SERIAL CONSOLE TRANSPORT OFFLOAD WITH SMART NETWORK INTERFACE CONTROLLER

An information handling system may include a host system, a management controller configured to provide out-of-band management of the information handling system, and a network interface including a network interface processor. The information handling system may be configured to: transmit serial console data from the host system to the network interface; store the serial console data in onboard storage of the network interface; and execute, at the network interface processor, a management agent configured to provide access to the serial console data from a remote information handling system.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates in general to information handling systems, and more particularly to methods and systems for offloading serial console transport from a management controller to a smart network interface controller.

BACKGROUND

In some computing applications, an information handling system may include a hypervisor for hosting one or more virtual resources such as virtual machines (VMs). A hypervisor may comprise software and/or firmware generally operable to allow multiple virtual machines and/or operating systems to run on a single information handling system at the same time. This operability is generally allowed via virtualization, a technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing system resources (e.g., physical hardware of the computing system) from the way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources. Thus, a virtual machine may comprise any program of executable instructions, or aggregation of programs of executable instructions, configured to execute a guest operating system on a hypervisor or host operating system in order to act through or in connection with the hypervisor/host operating system to manage and/or control the allocation and usage of hardware resources such as memory, central processing unit time, disk space, and input and output devices, and provide an interface between such hardware resources and application programs hosted by the guest operating system.

In other applications, an information handling system may be used in a “bare metal” configuration in which only one operating system is installed, and the hypervisor and virtual resources are not needed.

In either scenario, a network interface of the information handling system may comprise a smart network interface card or “SmartNIC” and/or a data processing unit (DPU), which may offer capabilities not found in traditional NICs. For purposes of this disclosure, the terms “SmartNIC” and “DPU” may be used interchangeably.

Some information handling systems which are coupled to a local-area network (LAN) may employ a technology referred to as Serial Over LAN (SOL). SOL enables the input and output of the system’s serial port to be redirected over the network (e.g., via Internet Protocol (IP)) instead of taking place via the physical serial COM port.

In some embodiments, a management controller such as a baseboard management controller (BMC) may allow a managed system’s serial data (e.g., text-based console data) to be redirected over the management controller’s dedicated or shared out-of-band management network.

However, the performance and stability of such BMC-based SOL may be less than ideal. BMC-based SOL typically requires a long-lasting and stable connection between the BMC and a management server, and so this approach can be impacted by network instability. Further, BMC-based SOL typically uses the BMC’s memory as a cache, and so if the BMC receives a large volume of serial data from the host, the performance of the BMC with respect to its other functionality can be negatively impacted.

Accordingly, embodiments of this disclosure may allow for offloading some or all of the SOL functionality to a SmartNIC.

It should be noted that the discussion of a technique in the Background section of this disclosure does not constitute an admission of prior-art status. No such admissions are made herein, unless clearly and unambiguously identified as such.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the teachings of the present disclosure, the disadvantages and problems associated with existing serial transport within an information handling system may be reduced or eliminated.

In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, an information handling system may include a host system, a management controller configured to provide out-of-band management of the information handling system, and a network interface including a network interface processor. The information handling system may be configured to: transmit serial console data from the host system to the network interface; store the serial console data in onboard storage of the network interface; and execute, at the network interface processor, a management agent configured to provide access to the serial console data from a remote information handling system.

In accordance with these and other embodiments of the present disclosure, a method may include transmitting serial console data from a host system of an information handling system to a network interface of the information handling system, the network interface including a network interface processor; storing the serial console data in onboard storage of the network interface; and executing, at the network interface processor, a management agent configured to provide access to the serial console data from a remote information handling system.

In accordance with these and other embodiments of the present disclosure, an article of manufacture may include a non-transitory, computer-readable medium having instructions thereon that are executable by at least one processor of an information handling system for: transmitting serial console data from a host system of the information handling system to a network interface of the information handling system, the network interface including a network interface processor; storing the serial console data in onboard storage of the network interface; and executing, at the network interface processor, a management agent configured to provide access to the serial console data from a remote information handling system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Preferred embodiments and their advantages are best understood by reference toFIGS.1through3, wherein like numbers are used to indicate like and corresponding parts.

