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PRODUCT BRIEF

Pigeon Point BMR-AST-BMC Reference Design

Baseboard Management Controller

For Network Appliances, Bladed and Non-Bladed Servers

May 2, 2016 Electronics Protection Pentair Technical Solutions hardware.management@pentair.com www.pigeonpoint.com www.pentairprotect.com

All Pentair brands and logos are the property of Pentair or its affiliated companies worldwide. Pentair reserves the right to change information without prior notification.

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The BMR-AST-BMC design is one of a series of Pigeon Point Board Management Reference (BMR) designs. This member of the series provides a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) for IPMI-managed baseboards, including those in network appliances and managed servers. This reference design is based on the ASPEED AST2500 integrated remote management processor from ASPEED Technology. This design includes support for the advanced remote redirection facilities of the AST2500, which allow remote keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) hardware, as well as remote media, to be used as if it were attached to the baseboard’s main CPU, greatly simplifying management of large numbers of baseboards or blade servers that integrate such BMCs. The subset variant AST2520 is also supported, but without the remote redirection features, since it does not include the necessary hardware. This reference design is delivered in a Pigeon Point Board Management Starter Kit (which is detailed in a separate Product Brief). The kit includes: Schematics for the core of a BMC based on an

ASPEED 2500 family device, ready to be adapted for your baseboard

Linux-based foundation layer, adapted for operation on the ASPEED-based BMC

BMC application firmware, delivered in source form and with development tools—ready for simple and quick adaptation to your requirements

One-stop support from Pentair experts for schematics, firmware and software used in developing and delivering your Pigeon Point BMR-based BMC

Complementary support, if needed, from ASPEED Technology for special hardware aspects of applying an AST2500 family device to the specific needs of your board

The photo above shows the core of a BMR-AST BMC. The key active components are: The AST2500 integrated remote management

processor External DRAM and Flash Optional dual IPMB buffers to isolate the BMC

from a dual redundant IPMB. IPMI does not require buffers and does not specify dual redundant operation. These extensions are optional at both the firmware and hardware levels.

Specification compliant IPMI v1.5, document revision 1.1 and the

relevant subset of IPMI v2.0, document revision 1.1, plus relevant errata, including support for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)

Primary facilities of the Data Center Manageability Interface (DCMI), revision 1.5, document revision 1.0

PICMG HPM.1 management controller firmware upgrade specification; IPMI does not specify a firmware upgrade protocol

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Highly adaptable, applicable to a wide variety of system management architectures Usable for blades in bladed systems or for

main system boards in non-bladed systems, such as appliances

Independent of number, size and physical form factors of boards

Optional interface to higher level management based on Ethernet or System Interface

Substantial BMC CPU power can potentially support additional customer management applications

Full support for core BMC hardware requirements 32-bit ARM11 processor operating at 600 MHz IPMI-aware monitoring of designated AST2500

analog sensors Supports AST2500/2520 variants, with

reduced features for AST2520 System CPU voltage monitoring Support for external digital (DS75 or AD7417)

thermal sensors Direct LAN attachment interface or sideband

LAN attachment interface implemented via the standardized Network Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI) capable of handling IPMI over LAN (including Serial over LAN, HPM.1 upgrades

Optionally dual redundant IPMB System power supply controls (multiple

voltage levels) Optional persistence of above controls across

BMC resets UART-, LPC/KCS- or LPC/BT-based System

Interface UART-based serial debug interface

Optional support for advanced KVM and media redirection Leverages hardware support in the AST2500 System CPU uses USB and PCI Express (PCIe)

to connect with AST2500 ports; AST2500 can redirect normal KVM and media operations on those ports to remote physical devices (typically on a LAN-connected remote management console)

With appropriate configuration, unmodified OS and application software on System CPU can use redirected peripherals transparently

As shown in diagram below, two USB ports and a PCI Express (PCIe) port on the System CPU interacts, through the BMC Ethernet interface, with a remote console as if the remote keyboard/mouse, installation drive and video monitor were directly attached to the System CPU.

Network communication protocol is based on RMCP+, leveraging its security features (authentication, integrity, encryption)

Small footprint Core BMC can fit in the following footprint:

43mm x 49mm Comprehensive, readily adaptable firmware All mandatory and many optional IPMI

commands supported over the System Interface and other interfaces (e.g. LAN)

SDR Repository support Platform Event Filtering (PEF) support Basic DCMI support (including Chassis Control

commands) Numerous Pigeon Point extension commands,

primarily used over the System Interface and serial debug interfaces

PICMG HPM.1 firmware upgrade support Simple—but highly flexible—configuration of

firmware features

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Sophisticated, HPM.1-compliant support for firmware upgrades Firmware upgrades over any IPMI interface to

the BMC, with redundant copies and automatic fallback after failed upgrade

BMC is fully functional during upgrade Foundation layer components (boot loader,

Linux kernel, root file system) can be upgraded without using JTAG

Framework for managing firmware upgrades that include changes in data structures that are preserved across BMC resets to eliminate disruptive upgrades

BMC FRU Information implemented as additional HPM.1 component, allowing FRU Information upgrades independently of firmware

Optional upgrades via IPMI over LAN interface Open source ipmitool supplied as upgrade

agent HPM.1 compliance means that any compliant

upgrade agent can upgrade any compliant BMC

Choice of serial interface protocols (SIPL variants) supported via UARTs to System CPU and serial debug interface SIPL-TM, based on IPMI-defined Terminal

Mode of the Serial/Modem Interface, SIPL-BM based on IPMI-defined Basic Mode, Either protocol selectable individually for

either serial interface SIPL-TM: human-oriented and ASCII-based,

intended primarily for the serial debug interface

SIPL-BM: machine-oriented and binary-based, intended primarily for the UART-based System Interface

