Automatic firmware corruption recovery and update

• US 20070169088A1
• Filed: 01/13/2006
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Lopez, Pedro, Lambert, Timothy, Cochran, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 7,849,454 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/654 using techniques specially adapted for alterable solid state memories, e.g. for EEPROM or flash memories

Abstract

Firmware for a baseboard management controller (BMC) of a blade server module in an information handling system may have automatic firmware corruption recovery and updating through a TFTP transfer from a central storage location having the most recent BMC firmware image. Upon blade power-on or reset the BMC firmware image is checked for corruption and if corrupted a new BMC firmware image is loaded into the BMC memory. If the BMC firmware image is not corrupted then it is checked to determine if it is the latest version. If it is the latest version the BMC starts normal program execution. If not the latest version then the BMC firmware is updated through the TFTP transfer from the central storage location having the most recent BMC firmware image.

Claims

1. A method for automatic firmware corruption recovery and update, said method comprising the steps of:

a) checking a firmware image for corruption whenever a power-on or reset occurs, wherein

if the firmware image is corrupted then going to step b), and

if the firmware image is not corrupted then going to step c);

b) requesting a replacement firmware image for the corrupted firmware image then going to step d);

c) booting from the firmware image then checking if a newer version of the firmware image is available, wherein

if the newer version of the firmware image is available then retrieving, loading and booting the newer version of the firmware image, then going to step a), and

if the newer version of the firmware image is not available then beginning normal program execution until another power-on or reset occurs;

d) determining whether the replacement firmware image is available, wherein

if available then retrieving and loading the replacement firmware image, resetting and then going to step a),

if the replacement firmware image is not available then setting a mode and serial port so that a serial port recovery is available then resetting, and

executing the serial port recovery then going to step a).

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the firmware image is stored in a non-volatile read only memory.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the non-volatile read only memory is FLASH memory.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the non-volatile read only memory is electrically erasable and programmable read only memory.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the firmware image is used with a baseboard management controller (BMC) of a blade server in a blade server system.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the firmware image is used with a baseboard management controller (BMC) of a rack server in a rack server system.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the firmware image is used with a management controller of a tower server.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the step of loading the newer version of the firmware image into the BMC further comprises the step of loading from a chassis management controller (CMC).

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein the step of loading the replacement of the firmware image into the BMC further comprises the step of loading from a chassis management controller (CMC).

10. The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of loading the newer version of the firmware image into the BMC further comprises the step of loading from a remote assistant card (RAC).

11. The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of loading the replacement of the firmware image into the BMC further comprises the step of loading from a remote assistant card (RAC).

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving the newer version of the firmware image includes the step of executing a trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP) command.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving the replacement of the firmware image includes the step of executing a trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP) command.

14. An information handling system, comprising:

at least one blade server, wherein the at least one blade server has a baseboard management controller (BMC) coupled to a BMC electrically programmable read only memory;

a chassis management controller (CMC), wherein the CMC comprises a service processor and an electrically programmable read only memory; and

the service processor of the CMC is coupled to the BMC and an external network such that the BMC can request firmware images through the CMC and over the external network.

15. The information handling system according to claim 14, wherein the external network is an Ethernet network.

16. The information handling system according to claim 14, wherein the CMC electrically programmable read only memory stores a latest BMC firmware image.

17. The information handling system according to claim 14, wherein the BMC checks for firmware image corruption whenever a power-on or reset occurs.

18. The information handling system according to claim 17, wherein if the BMC firmware image is corrupted in the BMC electrically programmable read only memory then the BMC requests a replacement firmware image for the corrupted BMC firmware image.

19. The information handling system according to claim 18, wherein if the replacement firmware image is not available then the BMC is placed into a recovery mode through a serial port.

20. The information handling system according to claim 17, wherein if the BMC firmware image is not corrupted then the BMC checks whether the firmware image in the BMC electrically programmable read only memory is a newest version, if not then the BMC requests the newest version of the BMC firmware image.