Method for dynamic assignment of slot-dependent static port addresses

• US 7,340,538 B2
• Filed: 12/03/2003
• Issued: 03/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Alappat, Kuriappan P., Hiremath, Chetan
• Primary Examiner(s): Sparks; Donald
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dews; Brooke J
• Application Number:
  US10/727,277
• Publication Number:
  US 20050125575A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,553 Days
• Field of Search: 710/8
• US Class Current: 710/5
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/604 Address structures or formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5092 by self-assignment, e.g. picking addresses at random and testing if they are already in use

Abstract

A method for dynamic assignment of slot-dependent static network port addresses. Under the method, a slot address and shelf address are determined for a card modular platform board installed in a given slot in a shelf. The slot and shelf addresses are used as inputs to return a unique network address. The unique network address is then assigned as a static network address for the board'"'"'s network port. The unique address may be provided by an address proxy, including a boot server. Firmware and/or software stored on a board may also be employed to obtain the static network address. The address may be obtained from a pre-configured lookup table, or dynamically determined using an algorithm.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining a shelf address and a slot address of a board installed in a card modular platform, wherein the shelf address corresponds to a physical shelf of the card modular platform and the slot address corresponds to a physical slot location on the shelf of the card modular platform; and

automatically assigning a static network Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) address for at least one network port on the board based on a combination of the shelf address and the slot address, wherein the static network IP address is automatically assigned by performing operations including;

configuring an address proxy server with an address lookup table containing a unique network address for each shelf address and slot address combination;

sending the shelf and slot addresses from the board to the address proxy server;

querying the address lookup table based on the shelf and slot addresses to retrieve a corresponding network address; and

returning the network address to the board.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the shelf and the slot addresses are respectively obtained by issuing GetAddressInfo and GetShelfAddressInfo IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) commands.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the board is made by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and the shelf and the slot addresses are obtained by employing OEM-specific IPMI (intelligent Platform Management Interface) commands.

4. A method comprising:

obtaining, for a network port on a board installed in a card module platform, a temporary IP (Internet Protocol) address from a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server;

receiving an initial boot image from the boot server;

determining a shelf address and a slot address of the board installed in the card module platform by executing instructions in the initial boot image;

sending the shelf and slot addresses to a boot server;

receiving a final boot image along with an IP address from the boot server;

executing the final boot image; and

setting a static IP address for the board in accordance with the IP address that was received from the boot server with the final boot image.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the boot server comprises a PXE (pre-boot execution environment) server.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

executing firmware on the board to initialize a network interface; and

performing a DHCP message exchange via the network interface to obtain the temporary address.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising returning an IP address for the boot server in addition to the temporary IP address.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

configuring the boot server with an IP address lookup table containing a unique network address for respective shelf address and slot address combinations; and

querying the IP address lookup table based on the shelf and slot addresses to retrieve the IP address to be assigned as the static IP address.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein data exchanged between the board and the boot server is sent via the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP).

10. The method of claim 4, further comprising co-locating the DHCP server and the boot server on the same machine.

11. A card modular platform board, comprising:

a printed circuit board (PCB) on which a plurality of components are operatively coupled and linked in communication via circuitry on the PCB, including,

a processor;

memory;

at least one backplane connector, configured to couple to a backplane installed in a card modular platform shelf having a plurality of slots;

a network interface coupled to a network port; and

at least one of a non-volatile storage device or a mass storage device; and

machine executable instructions stored in said at least one of the non-volatile storage device or the mass storage device, which when executed by the processor perform operations in response to insertion of the board into a slot, comprising;

initializing the network interface;

performing client-side operations in a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) message exchange to obtain a temporary IP (Internet Protocol) address from a DHCP server;

receiving an initial boot image from a boot server;

executing instructions in the initial boot image to obtain the shelf and slot addresses;

receiving a final boot image along with a static IP address from the boot server; and

booting the final boot image,

wherein the static IP address that was received from the boot server is assigned by the final boot image as the static IP address for the network port,

wherein the static IP address is assigned dependent upon the shelf and slot addresses and independent of a media access control (“

MAC”

) address of the PCB.

12. A tangible machine-readable medium to provide instructions, which when executed by a card modular platform board performs operations in response to insertion of the board into a slot of a card modular platform shelf, including:

receiving an initial boot image from a boot server;

executing instructions in the initial boot image to obtain shelf and slot addresses of the board;

receiving a final boot image;

booting the final boot image; and

automatically assigning a static Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) address for the network port by the final boot image based on the shelf address and the slot address.

13. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the static IP address is determined by performing an algorithm that generates a unique address in response to providing the shelf and slot addresses as inputs to the algorithm.

14. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the medium comprises a firmware storage device, and the instructions comprise firmware.

15. The tangible machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the shelf and the slot addresses are respectively obtained by issuing GetAddressInfo and GetShelfAddressInfo IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) commands via execution of the instructions.