doca-bare-metal-deployment

Files (8)

• BENCHMARK.md
• CAPABILITIES.md
• SKILL.md
• TASKS.md
• evals.json · evals/
• details.md · references/
• skill-card.md
• skill.oms.sig

SKILL.md (first lines)

# DOCA bare-metal deployment

## Examples

- **"The binary exits 1 right after launch."** — this is in scope.
  Treat it as a launch / device-bind / isolation failure before
  rewriting application code.
- **"systemd keeps restarting my DOCA app."** — a restart loop on
  hardware is high-stakes. Debug the first exit before enabling
  Restart=always.

## Instructions

Follow Loading order below. Open the tasks companion for launch /
supervise / recover, and the capabilities companion for the runtime
contract. Do not open every companion file.

**Where to start:** This skill is the bundle's home for *operating*
a DOCA-linked application binary **directly on hardware** — no
container, no kubelet, no static-pod manifest. It is the parallel
of `doca-container-deployment/SKILL.md`
for the non-container path. If the user has a DOCA-linked binary
they built (per the canonical workflow in
`doca-programming-guide/SKILL.md`)
and they want to know *how to actually run it on the host or on
the BlueField Arm cores correctly*, open
the tasks companion and start at
`## configure`. If the question is *what
shape does the bare-metal runtime even have and what is the
deployment contract*, start at the capabilities companion.
If the user is not yet sure whether their target system shape is
the container path or the bare-metal path, route the recognition
step to `doca-setup/SKILL.md` first; only return
here once *bare-metal* is the confirmed shape.

## Audience

This skill serves **external DOCA developers and operators who
have a DOCA-linked application binary they built and want to run
it directly on hardware** — i.e., people who already have:

- a DOCA-linked application binary they built per
  `doca-programming-guide ## build`,
- a real BlueField NIC and a host that talks to it (the **host
  x86** path — DOCA host install on the host talks to the
  BlueField NIC over PCIe), OR a BlueField with a console or SSH
  to the Arm side (the **BlueField Arm bare-metal** path — DOCA
  installed on the DPU Arm cores; the binary runs there
  directly), and
- a desire to RUN that binary directly on the hardware, not
  inside a kubelet-standalone-managed container.

It is **not** for:

- kernel-driver developers contributing to `mlx5_*` or the
  BlueField OS,
- DOCA library contributors (those changes go to the internal
  DOCA tree, not to a bare-metal deployment),
- full-Kubernetes-cluster operators managing a fleet of
  BlueFields (the bundle covers
  `doca-container-deployment/SKILL.md`
  for the single-host kubelet-standalone shape; **fleet/production-scale
  deployment is fleet-orchestration scope** — route to the orchestration
  entry-point in
  `doca-public-knowledge-map ## Deploying DOCA services at scale`
  (DPF / Network Operator / Launch Kit), not hand-rolled static-pod loops),
- fresh-laptop-no-hardware users with no DOCA install yet — those
  belong on
  `doca-setup ## no-install`.

The skill teaches the agent the bare-metal-deployment *procedure*
and the rules for quoting documented commands from the public DOCA
Programming Guide and the public BlueField / DPU User Manual via
`doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md`;
it does not invent flag names, PCI BDFs, NUMA numbers, devlink
paths, representor strings, or systemd `Restart=` mode names from
memory.

## When to load this skill

Load this skill when the user is doing **hands-on bare-metal
deployment of a DOCA-linked application binary** on either of the
two supported host modes (host x86 or BlueField Arm), or asking a
cross-cutting bare-metal question that is not specific to one
library's API. Concretely:

- Launching a DOCA-linked binary for the first time on a host
  with a BlueField NIC in a PCIe slot, with DOCA installed on the
  host.
- Launching a DOCA-linked binary on the BlueField Arm cores
  directly (BlueField Arm bare-metal mode), with DOCA installed
  on the Arm side per the BlueField OS image.
- Deciding which launch mode to use (direct foreground for
  interactive debug; tmux/screen for long-running with manual
  reattach; systemd-supervised for restart-after-reboot,
  journald-integrated logs, and Restart= policy).
- Binding the DOCA process to the right PCIe function, the right
  representor, the right NUMA node, and the right CPU set — and
  pinning IRQs to match — without inventing the addresses or the
  flag names.
- Setting up per-tenant isolation (cgroup-v2 cpu / memory / io
  controllers, network namespaces for multi-tenant deployments,
  `numactl` / `taskset` for CPU + NUMA binding) so multiple DOCA
  processes co-tenant on the same BlueField without crushing each
  other.
- Diagnosing a bare-metal launch that is misbehaving — won't
  start, starts and exits immediately, runs but can't find the
  device, attaches to the device but the workload errors, OOMs or
  is signal-killed, is in a restart loop under a supervisor, or
  is being interfered with by a co-tenant.
- Cross-cutting questions: *"should I run this in tmux or as a
  systemd unit"*, *"what is the smoke-before-bulk loop for a
  binary on bare metal"*, *"my binary works in a container on the
  BlueField but not when I run it directly on the Arm — what
  changed"*.

Do **not** load this skill for the container-path equivalent
(those questions go to
`doca-container-deployment/SKILL.md`);

From NVIDIA/skills, Apache-2.0.

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