The DOCA framework map, versions and LTS

1Two packages, three layers on the card

The overview draws the first line: “DOCA-Host: the software package installed on the host server which includes different DOCA installation profiles”, and the “BlueField Software Bundle (BF-Bundle): the software package installed on the BlueField Arm cores”.^[1] The BF-Bundle is itself three layers: “The DOCA runtime drivers and libs installed on top of the BlueField Platform”, “The OS installed on the BlueField Platform”, and “The BlueField Platform Software (i.e., firmware and UEFI bootloader)”.^[1]

Those three layers can be updated together or separately. Installing the full BF-Bundle “overwrites the entire boot partition” and “updates BlueField and NIC firmware”; the firmware-only alternative, the bf-fwbundle, “upgrades the ATF-UEFI, NIC firmware, and BMC firmware only”, which is what you use to “preserve configurations or files on BlueField itself”.^[5] The Arm OS in 3.5.0 is stated on the general-support page: “The default operating system provided with the BlueField bundle (for DPU and SuperNIC) is Ubuntu 24.04 64k”.^[6] Note that the BF-Bundle install page’s worked examples still carry 2.7.0-era names such as bf-bundle-2.7.0_24.04_ubuntu-22.04_prod.bfb; the general-support page is the current statement, the install page’s examples are stale.^[5][6]

On the host side the package split is runtime versus development: “By default, installing DOCA profiles with standard Linux tools (yum, apt) installs both doca-runtime and doca-devel”, where runtime is the production set of libraries, drivers and tools and devel (formerly doca-sdk) adds headers, reference applications and compilers.^[4]

The overview also fixes the component vocabulary: libraries and drivers; samples, “an implementation example of a single feature of a given DOCA library”; applications, “higher-level reference code than the samples”; tools, “helper tools for both runtime and development”; and services, “containerized DOCA-based programs that provide an end-to-end solution for a given use case”.^[1]

2Five host profiles

The 3.5.0 profiles page lists five DOCA-Host profiles with exact component lists:^[2]

All five support BlueField-3, BlueField-2, ConnectX-8, ConnectX-7, the ConnectX-6 family, ConnectX-5 and ConnectX-4 Lx.^[2] The doca-host-basic row is what changed: earlier documents list four profiles, and 3.5.0’s page has five.^[2] The doca-samples README states the superset relationship plainly: “Use doca-all profile, This profile is the super-set of components, which also includes the content of doca-ofed and doca-networking”.^[12]

Installation is one package-manager line, sudo apt install -y doca-all (or the yum/zypper equivalent), and the install page names three further installable targets outside the profile table — doca-libvma, doca-libxlio and doca-extra.^[3] One prerequisite is easy to skip: a host that runs MLNX_OFED must have it fully removed first, with sudo /usr/sbin/ofed_uninstall.sh --force, before the initial DOCA-Host installation.^[3]

The NGC container reproduces the same idea in image flavours: base-rt “Includes the DOCA runtime, using the most basic runtime environment needed”, full-rt “includes the full list of runtime packages”, and devel “adds headers and development tools for developing and debugging DOCA applications”.^[13]

3Libraries, services, tools, and what a quality level promises

“The quality level of each library reflects the maturity and support status of its major functionality” — that is the only definition the 3.5.0 libraries page gives; there is no formal GA, Beta or Alpha definition beyond the labels.^[7] The 3.5.0 table:^[7]

Two of those rows surprise people. DOCA Common — the core objects every program uses — is Beta, while the libraries built on it are GA; the label describes the maturity of the library’s major functionality, not whether you can depend on it. And there is no RegEx row at all, which is why lesson 1.3 refused to promise the hardware engine.^[7]

