TRANSPARENT UPDATE OF ADAPTER FIRMWARE FOR SELF-VIRTUALIZING INPUT/OUTPUT DEVICE

• US 20120179932A1
• Filed: 01/11/2011
• Published: 07/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Armstrong, William J., Graham, Charles S., Koch, Andrew T., Lucke, Kyle A., Nayar, Naresh, Swanberg, Randal C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,418,166 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/4.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/20 using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A firmware update process for a self-virtualizing IO resource such as an SRIOV adapter is incorporated into a platform firmware update process to systematically update the resource firmware in a manner that is for the most part transparent to the logical partitions sharing the adapter. In particular, resource firmware associated with a self-virtualizing IO resource is bundled with firmware for at least one adjunct partition associated with that self-virtualizing IO resource within a common firmware image so that, upon restart of the adjunct partition to use the updated firmware image, the resource firmware is also updated, with a logical partition that uses the self-virtualizing IO resource maintained in an active state during the restart, and without requiring the self-virtualizing IO resource to be deconfigured from the logical partition.

Claims

1. A method of updating firmware associated with a self-virtualizing input/output (IO) resource in a logically partitioned data processing system, the method comprising:

updating at least one firmware image that includes updated resource firmware associated with the self-virtualizing IO resource and adjunct partition firmware associated with an adjunct partition for the self-virtualizing IO resource;

restarting the adjunct partition such that the adjunct partition executes the updated firmware image; and

during restarting of the adjunct partition, maintaining a logical partition that uses the self-virtualizing IO resource in an active state and without deconfiguring the self-virtualizing IO resource from the logical partition.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the logical partition that uses the self-virtualizing IO resource in the active state and without deconfiguring the self-virtualizing IO resource from the logical partition including presenting the self-virtualizing IO resource as experiencing a temporary outage during restarting of the adjunct partition.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein presenting the self-virtualizing IO resource as experiencing a temporary outage during restarting of the adjunct partition includes presenting the self-virtualizing IO resource as having lost network connectivity during restarting of the adjunct partition and as having network connectivity restored after restarting of the adjunct partition is complete.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the logical partition is interfaced to the self-virtualizing IO resource using a vendor-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver resident in the logical partition, and wherein presenting the self-virtualizing IO resource as experiencing a temporary outage during restarting of the adjunct partition includes presenting the self-virtualizing IO resource as experiencing a temporary outage using the vendor-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver and without deconfiguring the vendor-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver in the logical partition.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the adjunct partition comprises a virtual function adjunct partition that includes a vender-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver configured to interface with the logical partition over the vendor-independent virtual network partition interface and a resource-specific device driver configured to interface with the self-virtualizing IO resource.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising, in the logical partition, automatically failing over to a backup IO resource in response to detecting the temporary outage of the self-virtualizing IO resource.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjunct partition comprises a virtual function adjunct partition, and wherein the firmware image includes resource firmware associated with a virtual function of the self-virtualizing IO resource and the adjunct partition firmware includes virtual function adjunct partition firmware associated with the virtual function adjunct partition.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the resource firmware comprises a virtual function device driver for the self-virtualizing IO resource, and wherein the virtual function adjunct partition firmware comprises application specific services, personality support and a vendor-independent server virtual network partition interface device driver.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjunct partition comprises a physical function adjunct partition, and wherein the firmware image includes resource firmware associated with a physical function of the self-virtualizing IO resource and the adjunct partition firmware includes physical function adjunct partition firmware associated with the physical function adjunct partition.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the resource firmware comprises a physical function device driver for the self-virtualizing IO resource, and wherein the physical function adjunct partition firmware comprises application specific services and common physical function support.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the firmware image comprises an application specific services image, and wherein updating the at least one firmware image further includes updating a core services image associated with the adjunct partition.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the at least one firmware image comprises:

updating at least one firmware image in a flash memory in the logically partitioned data processing system with the updated firmware image; and

replacing a cached firmware image in a hypervisor of the logically partitioned data processing system with a copy of the updated firmware image by copying the updated firmware image from the flash memory and caching the updated firmware image in the hypervisor.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein restarting the adjunct partition comprises, in the hypervisor:

terminating the adjunct partition;

reloading the adjunct partition after replacing the cached firmware image in the hypervisor; and

restarting the adjunct partition after reloading the adjunct partition such that the adjunct partition executes the copy of the updated firmware image cached in the hypervisor.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjunct partition comprises a virtual function adjunct partition, and wherein restarting the adjunct partition is performed without restarting a physical function adjunct partition associated with the self-virtualizing IO resource for which no firmware has been updated.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjunct partition comprises a physical function adjunct partition, and wherein restarting the adjunct partition includes restarting each virtual function adjunct partition associated with the self-virtualizing IO resource in response to restarting the physical function adjunct partition.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjunct partition comprises a physical function adjunct partition, wherein the firmware image comprises a physical function adjunct partition firmware image, and wherein the method further comprises:

updating a virtual function adjunct partition firmware image that includes updated resource firmware associated with the self-virtualizing IO resource and virtual function adjunct partition firmware associated with the virtual function adjunct partition for the self-virtualizing IO resource;

restarting the virtual function adjunct partition after restarting the physical function adjunct partition such that the virtual function adjunct partition executes the updated virtual function adjunct partition firmware image; and

during restarting of the physical function and virtual function adjunct partitions, maintaining the logical partition in the active state by presenting the self-virtualizing IO resource as experiencing a temporary loss of network connectivity using a vendor-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver resident in the logical partition and interfaced with the virtual function adjunct partition through a vendor-independent virtual network partition interface.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the self-virtualizing IO resource comprises a first self-virtualizing IO resource, the method further comprising sequencing restarts of the adjunct partition for the first self-virtualizing IO resource and an adjunct partition for a second self-virtualizing IO resource for which a firmware image therefor has been updated such that availability of at least one of the first and second self-virtualizing IO resources is maintained throughout a firmware update process.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising collectively testing and verifying the updated resource firmware and the adjunct partition firmware in the firmware image.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjunct partition includes a separate dispatchable state and employs virtual address space donated from the logical partition or a hypervisor of the data processing system.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the self-virtualizing IO resource comprises an SRIOV Ethernet adapter.

21. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

program code configured upon execution by the at least one processor to update firmware associated with a self-virtualizing input/output (IO) resource in a logically partitioned data processing system by updating at least one firmware image that includes updated resource firmware associated with the self-virtualizing IO resource and adjunct partition firmware associated with an adjunct partition for the self-virtualizing IO resource, restarting the adjunct partition such that the adjunct partition executes the updated firmware image, and maintaining a logical partition that uses the self-virtualizing IO resource in an active state and without deconfiguring the self-virtualizing IO resource from the logical partition during restarting of the adjunct partition.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the logical partition is interfaced to the self-virtualizing IO resource using a vendor-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver resident in the logical partition, wherein the program code is configured to maintain the logical partition that uses the self-virtualizing IO resource in the active state and without deconfiguring the self-virtualizing IO resource from the logical partition by presenting the self-virtualizing IO resource as experiencing a temporary outage during restarting of the adjunct partition using the vendor-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver and without deconfiguring the vendor-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver in the logical partition.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the program code is configured to updating the at least one firmware image by updating at least one firmware image in a flash memory in the logically partitioned data processing system with the updated firmware image, and replacing a cached firmware image in a hypervisor of the logically partitioned data processing system with a copy of the updated firmware image by copying the updated firmware image from the flash memory and caching the updated firmware image in the hypervisor, and wherein the program code is configured to restart the adjunct partition by, in the hypervisor, terminating the adjunct partition, reloading the adjunct partition after replacing the cached firmware image in the hypervisor, and restarting the adjunct partition after reloading the adjunct partition such that the adjunct partition executes the copy of the updated firmware image cached in the hypervisor.

24. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the adjunct partition comprises a physical function adjunct partition, wherein the firmware image comprises a physical function adjunct partition firmware image, and wherein the program code is further configured to:

update a virtual function adjunct partition firmware image that includes updated resource firmware associated with the self-virtualizing IO resource and virtual function adjunct partition firmware associated with the virtual function adjunct partition for the self-virtualizing IO resource;

restart the virtual function adjunct partition after restarting the physical function adjunct partition such that the virtual function adjunct partition executes the updated virtual function adjunct partition firmware image; and

during restarting of the physical function and virtual function adjunct partitions, maintain the logical partition in the active state by presenting the self-virtualizing IO resource as experiencing a temporary loss of network connectivity using a vendor-independent client virtual network partition interface device driver resident in the logical partition and interfaced with the virtual function adjunct partition through a vendor-independent virtual network partition interface.

25. A program product, comprising:

a computer readable medium; and

program code stored on the computer readable medium and configured upon execution to update firmware associated with a self-virtualizing input/output (IO) resource in a logically partitioned data processing system by updating at least one firmware image that includes updated resource firmware associated with the self-virtualizing IO resource and adjunct partition firmware associated with an adjunct partition for the self-virtualizing IO resource, restarting the adjunct partition such that the adjunct partition executes the updated firmware image, and maintaining a logical partition that uses the self-virtualizing IO resource in an active state and without deconfiguring the self-virtualizing IO resource from the logical partition during restarting of the adjunct partition.