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+# BMC Generic Binary Blob Store via OEM IPMI Blob Transport
+
+Author: Kun Yi (kunyi@google.com, kunyi!)
+
+Primary assignee: Kun Yi
+
+Created: 2018-12-07
+
+## Problem Description
+Server platform host OS often needs to store and/or access data coupled
+with the machine itself, which in most cases has a 1:1 mapping with the
+motherboard. Traditionally, this is achieved by directly accessing the FRU
+EEPROM, or going through BMC using IPMI FRU commands. However, it may not
+always be viable or desirable due to:
+
+* The FRU data may be programmed by MFG and treated as read-only
+* The FRU data may not be in IPMI FRU format
+* The data to store may not fit in the data types defined in IPMI FRU spec
+* Host may want to store multiple copies in e.g. BMC EEPROM
+
+The BMC generic IPMI blobs binary store, or "binary store" in short, serves a
+simple purpose: provide a read/write/serialize abstraction layer through IPMI
+blobs transport layer to allow users to store binary data on persistent
+locations accessible to the BMC.
+
+Despite its name, the binary blob store cannot be used for everything.
+
+* It is not a host/BMC mailbox. In general, BMC should reserve the space for
+  blob store and not try to write it due to concurrency concerns. It is
+  expected the only accessors are the IPMI blob store commands.
+* It is not a key store. Because the data stored is accessible to IPMI users
+  and is not encrypted in anyway, extra caution should be used. It is not
+  meant for storing data containing any keys or secrets.
+* The data to be stored should not be too large. Since each IPMI packet is
+  limited in size, trying to send an overly large binary is going to take too
+  long, and the overhead of the IPMI transport layer might make it not
+  worthwhile.
+
+## Background and References
+Please read the IPMI Blob protocol design as primer
+[here](https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-ipmi-blobs/blob/master/README.md).
+
+Under the hood, the binary blobs are stored as a binary [protocol
+buffer](https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf), or "protobuf" in short.
+
+## Requirements
+1. BMC image should have `phosphor-ipmi-blobs` installed.
+1. The host should know the specific blob base id that it intends to operate on.
+   For this design the discovery operations are limited.
+1. The host should only store binary data that is suitable using this transfer
+   mechanism. As mentioned it is not meant for mailbox communication, key store,
+   or large binary data.
+
+## Proposed Design
+This section describes how the handler `phosphor-ipmi-blobs-binarystore`
+defines each handler of the IPMI Blob protocol.
+
+### Blob ID Definition
+
+A "blob id" is a unique string that identifies a blob. Binary Store handler may
+show two kinds of blob ids: "base id" and "file id". They should only contain
+ASCII alphanumerical characters and forward slashes ('/').
+
+A "base id" begins and ends with a forward slash. It is analogous to a Unix
+directory path. The binary store handler will assign each storage location a
+unique base id (See next section for details).
+
+A "file id" begins with a forward slash but must not have a slash at the end,
+and is analogous to a Unix file path. Any file id with a valid base id as its
+longest matching prefix is considered reserved as a binary blob in the storage
+space.
+
+For example, if `/test/` and `/test/blob0` are the initial blob ids, we know
+there is one binary store location with one blob already created. To create a
+new blob named `/test/blob1`, one simply calls open with the id and write/commit
+with the returned session id. Opening invalid ids such as `/foo/bar` or
+`/test/nested/dir` will fail.
+
+### Platform Configuration
+For the binary store handler, a configuration file provides the base id,
+which file and which offset in the file to store the data. Optionally a
+"max\_size" param can be specified to indicate the total size of such binary
+storage should not exceed the limitation. If "max\_size" is specified as -1 or
+not specified, the storage could grow up to what the physical media allows.
+
+```none
+base_id: /bmc_store/
+sysfile_path: /sys/class/i2c-dev/i2c-1/device/1-0050/eeprom
+offset: 256
+max_size: 1024
+```
+[1] Example Configuration
+
+### Binary Store Protobuf Definition
+
+The data is stored as a binary protobuf containing a variable number of binary
+blobs, each having a unique blob\_id string with the base id as a common prefix.
