diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 272a5bf2..f575784e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+# v5.5.0 (TBD)
+
+## OS Changes
+* Backport patch to prevent a race in neighbor resolution for RDMA workloads ([#427])
+* Provide inactive nvidia-imex systemd service ([#428])
+* Provide NVIDIA modprobe override to create a default IMEX channel ([#428])
+
+[#427]: https://github.com/bottlerocket-os/bottlerocket-kernel-kit/pull/427
+[#428]: https://github.com/bottlerocket-os/bottlerocket-kernel-kit/pull/428
+
 # v5.4.2 (2026-05-05)
 
 ## OS Changes
diff --git a/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580.spec b/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580.spec
index 8bc1c8b8..6858e6b1 100644
--- a/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580.spec
+++ b/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580.spec
@@ -61,6 +61,10 @@ Source211: grid-license-check.timer
 Source212: open-gpu-license-fallback.service
 Source213: tesla-license-fallback.service
 Source214: grid-license-file-check.conf
+Source215: nvidia-imex.service
+Source216: nvidia-imex.cfg
+Source217: nvidia-imex-tmpfiles.conf
+Source218: nvidia-imex-default-channel.conf
 
 # NVIDIA tesla conf files from 300 to 399
 Source300: nvidia-tesla-tmpfiles.conf
@@ -112,6 +116,13 @@ Requires: %{name}
 %description imex
 %{summary}.
 
+%package imex-config
+Summary: NVIDIA IMEX modprobe configuration
+Requires: %{name}-imex
+
+%description imex-config
+%{summary}.
+
 %package open-gpu
 Summary: NVIDIA %{tesla_major} Open GPU driver
 Version: %{tesla_ver}
@@ -503,6 +514,16 @@ install -p -m 0755 usr/bin/nvidia-imex-ctl %{buildroot}%{_cross_bindir}
 
 popd
 
+# NVIDIA IMEX service, config, and tmpfiles
+install -p -m 0644 %{S:215} %{buildroot}%{_cross_unitdir}
+install -d %{buildroot}%{_cross_factorydir}%{_cross_sysconfdir}/nvidia-imex
+install -p -m 0644 %{S:216} %{buildroot}%{_cross_factorydir}%{_cross_sysconfdir}/nvidia-imex/config.cfg
+install -p -m 0644 %{S:217} %{buildroot}%{_cross_tmpfilesdir}/nvidia-imex.conf
+
+# NVIDIA IMEX modprobe config
+install -d %{buildroot}%{_cross_libdir}/modprobe.d
+install -p -m 0644 %{S:218} %{buildroot}%{_cross_libdir}/modprobe.d/10-nvidia-default-imex-channel.conf
+
 %files
 %{_cross_attribution_file}
 %dir %{_cross_libexecdir}/nvidia
@@ -786,6 +807,12 @@ popd
 %files imex
 %{_cross_bindir}/nvidia-imex
 %{_cross_bindir}/nvidia-imex-ctl
+%{_cross_unitdir}/nvidia-imex.service
+%{_cross_factorydir}/etc/nvidia-imex/config.cfg
+%{_cross_tmpfilesdir}/nvidia-imex.conf
+
+%files imex-config
+%{_cross_libdir}/modprobe.d/10-nvidia-default-imex-channel.conf
 
