CN111176701A

CN111176701A - Firmware upgrading method and device based on external memory card

Info

Publication number: CN111176701A
Application number: CN201911283733.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王兴隆; 宿燕鸣
Original assignee: Suzhou Inspur Intelligent Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Suzhou Inspur Intelligent Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-12-13
Filing date: 2019-12-13
Publication date: 2020-05-19

Abstract

The invention provides a firmware upgrading method based on an external memory card, which comprises the following steps: the BMC mounts the external memory card under a CPU of the host through a local mounting program; the host CPU opens the external memory card by calling the BMC and copies the image file to be upgraded to the external memory card; the BMC polls and checks whether the image file to be upgraded is in the external storage card, and upgrades the corresponding equipment to be upgraded according to the checked image file to be upgraded; and after the upgrading is finished, the BMC deletes or copies the image file to be upgraded in the external memory card to other areas. Compared with the prior art, the invention has the advantages of higher upgrading efficiency, good safety, unified interface, improved efficiency and cost saving.

Description

Firmware upgrading method and device based on external memory card

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of computers, and more particularly, to a firmware upgrading method and apparatus based on an external memory card.

Background

In a computer system such as a server and a storage, there are many embedded components, such as a BMC (baseboard management controller), a BIOS (basic input/output system), a CPLD (complex programmable logic device), a PSU (power supply), a PCIE (bus and interface standard) card, etc., and there are generally various forms of ways to upgrade a Firmware (Firmware) of such components, one of which is an out-of-band way, where a user accesses the BMC through a network and uses an out-of-band interface (such as HTTP, WEB) provided by the BMC to implement Firmware upgrade; the other is an in-band mode, for example, BMC and BIOS are generally upgraded by a tool provided by a manufacturer to directly access Flash, and firmware such as PSU and CPLD communicates with BMC through LPC interface to implement upgrade.

For in-band upgrade, the main problems of the existing upgrade scheme include: the tool for directly accessing Flash cannot keep the original configuration of the firmware; the method for upgrading through physical channels such as LPC has the advantages of low upgrading speed and high failure probability.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, an embodiment of the present invention provides a firmware upgrading method and apparatus based on an external memory card, so as to solve the problems of a slow speed and a high failure probability of in-band firmware upgrading in the prior art.

In view of the above, an aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides a firmware upgrading method based on an external memory card, including the following steps:

the BMC mounts the external memory card under a CPU of the host through a local mounting program;

the host CPU opens the external memory card by calling the BMC and copies the image file to be upgraded to the external memory card;

the BMC polls and checks whether the image file to be upgraded is in the external storage card, and upgrades the corresponding equipment to be upgraded according to the checked image file to be upgraded;

and after the upgrading is finished, the BMC deletes or copies the image file to be upgraded in the external memory card to other areas.

In some embodiments, copying the image file to be upgraded into the external memory card further comprises:

and after the image file to be upgraded is copied to the external memory card, the host CPU closes the external memory card by calling the BMC.

In some embodiments, the mounting, by the BMC through the local mount program, the external memory card under the host CPU includes:

the BMC virtualizes the external memory card into a USB memory, and mounts the virtualized USB memory under the host CPU.

In some embodiments, the image file to be upgraded is in an HPM format, the HPM format file includes an HPM header and an original upgrade image file, and the HPM header includes a type of a device to be upgraded.

In some embodiments, the BMC polling checks whether an image file to be upgraded is in the external memory card, and upgrading the corresponding device to be upgraded by using the checked image file to be upgraded includes:

after identifying the image file to be upgraded in the HPM format, the BMC acquires the current equipment to be upgraded by reading the HPM head of the image file to be upgraded, and takes out the original upgrading image file from the image file to be upgraded in the HPM format so as to upgrade the current equipment to be upgraded through the original upgrading image file.

In some embodiments, the devices to be upgraded include a BMC, a BIOS, a PSU, and a CPLD.

In some embodiments, the host CPU opening the external memory card by calling the BMC includes:

the BMC opens the external memory card through IPMI command.

