Supported Operating Systems for MLNX_OFED

This page includes information about MLNX_OFED support, and how to identify which level of support you can expect from NVIDIA on various operating systems

Primary and Community Support Models

MLNX_OFED is provided for major distros of Linux as binaries and installable packages, with full support from NVIDIA. This model is referred to as "Primary support". Starting with MLNX_OFED 5.6, some operating systems are supported in a model called “Community support”. This model enables customers to use community-maintained variants of the Linux operating system (such as derivatives of CentOS), with some limits on the support responsibility from NVIDIA. In the “Community support” model, there's shared responsibility between NVIDIA and customers choosing to use community operating systems in their environment. NVIDIA performs basic validation for the OSes, so that customers know they can expect MLNX_OFED to work. Customers are responsible for building their own packages and binaries (based on source code and build instructions provided by NVIDIA) and may also choose to deploy just parts of MLNX_OFED instead of the whole package. In case of issues, customers that are entitled for NVIDIA support (e.g. by having an applicable support contract) may still receive support. NVIDIA will provide best effort to assist but may require the customer to work with the community to fix issues that are deemed to be caused by the customer or community making breaking changes to MLNX_OFED.
In essence, for running MLNX_OFED on a Community supported OS, the following highlights the model:

• NVIDIA performs sanity testing of MLNX_OFED.
• NVIDIA documents which kernel versions were tested (min/max), based on mainstream kernel (kernel.org) versions.
• NVIDIA does not ship binaries & installation packages for these OS’es.
• Customers should use source code & build guidance of MLNX_OFED and build their own binaries & installation packages.
• Customers can pick and choose the parts of MLNX_OFED they want to deploy (e.g., drivers only, user tools only, etc.).
• In case of bug reports, customers may be asked to repro on a primary supported distro (such as RHEL) to get support.
• If issues are deemed specific to the community OS (e.g., if OS deviated from mainstream in a way that broke MLNX_OFED), it’s a customer’s responsibility to work with the community to fix it.

In the MLNX_OFED download page, when downloading MLNX_OFED for a Community supported OS, you will find source code and instructions, rather than full installation packages.

LTS Versions

In addition to having MLNX_OFED latest and greatest released, NVIDIA also offers stable versions (referred to as LTS versions). The stable versions enable customers who favor stability over new functionality, to retain support for older hardware (such as ConnectX-3), as well as to deploy a version that only contains bug fixes and no new features, thus reducing stability risks.

In the download section, you can choose to download an LTS version.

Supported Operating Systems Matrix

To know which operating system is supported with each version of MLNX_OFED, at which support model, please browse the download page to find the OS you want to use. You can find the detailed information about the supported OS version and the matching firmware version in the release notes of each release.