Provisioning for a modular server

• US 7,440,998 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2003
• Issued: 10/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Bulusu, Mallik, Hiray, Sandip M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn; Nathan J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): JEAN GILLES, JUDE
• Application Number:
  US10/465,130
• Publication Number:
  US 20040260936A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,952 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/229, 709/219, 710/107, 710/37, 713/202, 713/220, 713/222, 713/2
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4405 Initialisation of multiprocessor systems

Abstract

A modular server includes a computer system having dedicated resources and a BIOS configuration agent, blades and a backplane connecting the computer system to the blades.

Claims

1. A modular server comprising:

blades, each of the blades including a corresponding storage module storing Basic Input Output System (BIOS) personality data;

a computer system including dedicated resources and a BIOS personality configuration agent, the BIOS personality configuration agent having a data storage module storing, for each of the blades, a plurality of data records, each of the plurality of data records for a particular blade corresponding to a different version of the BIOS personality data for the particular blade, wherein the BIOS personality configuration agent is configured to send to at least one of the blades one of the plurality of data records corresponding to the at least one of the blades based on at least one of;

a determination that updated BIOS personality data for the at least one of the blades is available, and a determination that a BIOS personality integrity check for the at least one of the blades failed; and

a backplane connecting the computer system to the blades.

2. The server of claim 1 in which the BIOS personality configuration agent is a provisioning agent.

3. The server of claim 2 in which the provisioning agent comprises a code area and a data area.

4. The server of claim 3 in which the data area comprises the BIOS personality data associated with each of the blades.

5. The server of claim 4 in which the BIOS personality data includes boot order information.

6. The server of claim 4 in which the BIOS personality data includes enabled and disabled features.

7. The server of claim 4 in which the BIOS personality data includes allocation of resource information.

8. The server of claim 4 in which the BIOS personality data includes authentication and authorization information.

9. The server of claim 4 in which the data area further comprises configuration information.

10. The server of claim 9 in which the configuration information comprises blade personality updates.

11. The server of claim 9 in which the configuration information comprises version information.

12. The server of claim 4 in which the data area further comprises stock keeping unit (SKU) information.

13. The server of claim 12 in which the SKU information comprises mappings of blade BIOS personalities to blades.

14. A method comprising:

in a modular server having blades, sending a request for a blade basic input output system (BIOS) personality update for a blade to a blade BIOS configuration agent based on at least one of;

a determination that updated BIOS personality data is available for the blade at the BIOS configuration agent, and a determination that a BIOS personality integrity check for the blade failed; and

scheduling the BIOS personality update in the blade;

wherein the BIOS configuration agent having a data storage module storing, for each of the blades, a plurality of data records, each of the plurality of data records for a particular blade corresponding to a different version of the BIOS personality data for the particular blade.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising executing the BIOS personality update in the blade.

16. The method of claim 14 in which the blade BIOS configuration agent is a blade BIOS personality provisioning agent.

17. The method of claim 16 in which the provisioning agent comprises a code area and a data area.

18. The method of claim 17 in which the data area comprises BIOS personality data associated with the blades.

19. The method of claim 18 in which the BIOS personality data includes boot order information.

20. The method of claim 18 in which the BIOS personality data includes enabled and disabled features.

21. The method of claim 18 in which the BIOS personality data includes resource allocation information.

22. The method of claim 18 in which the BIOS personality data includes authorization information.

23. The method of claim 17 in which the data area comprises blade BIOS configuration information.

24. The method of claim 23 in which the BIOS configuration information comprises BIOS personality update information.

25. The method of claim 23 in which the BIOS configuration information comprises version information.

26. The method of claim 17 in which the data area comprises stock keeping unit (SKU) information.

27. The method of claim 26 in which the SKU information maps a blade BIOS personality to the blade.

28. The method of claim 14 in which scheduling further comprises determining whether a planned BIOS personality update is scheduled.

29. A computer program product, stored in a machine readable storage device, for managing blade personalities in a modular server, the computer program product being operable to cause data processing apparatus to:

send a request for a blade Basic Input Output System (BIOS) personality update for at least one of a plurality of blades to a BIOS configuration agent based on at least one of;

a determination that updated BIOS personality data is available for the at least one of the plurality of blades at the BIOS configuration agent, and a determination that a BIOS personality integrity check for the at least one of the plurality of blades failed; and

schedule the BIOS personality update in the blade;

wherein the BIOS configuration agent having a data storage module storing, for each of the blades, a plurality of data records, each of the plurality of data records for a particular blade corresponding to a different version of the BIOS personality data for the particular blade.

30. The product of claim 29 further comprising the data processing apparatus to:

execute the BIOS personality update in the blade.