Automatic firmware corruption recovery and update

• US 7,849,454 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2006
• Issued: 12/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Lopez, Pedro, Lambert, Timothy, Cochran, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatri; Anil
• Application Number:
  US11/331,509
• Publication Number:
  US 20070169088A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,789 Days
• Field of Search: 717168-175, 709203-204
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/654 using techniques specially adapted for alterable solid state memories, e.g. for EEPROM or flash memories

Abstract

Firmware for a baseboard management controller (BMC) of a blade server module in an information handling system may have automatic firmware corruption recovery and updating through a TFTP transfer from a central storage location having the most recent BMC firmware image. Upon blade power-on or reset the BMC firmware image is checked for corruption and if corrupted a new BMC firmware image is loaded into the BMC memory. If the BMC firmware image is not corrupted then it is checked to determine if it is the latest version. If it is the latest version the BMC starts normal program execution. If not the latest version then the BMC firmware is updated through the TFTP transfer from the central storage location having the most recent BMC firmware image.

Claims

1. A method for automatic firmware corruption recovery and update of an information handling system, wherein the information handling system comprises a memory and at least one or more processors, said method comprising the steps of:

checking a firmware image for corruption whenever a power-on or reset occurs;

requesting a replacement firmware image only from a central location connected to each of a plurality of networked computers for the corrupted firmware image, if the firmware image is corrupted;

booting from the firmware image then checking only at the central location if a newer version of the firmware image is available, if the firmware image is not corrupted, wherein

if the newer version of the firmware image is available at the central location then;

executing at the at least one or more processors a file transfer protocol command to retrieve the newer version of the firmware image from the central location,

loading the newer version of the firmware image directly to a memory location of the firmware image, and

booting the newer version of the firmware image, and

if the newer version of the firmware image is not available at the central location then beginning normal program execution until another power-on or reset occurs;

determining only at the central location whether the replacement firmware image is available, if the firmware image is corrupted, wherein

if the replacement firmware image is available at the central location then retrieving and loading the replacement firmware image directly to the memory location of the firmware image from the central location,

if the replacement firmware image is not available at the central location then setting a mode and serial port so that a serial port recovery is available then resetting, and

executing the serial port recovery.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the firmware image is stored in a non-volatile read only memory.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the firmware image is used with a baseboard management controller (BMC) of a blade server in a blade server system.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the step of loading the newer version of the firmware image into the BMC further comprises the step of loading from a chassis management controller (CMC).

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the step of loading the replacement of the firmware image into the BMC further comprises the step of loading from a chassis management controller (CMC).

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the firmware image is used with a baseboard management controller (BMC) of a rack server in a rack server system.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of loading the newer version of the firmware image into the BMC further comprises the step of loading from a remote assistant card (RAC).

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the step of loading the replacement of the firmware image into the BMC further comprises the step of loading from a remote assistant card (RAC).

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the firmware image is used with a management controller of a tower server.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the file transfer protocol command executed to retrieve the newer version of the firmware image from the central location is a trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP) command.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving the replacement of the firmware image includes the step of executing a trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP) command.

12. A computer program, stored in a tangible medium, for automatic firmware corruption recovery and update comprising executable instructions that cause at least one processor to:

check a firmware image for corruption whenever a power-on or reset occurs;

request a replacement firmware image only from a central location connected to each of a plurality of networked computers for the corrupted firmware image, if the firmware image is corrupted;

boot from the firmware image then checking only at the central location if a newer version of the firmware image is available, if the firmware image is not corrupted, wherein

if the newer version of the firmware image is available at the central location then;

execute a file transfer protocol command to retrieve the newer version of the firmware image from the central location,

load the newer version of the firmware image directly to a memory location of the firmware image, and

boot the newer version of the firmware image, and

if the newer version of the firmware image is not available at the central location then begin normal program execution until another power-on or reset occurs;

determine only at the central location whether the replacement firmware image is available, if the firmware image is corrupted, wherein

if the replacement firmware image is available at the central location then retrieve and load the replacement firmware image directly to the memory location of the firmware image from the central location, if the replacement firmware image is not available at the central location then set a mode and serial port so that a serial port recovery is available then reset, and execute the serial port recovery.

13. The computer program of claim 12, wherein the firmware image is stored in a non-volatile read only memory.

14. The computer program of claim 12, wherein the firmware image is used with a baseboard management controller (BMC) of a blade server in a blade server system.

15. The computer program of claim 12, wherein the firmware image is used with a baseboard management controller (BMC) of a rack server in a rack server system.

16. The computer program of claim 12, wherein the file transfer protocol command executed to retrieve the newer version of the firmware image from the central location is a trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP).

17. The computer program of claim 12, further comprising executable instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one of the one or more processors to execute a trivial file transfer protocol (TFTP) command at the retrieve the replacement of the firmware image step.

18. A computer program, stored in a tangible medium, for automatic firmware corruption recovery comprising executable instructions that cause at least one processor to:

check a firmware image for corruption whenever a power-on or reset occurs to determine whether the firmware image is corrupted;

request a replacement firmware image only from a central location connected to each of a plurality of networked computers for the corrupted firmware image, if the firmware image is corrupted;

determine only at the central location whether the replacement firmware image is available, if the firmware image is corrupted;

retrieve and load the replacement firmware image directly to a memory location of the firmware image from the central location, if the replacement firmware image is available at the central location;

set a mode and serial port so that a serial port recovery is available then reset and execute the serial port recovery, if the replacement firmware image is not available at the central location.

19. The computer program of claim 18, wherein the firmware image is used with a baseboard management controller (BMC) of a blade server in a blade server system.

20. The computer program of claim 19, further comprising executable instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one of the one or more processors to load the replacement firmware image from a chassis management controller (CMC).