For purposes of this disclosure, when two or more elements are referred to as “coupled” to one another, such term indicates that such two or more elements are in electronic communication or mechanical communication, as applicable, whether connected directly or indirectly, with or without intervening elements.

When two or more elements are referred to as “coupleable” to one another, such term indicates that they are capable of being coupled together.

For the purposes of this disclosure, the term “computer-readable medium” (e.g., transitory or non-transitory computer-readable medium) may include any instrumentality or aggregation of instrumentalities that may retain data and/or instructions for a period of time. Computer-readable media may include, without limitation, storage media such as a direct access storage device (e.g., a hard disk drive or floppy disk), a sequential access storage device (e.g., a tape disk drive), compact disk, CD-ROM, DVD, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and/or flash memory; communications media such as wires, optical fibers, microwaves, radio waves, and other electromagnetic and/or optical carriers; and/or any combination of the foregoing. Physical computer-readable media such as disk drives, solid-state drives, non-volatile memory, etc. may also be referred to herein as “physical storage resources.”

For the purposes of this disclosure, the term “management controller” may broadly refer to an information handling system that provides management functionality (typically out-of-band management functionality) to one or more other information handling systems. In some embodiments, a management controller may be (or may be an integral part of) a service processor, a baseboard management controller (BMC), a chassis management controller (CMC), or a remote access controller (e.g., a Dell Remote Access Controller (DRAC) or Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC)).

FIG.1illustrates a block diagram of selected components of an example information handling system100having a plurality of host systems102, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown inFIG.1, information handling system100may include a plurality of host systems102coupled to one another via an internal network110.

In some embodiments, information handling system100may include a single chassis housing a plurality of host systems102. In other embodiments, information handling system100may include a cluster of multiple chassis, each with one or more host systems102. In yet other embodiments, host systems102may be entirely separate information handling systems, and they may be coupled together via an internal network or an external network such as the Internet.

In some embodiments, a host system102may comprise a server (e.g., embodied in a “sled” form factor). In these and other embodiments, a host system102may comprise a personal computer. In other embodiments, a host system102may be a portable computing device (e.g., a laptop, notebook, tablet, handheld, smart phone, personal digital assistant, etc.). As depicted inFIG.1, information handling system100may include a processor103, a memory104communicatively coupled to processor103, and a network interface106communicatively coupled to processor103. For the purposes of clarity and exposition, inFIG.1, each host system102is shown as comprising only a single processor103, single memory104, and single network interface106. However, a host system102may comprise any suitable number of processors103, memories104, and network interfaces106.

As shown inFIG.1, a memory104may have stored thereon a hypervisor116and one or more guest operating systems (OS)118. In some embodiments, hypervisor116and one or more of guest OSes118may be stored in a computer-readable medium (e.g., a local or remote hard disk drive) other than a memory104which is accessible to processor103. Each guest OS118may also be referred to as a “virtual machine.”

A hypervisor116may comprise software and/or firmware generally operable to allow multiple virtual machines and/or operating systems to run on a single computing system (e.g., an information handling system100) at the same time. This operability is generally allowed via virtualization, a technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing system resources (e.g., physical hardware of the computing system) from the way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources. A hypervisor116may be one of a variety of proprietary and/or commercially available virtualization platforms, including without limitation, VIRTUALLOGIX VLX FOR EMBEDDED SYSTEMS, IBM’s Z/VM, XEN, ORACLE VM, VMWARE’s ESX SERVER, L4 MICROKERNEL, TRANGO, MICROSOFT’s HYPER-V, SUN’s LOGICAL DOMAINS, HITACHI’s VIRTAGE, KVM, VMWARE SERVER, VMWARE WORKSTATION, VMWARE FUSION, QEMU, MICROSOFT’s VIRTUAL PC and VIRTUAL SERVER, INNOTEK’s VIRTUALBOX, and SWSOFT’s PARALLELS WORKSTATION and PARALLELS DESKTOP.

