Obtaining device drivers from an out-of-band management network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9244695-B2
Application number	US-201313833871-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Jan 26, 2016
Grant date	Jan 26, 2016

Abstract

A method includes a service processor of an information handling system downloading code, including device drivers, and transferring the code to an operating system of the information handling system without rebooting the operating system. In some embodiments, a daemon of the operating system may request device drivers for newly-inserted devices and the service processor may make the device drivers available to the operating system in response to the requests. In some embodiments, the service processor may download updated device drivers and may inform the daemon. The updated device drivers may be automatically provided to the operating system or made available upon a request of a user. The service processor may make code available to the operating system by exposing a portion of its non-volatile memory to the operating system as a virtual device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An information handling system comprising:
a service processor including:
an out-of-band network interface to download code updates, wherein code download bypasses an operating system of the information handling system;
a processor;
a network interface card; and
a memory to store the downloaded code updates, the service processor to communicate with a daemon of an operating system of the information handling system concerning the downloaded code updates, wherein the service processor is a component of the information handling system configured to remotely monitor or manage the information handling system;
the operating system to receive the downloaded code updates from the service processor without rebooting, the operating system including the daemon to communicate with the service processor about code updates, wherein:
the operating system is to notify the daemon of the insertion of new devices on the information handling system;
the daemon is to send a request to the service processor for device drivers for the new devices in response to the notification; and
the service processor is to provide the requested device drivers to the operating system in response to the requests, wherein the requested device drivers are included in the downloaded code updates; and

wherein:
the memory comprises non-volatile memory;
the service processor is to expose a portion of the non-volatile memory to the operating system as a virtual device, the portion containing the updated device drivers; and
the daemon is to monitor the exposing and to inform the operating system when the virtual device can be read by the operating system.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein:
the memory comprises non-volatile memory; and
the service processor is to expose a portion of the non-volatile memory to the operating system as a virtual device in response to the requests, the portion containing the requested device drivers.

3. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein the virtual device appears to the operating system as a universal serial bus (USB) device or a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) device.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the operating system is to receive the downloaded code updates from the service processor through the use of the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) and shared memory.

5. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the service processor informs the daemon of the receipt of updated device drivers.

6. The information handling system of claim 5 wherein:
the daemon is to register with the operating system for notification of the connection of new hardware devices;
in response to a connection of a new hardware device to the information handling system, the operating system is to automatically detect the new hardware device and to attempt to install device drivers for the new hardware device;
the notification of the daemon by the operating system of the insertion of new devices on the information handling system is as a result of the registration;
the operation system is to retrieve and install the requested device drivers; and
the daemon is to notify the service processor when the installation of the requested device drivers is complete.

7. The information handling system of claim 5 wherein:
the daemon is to register with the operating system for notification of the connection of new hardware devices;
the daemon is to notify the service processor that it is running within the operating system and to specify the operating system in use;
the service processor is to download a device driver of the updated device drivers, wherein the updated device driver was not requested by the daemon;
the service processor is to store the updated device driver in the non-volatile memory; and
the service processor is to expose a portion of the non-volatile memory to the operating system as a virtual device, the portion containing the updated device driver.

8. A method comprising:
downloading code by a service processor of an information handling system over an out-of-band network, wherein the service processor is a component of the information handling system configured to remotely monitor or manage the information handling system, the service processor includes a processor and a network interface card, and the out-of-band network bypasses an operating system of the information handling system;
informing the operating system of the information handling system of the downloading of the code;
transferring the code from the service processor to the operating system without shutting down and restarting the operating system;
detecting by a daemon of the operating system the insertion of a new device in the information handling system;
sending by the daemon to the service processor a request that the service processor transfer a device driver for the new device to the operating system;
transferring the device driver from the service processor to the operating system in response to the request wherein the device driver is included in the downloaded code; and
wherein:
the downloading comprises downloading updated device drivers;
the informing comprises informing a daemon of the operating system of the downloading of the updated device drivers; and
the transferring comprises the service processor storing the updated device drivers in non-volatile memory of the service processor and exposing the non-volatile memory service processor to the daemon as a virtual device.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein:
the inserting comprises inserting a plug-and-play device; and
the detecting comprises registering by the daemon for notification of the insertion of plug-and-play devices and receiving by the daemon from the operating system notification of the insertion of a plug-and-play device.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the transferring comprises automatically transferring the updated device drivers.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the transferring comprises:
informing a user of the information handling system of the downloading of the updated device drivers;
receiving from the user a request to install one or more of the updated device drivers; and
installing the one or more of the updated device drivers in response to the request from the user.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the informing comprises providing to the user of the information handling system of version information about the updated device drivers and version information about the current device drivers.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein:
the downloading comprises downloading updated device drivers; and
the method further comprises downloading updated device drivers over an in-band network.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising selecting between installing a first device driver for a device and installing a second device driver for the device, wherein:
the first device driver is containing in the device drivers downloaded over the in-band network;
the second device driver is contained in the device drivers downloaded by the service processor; and
the selection of a device driver is based upon a one or more of a date of the device driver and a degree of trust in a supplier of the device driver.

15. The method of claim 8 wherein the downloading comprises downloading the code while the operating system is running.

16. A method comprising:
downloading a device driver by a service processor of an information handling system over an out-of-band network, wherein the service processor is a co

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Zhang Weijia
• Weilnau Wayne R
• Webb Theodore S
• Poluri Syama S
• Noreen Kevin D

Classifications

• G06F9/4413 Primary

  Plug-and-play [PnP] · CPC title

• G06F9/4411

  Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers · CPC title

• G06F9/44505

  Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files · CPC title

• G06F8/65 Primary

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• H04L67/60

  Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources (admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70) · CPC title