System and method for automatically updating an information handling system upon system crash

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11093321-B1
Application number	US-202016816756-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Mar 12, 2020
Priority date	Mar 12, 2020
Publication date	Aug 17, 2021
Grant date	Aug 17, 2021

Abstract

An information handling system includes a management controller that receives a notification associated with a stop error, captures a screenshot that includes a matrix bar code associated with the stop error, and scans the matrix bar code to retrieve a stop code corresponding to the stop error. If a component associated with the stop error is not updated, then an update for the component may be downloaded to a non-volatile storage device. An update table is generated that includes a location of the update in the non-volatile storage device; and on reboot the update table may be read to determine the location of the update.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a management controller, a notification associated with a stop error;
in response to receiving the notification, capturing a screenshot of the stop error, wherein the screenshot includes a matrix bar code;
scanning the matrix bar code to retrieve a stop code corresponding to the stop error;
determining a component that is associated with the stop code and whether the component is updated; and
in response to determining that the component is not updated:
downloading an update for the component to a non-volatile storage device;
generating an update table that includes a location of the update in the non-volatile storage device; and
storing the update table for use on reboot to determine the location of the update in the non-volatile storage device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising installing the update from the non-volatile storage device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein an update package that includes the update also includes metadata for correlating the stop error with the update.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising applying limitations on the update to the component based on an update policy.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the update policy includes a limitation to install the update if the stop error occurs.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the update policy includes a limitation to not install the update if the stop error occurs.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the update policy includes a limitation to provide notification that the update has been installed if the stop error occurs.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reading of the update table is performed by a Windows session manager.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location of the update is a unified extensible firmware partition.

10. An information handling system, comprising:
a management controller configured to:
receive a notification associated with a stop error;
capture a screenshot that includes a matrix bar code associated with the stop error;
scan the matrix bar code to retrieve a stop code corresponding to the stop error;
if a component associated with the stop error is not updated, then download an update for the component to a non-volatile storage device;
generate an update table that includes a location of the update in the non-volatile storage device; and

a processor configured to:
read, on reboot, the update table to determine the location of the update; and
install the update.

11. The information handling system of claim 10 , wherein the management controller is further configured to download an update catalog.

12. The information handling system of claim 11 , wherein the management controller is further configured to determine whether the update for the component is available based on the update catalog.

13. The information handling system of claim 10 , wherein the update is included in an update package that includes information that maps the stop error to the update.

14. The information handling system of claim 10 , wherein the update table is a Windows platform binary table.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that when executed cause a processor to:
provide a notification associated with a stop error to prompt a screenshot capture of the stop error, a scan of a matrix bar code associated with the stop error, a determination of an update associated with the stop error based on the matrix bar code, and a download of the update to a first non-volatile storage location;
determine whether a component associated with the stop error is not updated; and
in response to the determination that the component is not updated:
read an update table to determine the first non-volatile storage location of the update; and
copy the update from the first non-volatile storage location to a second non-volatile storage location for installation on reboot.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , further storing instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to install the update from the second non-volatile storage location.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein an update package that includes the update also includes metadata that maps the matrix bar code to the update.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the first non-volatile storage location is a partition in a mounted storage used during an update process.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the second non-volatile storage device is a unified extensible firmware partition.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the update table was generated prior to the reboot.

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Zeavelou Palani Raja
• Gore Santosh
• Madala Raveendra Babu

Classifications

• G06F11/0778

  Dumping, i.e. gathering error/state information after a fault for later diagnosis · CPC title

• G06F11/0751

  Error or fault detection not based on redundancy (power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06) · CPC title

• G06F11/0706

  the processing taking place on a specific hardware platform or in a specific software environment · CPC title

• G06F11/0772

  Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers · CPC title

• G06F11/0793 Primary

  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 title