Host based networking (HBN) is a DOCA Service that runs on NVIDIA's DPU. It orchestrates network connectivity of dynamically created VMs/Containers on cloud servers. HBN service is a BGP router that supports EVPN extension to enable multi-tenant cloud.
Introduction
Maintained by: NVIDIA DOCA HBN team
The host-based networking (HBN) solution packages a set of network functions inside a container, which is itself packaged as a service pod to run on the DPU.
At the core of HBN is the Linux networking DPU acceleration driver. The Netlink-to-DOCA daemon, or nl2docad, implements this DPU acceleration driver. nl2docad seamlessly accelerates Linux networking using DPU hardware programming APIs.
The driver mirrors the Linux kernel routing and bridging tables into the DPU hardware by discovering the configured Linux networking objects using the Linux Netlink API. The driver also programs dynamic network flows learned by the Linux kernel networking stack into DPU hardware by listening to Linux kernel networking events.
Installation and Getting Started
All requirements and preparation steps for enabling the HBN service are explained in HBN's Service Guide.
Key Requirements
At a minimum, HBN requires a supported NVIDIA BlueField DPU running in DPU mode, SFC enabled during BFB deployment, and a compatible DOCA software environment. For the complete and version-specific requirements, see the HBN Service Guide.
High-level steps include:
- DPU requirements for enabling the HBN service
- Enable BlueField DPU mode
- Enable SFC during BFB deployment
- Review considerations when deploying HBN with other services, such as SNAP and NVMesh
These are specifically covered in the "Requirements" section of the Service Guide.
- HBN service container deployment
- Download the DOCA resource file
- Run the HBN preparation script
- Spawn the HBN container
- Verify the HBN container
These are covered in the "Service Deployment" section of the Service Guide.
Documentation
The DOCA HBN Service Guide is available here.
HBN uses NVUE, the NVIDIA User Experience, to configure various features. Feature details and configuration examples are provided in the "Configuration" section of the Service Guide.
Supported scale is documented in the "Verified Scalability Limits" section of HBN's Release Notes.
License & EULA
This DOCA microservice is licensed under the NVIDIA Networking Product Agreement.
By pulling and using this product, you accept the terms and conditions of this license.
Technical Support
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