Both protocols use encoded forms of raw IPMI messages, which are handled by the BMC essentially like IPMB messages

Optional use of LPC and KCS/BT for System Interface1 Either KCS or BT over either LPC can be

enabled in lieu of UART-based System Interface

Based on IPMI-defined KCS or BT variant of IPMI System Interface

Facilitates use of existing IPMI software on System CPU, which often interfaces with management controller via KCS or BT

Optional Simple Network Stack Ethernet layer, including drivers for AST2500

Ethernet MAC Internet Protocol (IP) layer, which cooperates

with ARP module to resolve IP address to MAC addresses

IP-based protocol layer, including UDP and ICMP, including support for both IPv4 and IPv6

Provides foundation for application protocols, such as RMCP and RMCP+

Optional RMCP+ Network Interface Primary client of simple network stack IPMI 2.0 compliant implementation of

extended Remote Management Control Protocol (RMCP+), including session establishment

RMCP+ compliant authentication, integrity and confidentiality, specifically via the following algorithms (all using IPMI 2.0-compliant random number generation):

Authentication: HMAC-SHA1 Integrity: HMAC-SHA1-96 Confidentiality: AES-CBC-128

IPMI over LAN and SoL payload types in RMCP+, with framework for supporting further payload types (leveraged for KVM)

Enables HPM.1 firmware upgrades Supported LAN interfaces with AST2500 RMII-

equipped Ethernet MACs include: NC-SI2, tested with selected Intel NCs,

where LAN connection is typically shared with System CPU traffic

1 KCS and BT implement the IPMI-defined Keyboard

Controller Style and Block Transfer interfaces using the Low Pin Count version of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, which is used for access to relatively low speed peripherals such as management controllers.

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Direct Ethernet, where the LAN connection is dedicated to management traffic, not shared with the System CPU

System Event Log (SEL) Requires SEEPROM storage on board IPMI compliant System Event Log for events

generated on the FRU(s) represented by the BMC or by satellite management controllers connected via IPMB

Can provide a useful historical record of events that have been recorded during operation of a board, perhaps for use in board diagnosis at a maintenance depot

Platform Event Filtering (PEF) IPMI-compliant; supports PET alerts, as well as

Reset and Power Down actions Sensor Data Record (SDR) Repository

2 NC-SI is an open specification published by the

Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF, www.dmtf.org) that uses the Reduced Media Independent Interface (RMII) as the physical transport between the network and management controllers.

IPMI-compliant non-volatile SDR Repository stored in on-board SEEPROM

Must be initially populated by system integrator

Basic DCMI support Supports mandatory DCMI-specific commands

(Get DCMI Capability Info and Get DCMI Sensor Info)

Supports Chassis Control functionality (including the Power Up, Power Down and Hard Reset control commands)

Optional support for System CPU-controlled sensors Allows sensors that are implemented by the

System CPU (e.g. an I2C sensor connected to the System CPU) but exposed by the BMC as its own

Covers discrete and threshold sensors Optional support for persistent configuration parameters Parameters preserve values across BMC

power cycles and resets Used for most persistent data, such as serial

port parameters, LAN and SoL parameters Framework for such treatment of other

parameters, including those in custom firmware extensions

Simple, but powerful, firmware configuration mechanisms Configuration variables in a single config.h

source file parameterize and determine inclusion/exclusion of subsystems during firmware image build

Binary configuration files for FRU Information and Sensor Data Records (SDR) merged into firmware image

FRU Information and SDR files produced from textual representations by special supplied compilers

Comprehensive ARM development environment Uses cross GNU C compiler and binary utilities

for ARM x86 Linux-based development environment

included with BMR-AST-BMC Starter Kit

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(based on Mentor Graphics Sourcery Code Bench G++ Lite toolchain)

Numerous extensions beyond required IPMI/DCMI/HPM.1 commands and functionality Cold Reset Warm Reset Get ACPI Power State Get Device GUID Get System GUID Get Channel Authentication Capabilities Get Session Challenge Activate Session Set Session Privilege Level Close Session Get Session Info Get/Set Channel Access Get Channel Info Get/Set User Access Get/Set User Name Set User Password Get Sensor Reading Factors Get/Set Sensor Hysteresis Get/Set Sensor Thresholds Get/Set Sensor Event Enable Re-arm Sensor Events Get Sensor Event Status Get Sensor Type Delete SDR Enter SDR Repository Update Mode Reserve SEL Abort Firmware Upgrade Get Session Handle for Explicit LAN Bridging Rich set of Pigeon Point extension commands All extension commands implemented as

IPMI-compliant OEM messages Get Status Get/Set Serial Interface Properties Get/Set Debug Level Enable/Disable Payload Control Reset BMC Hang BMC3 Update Discrete Sensor Update Threshold Sensor Set EEPROM SDR Data Set EEPROM SDR Hysteresis Set EEPROM SDR Thresholds Reset EEPROM SDR Repository

3This function is used to test the BMC watchdog.

Get/Set GPIO Signal State Reset Non-Volatile Parameters and Reboot Get/Set FRU Info Write-Protect State Get/Set PWM DAC Level Reference Implementation A bench top implementation called the BMR-AST-PPMC BTR is shown on the next page. In addition to the BMR-AST BMC core, the board includes implementations of optional BMC features and numerous LEDs, switches and headers to allow lab experimentation with the behavior of the BMC. The board is also used in another BMR solution based on ASPEED devices, the BMR-AST-ATCA solution, and includes additional facilities for those applications that are not relevant in the BMC context. A block diagram of the BMR-AST BMC follows the photo.

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