CN101231612A - Intelligent platform management interface system and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

An advanced intelligent platform management interface system with multiple message processing and configurable functions comprises a sensing unit, a cache memory unit and a memory control unit. The sensing unit comprises a programmable memory device for storing the sensing event of the hardware configuration change of the host system. The cache memory unit is used for accessing the sensing event in the programmable memory device of the sensing unit. The memory control unit is used for detecting whether the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit or not so as to control the cache memory unit to obtain and store the sensing event.

Description

Intelligent platform management interface system and method thereof

【Technical field】

The present invention relates to an advanced intelligent platform management interface system with multi-message processing and configurable functions and its execution method, especially an intelligent platform management interface system for server management and its execution method.

【Background technique】

As we all know, in the past, system administrators had to go to the local area for repair or troubleshooting in person for failures of various types of remote servers such as telecommunication equipment rooms or computer stations, especially important servers such as ISP servers. This is too labor-intensive and time cost. In order to solve this kind of problem, management technology about the remote server is gradually developed, such as a technology called Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI).

This intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) mainly includes: a hardware architecture, that is, a microcontroller with a baseboard management controller (BMC), and a firmware architecture embedded in the baseboard management controller. In fact, it is a server management subsystem (Server Management Subsystem), but it operates independently of the server's hardware such as the central processing unit (CPU), basic input and output system (BIOS) and software such as the operating system (OS), system management software (SMS), to control the interface between system management software and platform management hardware, especially when the central processing unit (CPU), basic input and output system (BIOS) and operating system (OS) of the aforementioned server fail (Fail )when.

Most of the BMC microcontrollers of the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) integrate A/D converters for voltage monitoring, fan speed counters, IOs and buses for sensors, etc., so when the IPMI )'s watchdog (Watchdog) timer detects that the server's central processing unit (CPU), basic input and output system (BIOS), operating system (OS) or application program has an unexpected failure, it can pass the intelligent platform The platform event filter (PEF) provided by the management interface (IPMI) itself eliminates the problem or receives the instruction of the operation terminal to eliminate the problem. In addition, the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) can proactively provide functions including server software/hardware system status monitoring, event logging, restart system control functions, automatic event warnings, and automatic system control (such as power failure) and other functions , for example, the BMC microcontroller of the intelligent platform management interface uses an I ² C digital sensor to obtain the measurement results of the host system in the form of polling (Polling) to monitor the system voltage, temperature and fan speed of the remote host system Change to determine whether the monitoring data exceeds the preset range, and send I ² C sensing data (that is, an IPMI message) through an intelligent platform management bus (IPMB) or send it through the SMBus interface Communicate with the host system. Moreover, once there is a system abnormal event, it will be stored in an event log recorder (SEL), and through the platform event filter (PEF) to find a response action that matches the "abnormal event", such as performing a power-off , reconnect, restart and send/send warnings.

In addition, the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) can facilitate the remote operation terminal to transmit through a local area network (LAN) such as IPMI message packets conforming to the RMCP UDP/IP protocol, or serial signals via a serial modem such as the UART interface protocol , to monitor or control the server remotely, obtain the above monitoring data, and perform troubleshooting immediately when a serious event occurs. When the temperature of the aforementioned server seriously exceeds the range, in addition to recording the data for future query, that is, the intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) automatically eliminates it, such as immediately increasing the fan speed to increase the heat dissipation effect, and through the local area network ( LAN) to issue a network alert, that is, send it to the remote operating terminal computer in the form of SNMP Traps in the platform event layer (PET) format, or in the form of a serial modem alert. The operation terminal computer, the host system or the BMC controller of the intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) can pass through several fixed channels (Channels) such as the intelligent platform management bus (IPMB), keyboard control interface (KCS), intelligent chassis Management bus (ICMB), universal asynchronous transceiver (UART) or local area network (LAN) receives/sends an intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) channel message (Channel Message) for the firmware processing of the intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) and response.

It should be noted that the intelligent platform management interface system cannot directly access the data of the sensing unit such as I ² C sensor hardware, but needs to generate a sensor command through a sensor management unit, such as a management controller, such as "Get Sensor Reading" to get the aforementioned data.