In one embodiment, a hypervisor116may comprise a specially-designed OS with native virtualization capabilities. In another embodiment, a hypervisor116may comprise a standard OS with an incorporated virtualization component for performing virtualization.

In another embodiment, a hypervisor116may comprise a standard OS running alongside a separate virtualization application. In this embodiment, the virtualization application of the hypervisor116may be an application running above the OS and interacting with computing system resources only through the OS. Alternatively, the virtualization application of a hypervisor116may, on some levels, interact indirectly with computing system resources via the OS, and, on other levels, interact directly with computing system resources (e.g., similar to the way the OS interacts directly with computing system resources, or as firmware running on computing system resources). As a further alternative, the virtualization application of a hypervisor116may, on all levels, interact directly with computing system resources (e.g., similar to the way the OS interacts directly with computing system resources, or as firmware running on computing system resources) without utilizing the OS, although still interacting with the OS to coordinate use of computing system resources.

As stated above, a hypervisor116may instantiate one or more virtual machines. A virtual machine may comprise any program of executable instructions, or aggregation of programs of executable instructions, configured to execute a guest OS118in order to act through or in connection with a hypervisor116to manage and/or control the allocation and usage of hardware resources such as memory, CPU time, disk space, and input and output devices, and provide an interface between such hardware resources and application programs hosted by the guest OS118. In some embodiments, a guest OS118may be a general-purpose OS such as WINDOWS or LINUX, for example. In other embodiments, a guest OS118may comprise a specific- and/or limited-purpose OS, configured so as to perform application-specific functionality (e.g., persistent storage).

At least one host system102in information handling system100may have stored within its memory104a virtual machine manager120. A virtual machine manager120may comprise software and/or firmware generally operable to manage individual hypervisors116and the guest OSes118instantiated on each hypervisor116, including controlling migration of guest OSes118between hypervisors116. AlthoughFIG.1shows virtual machine manager120instantiated on a host system102on which a hypervisor116is also instantiated, in some embodiments virtual machine manager120may be instantiated on a dedicated host system102within information handling system100, or a host system102of another information handling system100.

A network interface106may include any suitable system, apparatus, or device operable to serve as an interface between an associated information handling system100and internal network110. A network interface106may enable its associated information handling system100to communicate with internal network110using any suitable transmission protocol (e.g., TCP/IP) and/or standard (e.g., IEEE 802.11, Wi-Fi). In certain embodiments, a network interface106may include a physical network interface card (NIC). In the same or alternative embodiments, a network interface106may be configured to communicate via wireless transmissions. In the same or alternative embodiments, a network interface106may provide physical access to a networking medium and/or provide a low-level addressing system (e.g., through the use of Media Access Control addresses). In some embodiments, a network interface106may be implemented as a local area network (“LAN”) on motherboard (“LOM”) interface. A network interface106may comprise one or more suitable NICs, including without limitation, mezzanine cards, network daughter cards, etc.

In some embodiments, a network interface106may comprise a SmartNIC and/or a DPU. In addition to the stateful and custom offloads a SmartNIC or DPU may provide, it may have an independent management domain with a separate operating system, independent credentials, and independent remote access. Accordingly, network interface106may include its own specialized processor and memory.

In addition to processor103, memory104, and network interface106, a host system102may include one or more other information handling resources.

Internal network110may be a network and/or fabric configured to communicatively couple information handling systems to each other. In certain embodiments, internal network110may include a communication infrastructure, which provides physical connections, and a management layer, which organizes the physical connections of host systems102and other devices coupled to internal network110. Internal network110may be implemented as, or may be a part of, a storage area network (SAN), personal area network (PAN), local area network (LAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a virtual private network (VPN), an intranet, the Internet or any other appropriate architecture or system that facilitates the communication of signals, data and/or messages (generally referred to as data). Internal network110may transmit data using any storage and/or communication protocol, including without limitation, Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), Internet SCSI (iSCSI), Frame Relay, Ethernet Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Internet protocol (IP), or other packet-based protocol, and/or any combination thereof. Network110and its various components may be implemented using hardware, software, or any combination thereof.

