Virtual Service Processor Stack

• US 20130289926A1
• Filed: 04/30/2012
• Published: 10/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Megatrends International, LLC
• Original Assignee: American Megatrends Incorporated
• Inventors: Maity, Sanjoy, Christopher, Samvinesh, Parthiban, Baskar
• Granted Patent: US 9,158,564 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/130
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

Certain aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a computer system, including: a hypervisor configured to run on a CPU and to provide a first domain; and a virtual baseboard management controller (BMC) stack configured to run in the first domain or as part of the hypervisor. Certain aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a non-transitory computer readable medium that stores instructions executable by at least one processor, the instructions including loading a virtual baseboard management controller (BMC) stack in a first domain of, or as a part of, a hypervisor running on the processor.

Claims

1. A computer system, comprising:

a hypervisor configured to run on a CPU and to provide a first domain; and

a virtual baseboard management controller (BMC) stack configured to run in the first domain.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the virtual BMC stack is configured to receive a first parameter relating to operation or performance or health of the computer system and measured by a first sensor.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the first parameter is transmitted to the virtual BMC stack through a system bus of the computer system.

4. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the first parameter is a CPU temperature and is measured by a CPU temperature sensor.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the hypervisor is further configured to provide a second domain, wherein an operating system of the computer system is configured to run in the second domain.

6. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the virtual BMC stack of the first domain is isolated from the operating system of the second domain.

7. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the first domain is a privileged domain and includes a first network interface assigned a first MAC address, wherein the first MAC address functions as the MAC address of the hypervisor, wherein the virtual BMC stack is in communication with the first network interface and receives packets addressed to the first MAC address.

8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the first domain further includes a TCP/IP stack, wherein the first network interface is assigned a first IP address, wherein the first IP address functions as the IP address of the hypervisor, wherein the virtual BMC stack responds to IPMI commands addressed to the first IP address.

9. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the first domain is a privileged domain, wherein the hypervisor is configured to provide a virtualized video controller, wherein the virtual BMC stack redirects video graphics output of the operating system rendered by the virtualized video controller to a remote client computer.

10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the first domain is an unprivileged domain and has a first network interface, wherein the first network interface writes a first packet received from the virtual BMC stack and addressed to a remote computer in a shared memory segment of the hypervisor, wherein the first network interface reads a second packet in the shared memory segment and addressed to the virtual BMC stack as well as sends the second packet to the virtual BMC stack.

11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the hypervisor includes a second domain that is a privileged domain, wherein the second domain has a second network interface, wherein the second network interface reads the first packet written in the shared memory segment by the first network interface and forwards the first packet en route to the remote computer.

12. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising a BMC component chip in communication through a management bus with a plurality of sensors each sensing a parameter relating to operation or performance or health of the computer system, wherein the BMC component chip transmits a plurality of sensed parameters to the virtual BMC stack through a system bus.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the BMC component chip is not a full-fledged service processor and does not independently provide substantial baseboard management functions.

14. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the BMC component chip is in communication with a first temperature sensor and a second temperature sensor through a management bus, wherein the first temperature sensor measures a first temperature in a first thermal zone of the computer system, wherein the second temperature sensor measures a second temperature in a second thermal zone of the computer system, wherein the BMC component chip collects the first and second temperatures and forwards the first and second temperatures to the virtual BMC stack.

15. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the BMC component chip has firmware that processes the parameters received from the plurality of sensors and sends the processed results to the virtual BMC stack.

16. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the virtual BMC stack has a management host application, wherein the computer system further includes a remote client computer configured to run a management client application, wherein the management host application and the management client application are configured to communicate out-of-band.

17. A computer system, comprising:

a hypervisor configured to run on a CPU; and

a virtual baseboard management controller (BMC) stack configured to run as a part of the hypervisor.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the virtual BMC stack is configured to receive a first parameter relating to operation or performance or health of the computer system and measured by a first sensor.

19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the first parameter is transmitted to the CPU through a system bus of the computer system.

20. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the first parameter is a CPU temperature and is measured by a CPU temperature sensor.

21. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the hypervisor is further configured to provide a first domain, wherein an operating system of the computer system is configured to run in the first domain.

22. The computer system of claim 21, wherein the hypervisor includes a first network interface assigned a first MAC address, wherein the virtual BMC stack is in communication with the first network interface and receives packets addressed to the first MAC address.