However, at present, the firmware design of the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is not perfect, and there are the following disadvantages:

(1) In the process of each IPMI message passing through each module or unit of the firmware, each module or unit needs to configure a dedicated local memory (Local Memory) to copy the passed IPMI message before continuing Pass (Passing), queue (Queue), use (Usage) or execute (Implementing) each IPMI message, which not only results in higher memory costs, but also because of the continuous reading and copying of IPMI messages in each step , so that the execution time of the overall system becomes longer, and the execution efficiency of this type of intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) becomes worse.

(2) The execution unit of the existing intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) firmware can only process one IPMI message at a time, and the rest of the IPMI messages can only be queued to wait for the next response, so this type of intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) ) is even less effective.

(3) Many units in the existing intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) firmware cannot be easily replaced due to mutual pull, especially when the operator needs to change or add or subtract different functions, unless the overall structure is rewritten, otherwise the change cannot be achieved , so it is not scalable and programmable for users.

(4) The existing Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) firmware needs to read the electronically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) in a sensing unit through a sensing management unit such as a management controller. Sensing events; however, the EEPROM access speed is extremely slow, if there are many IPMI messages coming in waiting to be processed, the EEPROM The read-only memory (EEPROM) will always be busy and cause line congestion, especially when the electronically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) shares the same data bus (Databus) with other devices, it will also be caused by data conflicts. The system performs sluggishly.

(5) The existing intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) firmware cannot automatically cooperate with too many hardware environments of different manufacturers, such as BMC controllers or operating systems (OS) of different manufacturers.

【Content of invention】

The invention provides an advanced intelligent platform management interface system with multi-message processing and settable functions, which includes a sensing unit, a cache memory unit and a memory control unit. The sensing unit includes a programmable memory device for storing sensing events of hardware configuration changes in the host system. The cache memory unit is used to access the sensing event from the programmable memory device of the sensing unit. The memory control unit is used to detect whether the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit, so as to control the cache memory unit to obtain and store the sensing event. Wherein when the memory control unit receives a request message from at least one message source, the memory control unit judges whether the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit, and if so, reads the cache memory unit from the cache memory unit A sensing event; if not, read the sensing event from the programmable memory device, and control the cache memory unit to store the sensing event, so as to generate a response message in response to the request message.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a management method suitable for an advanced intelligent platform management interface system with multi-message processing and configurable functions, which includes the following steps: receiving a request message from at least one message source to obtain a response The detection unit senses the sensing event of the hardware configuration change in the host system; detects whether the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit; if the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit, from the cache memory The unit reads the sensing event; if the sensing event is not stored in the cache memory unit, reads the sensing event from a programmable memory device and controls the cache memory unit to store the sensing event ; and generate a response message.

According to the present invention, the cache memory unit is a random access memory, the sensing unit is an I ² C sensor, and the programmable memory device includes an electronic erasable programmable read only memory.

【Description of drawings】

FIG. 1 is a structure diagram showing the internal structure of an advanced Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an implementation method of an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an execution method of an IPMI (IPMI) system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the IPMI message subsystem and IPMI core subsystem are further shown Details of handling IPMI messages between.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an execution method of an IPMI system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, which further shows the process of executing IPMI messages by a memory control unit.

【Detailed ways】

First as shown in Figure 1, it is the main frame of a kind of advanced intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) system 10 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and it is applicable to at least one message source terminal (MessageSource) such as a host computer (Host) Between the system and an operation terminal (not shown), it is mainly divided into: an intelligent platform management interface message subsystem 15 , an intelligent platform management interface core subsystem 18 and a central message buffer unit 200 . Wherein the central message buffer unit 200 has a memory block (not shown) for temporarily storing each intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) channel message sent by the aforementioned message source end and generating a relative address pointer (Pointer ), so that the indicator can be used by the aforementioned subsystem for transmission, so as to reduce the number of times that the aforementioned subsystem reads the aforementioned message, thereby improving the execution performance of the advanced intelligent platform management interface system 10 .