+
+```none
+message BinaryBlob {
+  optional string blob_id = 1;
+  optional bytes data = 2;
+}
+
+message BinaryBlobStore {
+  optional string blob_base_id = 1;
+  repeated BinaryBlob blob = 2;
+  optional uint32 max_size = 3;
+}
+```
+
+Storing data as a protobuf makes the format more flexible and expandable, and
+allows future modifications to the storage format.
+
+### IPMI Blob Transfer Command Primitives
+
+The binary store handler will implement the following primitives:
+
+#### BmcBlobGetCount/BmcBlobEnumerate
+Initially only the base id will appear when enumerating the existing blobs.
+Once a valid binary has successfully been committed, its blob id will appear
+in the list.
+
+#### BmcBlobOpen
+`flags` can be `READ` for read-only access or `READ|WRITE`. `blob_id` can be
+any string with a matching prefix. If there is not already a valid binary
+stored with supplied `blob_id`, the handler treats it as a request to create
+such a blob.
+
+The `session_id` returned should be used by the rest of the session based
+commands to operate on the blob. If there is already an open session, this
+call will fail.
+
+NOTE: the newly created blob is not serialized and stored until `BmcBlobCommit`
+is called.
+
+#### BmcBlobRead
+Returns bytes with the requested offset and size. If there are not enough bytes
+the handler will return the bytes that are available.
+
+Note this operation reads from memory. Make sure the stat is 'COMMITTED' which
+indicates that the memory content matches the data serialized to storage.
+
+#### BmcBlobWrite
+Writes bytes to the requested offset. Return number of bytes written if success,
+zero if failed.
+
+#### BmcBlobCommit
+Store the serialized BinaryBlobStore to associated system file.
+
+#### BmcBlobClose
+Mark the session as closed. Any uncommitted changes to the blob state is lost.
+
+#### BmcBlobDelete
+Delete the binary data associated with `blob_id`.
+Deleting the base\_id (the 'directory' level) will fail harmlessly.
+
+#### BmcBlobStat
+`size` returned equals to length of the `data` bytes in the protobuf.
+`blob_state` will be set with `OPEN_R`, `OPEN_W`, and/or `COMMITTED` as
+appropriate.
+
+#### BmcBlobSessionStat/BmcBlobWriteMeta
+Not supported.
+
+### Example Host Command Flow
+
+#### No binary data yet, write data
+1. `BmcBlobGetCount` followed by `BmcBlobEnumerate`. Since there is
+   no valid blob with binary data stored, BMC handler only populates the
+   `base_id` per platform configuration. e.g. `/bmc_store/`.
+1. `BmcBlobOpen` with `blob_id = /bmc_store/blob0`, BMC honors the
+   request and returns `session_id = 0`.
+1. `BmcBlobWrite` multiple times to write the data into the blob.
+1. `BmcBlobCommit`. BMC writes data into configured path, e.g. to EEPROM.
+1. `BmcBlobClose`
+
+#### Read existing data
+1. `BmcBlobGetCount` followed by `BmcBlobEnumerate` shows `/bmc_store/` and
+   `/bmc_store/blob0`.
+1. `BmcBlobStat` on `/bmc_store/blob0` shows non-zero size and `COMMITTED`
+   state.
+1. `BmcBlobOpen` with `blob_id = /bmc_store/blob0`.
+1. `BmcBlobRead` multiple times to read the data.
+1. `BmcBlobClose`.
+
+## Alternatives Considered
+The first alternative considered was to store the data via IPMI FRU commands;
+as mentioned in the problem description, it is not always viable.
+
+There is a Google OEM I2C-over-IPMI driver that allows the host to read/write
+I2C devices attached to the BMC. In comparison, the blob store approach proposed
+offer more abstraction and is more flexible in where to store the data.
+
+## Impacts
+***Security***:
+As mentioned, the binary store transfer mechanism doesn't offer encryption.
+Entities storing the data through this mechanism should be aware and either
+not to transfer security-critical data, or supply their own security
+mechanism on top.
+
+***BMC performance***:
+Since the handler requires protobuf package, it may increase
+BMC image size if the package wasn't previously installed.
+
+***Host compatibility***:
+If data has been stored using IPMI blob binary store, then the host
+would need a handler that understands the blob transfer
+semantics to read the data.
+
+## Testing
+Where possible mockable interfaces will be used to unit test the logic of the
+code.