Turning now toFIG.2, a block diagram of selected components of an information handling system200is shown, according to some embodiments. Information handling system200may include host system202and management controller212. Host system202may also include or be communicatively coupled to network interface206, which may be a SmartNIC in some embodiments. Host system202may be coupled to the hardware of network interface206via a communication channel such as Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) in some embodiments.

Management server250is a remote information handling system that is used to provide various management functionality for information handling system200. While it is possible for management server250to communicatively couple to management controller212for serial console transport to receive serial data from host system202, in the embodiment shown, some or all of the serial console transport functionality has been offloaded to network interface206. Thus some or all of the computing workload for the SOL logic may be handled by network interface206.

A management agent executing on network interface206may process and encapsulate the serial console data from host system202. This data may be stored in onboard storage of network interface206and made available to management server250(e.g., via a RESTful application programming interface (API) or any other suitable mechanism). Accordingly, the performance, stability, and security of information handling system200may be increased, particularly in bare-metal scenarios. Further, this arrangement may prevent an unencrypted serial console stream from being exposed on the network, as communications between management server250and the management agent may be encrypted. Network interface206may also protect access via username and password credentials (e.g., the same credentials that are used by management controller212in one embodiment).

Management controller212may include a serial pass-through component such as a serial multiplexer (MUX), which may be configured to provide access to one or more than one serial data stream. The serial pass-through may be software controlled, allowing the serial port data (either unidirectional or bidirectional) to be redirected from management controller212to network interface206for storage and provisioning to management server250.

Turning now toFIG.3, a sequence diagram flow chart is shown of an example method300for offloading serial console transport to a network interface, in accordance with some embodiments.

As shown, a user may first transmit a command (e.g., via a management server such as management server250) to the BMC to cause it to initialize the SmartNIC’s management agent. This command may be transmitted to the BMC via an out-of-band management network or an in-band data network in various embodiments.

The BMC may then enable its serial MUX (or serial pass-through) functionality to allow the host system’s COM port to communicate directly with the SmartNIC. The BMC may then cause the SmartNIC to start its management agent, allowing serial communication with the host via the SmartNIC.

The user may then use this serial SmartNIC communication channel to configure the host network or carry out any other desired management tasks. In these and other embodiments, the user may also use the serial SmartNIC communication channel to receive any logging messages or the like which the host system sends via its serial port.

One of ordinary skill in the art with the benefit of this disclosure will understand that the preferred initialization point for the method depicted inFIG.3and the order of the steps comprising that method may depend on the implementation chosen. In these and other embodiments, this method may be implemented as hardware, firmware, software, applications, functions, libraries, or other instructions. Further, althoughFIG.3discloses a particular number of steps to be taken with respect to the disclosed method, the method may be executed with greater or fewer steps than depicted. The method may be implemented using any of the various components disclosed herein (such as the components ofFIG.1and/orFIG.2), and/or any other system operable to implement the method.

Although various possible advantages with respect to embodiments of this disclosure have been described, one of ordinary skill in the art with the benefit of this disclosure will understand that in any particular embodiment, not all of such advantages may be applicable. In any particular embodiment, some, all, or even none of the listed advantages may apply.

Unless otherwise specifically noted, articles depicted in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. However, in some embodiments, articles depicted in the drawings may be to scale.

Further, reciting in the appended claims that a structure is “configured to” or “operable to” perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) for that claim element. Accordingly, none of the claims in this application as filed are intended to be interpreted as having means-plus-function elements. Should Applicant wish to invoke § 112(f) during prosecution, Applicant will recite claim elements using the “means for [performing a function]” construct.