The aforementioned intelligent platform management interface message subsystem 15 further includes: a channel center 100 , a message collection unit 220 and a message execution group 300 . The aforementioned channel center 100 is provided with several channel application interfaces 102 and programmable windows, such as LAN/UART table 104 and channel table 106 . The several channel application interfaces 102 at least include: intelligent platform management bus (IPMB) application interface, keyboard control interface (KCS) application interface, intelligent chassis management bus (ICMB) application interface, universal asynchronous transceiver (UART) application interface and a local area network (LAN) application interface, wherein each channel application interface 102 represents a specific channel application program interface (ChannelAPI). For example, the IPMI application interface is used to receive/send a corresponding intelligent platform management interface channel message from each of the aforementioned message source terminals (such as the information transmission path S1 in FIG. 1 ). After the channel application interface 102 determines that there is no problem with the received intelligent platform management interface channel message, it stores the intelligent platform management interface channel message in the aforementioned central message buffer unit 200 (as shown in the information transfer path S2 of Figure 1 ), To obtain a pointer (Pointer) of the relative address and deliver it to the message collection unit 220 (such as the information delivery path S3 in FIG. 1 ). The programmable form, such as the channel table 106 and the LAN/UART table 104, is respectively linked to the aforementioned corresponding channel application interface 102 for users to define themselves, so that the channel application interface 102 can be modularized, replaced and updated. Functions such as LAN/UART table 104 are used to standardize usernames and passwords for communication via the UART API and LAN API.

The message collection unit 220 has a queue (Queue) 222 to collect the pointers from the above-mentioned channel application interfaces 102, and then deliver them to the message execution group 300 (as shown in the message delivery path S4 of FIG. 1 ).

The message execution group 300 further has: several programmable message processing units 302 , a programmable message window (message form 304 ) and several message service modules 306 . Each message service module 306 presets a corresponding execution program for each intelligent platform management interface message, so as to become a routine program (Routine). The message form 304 is for the user to predefine the corresponding relationship between each intelligent platform management interface channel message and the message service module 306 . A number of programmable message processing units 302 can be pre-set and placed according to user needs to simultaneously multitask and process multiple intelligent platform management interface channel messages, wherein each message processing unit 302 is actually an execution thread (Threads) , the corresponding message service module 306 in the message window 304 can be queried according to the information of each channel (such as the information transmission path S5 of Figure 1), and the execution program in the message service module 306 (such as the information transmission path of Figure 1) can be started. S6).

The intelligent platform management interface core subsystem 18, as shown in Figure 1, has several application units, including: memory control unit 400, I ² C driver management unit 540, platform event layer 542, event scheduling unit (Event Daemon) 543, sensor management unit (Sensor Manager) 544, chassis control unit (Chassis Controller) 546, platform event filter management unit (PEF) 600, chip management unit 602, advanced configuration and power interface (ACPI) 604, basic universal input Output (GPIO) driver unit 606 and power management unit (Power Manager) 608, wherein each application unit represents the function that the intelligent platform management interface system 10 can provide, such as the memory control unit 400 reads the memory. When any application unit of the IPMI core subsystem 18 receives the instruction generated by the execution program of the IPMI message subsystem 15, it starts to process the aforementioned IPMI channel message, wherein the message executes The message processing unit 302 of the group 300 passes the pointer of the channel message to the application unit of the aforementioned intelligent platform management interface core subsystem 18 such as the memory control unit 400 to start processing (as shown in FIG. 1 ) via the message service module 306. shown in the information delivery path S7). Afterwards, make the application unit read out the intelligent platform management interface channel message from the central message buffer unit 200 according to the pointer for processing; after the aforementioned intelligent platform management interface channel message is executed, a relative response message is generated. Then, the application unit temporarily stores the response message in the central message buffer unit 200 to generate a response pointer with a relative address.

The intelligent platform management interface core subsystem 18 transfers the response pointer to the message processing unit 302 of the message execution group 300 of the intelligent platform management interface message subsystem 15 along the original path, so that the message processing unit 302 of the message execution group 300 Release the address occupied by the previous intelligent platform management interface channel message in the central message buffer unit 200, and then pass the response pointer to the original channel application interface 102 such as the IPMB application interface, so that the original channel application interface 102 can be accessed from the central message buffer unit In 200, read and send the corresponding response message to the source of the original message.

The advanced intelligent platform management interface system 10 of the present invention further includes: an operating system (OS) management module 25, which has a plurality of specific mapping functions (Mapping Function), which can be used with different types of real-time operating systems (RTOS) 20 Communication, so that the advanced intelligent platform management interface system 10 has the function of being replaceable with different operating systems. The advanced intelligent platform management interface system 10 also includes a hardware management module 35, which is equipped with a plurality of different drive units, which can communicate with different hardware 30 such as baseboard management controllers (BMC), so that the advanced intelligent platform management interface system 10 has a replaceable into different hardware environments. Note that each mapping function is used to communicate with different operating systems. When a real-time operating system 20 is newly installed, the APMI system 10 will use a suitable mapping function to adjust its operating environment to avoid incompatibility with the previously used operating system.

