Add RDMA caveats to README.md (#1316)

## Motivation

Running RDMA from source is not well documented as is. Several
surprising things that took time to debug internally too.

App should be updated to detect MacOS versions in future.
This commit is contained in:
rltakashige
2026-01-28 18:44:00 +00:00
committed by GitHub
parent 748a026071
commit 9e58a57599
2 changed files with 62 additions and 1 deletions
+13 -1
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@@ -107,6 +107,10 @@ uv run exo
This starts the exo dashboard and API at http://localhost:52415/
*Please view the section on RDMA to enable this feature on MacOS >=26.2!*
### Run from Source (Linux)
**Prerequisites:**
@@ -230,7 +234,7 @@ This removes:
RDMA is a new capability added to macOS 26.2. It works on any Mac with Thunderbolt 5 (M4 Pro Mac Mini, M4 Max Mac Studio, M4 Max MacBook Pro, M3 Ultra Mac Studio).
Note that on Mac Studio, you cannot use the Thunderbolt 5 port next to the Ethernet port.
Please refer to the caveats for immediate troubleshooting.
To enable RDMA on macOS, follow these steps:
@@ -247,6 +251,14 @@ To enable RDMA on macOS, follow these steps:
After that, RDMA will be enabled in macOS and exo will take care of the rest.
**Important Caveats**
1. Devices that wish to be part of an RDMA cluster must be connected to all other devices in the cluster.
2. The cables must support TB5.
3. On a Mac Studio, you cannot use the Thunderbolt 5 port next to the Ethernet port.
4. If running from source, please use the script found at `tmp/set_rdma_network_config.sh`, which will disable Thunderbolt Bridge and set dhcp on each RDMA port.
5. RDMA ports may be unable to discover each other on different versions of MacOS. Please ensure that OS versions match exactly (even beta version numbers) on all devices.
---
### Using the API
+49
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@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
PREFS="/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist"
# Remove bridge0 interface
ifconfig bridge0 &>/dev/null && {
ifconfig bridge0 | grep -q 'member' && {
ifconfig bridge0 | awk '/member/ {print $2}' | xargs -n1 ifconfig bridge0 deletem 2>/dev/null || true
}
ifconfig bridge0 destroy 2>/dev/null || true
}
# Remove Thunderbolt Bridge from VirtualNetworkInterfaces in preferences.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Delete :VirtualNetworkInterfaces:Bridge:bridge0" "$PREFS" 2>/dev/null || true
networksetup -listlocations | grep -q exo || {
networksetup -createlocation exo
}
networksetup -switchtolocation exo
networksetup -listallhardwareports \
| awk -F': ' '/Hardware Port: / {print $2}' \
| while IFS=":" read -r name; do
case "$name" in
"Ethernet Adapter"*)
;;
"Thunderbolt Bridge")
;;
"Thunderbolt "*)
networksetup -listallnetworkservices \
| grep -q "EXO $name" \
|| networksetup -createnetworkservice "EXO $name" "$name" 2>/dev/null \
|| continue
networksetup -setdhcp "EXO $name"
;;
*)
networksetup -listallnetworkservices \
| grep -q "$name" \
|| networksetup -createnetworkservice "$name" "$name" 2>/dev/null \
|| continue
;;
esac
done
networksetup -listnetworkservices | grep -q "Thunderbolt Bridge" && {
networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled "Thunderbolt Bridge" off
} || true