Mellanox OFED license for GDS usage

Accelerated Computing GPU-Accelerated Libraries
1

Hi,

If I understand correctly I need to install Mellanox OFED to support p2p writing from Nvidia GPU to an NVME drive.

"To enable GDS support for NVMe and NVMeOF, you need to install at least MLNX_OFED 5.3 or later. "

But the “Mellanox OFED (MLNX_OFED) Software: End-User Agreement” states that:

2. Grant of License
Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, and subject to the licenses set forth in Exhibit A, Mellanox grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use, view, copy, print, and distribute software and accompanying documentation subject to the following conditions:

(i) The Software Product and any accompanying documentation may be used solely to support Mellanox Products; and
…

So am I not allowed to install MOFED to support GDS writing from a NVIDIA GPU to a NVME drive?

2

Yes MOFED 5.3 and above is needed on host to use GDS with local filesystems like ext4 on NVME.

Mellanox is part of NVIDIA. so AFAIK there are no restrictions on using NVIDIA GPU with NVMe.

3

Thanks for your reply! I fell quite confident that Mellanox will not go after me for using GDS this way. However, it looks like I’m technically violating the terms (even though it’s intended & promoted use). This is something that our clients may not accept. It would be great if you could clarify the terms, perhaps by including NVIDIA.

I tried avoiding this issue by using DOCA-OFED instead, but it’s lacking the mlnx-nvme module.