In addition, the application unit of the intelligent platform management interface core subsystem 18 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention further includes: a sensing unit such as an I2C sensor 500, with a programmable memory device such as an electronic erasable programmable An EEPROM (EEPROM) 550 is used to store the sensing events of hardware configuration changes in the host system; a cache memory unit 420 can be a random access memory (RAM), which is used from the I2C The aforementioned sensing events are obtained and stored in the EEPROM (EEPROM) 550 of the sensor 500; a memory control unit 400 periodically polls the EEPROM of the I2C sensor 500 Whether there is a new sensing event in the read-only memory (EEPROM) 550 to control the cache memory unit 420 to obtain the sensing event and store it; several I2C driver software 545 for driving different I2C sensors 500; And, the I2C driver management unit 540 manages the aforesaid several I2C driver software 545 through the application program interface, which is convenient for users to replace the I2C sensors 500 produced by different manufacturers at any time.

Furthermore, as shown in Figure 2, it shows an execution method of an advanced intelligent platform management interface system with multiple message processing and configurable functions according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, which is suitable for at least one message source terminal, including:

Step S600: When the message source sends any IPMI channel message into a channel center 100, make at least one corresponding channel application interface 102 such as the IPMB application interface receive the IPMI channel message.

Step S610: The channel application interface 102 confirms (Verify) whether the received intelligent platform management interface channel message is correct.

Step S620: Temporarily store each of the aforementioned intelligent platform management interface channel messages in a central message buffer unit 200: and then obtain a pointer to a relative address.

Steps S630 and S640: Utilize a message collection unit 220 to collect the pointers of messages related to each channel mentioned above, and send them to a message execution group 300 .

Step S650: The message execution group 300 starts to process the messages of each channel according to the aforementioned indicators.

Then see Figure 3,

Step S651 : make the message execution group 300 a plurality of programmable message processing units 302 to process the IPMI channel message with multiple tasks at the same time.

Step S652: Each message processing unit 302 reads each IPMI channel message from the central message buffer unit 200 according to the aforementioned pointer.

Step S653: The message processing unit 302 queries the corresponding message service module 306 in the programmable message window 304 according to the message of each channel.

Step S654: The message processing unit 302 sends the pointer to the message service module 306, and then activates the message service module 306 to start a default execution program.

Step S655: When the message processing unit 302 executes the execution program of the message service module 306, it transfers the pointer to an application unit via the message service module 306, and instructs the application unit to read from the central message buffer unit 200 according to the pointer. Get the intelligent platform management interface channel message and execute the intelligent platform management interface channel message.

Step S657: After the application unit is executed, a response message is generated.

Step S658: temporarily store the response message in the central message buffer unit 200 to obtain a response pointer with a relative address.

Step S659: The application unit sends the response pointer back to the message processing unit 302 of the message execution group 300 along the original path for processing.

Then go back to Figure 2,

Steps S660 and S662: the message processing unit 302 of the message execution group 300 obtains the response pointer, and releases the address occupied by the channel message in the central message buffer unit 200 according to the response pointer.

In step S664, the message processing unit 302 of the message execution group 300 sends the response pointer back to the aforementioned channel application interface 102 .

Step S666, make the aforementioned channel application interface 102 read out the response message according to the response pointer and send it back to the source of the original message.

In step S668, the aforementioned channel application interface 102 releases the address occupied by the response message in the central message buffer unit 200 .

Also, as shown in FIG. 4, according to the execution method of the advanced intelligent platform management interface system of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, it further has an application unit such as a memory control unit 400 to execute the detailed process of the intelligent platform management interface message, which includes:

Step S670: the memory control unit 400 receives a read request to read the sensing events stored in an Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) 550 . The sensed event represents an event recorded when a hardware configuration change of a host system is sensed via an I ² C sensor 500 .

Step S672 : the memory control unit 400 detects whether the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit 420 . If yes, execute step S673; if no, execute step S675.

