CN115454477A - A method for updating firmware of a solid-state hard disk without interrupting services - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a method for updating firmware of a solid state disk uninterrupted service, which puts the obtained command into a memory to ensure that the read-write command can be normally received when the firmware is updated, thereby realizing the upgrading of the uninterrupted service. And when upgrading, adopt a plurality of firmware trench to carry out the circulation and use the operation, guarantee even upgrading the failure can also keep original firmware, effectively prevent upgrading the failure, lead to the problem that original firmware also loses to take place. In addition, after downloading the new firmware, the slot number used by the next starting operation is updated, and the integrity of firmware upgrading is further ensured. And secondly, before the firmware is updated, the invention adopts a mode of making the processor sleep, thereby greatly reducing the risk of failure in updating the firmware.

Description

A method for updating firmware of a solid-state hard disk without interrupting services

technical field

The invention relates to a method for updating firmware of a solid-state hard disk without interrupting services, and belongs to the technical field of solid-state hard disks.

Background technique

For solid-state drives used in data centers, if there is a need to update the firmware, it is expected that the upgrade can be performed without interrupting the business, which can reduce the time taken to update the firmware, improve the utilization rate, and keep the business uninterrupted when the firmware is updated , to reduce the impact of updating the firmware. However, the traditional upgrade method needs to interrupt the service and then update the firmware, which cannot meet the needs of such usage scenarios.

Contents of the invention

The object of the present invention is to provide a method for updating firmware of a solid-state hard disk without interrupting services, which realizes upgrades without interrupting services and reduces the risk of failure in updating firmware.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is achieved through the following technical solutions:

S01) Receive the command to continuously upgrade the firmware, check the legitimacy of the firmware, detect the slot used by the current firmware, and download the firmware to the next free slot. The slot is recycled and uses non-volatile medium;

S02) After the download is successful, update the slot number for the next start-up operation; set the logo of the non-interrupted service upgrade firmware, and store it in a fixed memory address;

S03) Turn on the hardware module to maintain the normal connection of the data link, and receive commands, receive read and write command requests, and store them in fixed memory addresses;

S04) The main processor sets the synchronous interaction request flags of each processor, and saves the main processor context to a specific memory address;

S05) After other processors check the synchronous interaction request identification, save the context of processing the read and write commands, store them in a fixed memory according to a fixed format, set the synchronous request response identification, and execute the processor sleep instruction at the same time to enter the sleep state;

S06) After the main processor detects that other processors have returned synchronous response requests, it reloads the first section of the boot program. state processors and boot each processor to run the new firmware;

S07) After the new firmware is started, detect the uninterrupted service upgrade flag, and after detecting the uninterrupted service upgrade flag, restore the context saved in the previous step S04 and step S05 from the specific memory;

S08) Clear the set uninterrupted service upgrade firmware flag, close the hardware receiving command module, and process that the hardware module is placed in the fixed memory and has received a read and write command; the non-interruptible service update firmware is completed.

Preferably, the implementation method of the hardware module in the step S03 is as follows:

The hardware module receives the data parsed by the link processing module, and identifies whether it is a host command according to the data content. If it is a host command, it pulls up the enable signal of pushing the command to the hardware queue, and the hardware module detects the push command. Enable the signal, check the head and tail pointers of the hardware queue, if there is a position in the hardware queue, execute the push command action, otherwise keep the push signal enabled to ensure that the new command is pushed after waiting for the hardware queue to be free.

Preferably, the depth of the hardware queue is defined by the parameters implemented by the hardware. When the tail pointer increases beyond the queue depth, it automatically returns to 0. When the queue is not full, the hardware continues to push host commands into the queue.

Preferably, the condition that the hardware queue is empty is that the head pointer is equal to the tail pointer, the condition that the hardware queue is full is that the head pointer is equal to the tail pointer plus 1, and the number of host commands in the queue is less than the queue size when it is full.

Preferably, the storage location of the command queue is configured through hardware parameters, modifying the configuration register to set the base address of the hardware queue, including hardware internal cache areas and external memory areas.

The advantages of the present invention are: a hardware module to receive the read and write commands sent by the host to the solid-state hard disk, and put the obtained commands into the memory, so as to ensure that the read and write commands can be received normally when the firmware is updated, thereby realizing the uninterrupted business upgrade. And when upgrading, multiple firmware slots are used for recycling operations to ensure that the original firmware can be retained even if the upgrade fails, effectively preventing the failure of the upgrade and causing the loss of the original firmware. In addition, after downloading the new firmware, update the slot number used for the next startup and operation to further ensure the integrity of the firmware upgrade. Secondly, before the firmware is updated, the present invention adopts the method of letting the processor sleep, which greatly reduces the risk of firmware update failure.

