Deploying services on DPU-Arm

The DPU-Arm runs Ubuntu 22.04 independently from the host server.

Install DOCA on the host:

apt-get install -y doca-host

Access and install on BlueField:

ssh ubuntu@<bluefield-ip>

apt-get install -y doca-runtime
apt-get install -y doca-sdk        # For development

Manual BlueField image installation:

# Flash a new BlueField firmware image
bfb-install --rshim rshim0 --bfb <image>.bfb

Run containerized DOCA services on DPU-Arm:

docker pull nvcr.io/nvidia/doca/<service>:latest
docker run --privileged -d nvcr.io/nvidia/doca/<service>:latest

DOCA BlueMan — Management service for monitoring and managing BlueField DPUs at scale:

• Centralized DPU status visibility
• DPU health, firmware, and performance monitoring
• REST API for integration

AI data center use cases for DOCA:

• RDMA acceleration for GPU-to-GPU communication
• NVMe-oF storage offload (target/initiator on DPU)
• Inline encryption and zero-trust workload isolation
• Network virtualization (OVS/DPDK offload)
• Fine-grained network telemetry collection