Step S673 : When the memory control unit 400 detects that the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit 420 , the memory control unit 400 reads the sensing event from the cache memory unit 420 .

Step S675: When the memory control unit 400 does not find that the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit 420, the memory control unit 400 reads from the EEPROM in the ^I2C sensor 500 The memory (EEPROM) 550 reads the sensing event and stores the sensing event in the cache memory unit 420 .

Step S676: Generate a response message.

In summary, the present invention provides an advanced intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) system with multi-message processing and configurable functions and its execution method, which can provide the following advantages:

(1) The present invention utilizes a central message buffer unit to temporarily store IPMI messages, and only the address pointers of the IPMI messages are transmitted between each unit, which not only reduces memory costs, but also shortens the execution time and improves the intelligent platform Overall performance of the management interface (IPMI).

(2) The present invention utilizes several programmable message processing units 302, which are convenient for users to preset and insert, so that the IPMI system can simultaneously multitask and process multiple IPMI messages each time, and cooperate with many functional windows Integrate for users to pre-set the parameters they need, and modularize the execution program of IPMI messages, so it not only improves the execution performance of the intelligent platform management interface (IPMI), but also makes it expandable and programmable sex.

(3) The present invention utilizes a memory control unit to regularly poll the electronically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) of the sensing unit, and controls a cache memory unit to obtain the sensing event in advance and store it, Therefore, the sensing events of the I ² C sensor can be obtained quickly.

(4) the present invention utilizes an operating system (OS) management module and a hardware management module, can make this intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) system and different types of operating systems (OS) and different base board management controllers (BMC) ) communication, so that the advanced intelligent platform management interface system has the function of being replaceable into different hardware environments.

In summary, although the present invention has been disclosed as above with a preferred embodiment, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Those skilled in the technical field of the present invention can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be defined by the claims.

Claims (14)

1. An intelligent platform management interface system with multi-information processing and configurable functions, characterized in that: it at least includes a sensing unit, a cache memory unit and a memory control unit; the sensing unit is used for A sensing event for sensing whether a hardware configuration change occurs in a host system, wherein the sensing unit has a programmable memory device for storing the sensing event; the cache memory unit is used for accessing the sensing The sensing event in the programmable memory device of the detection unit; the memory control unit is used to detect whether the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit, and control the cache memory unit to obtain the sensing event and store it; wherein when the memory control unit receives a request message from at least one message source, the memory control unit judges whether the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit, and if so, from the cache memory The unit reads the sensing event; if not, reads the sensing event from the programmable memory device, and controls the cache memory unit to store the sensing event, thereby generating a response message in response to the request message. 2. The intelligent platform management interface system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cache memory unit is a random access memory. 3. The intelligent platform management interface system according to claim 1, wherein the sensing unit comprises at least one I ² C sensor. 4. The intelligent platform management interface system as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that: the sensing unit further comprises: a plurality of I ² C driver software, used to drive different I ² C sensors; and an I ² C The driver management unit is used to manage the several I ² C driver software, so as to be applicable to different I ² C sensors. 5. The intelligent platform management interface system according to claim 1, wherein the programmable memory device comprises an electronically erasable programmable read-only memory. 6. The intelligent platform management interface system according to claim 1, characterized in that it is applied to several information sources. 7. The intelligent platform management interface system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the plurality of information sources include a plurality of operating terminals and the host system. 8. A management method suitable for an intelligent platform management interface system with multi-message processing and configurable functions, at least comprising the following steps: receiving a request message from at least one message source to obtain the information sensed by a sensing unit A sensing event of hardware configuration change in a host system; detecting whether the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit; if the sensing event is stored in the cache memory unit, from the cache memory The unit reads the sensing event; if the sensing event is not stored in the cache memory unit, reads the sensing event from a programmable memory device and controls the cache memory unit to store the sensing event ; and generate a response message. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the cache memory unit is a random access memory. 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the sensing unit comprises at least one ^I2C sensor. 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the sensing unit further comprises: several I ² C driver software for driving different I ² C sensors; and an I ² C driver management unit, It is used to manage the several I ² C driver software, so that different I ² C sensors can be applied. 12. The method of claim 8, wherein the programmable memory device comprises an electronically erasable programmable read-only memory. 13. The method as claimed in claim 8, characterized in that it is applied to several message sources. 14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of message sources include a plurality of operating terminals and the host system.

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