Another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides an external memory card-based firmware upgrading apparatus, including:

at least one processor; and

a memory storing program code executable by the processor, the program code implementing the following steps when executed by the processor:

The invention has the following beneficial technical effects: the firmware upgrading method and device based on the external memory card provided by the embodiment of the invention have the advantages of higher upgrading efficiency, good safety and unified interface, can simplify the firmware maintenance and upgrading in a computer system, improve the efficiency and save the cost.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art that other embodiments can be obtained by using the drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method for firmware upgrade based on an external memory card according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the physical connections for firmware upgrade using the method of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a hardware structure of an external memory card based firmware upgrading device according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present invention are described below. However, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely examples and that other embodiments may take various and alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale; certain features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention. As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, various features illustrated and described with reference to any one of the figures may be combined with features illustrated in one or more other figures to produce embodiments that are not explicitly illustrated or described. The combination of features shown provides a representative embodiment for a typical application. However, various combinations and modifications of the features consistent with the teachings of the present invention may be desired for certain specific applications or implementations.

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the following embodiments of the present invention are described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In view of the above object, an aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides a firmware upgrading method based on an external memory card, as shown in fig. 1, including the following steps:

step S101: the BMC mounts the external memory card under a CPU of the host through a local mounting program;

step S102: the host CPU opens the external memory card by calling the BMC and copies the image file to be upgraded to the external memory card;

step S103: the BMC polls and checks whether the image file to be upgraded is in the external storage card, and upgrades the corresponding equipment to be upgraded according to the checked image file to be upgraded;

step S104: and after the upgrading is finished, the BMC deletes or copies the image file to be upgraded in the external memory card to other areas.

In some embodiments, the external memory card includes a TF card and an SD card. The TF card is a T-flash card, also called micro SD card (micro SD card), which is a very small flash memory card, and is mainly used in mobile phones, but because it has the advantage of very small volume, it slowly starts to be used in GPS devices, portable music players and some flash memory disks with continuously increasing capacity. The SD card is a new generation of memory devices based on a semiconductor flash memory, has excellent characteristics of small size, fast data transmission speed, hot-swappability, and the like, and is widely used in portable devices such as digital cameras, personal digital assistants, multimedia players, and the like. In some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 2, the host CPU is connected to the BMC through a USB signal, and the BMC is connected to the TF card or the SD card through an SD signal.

In some embodiments, the mounting, by the BMC, the external memory card under a host CPU through a local mount program includes: the BMC virtualizes the external memory card into a USB memory, and mounts the virtualized USB memory under the host CPU. Specifically, a driver is designed at a BMC end, a TF card or an SD card is virtualized to be a USB memory, and the virtualized USB memory is mounted on a USB signal interconnecting the BMC and a host CPU, so that the host CPU can identify the virtualized USB memory.

In some embodiments, embedded firmware is designed at a BMC end, a partition is set on a TF card or an SD card after the BMC is started to establish a partition to be upgraded, the BMC starts a process to poll continuously to determine whether an image file is to be upgraded in the partition to be upgraded, and if so, the corresponding firmware is upgraded by using the image file to be upgraded.

In some embodiments, the host CPU opening the external memory card by calling the BMC includes: the BMC opens the external memory card (i.e., virtual USB memory) via IPMI commands. In some other embodiments, copying the image file to be upgraded to the external memory card further includes: after the image file to be upgraded is copied to the external memory card, the host CPU closes the external memory card by calling BMC. The virtual USB memory is turned off by default, i.e. the host CPU does not see the virtual USB memory by default. And, developing an upgrade program in the host operating system, the upgrade program executing the following: the host CPU sends an instruction to the BMC to call the BMC to open the USB memory, the BMC opens the virtual USB memory through an IPMI instruction, then the CPU identifies the virtual USB memory and mounts the virtual USB memory under the host CPU, then the CPU copies the image file to be upgraded to the partition to be upgraded of the virtual USB memory, and finally the host CPU sends an instruction to the BMC to enable the BMC to close the virtual USB memory through the IPMI instruction.

