Boot image discovery and delivery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9880859-B2
Application number	US-201414226223-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 26, 2014
Priority date	Mar 26, 2014
Publication date	Jan 30, 2018
Grant date	Jan 30, 2018

Abstract

Technologies for managing image discovery includes a server controller to cause a server to enter a pre-boot state. The server controller communicates with the server while the server maintains the pre-boot state to determine identification data of the server in response to a transitioning the server to the pre-boot state. The server controller identifies a boot image of the server based on the identification data of the server and associates the server with the identified boot image.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A server controller for managing image discovery, the server controller comprising:
a pre-boot initialization module to cause a remote server to enter a pre-boot state, in which the remote server is to await identification and provision, by the server controller, of a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) to be used by the remote server;
a hardware identification module to communicate with the remote server while the remote server maintains the pre-boot state to determine identification data of the remote server in response to a transition of the remote server to the pre-boot state; and
a boot image identification module to identify a boot image of the remote server based on the identification data of the remote server, emulate a local flash memory of the remote server in a memory of the server controller, store the boot image in the emulated flash memory, and associate the remote server with the identified boot image, while the remote server is in the pre-boot state, wherein the boot image includes the BIOS to be used by the remote server.

2. The server controller of claim 1 , wherein to cause the server to enter the pre-boot state comprises to cause the server to enter the pre-boot state without fetching a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) image of the server.

3. The server controller of claim 1 , wherein to communicate with the server comprises to communicate with the server by one of a Platform Environment Control Interface (PECI) or a Processor Information Read Only Memory (PIROM) of the server to determine the identification data of the server.

4. The server controller of claim 1 , wherein to communicate with the server to determine the identification data of the server comprises to identify one or more hardware components of the server.

5. The server controller of claim 4 , wherein to identify the one or more hardware components of the server comprises to determine a central processing unit identification (CPUID) of the server.

6. The server controller of claim 1 , wherein to associate the server with the identified boot image comprises to:
store the identified boot image in a partition of the memory of the server controller; and
map the server to the partition of the memory such that the stored boot image is loaded on the server in response to boot of the server.

7. The server controller of claim 1 , wherein to associate the server with the identified boot image comprises to associate the boot image with an Enhanced Serial Peripheral Interface (eSPI) of the server.

8. The server controller of claim 1 , wherein to associate the server with the identified boot image comprises to:
map the server to an entry in a database of the server controller; and
associate the entry with a boot module of the server,
wherein the entry of the database is associated with the identified boot image such that an access to the entry causes the identified boot image to be retrieved by the server.

9. The server controller of claim 8 , wherein to associate the entry with the boot module comprises to associate the entry with an Enhanced Serial Peripheral Interface (eSPI) of the server.

10. The server controller of claim 1 , further comprising a server boot module to instruct the server to boot in response to association of the server with the identified boot image.

11. One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions embodied thereon that, in response to execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to:
cause a remote server to enter a pre-boot state, in which the remote server is to await identification and provision, by the computing device, of a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) to be used by the remote server;
communicate, while the remote server maintains the pre-boot state, with the remote server to determine identification data of the remote server in response to causing the remote server to enter the pre-boot state;
identify a boot image of the remote server based on the identification data of the remote server;
emulate a local flash memory of the remote server in a memory of the computing device;
store the boot image in the emulated flash memory; and
associate the remote server with the identified boot image, while the remote server is in the pre-boot state, wherein the boot image includes the BIOS to be used by the remote server.

12. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11 , wherein to cause the server to enter the pre-boot state comprises to cause the server to enter the pre-boot state without fetching a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) image of the server.

13. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11 , wherein to communicate with the server comprises to communicate with the server by one of a Platform Environment Control Interface (PECI) or a Processor Information Read Only Memory (PIROM) of the server to determine the identification data of the server.

14. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11 , wherein to communicate with the server to determine the identification data of the server comprises to identify one or more hardware components of the server.

15. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 14 , wherein to identify the one or more hardware components of the server comprises to determine a central processing unit identification (CPUID) of the server.

16. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11 , wherein to associate the server with the identified boot image comprises to:
store the identified boot image in a partition of memory of the computing device; and
map the server to the partition of the memory such that the stored boot image is loaded on the server in response to boot of the server.

17. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11 , wherein to associate the server with the identified boot image comprises to associate the boot image with an Enhanced Serial Peripheral Interface (eSPI) of the server.

18. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11 , wherein to associate the server with the identified boot image comprises to:
map the server to an entry in a database of the computing device; and
associate the entry with a boot module of the server,
wherein the entry of the database is associated with the identified boot image such that an access to the entry causes the identified boot image to be retrieved by the server.

19. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 18 , wherein to associate the entry with the boot module comprises to associate the entry with an Enhanced Serial Peripheral Interface (eSPI) of the server.

20. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11 , wherein to emulate a local flash memory comprises to emulate a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) flash memory of the server in the memory of the computing device and
wherein to associate the server with the identified boot image comprises to provide access to the boot image in the emulated SPI flash memory to the server.

21. A method for managing image discovery on a server controller, the method comprising:
causing, by the server controller, a remote server to enter a pre-boot state, in which the server is to await identification and provision, by the server controller, of a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) to be used by the remote server;
communic

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Swanson Robert C
• Bulusu Mallik
• Zimmer Vincent J
• Cone Robert W
• Bahnsen Robert B

Classifications

• G06F9/4416 Primary

  Network booting; Remote initial program loading [RIPL] · CPC title