Switching Bluefield-2 from DPU to NIC

You can switch the Bluefield-2 network device from data processing unit (DPU) mode to network interface controller (NIC) mode.

Switching Bluefield-2 from data processing unit (DPU) mode to network interface controller (NIC) mode is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/techpreview/.

Switching Bluefield-2 from DPU mode to NIC mode

Use the following procedure to switch Bluefield-2 from data processing units (DPU) mode to network interface controller (NIC) mode.

Currently, only switching Bluefield-2 from DPU to NIC mode is supported. Switching from NIC mode to DPU mode is unsupported.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the SR-IOV Network Operator. For more information, see “Installing SR-IOV Network Operator”.

  • You have updated Bluefield-2 to the latest firmware. For more information, see Firmware for NVIDIA BlueField-2.

Procedure

  1. Add the following labels to each of your worker nodes by entering the following commands:

    1. $ oc label node <example_node_name_one> node-role.kubernetes.io/sriov=
    1. $ oc label node <example_node_name_two> node-role.kubernetes.io/sriov=

  2. Create a machine config pool for the SR-IOV Operator, for example:

    1. apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
    2. kind: MachineConfigPool
    3. metadata:
    4.   name: sriov
    5. spec:
    6.   machineConfigSelector:
    7.     matchExpressions:
    8.       - {key: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role, operator: In, values: [worker,sriov]}
    9.   nodeSelector:
    10.     matchLabels:
    11.             node-role.kubernetes.io/sriov: ""

  3. Apply the following machineconfig.yaml file to the worker nodes:

    1. apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
    2. kind: MachineConfig
    3. metadata:
    4.   labels:
    5.     machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: sriov
    6.   name: 99-bf2-dpu
    7. spec:
    8.   config:
    9.     ignition:
    10.       version: 3.2.0
    11.     storage:
    12.       files:
    13.       - contents:
    14.           source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,ZmluZF9jb250YWluZXIoKSB7CiAgY3JpY3RsIHBzIC1vIGpzb24gfCBqcSAtciAnLmNvbnRhaW5lcnNbXSB8IHNlbGVjdCgubWV0YWRhdGEubmFtZT09InNyaW92LW5ldHdvcmstY29uZmlnLWRhZW1vbiIpIHwgLmlkJwp9CnVudGlsIG91dHB1dD0kKGZpbmRfY29udGFpbmVyKTsgW1sgLW4gIiRvdXRwdXQiIF1dOyBkbwogIGVjaG8gIndhaXRpbmcgZm9yIGNvbnRhaW5lciB0byBjb21lIHVwIgogIHNsZWVwIDE7CmRvbmUKISBzdWRvIGNyaWN0bCBleGVjICRvdXRwdXQgL2JpbmRhdGEvc2NyaXB0cy9iZjItc3dpdGNoLW1vZGUuc2ggIiRAIgo=
    15.         mode: 0755
    16.         overwrite: true
    17.         path: /etc/default/switch_in_sriov_config_daemon.sh
    18.     systemd:
    19.       units:
    20.         - name: dpu-switch.service
    21.           enabled: true
    22.           contents: |
    23.             [Unit]
    24.             Description=Switch BlueField2 card to NIC/DPU mode
    25.             RequiresMountsFor=%t/containers
    26.             Wants=network.target
    27.             After=network-online.target kubelet.service
    28.             [Service]
    29.             SuccessExitStatus=0 120
    30.             RemainAfterExit=True
    31.             ExecStart=/bin/bash -c '/etc/default/switch_in_sriov_config_daemon.sh nic || shutdown -r now' (1)
    32.             Type=oneshot
    33.             [Install]
    34.             WantedBy=multi-user.target
    1Optional: The PCI address of a specific card can optionally be specified, for example ExecStart=/bin/bash -c ‘/etc/default/switch_in_sriov_config_daemon.sh nic 0000:5e:00.0 || echo done’. By default, the first device is selected. If there is more than one device, you must specify which PCI address to be used. The PCI address must be the same on all nodes that are switching Bluefield-2 from DPU mode to NIC mode.

  4. Wait for the worker nodes to restart. After restarting, the Bluefield-2 network device on the worker nodes is switched into NIC mode.

Additional resources

Installing SR-IOV Network Operator