 %files mps
 %{_cross_bindir}/nvidia-cuda-mps-control
diff --git a/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-default-channel.conf b/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-default-channel.conf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..50e5a670
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-default-channel.conf
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+options nvidia NVreg_CreateImexChannel0=1
diff --git a/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-tmpfiles.conf b/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-tmpfiles.conf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3f88dfc0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-tmpfiles.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+d /etc/nvidia-imex 0755 root root -
+C /etc/nvidia-imex/config.cfg 0644 root root -
diff --git a/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.cfg b/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5560efd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+# NVIDIA IMEX configuration file.
+# Note: This configuration file is read during IMEX startup. So, IMEX
+# service restart is required for new settings to take effect.
+ 
+#   Description: IMEX logging levels
+#   Possible Values:
+#           0  - All the logging is disabled
+#           1  - Set log level to CRITICAL and above
+#           2  - Set log level to ERROR and above
+#           3  - Set log level to WARNING and above
+#           4  - Set log level to INFO and above
+#       Default Value: 4
+LOG_LEVEL=3
+  
+#   Description: Filename for IMEX logs
+#   Possible Values:
+#       Full path/filename string (max length of 256). Logs will be redirected
+#       to console(stderr). If the specified log file can't be opened or the
+#       path is empty.
+#   Default Value: /var/log/nvidia-imex.log
+LOG_FILE_NAME=
+
+#   Description: Filename for IMEX stats logging
+#   Possible Values:
+#       Full path/filename string (max length of 256). Stats will be redirected
+#       to console(stderr), if the specified stats file can't be opened or the
+#       path is empty.
+#   Default Value: /var/log/nvidia-imex-stats.log
+#   Note: If STATS_FILE_NAME is configured same as LOG_FILE_NAME, then stats will
+#       be redirected to the path/filename specified by LOG_FILE_NAME.
+STATS_FILE_NAME=
+
+#   Description: Append to an existing log file or overwrite the logs
+#   Possible Values:
+#           0  - No  (Log file will be overwritten)
+#           1  - Yes (Append to existing log)
+#   Default Value: 1
+LOG_APPEND_TO_LOG=1
+     
+#   Description: Max size of log file (in MB)
+#   Possible Values:
+#           Any Integer values
+#   Default Value: 1024
+LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE=1024
+
+#   Description: Number of times the IMEX log is rotated once it reaches LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE
+#   Possible Values:
+#       0                - Log is not rotated. Logging is stopped once the IMEX log file reaches
+#                          the size specified in LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE
+#       Non-zero Integer - Log is rotated upto the number of times specified in LOG_MAX_ROTATE_COUNT,
+#                          after the size of the log file reaches the size specified in LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE.
+#                          Combined IMEX log size is LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE multipled by LOG_MAX_ROTATE_COUNT+1
+#                          Once this threshold is reached, the oldest log file is purged and reused.
+LOG_MAX_ROTATE_COUNT=3
+
+#   Description: Redirect all the logs to syslog instead of logging to file
+#   Possible Values:
+#           0  - No
+#           1  - Yes
+#   Default Value: 0
+LOG_USE_SYSLOG=1
+       
+#   Description: daemonize IMEX on start-up
+#   Possible Values:
+#       0  - No (Do not daemonize and run IMEX as a normal process)
+#       1  - Yes (Run IMEX process as Unix daemon
+#   Default Value: 1
+DAEMONIZE=0
+        
+#   Description: Network interface to listen for IMEX peer communication.
+#                OPTIONAL - empty value will determine the bind IP from the node config file.
+#   Possible Values:
+#           A valid IPv4 address
+#           A valid IPv6 address
+#           No value - Determine bind IP from the node configuration file.
+#   Default Value: 
+BIND_INTERFACE_IP=
+           
+#   Description: Starting TCP port number for IMEX peer communication
+#   Possible Values:
+#           Any value between 0 and 65535
+#   Default Value: 50000
+SERVER_PORT=50000
+            
+#   Description: Name of file containing IP addresses of nodes
+#   Possible Values:
+#       Full path/filename string (max length of 256).
+#       Default Value: /etc/nvidia-imex/nodes_config.cfg
+IMEX_NODE_CONFIG_FILE=/etc/nvidia-imex/nodes_config.cfg
+
+#  Description: Name of the network interface used for communication.
+#               OPTIONAL - If empty, network interface will be determined by matching bind IP to
+#                          node configuration file.  Only necessary to configure if the bind IP
+#                          is IPv6 link-local and on multiple network interfaces.
+#  Possible Values:
+#      A valid interface name. e.g. eth0, ens32 .. etc
+#  Default Value: 
+NETWORK_INTERFACE=
+
+#  Description: Name of the network interface used for outgoing connections.
+#               OPTIONAL - If empty, outgoing network interface will be determined automatically.
+#                          Only necessary if user desires to force all
+#                          outgoing connections to use a particular interface.
+#  Possible Values:
+#      A valid interface name. e.g. eth0, ens32 .. etc
+#  Default Value: 
+OUTGOING_NETWORK_INTERFACE=
+
+#  Description:  Controls whether IMEX should complete initialization without establishing quorum
+#  Possible values:
+#       NONE: Do not wait for any quorum with other nodes.
+#   RECOVERY: In case of unsafe IMEX termination, wait until all nodes that had previously imported
+#             have connected, allowing them time to safely clean up any potentially hanging references
+#  Default value: RECOVERY
+IMEX_WAIT_FOR_QUORUM=RECOVERY
+
+#  Description: Enabled the command/control service to allow for querying information from the IMEX daemon.
+#               Must be used with IMEX_CMD_PORT (optionally IMEX_CMD_BIND_INTERFACE_IP) and/or
+#               IMEX_CMD_UNIX_DOMAIN_PATH
+IMEX_CMD_ENABLED=1
+
+#  Description:  Unix domain socket path to attach to for the command/control service. Ignored if IMEX_CMD_ENABLED=0
+IMEX_CMD_UNIX_DOMAIN_PATH=/run/nvidia/nvidia-imex-cmd.sock
+
+#  Description:  Determines how long to wait after detecting that the IMEX daemon has lost connection to another
+#                node before triggering clean up imports and exports from that node.  If a connection is reestablished
+#                before the grace period expires, and IMEX is able to identify that it is the same instance previously
+#                connected, then no clean up is required.  If a connection is established and IMEX detects that it is
+#                a new instance (i.e. someone restarted the IMEX daemon), then clean up will be immediately triggered
+#                regardless of grace period.
+#                -1: Default - Wait indefinitely
+#                 0: Immediately trigger clean up
+#                >0: Number of seconds to wait before triggering clean up
+IMEX_NODE_DISCONNECTED_GRACE_TIME=-1
+
+#  Description:  Optionally configure the DSCP value for both the listening server socket and the outgoing client 
+#                connections.
+#                0: Default
+#                1-63: Custom DSCP setting
+IMEX_GRPC_DSCP_OVERRIDE=0
diff --git a/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.service b/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.service
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7095ed0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/kmod-6.12-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.service
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=NVIDIA IMEX service
+After=network-online.target
+Requires=network-online.target
+
+[Service]
+Type=simple
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/nvidia-imex -c /etc/nvidia-imex/config.cfg
+StandardOutput=journal
+StandardError=journal
+LimitCORE=infinity
diff --git a/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580.spec b/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580.spec
index a1fc15b4..0e3305b4 100644
--- a/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580.spec
+++ b/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580.spec
@@ -61,6 +61,10 @@ Source211: grid-license-check.timer
 Source212: open-gpu-license-fallback.service
 Source213: tesla-license-fallback.service
 Source214: grid-license-file-check.conf
+Source215: nvidia-imex.service
+Source216: nvidia-imex.cfg
+Source217: nvidia-imex-tmpfiles.conf
+Source218: nvidia-imex-default-channel.conf
 
