Baseboard management controller with integrated radio frequency identification interface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11171787-B2
Application number	US-201816146789-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2018
Priority date	Sep 28, 2018
Publication date	Nov 9, 2021
Grant date	Nov 9, 2021

Abstract

A radio frequency identification interface integrated with a baseboard management controller is provided for secure data extraction from the baseboard management controller. The radio frequency identification interface includes a passive radio frequency identification circuit in direction communication with the baseboard management controller, an antenna to receive a radio-frequency signal when the baseboard management controller is in a standby powered-off status, and a connector to connect the radio frequency identification circuit to the antenna.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
securely extracting data of a server from a baseboard management controller (BMC) of the server having an authenticator and an integrated RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) interface by:
sending a query to the RFID interface;
sending an authentication value through the RFID interface to the authenticator of the BMC; and
retrieving the data from a passive RFID circuit of the integrated RFID interface, wherein the passive RFID circuit is integrated into the BMC.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the BMC is powered off when retrieving the data from the integrated RFID interface.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
powering on the BMC; and
retrieving additional data from the BMC via an operating system of the server.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the additional data includes data from a BMC log, a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) log, a hardware log, a system event log, or any combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein securely extracting data of the server from the BMC further comprises:
retrieving a key from the RFID interface responsive to sending the query to the RFID interface;
passing the key to an authentication server; and
retrieving the authentication value from the authentication server.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the authentication value is a hash of the key.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the query is sent to the RFID interface via a radio frequency transmitter.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the extracted data is of a critical log, the critical log including a hardware model number, serial number, system hardware or system firmware configuration, error log data, or any combination thereof.

9. A system comprising:
a baseboard management controller (BMC) of a server having a powered-on status, a standby powered-on status, and a standby powered-off status, the BMC further comprising an authenticator to receive an authentication value through an RFID interface; and
the RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) interface in direct communication with the BMC to extract data from the BMC, the RFID interface comprising:
a passive RFID circuit in direct communication with the BMC, wherein the passive RFID circuit is integrated into the BMC;
an antenna to receive a radio-frequency signal from an RFID reader when the BMC is in the standby powered-off status; and
a connector to connect the passive RFID circuit to the antenna.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein log data is stored at the RFID integrated circuit.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the BMC, when in the standby powered-on status, passes critical log data from the BMC to the RFID integrated circuit.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the BMC includes an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) to transfer static log data from the BMC to the RFID circuit when the BMC is in the standby powered-on status.

13. An apparatus comprising:
an RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) interface including:
an RFID circuit integrated into a baseboard management controller (BMC), the RFID circuit to collect log data from the BMC;
a connector connected to the BMC at a first end and to an antenna at a second end; and
the antenna to transmit a radio-frequency signal of the collected log data.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , further comprising an RFID tag to store the collected log data when the BMC is in a powered-off status.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the RFID circuit is housed by a server chassis, and the antenna is configured to extend outside of the server chassis.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the antenna transmits a radio-frequency signal of collected log data responsive to receiving an authentication value.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the antenna transmits an RFID signal including a lookup value responsive to a query for the collected log data.

18. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the BMC, when in a powered-on status, passes critical log data from the BMC to the integrated RFID circuit.

19. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the log data includes data from a BMC log, a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) log, a hardware log, a system event log, or any combination thereof.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Entpr Dev Lp

Inventors

• Chung Yao-Huan
• Darmanto Yulianti

Classifications

• H04L2209/805

  Lightweight hardware, e.g. radio-frequency identification [RFID] or sensor · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04L2209/24

  Key scheduling, i.e. generating round keys or sub-keys for block encryption · CPC title

• H04L9/3242 Primary

  involving keyed hash functions, e.g. message authentication codes [MACs], CBC-MAC or HMAC · CPC title

• H04W12/47

  using near field communication [NFC] or radio frequency identification [RFID] modules · CPC title