Method, apparatus and system for locating fault of server, and computer-readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12554570-B2
Application number	US-202118263527-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2021
Priority date	Jan 29, 2021
Publication date	Feb 17, 2026
Grant date	Feb 17, 2026

Abstract

A method for locating a fault of a server includes: physically connecting a GPIO pin of a BMC to a GPIO pin of target hardware in advance; reading a current state value of the GPIO signal of the target hardware in a power-on and activation process of a mainboard, and loading a corresponding version of the firmware according to the current state value and the condition for switching; and in response to determining that the corresponding version of the firmware is the debug version, outputting serial port log information of the debug version to the BMC, and in response to determining that the corresponding version of the firmware is the release version, determining whether to change the state value of the GPIO signal on a connection between the BMC and the target hardware according to a preset normal activation condition and a system event log.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for locating a fault of a server, the method comprising:
physically connecting a General-Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pin of a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) to a GPIO pin of target hardware, and setting, according to a state of a GPIO signal, a condition for switching between a release version and a debug version of firmware; reading a current state value of the GPIO signal of the target hardware in a power-on and activation process of a mainboard, and loading a corresponding version of the firmware according to the current state value and the condition for switching; and in response to determining that the corresponding version of the firmware is the debug version, outputting serial port log information of the debug version to the BMC, and in response to determining that the corresponding version of the firmware is the release version, determining whether to change the current state value of the GPIO signal on a connection between the BMC and the target hardware according to a preset normal activation condition and a system event log.

2 . The method for locating the fault of the server according to claim 1 , wherein determining whether to change the current state value of the GPIO signal on the connection between the BMC and the target hardware according to the preset normal activation condition and the system event log comprises:
determining whether a startup parameter satisfies the preset normal activation condition in a startup process of the server based on the release version; in response to determining that the startup parameter of the server does not satisfy the preset normal activation condition, executing a re-activation operation of the server according to a re-activation instruction sent by the BMC, and generating the system event log simultaneously; and in a process of executing the re-activation operation of the server, in response to determining that the startup parameter satisfies the preset normal activation condition and a number of the system event log is not greater than a preset number threshold, powering on and starting up the mainboard of the server; and in response to determining that the startup parameter satisfies the preset normal activation condition and the number of the system event log is greater than the preset number threshold, setting the current state value of the GPIO signal on the connection between the BMC and the target hardware to a state value of the GPIO signal that indicates to switch to the debug version for outputting.

3 . The method for locating the fault of the server according to claim 2 , wherein the startup parameter comprises an activation time, and the preset normal activation condition comprises that the activation time of the server does not exceed a preset time threshold.

4 . The method for locating the fault of the server according to claim 1 , wherein in response to determining that the corresponding version of the firmware is the debug version, outputting the serial port log information of the debug version to the BMC comprises:
in response to determining that the corresponding version of the firmware is the debug version, determining whether the server is normally activated through the debug version; in response to determining that the server is not normally activated through the debug version, outputting the serial port log information of the debug version to the BMC; and in response to determining that the server is normally activated through the debug version, re-executing an activation operation of the server through the release version based on activation parameters of the debug version.

5 . The method for locating the fault of the server according to claim 4 , wherein re-executing the activation operation of the server through the release version based on the activation parameters of the debug version comprises:
sending an activation feedback notification instruction to the BMC, so that in response to receiving the activation feedback notification instruction, the BMC executes a shutdown operation of the server, stores activation parameter variables read from a storage region of the debug version to a storage region of the release version upon detecting that the server is in a shutdown state, executes an activation flow of the release version after completing storing the activation parameter variables, normally activates the server, and boots an operating system.

6 . The method for locating the fault of the server according to claim 5 , wherein sending the activation feedback notification instruction to the BMC, so that in response to receiving the activation feedback notification instruction, the BMC executes the shutdown operation of the server comprises:
pre-defining a target GPIO pin for the BMC, wherein a change in a state of a signal of the target GPIO pin indicates sending of the activation feedback notification instruction; sending a GPIO signal instruction to the BMC, wherein the GPIO signal instruction is used for setting the current state value of the signal of the target GPIO pin of the BMC as a target value; and executing the shutdown operation of the server when the BMC detects a change in the current state value of the signal of the target GPIO pin.

7 . The method for locating the fault of the server according to claim 6 , wherein the BMC sets a monitoring thread to monitor the change in the state of the signal of the target GPIO pin in real time, and once the state of the signal is changed, the BMC executes the shutdown operation of the server, stores the activation parameter variables read from the storage region of the debug version to the storage region of the release version upon detecting that the server is in the shutdown state, executes the activation flow of the release version after completing storing the activation parameter variables, normally activates the server, and boots the operating system.

8 . The method for locating the fault of the server according to claim 5 , wherein an operation that the BMC stores the activation parameter variables read from the storage region of the debug version to the storage region of the release version comprises:
reading, by the BMC, variable information in a Non-Volatile Random Access Memory (NVRAM) region of the debug version of a BIOS, and stores the variable information to an NVRAM region of the release version of the BIOS.

9 . The method for locating the fault of the server according to claim 5 , wherein sending the activation feedback notification instruction to the BMC comprises:
sending the activation n feedback notification instruction through an Internal Microprogrammed Interface (IMPI) command.

10 . The method for locating the fault of the server according to claim 1 , wherein after outputting the serial port log information of the debug version to the BMC, the method further comprises:
storing, by the BMC, the serial port log information into a target address space in a flash memory of the BMC, and exporting the serial port log information read from the target address space to a requesting terminal upon receiving a fault log information acquisition instruction.

11 . An apparatus for locating a fault of a server, the apparatus comprising: a processor and a memory, wherein the processor is configured to implement operations of the method for locating the fault of the server according to claim 1 when executing a computer program stored in the memory.

12 . The method for locating the fault of the server according to claim 1 , wherein the target hardware is a hardware device or chip having a GPIO pin in the server, and the target hardware comprises: a Platform Controller

Assignees

• Inspur Suzhou Intelligent Technology Co Ltd

Inventors

• Sun Xiuqiang
• Huang Jiaming
• Qiao Yingliang
• Li Daotong
• Yao Fanyi
• Li Xuntang
• Wang Bing
• Ai Shanbin

Classifications

• G06F11/079 Primary

  Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis (in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36) · CPC title

• G06F11/0787 Primary

  Storage of error reports, e.g. persistent data storage, storage using memory protection · CPC title

• 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

• G06F11/1441

  Resetting or repowering · CPC title