Description of drawings

The accompanying drawings are used to provide a further understanding of the present invention, and constitute a part of the description, and are used together with the embodiments of the present invention to explain the present invention, and do not constitute a limitation to the present invention.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the process structure of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of the state machine of the hardware module working.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a hardware queue structure.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of the implementation block of the hardware module.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of the result of activating the slot number.

detailed description

The following will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some, not all, embodiments of the present invention. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by persons of ordinary skill in the art without making creative efforts belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

When updating the firmware, the present invention designs a hardware module to receive the read and write commands sent by the host to the solid-state hard drive, and puts the acquired commands into the memory to ensure that the read and write commands can be received normally when the firmware is updated, thereby realizing Non-disruptive upgrades. And when upgrading, multiple firmware slots are used for recycling operations to ensure that the original firmware can be retained even if the upgrade fails, effectively preventing the failure of the upgrade and causing the loss of the original firmware. In addition, after downloading the new firmware, update the slot number used for the next startup and operation to further ensure the integrity of the firmware upgrade. Secondly, before the firmware is updated, the present invention adopts the method of letting the processor sleep, which greatly reduces the risk of firmware update failure.

The startup steps are as follows:

S01) Receive the command to continuously upgrade the firmware; check the legality of the firmware, detect the slot used by the current firmware, and download the firmware to the next free slot. The slot is recycled and uses non-volatile medium.

Multiple firmware slots are used repeatedly to ensure that the original firmware can be retained even if the upgrade fails, which effectively prevents the loss of the original firmware due to the failure of the upgrade. At the same time, it can also ensure the wear balance of the non-volatile medium, prolonging the service life of the non-volatile medium. The firmware slot and the activated firmware slot number are stored separately, and the activated firmware slot number is modified only after the firmware slot is downloaded. Both the activated slot number and the firmware slot use an integrity check algorithm to ensure data integrity. Each firmware slot adopts double backup to ensure that the activation slot number will be updated only after the double backup is fully written. The original firmware can be booted normally. At the same time, even if part of the non-volatile medium is damaged, or a certain slot is damaged, this separate storage method can also ensure that the damaged area is skipped through the control of the slot number. Thereby further prolonging the service life of the chip.

S02) After the download is successful, update the slot number for the next start-up operation; set the logo of the non-interrupted service upgrade firmware, and store it in a fixed memory address.

S03) Turn on the hardware module to maintain the normal link of the data link, receive commands, receive read and write command requests, and place them in a fixed memory address.

Use the hardware module to maintain the link of the data link, and receive the read and write commands sent by the host during the firmware upgrade process, store them in the memory, and mark the command cache status through the head and tail pointers, so as to realize the function of uninterrupted business.

S04) The main processor sets the synchronous interaction request flags of each processor, and transfers its own context to a specific memory address.

S05) After other processors check the synchronous interaction request identifier, save the context of processing read and write commands, and store them in a fixed memory in a fixed format. And set the synchronization request response flag, and execute the processor sleep instruction at the same time to enter the sleep state, so as to prevent the memory access operation during the firmware update and cause problems.

S06) After the main processor detects that other processors have returned the synchronous response request, reload the FBL (the first bootloader); the FBL (first bootloader) loads the new firmware according to the slot number of the start-up operation After that, each processor that was in sleep state is woken up and each processor is booted to run the new firmware.

Compared with the traditional synchronization method, only one semaphore is used for synchronization, and an additional response mechanism is added to ensure that the synchronization is completed only after the synchronization requests of multiple processors are answered, which further ensures the synchronization of firmware updates. sex. And after the execution of the processor task, the processor is put into a dormant state, which ensures that the processor is not in the memory access operation, reduces some power consumption, and greatly reduces the risk of failure to update the firmware.

S07) After the new firmware starts, detect the set uninterrupted service upgrade flag, and after detecting the uninterrupted service upgrade flag, restore the context saved in the previous step S04 and step S05 from the specific memory.

S08) After the context is restored, clear step S05 to set the logo for non-interrupted service upgrade firmware, close step S06 hardware receiving command module, and process the hardware module placed in the fixed memory has received read and write commands; non-interrupted service update firmware is completed .

