Patent Grant
9563497
Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for correcting a failure associated with a current firmware image.
Description of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
In some servers, the service processor can perform the update of Pre-OS firmware components such as a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (‘UEFI’). The service processor has the ability to update or restore the pre-OS firmware in the event of a failure or firmware corruption. If a firmware corruption occurs after it has been running for a while, it is desirable to correct and restore the corrupted firmware to same state it was in prior to the corruption. However, it is also possible that a Pre-OS firmware failure occurs not because of corruption, but because of a defect in the firmware. The defect may be triggered by an unforeseen configuration or circumstance that is not properly handled by the firmware. In that situation, it is desirable to replace faulty firmware with a prior version of the Pre-OS firmware that did not contain the operational defect.
Firmware recovery mechanisms frequently provide for primary and backup images. When a firmware problem occurs, the backup version is used. If the backup contains a different version of the firmware than the primary image, this can cause problems when there are dependencies for operational features or behaviors that are not present or different in the backup version. Likewise if the backup image contains the same version of the firmware as the primary image, both images can contain the same operational defect. For example, if the firmware hangs when a certain adapter card get installed in the system, both primary and backup images will experience the same problem.
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for correcting a failure associated with a current firmware image are provided. Embodiments include a firmware selection module detecting the failure associated with the current firmware image stored in firmware memory corresponding to a component of a system. Embodiments also include the firmware selection module selecting from a plurality of backup firmware images, a replacement firmware image based on a status of at least one backup firmware image in response to detecting the failure. Embodiments also include the firmware selection module storing the selected replacement firmware image in the firmware memory.
The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular descriptions of exemplary embodiments of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numbers generally represent like parts of exemplary embodiments of the invention.
Exemplary methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for correcting a failure associated with a current firmware image in accordance with the present invention are described with reference to the accompanying drawings, beginning with
Stored in RAM (168) is an operating system (154). Operating systems useful correcting a failure associated with a current firmware image according to embodiments of the present invention include UNIX™, Linux™, Microsoft XP™, AIX™, IBM's i5/OS™, and others as will occur to those of skill in the art. The operating system (154) in the example of
Stored within Flash memory (134) is a firmware memory (128) and a backup firmware storage (190) containing a first backup location (193) and a second backup location (194). The first backup location (193) includes a first backup firmware image (191) and the second backup location (194) includes a second backup firmware image (192). Although shown here stored in Flash memory (134), firmware capable of being managed and corrected in accordance with embodiments so the present invention may be stored in various memories within a computing system—within non-volatile or volatile memory and within any component of the computer (152), such as the communications adapter (167), disk drive adapter (172) or I/O adapter (178).
The computer (152) also includes a service component (189) that includes a service processor (196) and service processor RAM (187) for storing instructions for execution by the service processor (196). Stored in service processor RAM (187) is a firmware selection module (199), a module of computer program instructions that corrects a failure associated with a current firmware image (130) in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. For example, the service processor (196) may execute the computer program instructions to correct a failure associated with the current firmware image (130). The firmware selection module (199) may include computer program instructions for detecting the failure associated with the current firmware image (130) stored in firmware memory (128) corresponding to a component of a system. A component of a system may be a pre-operating system (Pre-OS) firmware component, such as a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (‘UEFI’). The firmware selection module (199) may be configured to select from a plurality of backup firmware images, a replacement firmware image based on a status of at least one backup firmware image in response to detecting the failure. The firmware selection module (199) may also be configured to store the selected replacement firmware image in the firmware memory (128).
The computer (152) of
The example computer (152) of
The exemplary computer (152) of
The arrangement of computers, networks, and other devices making up the exemplary system illustrated in
For further explanation,
The method of
A status of a firmware image indicates a reliability determination associated with the firmware image. For example, a backup firmware image may have a status of good, new, bad, or others as will occur to those of skill in the art. A ‘good’ status may be assigned by a service processor to a backup firmware image after the Pre-OS firmware has been run and passes certain criteria. A ‘new’ status may be assigned to a backup firmware image that was recently used to update the firmware memory. Backup firmware images with the ‘new’ status may not have been run or exercised sufficiently enough to determine whether or not the new firmware image contains a defect. A ‘bad’ status is assigned by a service processor if the service processor detects a problem with the pre-OS firmware and determines that the firmware memory is not corrupted (e.g., the current firmware image is not corrupted).
That is, according to embodiments of the present invention, the backup firmware storage (190) may include a copy of the current firmware image and a different previously used firmware image. Depending on the status of these images, the firmware selection module (199) may replace the current firmware image (130) with either the copy of the current firmware image or the different previously used firmware image. That is, the firmware selection module (199) may automatically choose the appropriate action when handling firmware failures.
The method of
For further explanation,
In the method of
In the method of
If the status (352) of the last-stored backup firmware image (350) is bad, the method of
If the status (352) of the last-stored backup firmware image (350) is not bad, the method of
If the current firmware image (130) does not substantially match the last-stored backup firmware image (350), the method of
If the current firmware image (130) does substantially match the last-stored backup firmware image (350), the method of
If the current firmware image (130) does substantially match the last-stored backup firmware image (350), the method of
For further explanation,
The method of
If the status (352) of the last-stored backup firmware image (350) is not good, the method of
If the status (352) of the last-stored backup firmware image (350) is good, the method of
The method of
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. A computer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
Aspects of the present invention are described above with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
It will be understood from the foregoing description that modifications and changes may be made in various embodiments of the present invention without departing from its true spirit. The descriptions in this specification are for purposes of illustration only and are not to be construed in a limiting sense. The scope of the present invention is limited only by the language of the following claims.
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