Maturity is also enforced at compile time. The samples’ meson files add -DDOCA_ALLOW_EXPERIMENTAL_API with the comment “Comment this line to restore warnings of experimental DOCA features”, and -DDOCA_ALLOW_DEPRECATED_API with the matching comment for deprecated features.^[14] A production build that omits those defines will see exactly which calls are outside the stable surface. Each library is found by the compiler through pkg-config under a doca-<library> name — dependency('doca-common'), dependency('doca-dma'), dependency('doca-argp') in the DMA sample — and the tools, including the DPA compiler, live in /opt/mellanox/doca/tools.^[14][15]

Services are the fourth kind of artefact: “containerized DOCA-based programs that provide an end-to-end solution for a given use case”.^[1] Module 5 covers them; for now, the framework map is libraries (with a quality level), drivers, tools, samples, applications and services, delivered as DOCA-Host on the server and BF-Bundle on the card.^[1]

4Cadence, LTS, and the two compatibility levels

The policy fixes the calendar: the “Annual release cycle occurs in October (GA), January, April, and July”.^[8] The October release is the LTS branch point, with names such as “3.2.3-LTS25-U3” and “three-year support windows”.^[8] The documentation site’s version selector shows the pattern: 3.5.0, 3.4.0, 3.3.0, then the 3.2.x LTS25 updates, 2.10.0, the 2.9.x LTS24 updates, down to the 2.5.x LTS23 line, with a few special drops such as 3.1.0-core-update and 2.9.0-CX8 in between.^[11]

Compatibility between layers comes in two levels.^[8]

Level 1 — Perpetual Dependency Compatibility: “Either the upper or lower layer may be upgraded independently, and all prior functionality is guaranteed to work seamlessly”, with forward and backward binary compatibility, applying to LTS update releases within the three-year window.^[8]

Level 2 — Limited Dependency Compatibility: “Limited forward and backward binary compatibility”; “Compatibility is guaranteed for all releases within a single annual cycle (October through July)”; and “Breaking changes may be introduced annually, specifically with the October GA release”, so a July release “may not be compatible with the next October release”.^[8]

The matrix is the answer to most “can I upgrade just the firmware?” questions.^[8] Two related dates from the 3.5.0 changes page: “DOCA 3.6.0 (October 2026) will be the final DOCA release to support ConnectX-4 Lx and ConnectX-5 devices”, and “Starting with DOCA 4.0, scheduled for release in January 2027, these devices will no longer be supported”.^[10] And for AI-factory deployments, “DOCA v3.5.0 is tested as part of Spectrum-X reference architecture release version 2.3”.^[4]

5From MLNX_OFED to DOCA-OFED

The transition guide states the policy: “Following the last release of MLNX_OFED, no new features will be added to MLNX_OFED.”^[9] The dates: “October 2024 – The last standalone release of MLNX_OFED”; “October 2024-October 2027 – The last standalone MLNX_OFED release will receive critical bug fixes and security updates”; “October 2027 – MLNX_OFED will no longer receive support or updates by NVIDIA”.^[9]

The replacement is a package, not a new driver: “DOCA-OFED is an equivalent package of MLNX_OFED, providing the same functionality as MLNX_OFED and including the same kernel drivers, user space libraries, and management tools”, installed with sudo dnf -y install doca-ofed or sudo apt install -y doca-ofed instead of the MLNX_OFED installer script.^[9] The device boundary is set on the general-support page: “NVIDIA BlueField-2 and NVIDIA ConnectX-7 are the last generation of BlueField and ConnectX families that are supported by MLNX_OFED”, and the 3.5.0 bundle pairs BlueField-3 with firmware 32.50.1002, ConnectX-8 with 40.50.1002 and ConnectX-9 with 82.50.1002 — devices that only DOCA-Host serves.^[6]

For orientation on what a release adds, the 3.5.0 changes page is the model to read each quarter: Argus GPU metrics without a host agent and per-container runtime manifests; DOCA Bridge without a DPDK dependency; DOCA Ethernet header data-split and WQE inlining; DMS native port query and vhca_id resolution; OVS-DOCA IPv6 connection tracking, B3220SH storage controller support and floating-CPU PMD configuration; DOCA Telemetry RTT counters; DOCA VERBs Multi-Rail API.^[10]