Introduction
To initialize a SmartNIC, the driver must be loaded, and ntservice must be started as described in DN-0379 or DN-1067.
Starting ntservice
ntservice is started with default options, which means that SmartNICs are initialized in the order they are found and with default values. For Linux, starting ntservice also loads the driver if needed.
The first time ntservice is started, a default ntservice.ini file is created based on the SmartNICs in the system, if no ntservice.ini file exists already. ntservice.ini is the configuration file.
When ntservice is started, it initializes all configured SmartNICs and allocates host buffer memory. ntservice.ini contains static configuration. Therefore you must restart ntservice to, for instance, change the host buffer sizes.
All information and data are then accessible through the concept of streams. See Streams for further information on streams.
Changing the default configuration
To change the default configuration, edit the ntservice.ini file.
Items initialized
The SmartNIC initialization includes initialization of SDRAM, flash, sensors and network interface modules (NIMs).
NT_Init function
The NT_Init function is used for the driver software and must be called by all applications as the first function.