23. The computer system of claim 22, wherein the hypervisor further includes a TCP/IP stack, wherein the first network interface is assigned a first IP address, wherein the virtual BMC stack responds to IPMI command addressed to the first address.

24. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising a BMC component chip in communication through a management bus with a plurality of sensors each sensing a parameter relating to operation or performance or health of the computer system, wherein the BMC component chip transmits a plurality of sensed parameters to the virtual BMC stack through a system bus.

25. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the BMC component chip is not a full-fledged service processor and does not independently provide substantial baseboard management functions.

26. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the BMC component chip is in communication with a first temperature sensor and a second temperature sensor through a management bus, wherein the first temperature sensor measures a first temperature in a first thermal zone of the computer system, wherein the second temperature sensor measures a second temperature in a second thermal zone of the computer system, wherein the BMC component chip collects the first and second temperatures and forwards the first and second temperatures to the virtual BMC stack.

27. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the BMC component chip has firmware that processes the parameters received from the plurality of sensors and sends the processed results to the virtual BMC stack.

28. A non-transitory computer readable medium that stores instructions executable by at least one processor, the instructions comprising:

loading a virtual baseboard management controller (BMC) stack in a first domain of, or as a part of, a hypervisor running on the processor.

29. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the instructions include:

executing the virtual BMC stack to receive a first parameter relating to operation or performance or health of the computer system and measured by a first sensor.

30. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 29, wherein the first parameter is transmitted to the virtual BMC stack through a system bus of the computer system.

31. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 29, where in the first parameter is a CPU temperature and is measured by a CPU temperature sensor.

32. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the instructions include loading an operating system in a second domain of the hypervisor, wherein the virtual BMC stack is loaded in the first domain.

33. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 32, wherein the virtual BMC stack of the first domain is isolated from the operating system of the second domain.

34. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 32, wherein the first domain is a privileged domain and includes a first network interface assigned a first MAC address, wherein the first MAC address functions as the MAC address of the hypervisor, wherein the instructions include executing the virtual BMC stack to communication with the first network interface and to receive packets addressed to the first MAC address.

35. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the first domain further includes a TCP/IP stack, wherein the first network interface is assigned a first IP address, wherein the first IP address functions as the IP address of the hypervisor, wherein the instructions include executing the virtual BMC stack to respond to IPMI commands addressed to the first IP address.

36. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 32, wherein the first domain is a privileged domain, wherein the hypervisor is configured to provide a virtualized video controller, wherein the instructions include executing the virtual BMC stack to redirect video graphics output of the operating system rendered by the virtualized video controller to a remote client computer.

37. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the virtual BMC stack is loaded in the first domain, wherein the first domain is an unprivileged domain and has a first network interface, wherein the first network interface writes a first packet received from the virtual BMC stack and addressed to a remote computer in a shared memory segment of the hypervisor, wherein the first network interface reads a second packet in the shared memory segment and addressed to the virtual BMC stack as well as sends the second packet to the virtual BMC stack.

38. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 37, wherein the hypervisor includes a second domain that is a privileged domain, wherein the second domain has a second network interface, wherein the second network interface reads the first packet written in the shared memory segment by the first network interface and forwards the first packet en route to the remote computer.

39. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the instructions include executing the virtual BMC stack to receive a plurality of sensed parameters from a BMC component chip through a system bus, wherein the BMC component chip is in communication through a management bus with a plurality of sensors each sensing a parameter relating to operation or performance or health of the computer system.

40. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 39, wherein the BMC component chip is not a full-fledged service processor and does not independently provide substantial baseboard management functions.

41. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 39, wherein the BMC component chip is in communication with a first temperature sensor and a second temperature sensor through a management bus, wherein the first temperature sensor measures a first temperature in a first thermal zone of the computer system, wherein the second temperature sensor measures a second temperature in a second thermal zone of the computer system, wherein the BMC component chip collects the first and second temperatures, wherein the instructions include executing the virtual BMC stack to receive the first and second temperatures.

42. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 39, wherein the BMC component chip has firmware that processes the parameters received from the plurality of sensors, wherein the instructions include executing the virtual BMC stack to receive the processed results.

43. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the virtual BMC stack has a management host application, wherein the instructions include executing the management host application to communicate, out-of-band, with a management client application on a remote client computer.