System and method for application programming interface for extended intelligent platform management

• US 20040249913A1
• Filed: 04/22/2003
• Published: 12/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Kaufman, Gerald J. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 7,966,389 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3065 Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in reporting the monitored data error or fault reporting or logging G06F11/0766

Abstract

A system for controlling a computer system uses a management controller having sensor data record objects in a sensor data record repository. Sensor data record objects contain data from a plurality of sensors, and at least one sensor data record object contains a property descriptor. The property descriptor references a property data object readable and writeable by a controlling computer through the management controller, and provides a way to control at least one feature of the computer system.

Claims

1. A system for controlling a computer system comprising:

a management controller;

a plurality of sensors coupled to the management controller;

wherein the management controller contains a plurality of sensor data record objects in a sensor data record repository, wherein a plurality of the sensor data record objects contain data received from the plurality of sensors, and at least one additional sensor data record object contains a property descriptor;

wherein the property descriptor references a property data object accessible to the management controller;

wherein the sensor data record objects and property data objects are readable through an interface, and wherein the property data objects are writeable through the interface to control the computer system.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a management computer coupled to the interface for providing commands to the management controller.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the interface operates according to the Intelligent Platform Management Interface protocol.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is a partitionable computing system having partition control registers, and wherein the partition control registers are writeable through property data objects.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the partition control registers include protection domain registers.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the sensors are coupled to the management controller through a satellite management controller.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the property data objects are lockable such that they may be read coherently with multiple read operations.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein reading a first said property data object provides a mechanism for reading a state of a portion of the computer system, and wherein writing the said property data object provides a mechanism for changing the state of the portion of the computer system.

9. An improvement of baseboard management controllers for computer systems controllable through an Intelligent Platform Management Interface, wherein the improvement comprises:

providing a sensor data object on a management controller, the sensor data object indicative of a property object readable and writeable through the Intelligent Platform Management Interface.

10. The baseboard management controller of claim 9, wherein the property data object is readable to provide state information of a feature of the computer system, and wherein the property data record is writeable to control said feature of the computer system.

11. The baseboard management controller of claim 10, wherein the property data object is lockable to permit coherent reading with multiple read commands.

12. The baseboard management controller of claim 9 wherein the property data record is located in a subsidiary management controller and accessible through the baseboard management controller.