN beat kernel paths.

  1. 4.1 E-switch, representors, and switchdev (coming)
  2. 4.2 The DOCA Flow model (coming)
  3. 4.3 Domains, connection tracking, aging, meters (coming)
  4. 4.4 DOCA Ethernet and OVS-DOCA (coming)
  5. 4.5 DPL: P4 on BlueField (coming)
  6. Checkpoint

5. DOCA services and fleet operations

Deploy and reason about the services a Dell OEM customer will actually run on BlueField.

  1. 5.1 HBN: BGP/EVPN on the server (coming)
  2. 5.2 Observability: DTS, BlueMan, Firefly (coming)
  3. 5.3 DMS: one interface for every device (coming)
  4. 5.4 Storage offload: SNAP, Virtio, DevEmu, STA (coming)
  5. 5.5 Security: Argus, App Shield, and zero trust (coming)
  6. 5.6 DPF: DPUs at Kubernetes scale (coming)
  7. Checkpoint

6. Acceleration engines and when to offload

Match each DOCA engine to a workload and argue quantitatively when offload pays.

  1. 6.1 DMA, RDMA, and Verbs (coming)
  2. 6.2 Compress, SHA, Erasure Coding, AES-GCM (coming)
  3. 6.3 DPA, Flex IO, and PCC (coming)
  4. 6.4 GPUNetIO and UROM (coming)
  5. 6.5 Offload economics (coming)
  6. Checkpoint

7. AI factories: Spectrum-X, SuperNICs, and the roadmap

Place DOCA and BlueField correctly inside NVIDIA's AI-factory reference designs as sold through Dell.

  1. 7.1 Spectrum-X architecture (coming)
  2. 7.2 HGX reference architecture roles (coming)
  3. 7.3 The validated stack and version pinning (coming)
  4. 7.4 Roadmap: BlueField-4, ConnectX-9, DOCA Memos (coming)
  5. Checkpoint

8. Dell OEM platform engineering

Know the Dell-specific support boundaries and how to run a qualification.

  1. 8.1 PowerEdge support matrix (coming)
  2. 8.2 iDRAC, BIOS, CPLD and the DPU (coming)
  3. 8.3 Writing a DOCA validation plan for an OEM server (coming)
  4. Checkpoint

9. FAE capstone: customer scenarios on Dell OEM servers

Perform as a Field Application Engineer on the Dell account.

  1. 9.1 Scenario: a qualification request (coming)
  2. 9.2 Scenario: escalations (coming)
  3. 9.3 Scenario: sizing and positioning (coming)
  4. 9.4 Mock interview and 90-day plan (coming)
  5. Checkpoint