Receiving an update module by accessing a network site

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9405613-B2
Application number	US-201214391427-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 24, 2012
Priority date	Jul 24, 2012
Publication date	Aug 2, 2016
Grant date	Aug 2, 2016

Abstract

Fault of a particular module in an electronic device is detected. In response to detecting the fault, an update module is retrieved from a network site over a network to update the particular module, where the network stack is independent of a network stack associated with an operating system in the electronic device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
an operating system;
a first network stack associated with the operating system;
a management subsystem having a second network stack that is independent of the first network stack, the management subsystem to perform a management task using network communication through the second network stack;
a fault manager to:
detect fault of a particular module in the electronic device,
in response to detecting the fault, access a network site using network communication through the second network stack in a preboot context, and
in response to the access, receive an update module to update the particular module.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the fault manager is to perform the detecting of the fault without input from any remote server.

3. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the particular module includes code of the operating system.

4. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the particular module includes boot code.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the particular module includes application code or a device driver.

6. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the management subsystem includes a controller chip that has the second network stack.

7. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the second network stack has an Internet Protocol (IP) layer and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer, the IP and TCP layers to perform the network communication to retrieve the update module.

8. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the network stack further includes a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) layer to perform the network communication to retrieve the update module.

9. The electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising an application programming interface to allow the fault manager to access the second network stack.

10. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the fault manager is part of a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) code.

11. A method comprising:
detecting, by a fault manager in an electronic device, fault of a particular module, wherein the detecting is performed without input from any remote server; and
in response to detecting the fault, retrieve an update module for updating the particular module, using a preboot network stack that is independent of a second network stack associated with an operating system in the electronic device, wherein the update module is retrieved from a network site over a network.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein retrieving the update module using the preboot network stack comprises performing network communication over the network in a preboot context, the preboot context including a context of the electronic device prior to completion of a boot procedure of the electronic device.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
updating the particular module using the update module, wherein the updating includes replacing or repairing the particular module using the update module.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the particular module is selected from among boot code and code of an operating system.

15. An article comprising at least one machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that upon execution cause an electronic device to:
detect, by a fault manager, fault of a particular module; and
in response to detecting the fault, retrieve an update module for updating the particular module, using a network stack of a management subsystem, the network stack of the management subsystem being independent of a second network stack that is associated with an operating system in the electronic device, wherein the update module is retrieved from a network site over a network in a preboot context.

Assignees

• Liu Jon
• Ali Valiuddin Y
• Wang Lan
• Hewlett Packard Development Co Lp

Inventors

• Liu Jon
• Ali Valiuddin Y
• Wang Lan

Classifications

• 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

• G06F8/65 Primary

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

• G06F11/0736

  in functional embedded systems, i.e. in a data processing system designed as a combination of hardware and software dedicated to performing a certain function (testing or monitoring of automated control systems G05B23/02) · CPC title

• G06F11/0769

  Readable error formats, e.g. cross-platform generic formats, human understandable formats · CPC title

• G06F11/0709

  in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems · CPC title