International Business Machines Corporation

Ajay Kumar Mahajan

Anis M Abdul

Rashmi Narasimhan

Atit D Patel

Venkatesh Sainath

Nicholas Anthony Pietraniec

Brent William Jacobs

Nikhil Hegde

Gary Dean Anderson

Mike Conrad Duron

Robert Allan Faust

Nicholas E Bofferding

Vishwanatha Subbanna

Glenn Rueban Miles

Forrest Clifton Gray

Joseph Donald Armstrong

Hemlata N Reddy

Charles Andrew McLaughlin

Michael John Jones

Robert Kimberlin Foster

Michael Garrett Jones

Anirban Chatterjee

Frank Scholz

Victor Manuel Mena, Jr

Andrea Yin-Shih Ma

Andrea Y Ma

Iwan P Sofjan

Methods, non-transitory storage medium, and systems for generating an aggregated list of problem conditions associated with blade servers to facilitate efficient debugging thereof. In a blade server environment, each chassis is equipped with a chassis management module and each blade in each chassis is associated with a blade management controller. A data map representing the relationships between the blade servers and the shared resources is utilized by a chassis management module to aggregate and link problem conditions sensed by any of the blade management controllers.

Generation of debugging log list in a blade server environment

In an approach for determining a location of failure between interconnects/controller, a computer collects debug information simultaneously at a plurality of nodes coupled to an interconnect. Subsequent to collecting debug information, the computer analyzes the debug information collected simultaneously thereby determining which end of the interconnect caused the failure.

Synchronized debug information generation

A method, system, and computer usable program product for updating firmware without disrupting service are provided in the illustrative embodiments. An updated firmware code is sent to a first firmware component and a second firmware component. The first firmware component is a primary firmware component and the second firmware component is a backup firmware component in a redundant firmware configuration. The updated firmware code is installed in second firmware component. The updated firmware code is activated in a third firmware component. The third firmware component is in communication with the first firmware component. A fail-over from the first firmware component to the second firmware component is performed such that a user communicating with the data processing system and receiving a service using the first firmware component continues to receive the service using the second firmware component without a disruption in the service.

Updating firmware without disrupting service

A mechanism, in a data processing system, is provided for logical partition defragmentation. The mechanism gathers resource requirements for a plurality of logical partitions running in a plurality of power domains within one or more servers. The mechanism determines optimal hardware utilization for the plurality of logical partitions. The mechanism migrates one or more of the plurality of logical partitions to run in a subset of the plurality of power domains such that at least one power domain within the plurality of power domains is unused. The mechanism puts the at least one unused power domain in a low power state.

Logical partition defragmentation within a data processing system

Various systems, processes, products, and techniques may be used to manage failure data for a distributed computer system. In particular implementations, a system and process for managing distributed data for a distributed computer system may include the ability to determine at a service processor of a first node in a distributed computer system that comprises a plurality of nodes whether a failure has occurred in the first node and identify a service processor of a second node in the distributed computer system in which to store failure data if a failure has occurred. The system and process may also include the ability to store at least part of the failure data in the identified service processor and determine whether there is more failure data to store than the identified service processor can store.

Failure data management for a distributed computer system

A method for replacing a current security certificate includes producing a security certificate request at a first device that includes a request for a replacement security certificate. The method additionally includes sending the security certificate request to a security certificate vendor and receiving a replacement security certificate from the security certificate vendor. The method further includes installing the replacement security certificate within a verification layer of the client device and transmitting the replacement security certificate to the server. The method additionally includes verifying that the server has installed the replacement security certificate, wherein the verification further verifies that the replacement security certificate enables encrypted communication between the client device and the server. The method additionally includes archiving the current security certificate upon completion of the verification, and activating the replacement security certificate for use in encrypting communications between the client device and the server.

