Interactive system support using a system management asic

• US 6,249,812 B1
• Filed: 10/01/1998
• Issued: 06/19/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cromer, Daryl Carvis, Locker, Howard Jeffrey, Springfield, Randall Scott, Ward, James Peter, Kilmer, Gregory William
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): DINH, KHANH Q
• Application Number:
  US09/164,658
• Time in Patent Office: 992 Days
• Field of Search: 709/221, 709/220, 714/26, 714/4, 714/46, 714/712, 235/379
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/24 using dedicated network management hardware

Abstract

A client on a network is provided with auxiliary low power logic, at the network adaptor, that is always active and simulates network traffic (e.g., Ethernet format) normally sent under control of the main client system processor(s). This logic collects client status information and reports to the network manager, irrespective of the system'"'"'s CPU power level, information and provides for interaction between the user and the administration or network manager to exercise broader control and perform repair and upgrades which would otherwise require a dialog with the user and/or limit repair and reconfiguration of the client system to off-hours activity. The auxiliary logic also can receive and interpret commands from the network that conform to a predefined format.

Claims

1. A method for providing system correction data for a client personal computer system without operating system software in a personal computer network including a server having system diagnostic capability and at least one client personal computer system having a system management device in a network adapter including a physical layer connected to the system management device through a media independent interface bus, which physical layer receives network signal packets from the server and sends network signal packets to the server including personal computer system diagnostic data, comprising the steps of:

conducting a POST operation within the client personal computer system;

identifying a problem condition in the POST operation of the client personal computer system by identifying a POST error code condition;

reporting the problem condition to the server having system diagnostic capability, including the steps of;

generating a datagram as a network signal packet including data identifying the problem condition;

sending the generated datagram from the physical layer of the network adapter;

receiving corrective action data packets at the physical layer of the network adapter of the client personal computer system from the server having system diagnostic capability as a result of diagnostic analysis of the data of the datagram by the server;

sending the corrective action data packets along the MII bus to the system management device of the personal computer system;

determining that the corrective data packet includes data for video display; and

processing the corrective data packet data for video display.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein, after the step of processing the corrective data packet for video display, displaying a message which is included in the corrective data packet data for corrective action to address the problem condition in the personal computer system.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the step of identifying the problem condition identifies a POST checkpoint hang condition.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, further including the step of sending supplemental data from the personal computer system to the server in response to a received prompt from the server for supplemental data relative to sending diagnostic data for correcting the problem condition identified at POST.

5. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein the step of sending supplemental data from the personal computer system is accomplished by keying information on a keyboard included as a part of the personal computer system.

6. The method as defined in claim 5, further comprising the step of receiving the corrective action data packets at the physical layer of the network adapter of the client personal computer system from the server having system diagnostic capability as a result of diagnostic analysis of the data of the datagram by the server and a determination that the corrective action data packet is a solution to the problem condition identified.

7. A method for providing system correction analysis for a client personal computer system without operating system software in a data network including a server having system diagnostic capability and at least one client personal computer system having a system management device in a network adapter including a physical layer connected to the system management device through a media independent interface bus, which physical layer receives network signal packets from the server and sends network signal packets to the server including personal computer system diagnostic data, comprising the steps of:

conducting a POST operation within the client personal computer system;

identifying a problem condition in the POST operation of the client personal computer system;

reporting the problem condition to the server having system diagnostic capability, including the steps of;

generating a datagram as a network signal packet including data identifying the problem condition;

sending the generated datagram from the physical layer of the network adapter;

analyzing the datagram at the server;

determining if the corrective diagnostic data in the server provides a corrective solution for the problem condition identified in the POST operation;

generating a corrective action data packet for sending to the client personal computer system if it is determined that the generated corrective action data packet provides a solution to the identified problem condition, and if it is determined that the generated corrective action data packet does not provide a solution, generating a service ticket data signal for processing to provide a corrective solution to the identified problem condition in the personal computer system.

8. A personal computer client system, for a LAN network including at least one personal computer client system and a server having diagnostic corrective action data, comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU);

memory;

memory controller connected to the CPU and the memory for controlling memory access;

a non-volatile storage device having BIOS including POST code for determining at POST operational error problems occurring within the personal computer client system;

a network adapter for connection to the server having diagnostic corrective action data for correcting POST operational error problems, the network adapter including a physical layer for sending alert packets identifying an operational error problem to the server and receiving network packet signals on the personal computer network from the server in a predefined analog format and decoding the network packet signals having corrective diagnostic data of the server to a digital format, said corrective data packets including data to correct the operational error identified by the alert packets from the server; and

a media access controller connected to the physical layer through a media independent interface (MII) for processing data packets having diagnostic corrective action data received from and for processing data packets having diagnostic supplemental data sent to the server, and for identifying corrective action data packets sent from the server and for determining that the diagnostic corrective action data includes data for video memory and for sending the data for video memory to a video display system.

