NetworkDirect API: Loading of "NDv2 Provider for Mellanox WinOF-2" requires admin privileges

Infrastructure & Networking Software And Drivers WinOF Driver
1

Hello everybody,

I have an issue in my NetworkDirect RDMA application when loading the Mellanox NDv2 provider. It seems as the newer WinOF-2 driver for ConnectX-4 IB HCAs (mlx5nd.dll) requires that the connecting process has adminstrator privileges.

Because when running my application with normal user privileges, I get an error 0x80070005 (Access denied), whereas this has never been an issue with the older WinOF driver for ConnectX-3 HCAs (mlx4nd.dll).

Here the failing code sequence from my ndhelper.cpp:

static HMODULE g_hProvider = NULL;

static IND2Provider g_pIProvider = NULL;

static HRESULT LoadProvider( __in WSAPROTOCOL_INFOW* pProtocol )

{

WCHAR* pPath = ::GetProviderPath( pProtocol ); // %SystemRoot%\System32\mlx5nd.dll

g_hProvider = ::LoadLibraryW( pPath );

::HeapFree( ::GetProcessHeap(), 0, pPath );

DLLGETCLASSOBJECT pfnDllGetClassObject = reinterpret_cast(

::GetProcAddress( g_hProvider, “DllGetClassObject” )

);

DLLGETCLASSOBJECT pfnDllCanUnloadNow = reinterpret_cast(

::GetProcAddress(g_hProvider, “DllCanUnloadNow”)

);

IClassFactory* pClassFactory;

HRESULT hr = pfnDllGetClassObject(

pProtocol->ProviderId,

IID_IClassFactory,

reinterpret_cast<void**>(&pClassFactory)

);

if (g_pIProvider == NULL) {

hr = pClassFactory->CreateInstance(

NULL,

IID_IND2Provider,

reinterpret_cast<void**>(&g_pIProvider)

);

if (FAILED(hr)) {

TRACE(“ClassFactory->CreateInstance(IID_IND2Provider) failed with error 0x%08X”, hr); // Without having admin rights, always ending up here!

g_pIProvider = NULL;

}

pClassFactory->Release();

}

}

Unfortunately, just giving my process admin privileges is not an option for me. So I would appreciate if someone has an idea how to overcome this issue.

Perhaps some tuning of security configuration via dcomcnfg or the like(?)

BTW: The Mellanox-provided tools nd_read_bw.exe and nd_write_bw.exe have the same behavior:

  • Those from WinOF driver 5.35 on ConnectX-3 FDR HCA can run WITH or WITHOUT admin privileges.
  • Those from WinOF-2 driver 1.80 on ConnectX-4 EDR HCA can run only WITH admin privileges.

My system configuration:

  • HPE DL380Gen10
  • ConnectX-4 EDR Infiniband HCA (HPEIB EDR/EN 100Gb 2P 840QSFP28)
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Mellanox WinOF-2 version 1.80

Thanks and Regards