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NVIDIA-DOCA-OFED

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NVIDIA DOCA-OFED

Type: Driver Stack Tags: NVIDIA, DOCA-OFED, DOCA-Host, OFED, RDMA, RoCE, InfiniBand, ConnectX, BlueField, Linux, drivers Related: NVIDIA-DOCA, NVIDIA-MLNX-OFED, NVIDIA-MLNX-EN, NVIDIA-Network-Operator, NVIDIA-ConnectX-InfiniBand, NVIDIA-ConnectX-9, NVIDIA-BlueField-DPU, NVIDIA-Firmware-Tools, NVIDIA-HPC-X, GPUDirect-RDMA, NCCL Sources: https://docs.nvidia.com/doca/sdk/index.html; https://docs.nvidia.com/doca/sdk/mlnx_ofed-to-doca-ofed-transition-guide/index.html; https://docs.nvidia.com/doca/sdk/general-support/index.html; https://docs.nvidia.com/doca/sdk/changes-and-new-features/index.html Last Updated: 2026-04-29

Summary

NVIDIA DOCA-OFED is the current NVIDIA Linux host-driver package for InfiniBand, Ethernet, RoCE, RDMA, and related user-space libraries and tools. It is delivered as a DOCA-Host installation profile and is the replacement path for standalone NVIDIA-MLNX-OFED. NVIDIA’s transition guide states that DOCA-OFED is a one-to-one substitute for MLNX_OFED, while current DOCA release notes place new host-driver features in DOCA-OFED rather than legacy MLNX_OFED.

Detail

DOCA-Host is the unified host-server package for NVIDIA-BlueField-DPU, BlueField SuperNIC, and NVIDIA-ConnectX-InfiniBand devices. NVIDIA defines several host profiles: doca-all for the full DOCA libraries and drivers, doca-networking for networking functionality, and doca-ofed for users who want the same user experience and content as MLNX_OFED without the rest of the DOCA components.

The DOCA-OFED profile provides the kernel drivers, user-space libraries, and management tools used by NVIDIA networking products. That makes it the practical software base for RDMA applications, GPUDirect-RDMA, NVIDIA-HPC-X, MPI, NCCL, storage-over-fabrics, and Kubernetes deployments managed by NVIDIA-Network-Operator.

The current public DOCA docs are DOCA 3.3.0. The general support page lists DOCA OFED 3.3.0 as a host component, and the release notes add first-GA DOCA-Host support for NVIDIA-ConnectX-9. The same release line also calls out host-driver updates such as RS-FEC histogram reporting, PTP raw cycle-counter exposure, TCP header-data split zero-copy, PCIe congestion event counters, PSP security protocol support, ESXi validation, and universal doca-sosreport coverage across host profiles.

DOCA-OFED is the page to use when a question asks for “current OFED”, “DOCA-Host drivers”, “doca-ofed”, or “what replaces MLNX_OFED”. Use NVIDIA-MLNX-OFED for the legacy standalone LTS package and NVIDIA-MLNX-EN for the older Ethernet-only Linux package.

Connections

  • NVIDIA-DOCA - DOCA-OFED is one DOCA-Host profile within the broader DOCA software platform.
  • NVIDIA-MLNX-OFED - DOCA-OFED is the replacement and one-to-one substitute for standalone MLNX_OFED.
  • NVIDIA-MLNX-EN - MLNX_EN transitions toward inbox drivers or DOCA-Host’s Ethernet/RoCE-focused profile.
  • NVIDIA-Network-Operator - deploys and manages DOCA-OFED driver containers in Kubernetes clusters.
  • NVIDIA-ConnectX-InfiniBand - ConnectX adapters use DOCA-OFED for current Linux host RDMA/RoCE/InfiniBand stacks.
  • NVIDIA-ConnectX-9 - DOCA 3.3.0 is the first GA DOCA release enabling ConnectX-9.
  • NVIDIA-BlueField-DPU - BlueField-3 networking platforms must use DOCA-Host as the host driver.
  • NVIDIA-Firmware-Tools - MFT complements DOCA-OFED with firmware, port, and device-level tooling.
  • NVIDIA-HPC-X - HPC-X consumes the RDMA/UCX/UCC substrate that DOCA-OFED provides on NVIDIA hosts.
  • GPUDirect-RDMA - DOCA-OFED supplies the host-driver layer for direct GPU-to-NIC data paths.
  • NCCL - multi-node NCCL jobs depend on properly configured NVIDIA host networking drivers.

Source Excerpts

  • “DOCA-OFED is a 1-to-1 substitute for MLNX_OFED.”
  • “NVIDIA BlueField-3 networking platforms must use DOCA-Host as the host driver.”

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