Techniques for handling SSL certificate expiration and renewal

A distributed system provides error handling wherein the system includes multiple nodes, each node being coupled to multiple node controllers for control redundancy. Multiple system controllers couple to the node controllers via a network bus. A particular node controller may detect an error of that particular node controller. The particular node controller may store error information relating to the detected error in respective nonvolatile memory stores in the system controllers and node controllers according to a particular priority order. In accordance with the particular priority order, for example, the particular node controller may first attempt to store the error information to a primary system controller memory store, then to a secondary system controller memory store, and then to sibling and non-sibling node controller memory stores. The primary system controller organizes available error information for use by system administrators and other resources of the distributed system.

Node controller first failure error management for a distributed system

A method, a system and a computer program product for selecting a primary controller for a server system based on the services offered by each controller. A primary controller designator (PCD) utility determines the relative importance of a controller based upon the services provided by the controller and the weighted importance assigned to these services. The PCD utility classifies the services provided by a system-controller according to the following: (1) the number of OS partitions a system-controller is able to communicate with; and (2) the number of hardware devices that a controller has access to. The importance of the services is determined by the host OS partition information and the degree of importance of a partition that utilizes/requires the particular service(s). The PCD utility designates a controller as a 'Primary' if the designated 'Primary' is capable of providing services that are required for the most important OS partitions, according to the classification of controller services.

Selection of a redundant controller based on resource view

A computer implemented method, a tangible computer medium, and a data processing system are provided for waking a blade server from an operational state of reduced power. When server blade enters the state of reduced power, a service firmware configures a multi-port blade switch of the server blade to direct incoming packets to the service firmware. The service firmware then polls for receipt of a Wake-on-Lan magic packet. When the Wake-on-Lan magic packet is received by the service firmware, the service firmware reconfigures the multi-port blade switch to direct incoming packets to a network interface card of the server blade. The service firmware then initiates a reboot of the server blade.

Wake on Lan for blade server

Disclosed is a computer implemented method and apparatus for establishing a redundant channel from an application to a peer data processing system. The interrupt-driven hot standby program receives, through the operation of a data processing system, a communication channel status corresponding to an application. The application has a first channel using local access across a first physical conduit to a first switch. In addition the communication channel status is, in part, an interrupt. The interrupt-driven hot standby program determines whether the redundant channel is present. The redundant channel is configured to use a second physical conduit distinct from the first physical conduit for traffic of the application. Responding to a determination that the redundant channel is present, the interrupt-driven hot standby program determines whether the redundant channel is configured to use the second physical conduit as local access to a redundant switch, wherein the redundant switch is not the first switch. The interrupt-driven hot standby program responds to a determination that the redundant channel is configured to use the second physical conduit by updating a communication channel list to include at least one attribute of the redundant channel, wherein the communication channel list is resident in the data processing system.

Dynamic addition of redundant network in distributed system communications

A method, system and computer program product for remotely debugging a malfunctioning node controller of a node in a distributed node network through a functioning node controller of the same node. The method comprises establishing a serial link between the malfunctioning node controller and a functioning node controller and configuring the functioning node controller as a virtual console by the remotely-located central data processing system (DPS). The method further includes receiving, via an internal Fru Support Interface (FSI) link, serial data from the malfunctioning node controller through the virtual console, and debugging, by the DPS, a failure condition of the malfunctioning node controller, in response to receipt of the serial data through the virtual console.

Method and system for remote node debugging using an embedded node controller

A computer implemented method, a tangible computer readable medium, and a data processing system intelligently propagate link status information received by a blade server to the various ports of an embedded multi-port switch. The link status of a switch port in an external switch module can be communicated to the operating systems of individual blade servers that are affected by that link status. When an external switch module is unplugged from a server blade chassis, the bus controller broadcasts a link down event, such as a link down interrupt, to the individual server blades where it is received by the embedded multi-port switch for those server blades. The embedded multi-port switch translates the link down interrupt into a hardware link down event, and forwards the hardware link down event to the other elements connected to the embedded multi-port switch.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Ajay Kumar Mahajan