 # NVIDIA tesla conf files from 300 to 399
 Source300: nvidia-tesla-tmpfiles.conf
@@ -112,6 +116,13 @@ Requires: %{name}
 %description imex
 %{summary}.
 
+%package imex-config
+Summary: NVIDIA IMEX modprobe configuration
+Requires: %{name}-imex
+
+%description imex-config
+%{summary}.
+
 %package open-gpu
 Summary: NVIDIA %{tesla_major} Open GPU driver
 Version: %{tesla_ver}
@@ -503,6 +514,16 @@ install -p -m 0755 usr/bin/nvidia-imex-ctl %{buildroot}%{_cross_bindir}
 
 popd
 
+# NVIDIA IMEX service, config, and tmpfiles
+install -p -m 0644 %{S:215} %{buildroot}%{_cross_unitdir}
+install -d %{buildroot}%{_cross_factorydir}%{_cross_sysconfdir}/nvidia-imex
+install -p -m 0644 %{S:216} %{buildroot}%{_cross_factorydir}%{_cross_sysconfdir}/nvidia-imex/config.cfg
+install -p -m 0644 %{S:217} %{buildroot}%{_cross_tmpfilesdir}/nvidia-imex.conf
+
+# NVIDIA IMEX modprobe config
+install -d %{buildroot}%{_cross_libdir}/modprobe.d
+install -p -m 0644 %{S:218} %{buildroot}%{_cross_libdir}/modprobe.d/10-nvidia-default-imex-channel.conf
+
 %files
 %{_cross_attribution_file}
 %dir %{_cross_libexecdir}/nvidia
@@ -786,6 +807,12 @@ popd
 %files imex
 %{_cross_bindir}/nvidia-imex
 %{_cross_bindir}/nvidia-imex-ctl
+%{_cross_unitdir}/nvidia-imex.service
+%{_cross_factorydir}/etc/nvidia-imex/config.cfg
+%{_cross_tmpfilesdir}/nvidia-imex.conf
+
+%files imex-config
+%{_cross_libdir}/modprobe.d/10-nvidia-default-imex-channel.conf
 