9. The personal computer client system as defined in claim 8, wherein the physical layer is connected to the LAN network for receiving and transmitting network data packets to and from the server on the network side of the physical layer and for transmission of received network data packets, including data related to the server diagnostic corrective data, on the client side of the physical layer on a media independent interface bus to an auxiliary logic as a part of the network adaptor to detect network data packets received by the personal computer client system that have data including the server diagnostic corrective data.

10. A personal computer client system, for a data network including at least one personal computer client system and a server having diagnostic corrective action data, comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU);

memory;

memory controller connected to the CPU and the memory for controlling memory access;

a non-volatile storage device having BIOS including POST code for determining at POST operational error problems;

a network adapter for connection to the server having diagnostic corrective action data for correcting POST operational error problems, the network adapter including a physical layer for sending and receiving data packets to and from the computer client system to the server and a media access controller connected to the physical layer through a media independent interface (MII) for processing data packets having diagnostic corrective action data received from and for processing data packets having diagnostic supplemental data sent to the server and for identifying corrective data packets sent from the server and for determining that the diagnostic corrective action data includes data for video memory and for sending the data for video memory to a video display system; and

the network adapter including a reception portion, including the physical layer, connected to the data network for receiving the network packet signals on the personal computer network from the server in a predefined analog format and for decoding the network packet signals having the corrective diagnostic data of the server to ta digital format for providing the corrective data for processing by the personal computer.

11. The personal computer client system as defined in claim 10, wherein the physical layer connected to the data network for receiving and transmitting network data packets to and from the server on the network side of the physical layer and for transmission of received network data packets, including data related to the server diagnostic corrective data, on the client side of the physical layer on a media independent interface bus to an auxiliary logic as a part of the network adaptor to detect network data packets received by the personal computer client system that have data including the server diagnostic corrective data.

12. The personal computer client system as defined in claim 11, wherein the auxiliary logic includes a micro controller having state machines for managing data packet reception and data packet transmission.

13. The personal computer client system as defined in claim 10, further including in the personal computer a PCI bus, an ISA bus, a PCI/ISA bridge, and a micro controller having a state machine for managing bus transmission between the network adapter and the PCI bus and the ISA bus.

14. The personal computer client system as defined in claim 13, wherein the media access controller provides a shared data path between the MII and the PCI bus.

15. The personal computer client system as defined in claim 14, wherein the media access controller during the sending of data packets, the media access controller assembles the data into the data packet with address and error detection fields, and during the receiving of data packets the media access controller disassembles the data packet and performs address checking and error detection.

16. The personal computer client system as defined in claim 15, wherein the media access controller further performs encoding/decoding of digital data signals sent over the shared path, and data packet preamble generation and removal.

17. The personal computer client system as defined in claim 10, wherein the video display system receives buffered data in a video memory and a video controller processes the corrective diagnostic data for display.

18. A method for providing system correction analysis for a client personal computer system without operating system software in a data network including a server having system diagnostic capability and at least one client personal computer system having a system management device in a network adapter including a physical layer connected to the system management device through a media independent interface bus, which physical layer receives network signal packets from the server and sends network signal packets to the server including personal computer system diagnostic data, comprising the steps of:

conducting a POST operation within the client personal compute system;

identifying a problem condition in the POST operation of the client personal computer system;

reporting the problem condition to the server having system diagnostic capability, including the steps of;

generating a datagram as a network signal packet including data identifying the problem condition;

sending the generated datagram from the physical layer of the network adapter;

analyzing the datagram at the server;

determining if the corrective diagnostic data in the server provides a corrective solution for the problem condition identified in the POST operation;

generating a corrective action data packet for sending to the client personal computer system if it is determined that the generated corrective action data packet provides a solution to the identified problem condition, and if it is determined that the generated corrective action data packet does not provide a solution, generating a service ticket data signal for processing to provide a corrective solution to the identified problem condition in the personal computer system; and

receiving the corrective action data packets at the physical layer of the network adapter of the client personal computer system from the server having system diagnostic capability as a result of diagnostic analysis of the data of the datagram by the server and a determination that the corrective action data packet is a solution to the problem condition identified.