In some embodiments, the image file to be upgraded is in an HPM format, the HPM format file includes an HPM header and an original upgrade image file, and the HPM header includes a type of the device to be upgraded.

In some embodiments, the BMC polling checks whether an image file to be upgraded is in the external memory card, and upgrading the corresponding device to be upgraded by using the checked image file to be upgraded includes: after identifying the image file to be upgraded in the HPM format, the BMC acquires the current equipment to be upgraded by reading the HPM head of the image file to be upgraded, and takes out the original upgrading image file from the image file to be upgraded in the HPM format so as to upgrade the current equipment to be upgraded through the original upgrading image file.

In some embodiments, an upgrade check program is designed at the BMC end to implement continuous polling to check whether an image file is to be upgraded in a partition to be upgraded of an external memory card such as a TF card or an SD card. After identifying the image file to be upgraded in the HPM format, the BMC reads the HPM head of the image file to be upgraded first, acquires the current equipment to be upgraded, and then calls upgrading programs of different equipment to perform corresponding upgrading. When upgrading, the BMC takes out the original upgrading image file from the HPM image file so as to upgrade the corresponding equipment image to be upgraded through the original upgrading image file. After the upgrade is completed, the image file to be upgraded in the partition to be upgraded of the external storage card of the TF or SD card is deleted or copied to other partitions, and the next upgrade is waited.

Where technically feasible, the technical features listed above for the different embodiments may be combined with each other or changed, added, omitted, etc. to form further embodiments within the scope of the invention.

It can be seen from the above embodiments that the firmware upgrading method based on the external memory card provided by the embodiments of the present invention has high upgrading efficiency, good security, and uniform interfaces, and can simplify firmware maintenance and upgrading in a computer system, improve efficiency, and save cost.

In view of the above object, in another aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, an external memory card based firmware upgrading apparatus is provided, including:

at least one processor; and

In some embodiments, copying the image file to be upgraded into the external memory card further comprises: and after the image file to be upgraded is copied to the external memory card, the host CPU closes the external memory card by calling the BMC.

In some embodiments, the external memory card includes a TF card and an SD card.

In some embodiments, the mounting, by the BMC, the external memory card under a host CPU through a local mount program includes: the BMC virtualizes the external memory card into a USB memory, and mounts the virtualized USB memory under the host CPU.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a hardware structure of an embodiment of the firmware upgrading apparatus based on an external memory card according to the present invention.

Taking the computer device shown in fig. 3 as an example, the computer device includes a processor 301 and a memory 302, and may further include: an input device 303 and an output device 304.

The processor 301, the memory 302, the input device 303 and the output device 304 may be connected by a bus or other means, and fig. 3 illustrates the connection by a bus as an example.

The memory 302 is a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium, and can be used to store non-volatile software programs, non-volatile computer-executable programs, and modules, such as program instructions/modules corresponding to the firmware upgrading method based on the external memory card in the embodiment of the present application. The processor 301 executes various functional applications and data processing of the server, namely, implements the firmware upgrade method based on the external memory card of the above-described method embodiment, by running the nonvolatile software program, instructions and modules stored in the memory 302.

The memory 302 may include a storage program area and a storage data area, wherein the storage program area may store an operating system, an application program required for at least one function; the storage data area may store data created according to a firmware upgrade method based on an external memory card, and the like. Further, the memory 302 may include high speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as at least one magnetic disk storage device, flash memory device, or other non-volatile solid state storage device. In some embodiments, memory 302 optionally includes memory located remotely from processor 301, which may be connected to a local module via a network. Examples of such networks include, but are not limited to, the internet, intranets, local area networks, mobile communication networks, and combinations thereof.

The input device 303 may receive input numeric or character information and generate key signal inputs related to user settings and function control of the computer apparatus based on the firmware upgrade method of the external memory card. The output means 304 may comprise a display device such as a display screen.