 %files mps
 %{_cross_bindir}/nvidia-cuda-mps-control
diff --git a/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-default-channel.conf b/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-default-channel.conf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..50e5a670
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-default-channel.conf
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+options nvidia NVreg_CreateImexChannel0=1
diff --git a/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-tmpfiles.conf b/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-tmpfiles.conf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3f88dfc0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex-tmpfiles.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+d /etc/nvidia-imex 0755 root root -
+C /etc/nvidia-imex/config.cfg 0644 root root -
diff --git a/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.cfg b/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5560efd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+# NVIDIA IMEX configuration file.
+# Note: This configuration file is read during IMEX startup. So, IMEX
+# service restart is required for new settings to take effect.
+ 
+#   Description: IMEX logging levels
+#   Possible Values:
+#           0  - All the logging is disabled
+#           1  - Set log level to CRITICAL and above
+#           2  - Set log level to ERROR and above
+#           3  - Set log level to WARNING and above
+#           4  - Set log level to INFO and above
+#       Default Value: 4
+LOG_LEVEL=3
+  
+#   Description: Filename for IMEX logs
+#   Possible Values:
+#       Full path/filename string (max length of 256). Logs will be redirected
+#       to console(stderr). If the specified log file can't be opened or the
+#       path is empty.
+#   Default Value: /var/log/nvidia-imex.log
+LOG_FILE_NAME=
+
+#   Description: Filename for IMEX stats logging
+#   Possible Values:
+#       Full path/filename string (max length of 256). Stats will be redirected
+#       to console(stderr), if the specified stats file can't be opened or the
+#       path is empty.
+#   Default Value: /var/log/nvidia-imex-stats.log
+#   Note: If STATS_FILE_NAME is configured same as LOG_FILE_NAME, then stats will
+#       be redirected to the path/filename specified by LOG_FILE_NAME.
+STATS_FILE_NAME=
+
+#   Description: Append to an existing log file or overwrite the logs
+#   Possible Values:
+#           0  - No  (Log file will be overwritten)
+#           1  - Yes (Append to existing log)
+#   Default Value: 1
+LOG_APPEND_TO_LOG=1
+     
+#   Description: Max size of log file (in MB)
+#   Possible Values:
+#           Any Integer values
+#   Default Value: 1024
+LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE=1024
+
+#   Description: Number of times the IMEX log is rotated once it reaches LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE
+#   Possible Values:
+#       0                - Log is not rotated. Logging is stopped once the IMEX log file reaches
+#                          the size specified in LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE
+#       Non-zero Integer - Log is rotated upto the number of times specified in LOG_MAX_ROTATE_COUNT,
+#                          after the size of the log file reaches the size specified in LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE.
+#                          Combined IMEX log size is LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE multipled by LOG_MAX_ROTATE_COUNT+1
+#                          Once this threshold is reached, the oldest log file is purged and reused.
+LOG_MAX_ROTATE_COUNT=3
+
+#   Description: Redirect all the logs to syslog instead of logging to file
+#   Possible Values:
+#           0  - No
+#           1  - Yes
+#   Default Value: 0
+LOG_USE_SYSLOG=1
+       
+#   Description: daemonize IMEX on start-up
+#   Possible Values:
+#       0  - No (Do not daemonize and run IMEX as a normal process)
+#       1  - Yes (Run IMEX process as Unix daemon
+#   Default Value: 1
+DAEMONIZE=0
+        
+#   Description: Network interface to listen for IMEX peer communication.
+#                OPTIONAL - empty value will determine the bind IP from the node config file.
+#   Possible Values:
+#           A valid IPv4 address
+#           A valid IPv6 address
+#           No value - Determine bind IP from the node configuration file.
+#   Default Value: 
+BIND_INTERFACE_IP=
+           
+#   Description: Starting TCP port number for IMEX peer communication
+#   Possible Values:
+#           Any value between 0 and 65535
+#   Default Value: 50000
+SERVER_PORT=50000
+            
+#   Description: Name of file containing IP addresses of nodes
+#   Possible Values:
+#       Full path/filename string (max length of 256).
+#       Default Value: /etc/nvidia-imex/nodes_config.cfg
+IMEX_NODE_CONFIG_FILE=/etc/nvidia-imex/nodes_config.cfg
+
+#  Description: Name of the network interface used for communication.
+#               OPTIONAL - If empty, network interface will be determined by matching bind IP to
+#                          node configuration file.  Only necessary to configure if the bind IP
+#                          is IPv6 link-local and on multiple network interfaces.
+#  Possible Values:
+#      A valid interface name. e.g. eth0, ens32 .. etc
+#  Default Value: 
+NETWORK_INTERFACE=
+
+#  Description: Name of the network interface used for outgoing connections.
+#               OPTIONAL - If empty, outgoing network interface will be determined automatically.
+#                          Only necessary if user desires to force all
+#                          outgoing connections to use a particular interface.
+#  Possible Values:
+#      A valid interface name. e.g. eth0, ens32 .. etc
+#  Default Value: 
+OUTGOING_NETWORK_INTERFACE=
+
+#  Description:  Controls whether IMEX should complete initialization without establishing quorum
+#  Possible values:
+#       NONE: Do not wait for any quorum with other nodes.
+#   RECOVERY: In case of unsafe IMEX termination, wait until all nodes that had previously imported
+#             have connected, allowing them time to safely clean up any potentially hanging references
+#  Default value: RECOVERY
+IMEX_WAIT_FOR_QUORUM=RECOVERY
+
+#  Description: Enabled the command/control service to allow for querying information from the IMEX daemon.
+#               Must be used with IMEX_CMD_PORT (optionally IMEX_CMD_BIND_INTERFACE_IP) and/or
+#               IMEX_CMD_UNIX_DOMAIN_PATH
+IMEX_CMD_ENABLED=1
+
+#  Description:  Unix domain socket path to attach to for the command/control service. Ignored if IMEX_CMD_ENABLED=0
+IMEX_CMD_UNIX_DOMAIN_PATH=/run/nvidia/nvidia-imex-cmd.sock
+
+#  Description:  Determines how long to wait after detecting that the IMEX daemon has lost connection to another
+#                node before triggering clean up imports and exports from that node.  If a connection is reestablished
+#                before the grace period expires, and IMEX is able to identify that it is the same instance previously
+#                connected, then no clean up is required.  If a connection is established and IMEX detects that it is
+#                a new instance (i.e. someone restarted the IMEX daemon), then clean up will be immediately triggered
+#                regardless of grace period.
+#                -1: Default - Wait indefinitely
+#                 0: Immediately trigger clean up
+#                >0: Number of seconds to wait before triggering clean up
+IMEX_NODE_DISCONNECTED_GRACE_TIME=-1
+
+#  Description:  Optionally configure the DSCP value for both the listening server socket and the outgoing client 
+#                connections.
+#                0: Default
+#                1-63: Custom DSCP setting
+IMEX_GRPC_DSCP_OVERRIDE=0
diff --git a/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.service b/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.service
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7095ed0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/kmod-6.18-nvidia-r580/nvidia-imex.service
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=NVIDIA IMEX service
+After=network-online.target
+Requires=network-online.target
+
+[Service]
+Type=simple
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/nvidia-imex -c /etc/nvidia-imex/config.cfg
+StandardOutput=journal
+StandardError=journal
+LimitCORE=infinity