Doca Bare Metal Deployment

---
license: Apache-2.0
name: doca-bare-metal-deployment
description: >
  Use this skill for launching, supervising, debugging, OR
  platform lifecycle on a BlueField — BFB install, RShim/TMFIFO,
  host PF rebind, post-BFB recovery — taking a DOCA-linked binary
  to a healthy run directly on hardware (host x86 + BlueField NIC
  over PCIe, or BlueField Arm bare-metal). No container, no
  kubelet. Covers launch mode (direct, tmux, systemd), PCI/NUMA/
  CPU/IRQ binding, co-tenant isolation (cgroup-v2/netns/numactl),
  a seven-layer error taxonomy, and a six-state BlueField
  lifecycle classifier. Trigger even when user does not say
  "bare-metal" — implicit phrasings include "binary exits 1 right
  after launch", "systemd keeps restarting it", "no matching
  device on the BF", "bfb-install exited 0 but DPU is dead",
  "ping 192.168.100.2 works but ssh fails", "host PFs aren't
  showing netdevs". Destructive firmware burn / mlxconfig set
  requires explicit confirmation via doca-hardware-safety;
  containers, library APIs, env prep, and build use other skills.
metadata:
  kind: library
compatibility: >
  No DOCA install required to read this skill (it is an overlay
  loaded against any DOCA artifact skill); the validation steps
  within this skill require a live DOCA install at /opt/mellanox/doca on
  a host or BlueField with a built DOCA-linked binary.
---

# DOCA bare-metal deployment

**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`](../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`](../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
[`TASKS.md`](TASKS.md) and start at
[`## configure`](TASKS.md#configure). If the question is *what
shape does the bare-metal runtime even have and what is the
deployment contract*, start at [`CAPABILITIES.md`](CAPABILITIES.md).
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`](../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`](../doca-programming-guide/TASKS.md#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`](../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`](../doca-public-knowledge-map/references/map.md#deploying-doca-services-at-scale--orchestration-entry-point-personascale-routing)
  (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`](../doca-setup/TASKS.md#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`](../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`](../doca-container-deployment/SKILL.md));
for full-Kubernetes-cluster operations (out of scope per the
bundle's non-goals); for library-API questions (route to the
matching `libs/<library>` skill); for env-preparation questions
including hugepages, IOMMU, pkg-config, and devlink mode flips
(use [`doca-setup`](../doca-setup/SKILL.md)); for any
hardware-state-changing operation including `mlxconfig` writes
and BFB reflashes (route to
[`doca-hardware-safety`](../doca-hardware-safety/SKILL.md) for the
cross-cutting meta-policy); or for cross-library programming
questions (use
[`doca-programming-guide`](../doca-programming-guide/SKILL.md)).

## What this skill provides

This is a **thin loader**. Substantive material lives in two
companion files:

- `CAPABILITIES.md` — the bare-metal deployment runtime contract
  for a DOCA-linked binary: the two host modes (host x86 vs
  BlueField Arm bare-metal), the three launch modes (direct,
  tmux/screen, systemd-supervised), the hardware-resource-binding
  surface (PF / VF / representor enumeration; NUMA topology
  discovery; CPU pinning rationale; IRQ affinity rules), the
  per-tenant isolation surface (cgroup-v2 cpu / memory / io,
  network namespaces, `numactl` / `taskset`), the restart and
  recovery semantics (documented `systemd` `Restart=` modes vs
  crash-and-investigate vs supervisor-driven restart), the
  bare-metal-specific version overlay on the four-way version
  match owned by
  [`doca-version`](../doca-version/SKILL.md), the cross-cutting
  error taxonomy (seven layers, walked in order), the observability
  surface (stdout/stderr discipline by launch mode; device-state
  introspection via `devlink` / `sysfs` / `mlxconfig` *query*;
  per-tenant resource visibility), and the safety policy (overlay
  on
  [`doca-hardware-safety`](../doca-hardware-safety/SKILL.md):
  smoke-before-bulk for binaries; failed bare-metal process is
  HIGH-STAKES; do not invent PCI addresses, NUMA numbers,
  representor names, devlink paths, or systemd `Restart=` mode
  names; confirm tenant-isolation primitives BEFORE the workload
  starts).
- `TASKS.md` — step-by-step workflows for the in-scope bare-metal
  verbs: `configure`, `build`, `modify`, `run` (with an explicit
  `### isolation` sub-anchor covering cgroup-v2 / namespaces /
  numactl per-tenant primitives), `test`, `debug`,
  `bluefield-lifecycle` (the BFB-install → RShim/TMFIFO →
  post-BFB-recovery operational sequencing ladder, with the
  six-state `bluefield-state-classifier` sub-anchor), the
  `Command appendix` (documented commands the agent may quote,
  each cross-linked to its public-doc source — no invented
  commands), and the `Deferred task verbs` block routing
  container-path / cluster / library-API / env-prep /
  hardware-state-change / cross-library questions out to their
  owning skills. (The change-application discipline for any
  mutating burn invoked from `## bluefield-lifecycle` is still
  meta-policy owned by
  [`doca-hardware-safety`](../doca-hardware-safety/SKILL.md),
  loaded alongside.)

The skill assumes a host or BlueField target where:

- DOCA is already installed and healthy (per
  [`doca-setup ## test`](../doca-setup/TASKS.md#test)),
- the user has a DOCA-linked application binary they built (per
  [`doca-programming-guide ## build`](../doca-programming-guide/TASKS.md#build)),
- the user has the host-OS permissions to enumerate devices,
  reserve hugepages, write systemd units (if they choose that
  launch mode), and bind processes to NUMA nodes.

It does not cover installing DOCA — that path goes through
[`doca-setup`](../doca-setup/SKILL.md) — and it does not cover
building the binary — that path goes through
[`doca-programming-guide`](../doca-programming-guide/SKILL.md).

## Loading order

1. Read this `SKILL.md` first to confirm the user's question is
   in scope (bare-metal launch of a DOCA-linked binary on host
   x86 or BlueField Arm; NOT the container path, NOT a full
   cluster, NOT a library-API question).
2. **For the runtime contract (two host modes, three launch
   modes, hardware-binding surface, per-tenant isolation, version
   overlay, seven-layer error taxonomy, observability surface,
   bare-metal safety overlay), see
   [CAPABILITIES.md](CAPABILITIES.md).**
3. **For step-by-step workflows — `configure`, `build` (routing
   stub), `modify` (routing stub), `run` (with `### isolation`
   sub-anchor), `test`, `debug`, `bluefield-lifecycle` (BFB
   install + RShim/TMFIFO + post-BFB recovery + the six-state
   `bluefield-state-classifier`), plus the `Command appendix` and
   the `Deferred task verbs` block — see [TASKS.md](TASKS.md).**

## Example questions this skill answers well

See [`references/details.md`](references/details.md#example-questions-this-skill-answers-well).
## What this skill deliberately does not ship

See [`references/details.md`](references/details.md#what-this-skill-deliberately-does-not-ship).
## Related skills

See [`references/details.md`](references/details.md#related-skills).