Specifically, the implementation principle of the hardware module in step S03:

The hardware module receives the data parsed by the link processing module, and identifies whether it is a host command according to the data content. If it is a host command, it pulls up the enable signal of pushing the command to the hardware queue, and the hardware module detects the push command. Enable the signal to check the head and tail pointers of the hardware queue. If there is a position in the hardware queue, the push command action is performed. Otherwise, keep the push signal enabled and wait for the hardware queue to be free before pushing a new command.

The working mode of the hardware queue is jointly maintained by software and hardware. The hardware acts as the producer of the queue, and the software acts as the consumer of the queue. The hardware uses the tail entry pointer to submit the host command to the queue, and the software obtains the host command from the queue through the head entry pointer.

The depth of the hardware queue is defined by the parameters implemented by the hardware, and several host commands can be placed. If the tail pointer increases beyond the queue depth, it will automatically return to 0. If the queue is not full, the hardware continues to push host commands into the queue.

The condition that the hardware queue is empty is that the head pointer is equal to the tail pointer, the condition that the hardware queue is empty is that the head pointer is equal to the tail pointer plus 1, and the number of host commands in the queue (when full) is less than the queue size.

The storage location of the command queue can be flexibly configured through hardware parameters. You can set the base address of the hardware queue by modifying the configuration register. You can choose to put it in the cache area inside the hardware, or you can choose to put it in the external memory area. It is more flexible to use, plus This increases the ability to process commands normally, and at the same time ensures that the hardware queue is used to cache host commands during the firmware upgrade process.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, for those skilled in the art, it still The technical solutions recorded in the foregoing embodiments may be modified, or some technical features thereof may be equivalently replaced. Any modifications, equivalent replacements, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and principles of the present invention shall be included within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims (5)

1. A method for updating firmware of a solid state disk without interrupting service is characterized by comprising the following specific steps:

s01) the hardware module receives a command of continuously upgrading the firmware, checks the validity of the firmware, detects a slot position used by the current firmware, downloads the firmware to the next idle slot position, and uses a non-volatile medium in a recycling mode;

s02) after the downloading is successful, updating the slot position number of the next starting operation; setting an identifier of the uninterrupted service upgrading firmware and storing the identifier in a fixed memory address;

s03) starting a hardware module to keep normal link of a data link, receiving a read-write command request, and writing the read-write command request into a fixed memory address;

s04) the main processor sets synchronous interaction request identifiers of all processors and stores the context of the main processor into a specific memory address;

s05) after the other processors check the synchronous interaction request identification, storing the context for processing the read-write command, storing the context into a fixed memory according to a fixed format, setting a synchronous request response identification, executing a processor sleep instruction, and entering a sleep state;

s06) after the main processor detects that other processors all return synchronous response requests, loading a first section of bootstrap program, wherein the first section of bootstrap program loads new firmware according to the slot position number of the starting operation, awakens each processor in a dormant state, and guides each processor to operate the new firmware;

s07) after the new firmware is started, detecting an uninterrupted service upgrading identifier, and after the uninterrupted service upgrading identifier is detected, restoring the context stored in the previous step S04 and step S05 from a specific memory;

s08) clearing the set identification of the uninterrupted service upgrading firmware, closing the hardware receiving command module, processing that the hardware module is placed in the fixed memory and has received the read-write command, and completing the uninterrupted service upgrading firmware.

2. The method for updating firmware without interrupting service of solid state disk according to claim 1, wherein the implementation method of the hardware module in step S03 is as follows:

the hardware module receives the data analyzed by the link processing module, identifies whether the data is a host command according to the data content, if the data is the host command, raises an enabling signal of a press-in command to the hardware queue, detects the enabling signal of the press-in command by the hardware module, checks a head pointer and a tail pointer of the hardware queue, if the position exists in the hardware queue, executes the action of the press-in command, otherwise, maintains the enabling of the press-in command, and ensures to press in a new command after waiting for the idle hardware queue.

3. The method for updating firmware of a solid state disk uninterrupted service of claim 2, wherein the depth of the hardware queue is defined by a parameter implemented by hardware, when the tail pointer increases to exceed the depth of the queue, the hardware automatically returns to 0, and when the queue is not full, the hardware continues to push host commands into the queue.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the condition that the hardware queue is empty is that the head pointer is equal to the tail pointer, the condition that the hardware queue is full is that the head pointer is equal to the tail pointer plus 1, and the number of host commands in the queue is less than the size of the queue when full.

5. The method for updating firmware of the solid state disk uninterrupted service of claim 3, wherein the storage location of the command is configured by hardware parameters, and the configuration register is modified to set a base address of the hardware queue, including a buffer area inside the hardware and an external memory area.

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