American Megatrends, Inc.

American Megatrends International, LLC

Winston Thangapandian

Anurag Bhatia

Samvinesh Christopher

Venkatesan Balakrishnan

Valantina Arumugam

Chitrak Gupta

Varadachari Sudan Ayanam

Harikrishna Doppalapudi

Purandhar Nallagatla

Igor Kulchytskyy

Balasubramanian Chandrasekaran

Viswanathan Swaminathan

Jason Messer

David Wise

Balaji Nagalingam Rajendiran

Utpal Patel

Pravinash Jeyapaul

Pokuri Sivakrishna

Suresh Vijayakumar

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a BMC. The BMC receives a management instruction directed to a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) switch. The BMC generates a corresponding command for the PCIe switch based on the management instruction. The BMC transmits the corresponding command to the PCIe switch to configure or operate the PCIe switch dynamically.

Enabling out-of-band generic PCIe switch control/configuration management using BMC for dynamic, scalable hardware requirements

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus is a BMC. The BMC detects a boot failure from both an active firmware image and a recovery firmware image. The BMC starts a recovery protocol to acquire a fallback firmware image from a first source once it identifies the failure. The BMC flashes the obtained fallback firmware image onto its storage device. The BMC initiates a boot process using the fallback firmware image.

Automatic BMC and bios firmware recovery

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a BMC. The BMC detects a platform type of a modular hardware system. The BMC searches for platform-specific files in a storage of the BMC based on the detected platform type. The BMC determines whether the platform-specific files are present in the storage of the BMC. When the platform-specific files are present in the storage of the BMC, the BMC reads the platform-specific files from the storage of the BMC, and the BMC initializes a service using the platform-specific files read from the storage of the BMC.

Dynamic platform selection and sensor management

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and a device are provided. The device determines one or more feature components of firmware of a BMC to be tested. The device also determines a respective QA category from a plurality of QA categories for each of the one or more feature components. Each of the plurality of QA categories is associated with a set of feature components and a set of the test cases. The device further determines respective at least one test case for each of the one or more feature components based on the respective QA category of the each feature component. The test case specifies hardware and a procedure to be used to test the each feature component.

Automatic framework to create QA test pass

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and a device are provided. The device determines that a target event occurred at a first server in a group of servers that are jointly managed. The device obtains, for the first server, a public-private key pair including a first key and a second key. The device provides the first key to the first server such that the first server is accessible by authentication with the first key. The device provides the second key to a client device such that the first server is accessible by the client device by providing the second key to the server. Subsequently, the device revokes the first key from the first server.

Secure remote online debugging of firmware on deployed hardware

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and a device are provided. The device the package determination componentdetermines one or more packages distributed in firmware of a BMC. The device determines a respective update of each of the one or more packages. The device determines a first set of security vulnerabilities of the each package that is addressed by the respective update. The device further determines a second set of security vulnerabilities of the each package after the respective update is applied. The device generates a first file indicating the first set of security vulnerabilities and the second set of security vulnerabilities.

Auto detection mechanism of vulnerabilities for security updates

Technologies are described herein for a representational state transfer ('REST' or 'RESTful') over an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (&#x201c;IPMI&#x201d;) interface for firmware to a baseboard management controller (&#x201c;BMC&#x201d;) communication and applications thereof. These applications include, but are not limited to, remote firmware configuration, firmware updates, peripheral device firmware updates, provision of management information such as system inventory data, cloning and batch migration of firmware configuration settings, and firmware integrity monitoring. This functionality can be provided in a way that enables communication between BMCs and firmware to utilize modern manageability interfaces while maintaining backward compatibility with previous IPMI implementations.

Rest over IPMI interface for firmware to BMC communication

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a service processor. The service processor sends to a DHCP server a request-to-acquire for acquiring an IP address. The service processor then receives a response from the DHCP server. The response includes a first user name. The service processor further configures a user account in association with the first user name on the service processor. The user account allows access to the service processor.

Secure default user account for embedded systems

Aspects of the disclosure relate to management node failover systems and methods. The system includes two management devices and a detection and reversal device. Each of the two management devices has a processor and a non-volatile memory storing computer executable code. The two management devices function respectively as an active node and a passive node. The detection and reversal device monitors status of the active node. When the active node fails, the detection and reversal device sends an activation signal to the passive node. The passive node, in response to receiving the active signal, switches from the passive node to the active node.

Management node failover for high reliability systems

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a management device. The management device obtains an organizational file of an executable program. The management device determines a list of libraries that are depended to execute the executable program. The management device obtains the list of libraries from one or more library collections. The library collections include at least one library that is not in the list of libraries. The management device constructs an embedded-system device with the executable program and the list of libraries without the at least one library.

Techniques of automatically generating dependencies for applications in embedded systems

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a service processor. The service processor generates a first encryption key at runtime based on unique device data of the service processor and a first logic. The service processor refrains from storing the first encryption key in the storage device. The service processor further encrypts target data based on the encryption key and an encryption algorithm to obtain first encrypted data. The service processor then stores the first encrypted data in a storage device of the service processor.

Dynamic generation of key for encrypting data in management node

A system includes a computing device and a server management controller configured to be connected to the computing device. The server management controller includes a processor, an interface in communication with multiple sensors disposed in the computing device, and a non-volatile memory storing computer executable code. The code, when executed at the processor, is configured to: assign each of the sensors with a logical unit number (LUN) and a sensor number; receive a first message from a first sensor of the sensors via the interface, where the first message has a first LUN field storing the assigned LUN and a first sensor number field storing the assigned sensor number of the first sensor; process the received first message; and determine the first sensor as a source of the first message based on the LUN and the sensor number stored in the first message.

System and method of supporting more than 256 sensors by intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) based server management controller

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and a computer system are provided. A first device of the computer system emulates one or more sensors monitoring one or more operating characteristics of a host of a BMC of the computer system. The first device generates first data of a first sensor of the one or more emulated sensors. The first sensor monitors a first operating characteristic of the one or more operating characteristics. The first device sends, to the BMC, the first data and an indication indicating that the first data is associated with the first sensor.

Techniques of sensor readings virtualization and BMC functionality validation

Systems and methods for cross-building a non-native application on a computing device under a different architecture. In one example, the computing device may be a x86 host computing device, and the non-native application may be a non-x86 application intended to be executable on a non-x86 embedded system. To cross-build the application on the x86 host, the x86 host may provide a protected environment, such as a Linux container (LXC). The application and corresponding library files for the non-x86 embedded system are provided in the LXC. When the application is to be executed, the system determines that the application is non-x86, and loads a corresponding translator module to translate the non-x86 code of the application and the corresponding library files in the LXC to x86 code. Thus, the application may be executable in the LXC on the x86 host to access and utilize resources of the x86 host.

System and method for cross-building and maximizing performance of non-native applications using host resources

A system includes a baseboard management controller (BMC), capable of online update of the BMC without shutting down any services. The BMC includes a processor, a volatile memory configured to perform multiple service instances, and a non-volatile memory storing a computer executable code and a root file system. The root file system includes multiple service modules as origin of the service instances. The computer executable code, when executed at the processor, is configured to: receive an update command and perform an update process based on the update command. The update process includes: copying the root file system from the non-volatile memory to the volatile memory; switching the origin of the service instances to the copy of the root file system; receiving an update root file system code; and writing the update root file system code to the non-volatile memory to obtain an updated root file system.

Growing community of inventors

Duluth, GA, United States of America

Winston Thangapandian