CN103902427B - A kind of method with outer acquisition disk state - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a kind of method with outer acquisition disk state, including distance host, BMC, Expander and hard disk, wherein, distance host accesses BMC by LAN or Serial interfaces, Expander connects hard disk by sas, sata, and BMC is connected with Expander physically through I2C, and IPMB agreements are used in data communication, BMC carries out Write operations as Master during request data, and Expander carries out Read operations as Slave；Expander carries out Write operations as Master when data are returned, and BMC carries out Read operations as Slave.Make Expander physically connect BMC by this conventional communication modes of I2C to pass out disk state, and then effective remote monitoring is carried out by BMC, there is provided a kind of method of long-range/out of band supervision hard disk running status.

Description

A Method of Obtaining Hard Disk Status Out of Band

technical field

The invention relates to the field of monitoring the operating status of servers and storage devices, and provides a method for remotely/out-of-band monitoring the operating status of a hard disk.

technical background

System running status monitoring is an important technology in the server and storage fields. The industry generally uses BMC (baseboard controller) to conduct unified out-of-band monitoring and control such as CPU status, power supply, fan, motherboard temperature, etc. This monitoring method It can be carried out independently and not controlled by the operating system. The remote administrator uses the IPMI protocol to access the BMC for remote monitoring.

However, there is no uniform standard for hard disk status monitoring. On the one hand, there is no effective out-of-band monitoring of hard disk status; on the other hand, there is no solution for remotely obtaining hard disk status; Users' requirements for data security and reliability are further strengthened, and the necessity of hard disk status monitoring is getting more and more attention; therefore, it is imminent to form a standard for out-of-band and remote monitoring of hard disk status.

The IPMI (Intelligent Platform Control Interface) protocol provides a strong guarantee for the monitoring of the running status of servers and storage devices. As an embedded chip running the IPMI protocol, BMC (Baseboard Controller) provides solutions for out-of-band monitoring and remote access. Interfaces include Serial, LAN, KCS, I2C, GPIO, etc., which can effectively detect and control CPU, motherboard, memory, fan and other equipment, but the hard disk, as an important equipment of the server, has not been effectively monitored out of band, which is mainly due to Because the main communication interface of the hard disk is ATA, SATA, SAS, etc., it cannot communicate directly with the BMC; and the Expander (hard disk expander), which is widely used at present, not only has real-time monitoring capabilities for the hard disk, but also has communication interfaces such as I2C, which ensures The Expander can physically connect to the BMC through the common communication method of I2C to transmit the status of the hard disk, and then carry out effective remote monitoring through the BMC.

Contents of the invention

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a method for obtaining the status of the hard disk out of band.

The technical scheme adopted in the present invention is:

A method for obtaining hard disk state outside a band, including remote host, BMC, Expander and hard disk, wherein, remote host accesses BMC through LAN or Serial interface, Expander connects hard disk through sas, sata, BMC and Expander are physically connected by I2C, for To ensure data integrity and functional consistency, IPMB protocol is used for data communication. When requesting data, BMC performs Write operation as Master, and Expander performs Read operation as Slave; when data is returned, Expander performs Write operation as Master, and BMC performs Read operation as Slave.

The communication logic of the method is as follows: the remote host initiates a hard disk status request by sending IPMI CMD, and the BMC sends the request information to the Expander through I2C. After the Expander recognizes the request information, it accesses the HDD to obtain the hard disk status, and then the Expander returns the hard disk status information to the BMC through I2C , BMC recognizes the corresponding hard disk status after getting the reply and returns the data to the remote host.

The specific steps of the communication logic are as follows:

1) The remote host, as the initiator of the communication request, sends IPMI CMD through the LAN or Serial interface to access the BMC to request feedback of hard disk status information;

2) After BMC receives the IPMI CMD request command, it analyzes the request command and finds that the remote host wants to obtain hard disk information, and then BMC sends IPMB CMD to Expander through the I2C interface, requesting Expander to reply all hard disk status information;

3) After receiving the IPMB CMD request command, Expander parses and recognizes the hard disk status request message, and then sends SCSI commands to each hard disk to obtain hard disk status information (such as Present, Rebuild, Fail, etc.); and replies to the hard disk in IPMB format through the I2C interface status information packet;

4) BMC receives the IPMB response message from Expander, identifies the hard disk status information, and replies the hard disk status information to the remote Host through IPMI;

5) After obtaining the status information, the remote host performs corresponding analysis to know the status of each hard disk (Present, Rebuild, Fail, etc.).

This completes a hard disk status request process.

The method is implemented as follows:

1) Physically interconnect the I2C channel specified by the BMC with the I2C channel specified by the Expander;

2) BMC FW completes the development of IPMI CMD with hard disk status request function. The OEM's IPMI CMD should be able to initiate IPMB data requests and obtain IPMB data replies;

3) BMC FW completes the IPMB hard disk request message data format design; Expander FW completes the IPMB hard disk status information reply data format design; defines the meaning information of NetFn, Command, BMCAddress, Expander Address, and hard disk status fields according to the requirements of IPMI Specification, and maintains the BMC Consistency with the data format on both sides of the Expander;

4) Expander FW establishes the task of receiving and replying IPMB messages. First, it waits for the arrival of IPMB data packets. After receiving the IPMB message, it identifies the IPMB request message and enters the hard disk status message processing mechanism; then calls the software interface for obtaining the hard disk status. The obtained hard disk status includes Present, Rebuild, and Failed; then encapsulate the hard disk status information into an IPMB packet, and send the IPMB response message to the BMC;

5) After the BMC FW obtains the IPMB data reply, it parses out the corresponding hard disk status information, and replies to the Host that initiated the IPMI CMD request through the IPMI CMD.