Program instructions/modules corresponding to the one or more external memory card based firmware upgrade methods are stored in the memory 302, and when executed by the processor 301, perform the external memory card based firmware upgrade methods in any of the above-described method embodiments.

Any embodiment of the computer device executing the firmware upgrading method based on the external memory card can achieve the same or similar effects as any corresponding method embodiment.

Finally, it should be noted that, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, all or part of the processes in the methods of the above embodiments may be implemented by a computer program, which may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and when executed, may include the processes of the embodiments of the methods described above. The storage medium may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), or the like.

In addition, the apparatuses, devices and the like disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention may be various electronic terminal devices, such as a mobile phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a tablet computer (PAD), a smart television and the like, or may be a large terminal device, such as a server and the like, and therefore the scope of protection disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention should not be limited to a specific type of apparatus, device. The client disclosed in the embodiment of the present invention may be applied to any one of the above electronic terminal devices in the form of electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of both.

Furthermore, the method disclosed according to an embodiment of the present invention may also be implemented as a computer program executed by a CPU, and the computer program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. The computer program, when executed by the CPU, performs the above-described functions defined in the method disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention.

Further, the above method steps and system elements may also be implemented using a controller and a computer readable storage medium for storing a computer program for causing the controller to implement the functions of the above steps or elements.

Further, it should be appreciated that the computer-readable storage media (e.g., memory) described herein can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. By way of example, and not limitation, nonvolatile memory can include Read Only Memory (ROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), Electrically Programmable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory can include Random Access Memory (RAM), which can act as external cache memory. By way of example and not limitation, RAM may be available in a variety of forms such as synchronous RAM (DRAM), Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDRSDRAM), Enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM). The storage devices of the disclosed aspects are intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and other suitable types of memory.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as software or hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the disclosed embodiments of the present invention.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with the following components designed to perform the functions described herein: a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination of these components. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP, and/or any other such configuration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the disclosure herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

In one or more exemplary designs, the functions may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes Compact Disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), floppy disk, blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

It should be understood that, as used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly supports the exception. It should also be understood that "and/or" as used herein is meant to include any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

The numbers of the embodiments disclosed in the embodiments of the present invention are merely for description, and do not represent the merits of the embodiments.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the steps for implementing the above embodiments may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by a program instructing relevant hardware, where the program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and the above-mentioned storage medium may be a read-only memory, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or the like.

The above-described embodiments are possible examples of implementations and are presented merely for a clear understanding of the principles of the invention. Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: the discussion of any embodiment above is meant to be exemplary only, and is not intended to intimate that the scope of the disclosure, including the claims, of embodiments of the invention is limited to these examples; within the idea of an embodiment of the invention, also technical features in the above embodiment or in different embodiments may be combined and there are many other variations of the different aspects of an embodiment of the invention as described above, which are not provided in detail for the sake of brevity. Therefore, any omissions, modifications, substitutions, improvements, and the like that may be made without departing from the spirit and principles of the embodiments of the present invention are intended to be included within the scope of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A firmware upgrading method based on an external memory card is characterized by comprising the following steps:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein copying the image file to be upgraded into the external memory card further comprises:

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the BMC mounting the external memory card under a host CPU via a local mount comprises:

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the image file to be upgraded is in an HPM format, the HPM format file comprises an HPM header and an original upgrade image file, and the HPM header comprises a type of the device to be upgraded.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the BMC polling checks whether an image file to be upgraded is in the external memory card, and upgrading the corresponding device to be upgraded according to the checked image file to be upgraded comprises:

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the devices to be upgraded include a BMC, a BIOS, a PSU, and a CPLD.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the host CPU opening the external memory card by invoking the BMC comprises:

the BMC opens the external memory card through IPMI command.

8. An external memory card based firmware upgrade apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor; and

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein copying the image file to be upgraded into the external memory card further comprises:

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the BMC to mount the external memory card under a host CPU via a local mount comprises: