Method and system to recover a failed flash of a blade service processor in a server chassis

• US 8,140,705 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2008
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Buckler, Gerhard Nikolaus, Franke, Jeffery Michael, Johnson, Donald Eugene, Morrell, Carl A., Woodham, David Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THU HA T
• Application Number:
  US12/024,836
• Publication Number:
  US 20080140859A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,509 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1433 during software upgrading

Abstract

A method and system for recovering a server blade, in a multiple server blade computer, that is lost during a flash update operation on a service processor in the server blade. Because of the flash update failure, the lost server blade is unaware of its location on a management pathway, which in an exemplary form may be a midplane or a bus, which connects the server blade and a management module in a server blade chassis. The lost server blade puts a signal on the management pathway indicating that the flash failed. The signal is put on a special channel reserved for such messages. The management module receives the signal, and then determines which of the multiple server blades are lost due to the flash update failure.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

attempting to download computer code from a management module to a first data processing unit, the first data processing unit being one of a plurality of data processing units managed by the management module, the plurality of data processing units being coupled to the management module by a management pathway;

in response to the computer code failing to properly download and thus resulting in the first data processing unit being unable to define its management pathway location on the management pathway, transmitting a failure signal from the first data processing unit to the management module using a special address on the management pathway;

comparing management pathway locations of currently active data processing units with a list of all management pathway locations reserved for all of the plurality of data processing units, the currently active data processing units being from the plurality of data processing units; and

deducing the first data processing unit'"'"'s management pathway location as being a management pathway location that is on the list of all management pathway locations but is not a management pathway location of one of the currently active data processing units.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a management pathway location to the first data processing unit after deducing the first data processing unit'"'"'s management pathway location.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the management pathway location of the first data processing unit is provided to the first data processing unit using a control logic that is compliant with the I²C bus specification and is coupled to the management pathway.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the control logic is under the control of the management module.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a second data processing unit that does not know its management pathway location as a result of a failed computer code download;

blocking communication from the management module to the second data processing unit; and

providing a first management pathway location to the first data processing unit.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

subsequently unblocking communication between the second data processing unit and the management module; and

providing a second management pathway location to the second data processing unit.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data processing units are server blades.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the management module and the server blades are components of a server blade chassis.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the data processing units has a network interface card (NIC), and wherein the first data processing unit'"'"'s management pathway location is an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer code is being downloaded into a service processor in the first data processing unit.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer code is attempted to be flashed into a flash memory in the service processor in the first data processing unit.

12. A system comprising:

a management module;

a plurality of server blades coupled to midplane sockets in a multi-blade chassis;

a management pathway coupling the management module to the plurality of server blades;

a list of reserved management pathway locations that are reserved for the plurality of server blades on the management pathway; and

a presence detect device coupled to the management pathway, wherein if a download of computer code to a first server blade in the plurality of server blades fails and causes a management pathway location for the first server blade to become undefined for the first server blade, then the presence detect device detects a failure signal from the first server blade on a special address on the management pathway, thus resulting in the management module comparing the list of reserved management pathway locations with locations of server blades that are currently active on the management pathway to restore a management pathway location to the first server blade, wherein a failure to properly download the computer code to the first server blade results in the first server blade being unable to determine an address for a specific midplane socket in the multi-blade chassis.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a control logic, which is compliant with an I²C bus specification, for restoring the management pathway location to the first server blade.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a blocker for blocking communication from the management module to a second server blade that has failed to download software, wherein the first server blade can have its management pathway location restored while the second server blade is blocked, and the second server blade can subsequently have its management pathway location restored after unblocking the blocker.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a service processor in the first server blade; and

a flash memory in the service processor in the first server blade, wherein the computer code is a code update being flashed from the management module to the flash memory.

16. A computer program product, residing on a non-transitory computer usable medium, comprising:

program code for attempting to download computer code from a management module to a first data processing unit, the first data processing unit being One of a plurality of data processing units managed by the management module, the plurality of data processing units being coupled to the management module by a management pathway;

program code for in response to the computer code failing to properly download and thus resulting in the first data processing unit being unable to define its management pathway location on the management pathway, transmitting a failure signal from the first data processing unit to the management module using a special address on the management pathway;

program code for comparing management pathway locations of currently active data processing units with a list of all management pathway locations reserved for all of the plurality of data processing units, the currently active data processing units being from the plurality of data processing units; and

program code for deducing the first data processing unit'"'"'s management pathway location as being a management pathway location that is on the list of all management pathway locations but is not a management pathway location of one of the currently active data processing units.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising program code for providing a management pathway location to the first data processing unit after deducing the first data processing unit'"'"'s management pathway location.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

program code for identifying a second data processing unit that does not know its management pathway location as a result of a failed computer code download;

program code for blocking communication from the management module to the second data processing unit; and

program code for providing a first management pathway location to the first data processing unit.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising:

program code for subsequently unblocking communication between the second data processing unit and the management module; and

program code for providing a second management pathway location to the second data processing unit.