The beneficial effects of the present invention are:

By adopting the method of the present invention, the Expander is physically connected to the BMC through the common communication mode of I2C to transmit the state of the hard disk, and then the effective remote monitoring is carried out through the BMC, providing a method for remote/out-of-band monitoring of the operating state of the hard disk.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the schematic diagram of hardware connection of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of communication logic of the present invention;

Among them: Remote Host: remote host, Expander: hard disk expander, BMC: baseboard controller, IPMI: intelligent platform control interface.

detailed description

Below with reference to accompanying drawing, the present invention is further described by specific embodiment:

As shown in Figure 1, a method for obtaining hard disk status out of band, including a remote host, BMC, Expander and hard disk, wherein, the remote host accesses the BMC through a LAN or Serial interface, the Expander connects to the hard disk through sas and sata, and the BMC and the Expander physically pass through I2C connection, in order to ensure data integrity and functional consistency, IPMB protocol is used for data communication. When requesting data, BMC performs Write operation as Master, and Expander performs Read operation as Slave; when data is returned, Expander performs Write operation as Master, and BMC acts as Slave. Perform a Read operation.

As shown in Figure 2, the communication logic of the method is as follows: the remote host initiates a hard disk status request by sending IPMI CMD, and the BMC sends the request information to the Expander through I2C. After the Expander recognizes the request information, it accesses the HDD to obtain the hard disk status. The information is returned to the BMC, and the BMC recognizes the corresponding hard disk status after obtaining the reply and returns the data to the remote host.

The specific steps of the communication logic are as follows:

1) The remote host, as the initiator of the communication request, sends IPMI CMD through the LAN or Serial interface to access the BMC to request feedback of hard disk status information;

2) After BMC receives the IPMI CMD request command, it analyzes the request command and finds that the remote host wants to obtain hard disk information, and then BMC sends IPMB CMD to Expander through the I2C interface, requesting Expander to reply all hard disk status information;

3) After receiving the IPMB CMD request command, Expander parses and recognizes the hard disk status request message, and then sends SCSI commands to each hard disk to obtain hard disk status information (such as Present, Rebuild, Fail, etc.); and replies to the hard disk in IPMB format through the I2C interface status information packet;

4) BMC receives the IPMB response message from Expander, identifies the hard disk status information, and replies the hard disk status information to the remote Host through IPMI;

5) After obtaining the status information, the remote host performs corresponding analysis to know the status of each hard disk (Present, Rebuild, Fail, etc.).

This completes a hard disk status request process.

The method is implemented as follows:

1) Physically interconnect the I2C channel specified by the BMC with the I2C channel specified by the Expander;

2) BMC FW completes the development of IPMI CMD with hard disk status request function. The OEM's IPMI CMD should be able to initiate IPMB data requests and obtain IPMB data replies;

3) BMC FW completes the IPMB hard disk request message data format design; Expander FW completes the IPMB hard disk status information reply data format design; defines the meaning information of NetFn, Command, BMCAddress, Expander Address, and hard disk status fields according to the requirements of IPMI Specification, and maintains the BMC Consistency with the data format on both sides of the Expander;

4) Expander FW establishes the task of receiving and replying IPMB messages. First, it waits for the arrival of IPMB data packets. After receiving the IPMB message, it identifies the IPMB request message and enters the hard disk status message processing mechanism; then calls the software interface for obtaining the hard disk status. The obtained hard disk status includes Present, Rebuild, and Failed; then encapsulate the hard disk status information into an IPMB packet, and send the IPMB response message to the BMC;

5) After the BMC FW obtains the IPMB data reply, it parses out the corresponding hard disk status information, and replies to the Host that initiated the IPMI CMD request through the IPMI CMD.

Claims (1)

1. A method for acquiring hard disk status outside a band, involving remote host, BMC, Expander and hard disk, characterized in that: remote host accesses BMC through LAN or Serial interface, Expander connects hard disk by sas, sata, BMC and Expander physically pass I2C connection, IPMB protocol is used for data communication. When requesting data, BMC performs Write operation as Master, and Expander performs Read operation as Slave; when data is returned, Expander performs Write operation as Master, and BMC performs Read operation as Slave; The communication logic of the method is as follows: the remote host initiates a hard disk status request by sending IPMI CMD, and the BMC sends the request information to the Expander through I2C. After the Expander recognizes the request information, it accesses the HDD to obtain the hard disk status, and then the Expander returns the hard disk status information to the BMC through I2C , BMC recognizes the corresponding hard disk status after getting the reply and returns the data to the remote host; The method is implemented as follows: 1) Physically interconnect the I2C channel specified by the BMC with the I2C channel specified by the Expander; 2) BMC FW completes the development of IPMI CMD with hard disk status request function. The OEM's IPMI CMD should be able to initiate IPMB data requests and obtain IPMB data replies; 3) The BMC FW completes the data format design of the IPMB hard disk request message; the Expander FW completes the design of the IPMB hard disk status information reply data format; according to the requirements of the IPMI Specification, the meaning information of each field of NetFn, Command, BMC Address, Expander Address, and hard disk status is clarified and kept. Data format consistency on both sides of BMC and Expander; 4) Expander FW establishes the task of receiving and replying IPMB messages. First, it waits for the arrival of IPMB data packets. After receiving the IPMB message, it identifies the IPMB request message and enters the hard disk status message processing mechanism; then calls the software interface for obtaining the hard disk status. The obtained hard disk status includes Present, Rebuild, and Failed; then encapsulate the hard disk status information into an IPMB packet, and send the IPMB response message to the BMC; 5) After the BMC FW obtains the IPMB data reply, it parses out the corresponding hard disk status information, and replies to the Host that initiated the IPMI CMD request through the IPMI CMD.