System and method of forwarding IPMI message packets based on logical unit number (LUN)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9319313-B2
Application number	US-201414160911-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 22, 2014
Priority date	Jan 22, 2014
Publication date	Apr 19, 2016
Grant date	Apr 19, 2016

Abstract

Certain aspects direct to a system having at most four service processors (SP's). Each of the at most four SP's is assigned with a logical unit number (LUN) of 0 to 3. When the SP receives a message packet, the SP identifies the message packet based on the header of the message packet. The header uses a LUN field to identify a corresponding SP as a destination of the message packet. For the LUN 0 SP, when the message packet is identified as a request message packet for the LUN 0 SP, the SP processes the request message packet to generate a corresponding response message packet. When the message packet is identified as a request message packet for other SP's (LUN 1-3), the SP saves a copy of the header of the request message packet for later response use, and forwards the request message packet to the destination.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a network switch; and
at most four service processors (SP's) interconnected with one another via the network switch, wherein each of the at most four SP's is assigned with a logical unit number (LUN) of 0, 1, 2 or 3, and comprises a processor, a non-volatile memory and at least one system interface,
wherein for each SP, the non-volatile memory stores computer executable codes are configured to, when executed at the processor,
receive a message packet from the at least one system interface, wherein the message packet comprises a header identifying the message packet as a request message packet or a response message packet, and wherein the header comprises a LUN field identifying one of the at most four SP's,
identify, based on the header and the LUN field of the message packet, the message packet as a first request message packet having one other of the at most four SP's as a destination of the message packet, an intermediate response message packet from one other of the at most four SP's in response to the first request message packet, or a second request message packet having the SP as the destination of the message packet by:
identifying whether a value of the LUN field of the message packet matches the LUN assigned with the SP,
when the value of the LUN field of the message packet matches the LUN assigned with the SP, determining the message packet as the second request message, and
when the value of the LUN field of the message packet does not match the LUN assigned with the SP, identifying one other of the at most four SP's having the LUN assigned with the value of the LUN field of the message packet as an identified SP, and determining the message packet as the first request message packet or the intermediate response message packet by:
identifying, based on the header of the message packet, the message packet as the request message packet or the response message packet,
when the header of the message packet indicates the message packet as the request message packet, determining the message packet as the first request message packet having the identified SP as the destination, and
when the header of the message packet indicates the message packet as the response message packet, determining the message packet as the intermediate response message packet from the identified SP,

when the message packet is the first request message packet, save a copy of the header of the first request message packet, and send the first request message packet to the destination,
when the message packet is the intermediate response message packet in response to the first request message packet, retrieve the saved copy of the header of the first request message packet, and replace the header of the intermediate response message packet with the saved copy of the header of the first request message packet to generate a final response message packet, and
when the message packet is the second request message packet, process the second request message packet to generate a second response message packet in response to the second request message packet.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one system interface comprises a local area network (LAN) interface, a standardized interface under an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) standard, or a universal serial bus (USB) interface.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the standardized interface comprises a keyboard controller style (KCS) interface, a system management interface chip (SMIC) interface, and a block transfer (BT) interface.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each of the at most four SP's is a baseboard management controller (BMC).

5. The system as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising at most four blade servers, each corresponding to one of the at most four SP's.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the codes comprise:
a packet receiving module configured to receive the message packet from the at least one system interface;
a message handler module configured to, when the message packet is the second request message packet, process the second request message packet to generate the second response message packet in response to the second request message packet; and
a platform development kit (PDK) module configured to
generate a request queue and a response queue,
identify, based on the header and the LUN field of the message packet, the message packet as the first request message packet, the intermediate response message packet, or the second request message packet,
when the message packet is the first request message packet, send the message packet to the request queue,
when the message packet is the intermediate response message packet, send the message packet to the response queue, and
when the message packet is the second request message packet, send the message packet to the message handler module.

7. The system as claimed in claim 6 , wherein for the SP assigned with the LUN of 1, 2 or 3, the PDK module is configured to identify the message packet as the second request message packet.

8. The system as claimed in claim 6 , wherein for the SP assigned with the LUN of 0, the codes further comprise:
an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) process packet thread module, configured to
receive the first request message packet from the request queue,
save the copy of the header of the first request message packet,
replace the header of the first request message packet with a LAN header to generate a LAN request message packet, and send the LAN request message packet to the destination,
receive the intermediate response message packet from the response queue, and
retrieve the saved copy of the header of the first request message packet, and replace the header of the intermediate response message packet with the saved copy of the header of the first request message packet to generate the final response message packet.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the message packet is an IPMI OEM message packet.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the header of the message packet comprises a network function (NetFn) field identifying the message packet as the request message packet or the response message packet.

11. A method of forwarding messages in a blade server system, comprising:
receiving, at a service processor (SP) of the blade server system, a message packet from a system interface of the SP, wherein the blade server system comprises a network switch and at most four SP's interconnected with one another via the network switch, wherein each of the at most four SP's is assigned with a logical unit number (LUN) of 0, 1, 2 or 3, and wherein the message packet comprises a header identifying the message packet as a request message packet or a response message packet, wherein the header comprises a LUN field identifying one of the at most four SP's of the blade server system;
based on the header and the LUN field of the message packet, identifying, at the SP, the message packet as a first request message packet having one other of the at most four SP's as a destination of the message packet, an intermediate response message packet from one other of the at most four SP's in response to the first request message packet, or a second request message packet having the SP as the destination of the message packet by:
identifying whether a value of the LUN field of the message packet matches the LUN assigned to the SP;
when the value of the LUN field of the message packet matches the LUN assigned to the SP, determining the message packet as the second request message, and
when the value of the LUN field of the mes

Assignees

• American Megatrends Inc

Inventors

• Swaminathan Viswanathan
• Wise David
• Rajendiran Balaji Nagalingam

Classifications

• H04L69/22

  Parsing or analysis of headers · CPC title

• H04L45/74 Primary

  Address processing for routing · CPC title

• G06F21/00

  Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity · CPC title

• G06F3/00

  Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements · CPC title

• G06F13/14

  Handling requests for interconnection or transfer · CPC title