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+# Error handling for power Hardware Abstraction Layer (pHAL)
+
+Author:
+Devender Rao <devenrao@in.ibm.com> <devenrao>
+
+Primary assignee:
+Devender Rao <devenrao@in.ibm.com> <devenrao>
+
+Other contributors:
+None
+
+Created:
+14/01/2020
+
+## Problem Description
+Proposal to provide a mechanism to convert the failure data captured as part
+of power Hardware Abstraction Layer(pHAL) library calls to
+[Platform Event Log][1] (PEL) format.
+
+## Background and References
+OpenBmc Applications use the pHAL layer for hardware access and hardware
+initialization, any software/hardware error returned by the pHAL layer need
+to be converted to PEL format for logging the error entry. PEL helps to
+improve the firmware and platform serviceability during product development,
+manufacturing and in customer environment.
+
+Error data includes register data, targets to [guard][2] and callout.
+Guard refers to the action of "guarding" faulty hardware from impacting
+future system operation. Callout points to a specific hardware with in the
+server that relates to the identified error.
+
+[Phosphor-logging][3] [Create][4] interface is used for creating PELs.
+
+pHAL layer constitutes below libraries and and these libraries return
+different return codes.
+1. libipl used for initial program load
+2. libfdt for device tree access
+3. libekb for hardware procedure execution
+4. libpdbg for hardware access
+
+Proposal is to structure the return data to a standard return code format so
+that the caller can just handle the single return code format for conversion
+to PEL.
+
+### Glossary
+pHAL: power Hardware Abstraction Layer. pHAL is group of libraries running
+in BMC. These libraries are used by Open Power specific application for
+hardware complex interactions, hostboot and Self Boot Engine initialization,
+diagnostics and debugging.
+
+libfdt: pHAL uses to construct the in-memory tree structure of all targets.
+[Reference][5]
+
+libpdbg: library to allow debugging of the host POWER processors from the BMC
+[Reference][6]
+
+MRW: Machine readable workbook. An XML description of a machine as specified
+by the system owner.
+
+HWP: Hardware procedure. A "black box" code module supplied by the hardware
+team that initializes host processor and memory subsystems in a platform
+-independent fashion.
+
+Device Tree: A device tree is a data structure describing the hardware
+components of a particular computer so that the operating system's kernel can
+use and manage those components, including the CPU or CPUs, the memory, the
+buses and the peripherals. [Reference][7]
+
+EKB: EKB library contains all the hardware procedures (HWP) for the specific
+platform and corresponding error XML files for each hardware procedure.
+
+PEL: [Platform Entity Log][1]
+
+## Requirement
+### libekb
+EKB library contains hardware procedures for the specific platform and the
+corresponding error xml files for each hardware procedure. Error XML specifies
+attribute data, targets to callout, targets to guard, and targets to
+deconfigure for a specific error. Parsers in EKB library parse the error XML
+file and generate a c++ header file which is used by the hardware procedure
+in capturing the failure data.
+
+Add parser in libekb to parse the error XML file and provide methods that can
+parse the failure data returned by the hardware procedure methods and return
+data in key, value pairs so that the same can be used in the creation of PEL.
+
+### libipl
+Initial program load library used for booting the system. Library internally
+calls hardware procedures (HWP) of EKB library. Hardware procedure execution
+status need to be returned to the caller so that caller can create PEL on
+hardware procedure execution failure.
+
+### libpdbg
+libpdbg library is used for hardware access, any hardware access errors need
+to be captured as part of the PEL.
+
+
+### Message Registry Entries
+For errors to be raised in pHal corresponding error message registry entries
+need to be created in the [message registry][8].
+
+## Proposed design
+### Hardware procedure failure
+Add parser in libekb to parse the error XML file and provide methods that can
+parse the failure data returned by the hardware procedure methods and return
+data in key, value pairs so that the same can be used in the [Create][4]
+interface for the creation of PEL.
+
+Inventory strings for the targets to Callout/Guard/Deconfig need to be added
+to the additional data section of the Create interface.
+
+Applications need to register callback methods in libekb library to get back the
+error logging traces.
+
+Debug traces returned through the callback method will be added to the PEL.
+
+
+### libipl internal failure
+Applications need to register callback methods in libipl library to get back the
+error logging traces.
+
+Debug traces returned through the callback method will be added to the PEL.
+
+### libpdbg internal failure
+Applications need to register callback methods to get the debug traces from
+libpdbg library.
+
+Debug traces returned through the callback method will be added to the PEL.
+
+## Sequence diagrams
+### Register for debug traces and boot errors
+![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/26330444/76838214-e4e7dc80-6859-11ea-818c-031bf5a191d6.png)
+
+### Process debug traces
+![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/26330444/76838355-152f7b00-685a-11ea-9975-4091ae1064cc.png)
+
+### Process boot failures
+![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/26330444/76838503-3a23ee00-685a-11ea-9f2a-559e233b408f.png)
+
+## Alternatives Considered
+None
+
+## Impacts
+None
+
+## Future changes
+At present using [Create][4] by providing the data in std::map format the same
+will be changed to JSON format when the corresponding support to pass JSON files
+to the Create interface is added.
+
+## Testing
+1. Simulate hardware procedure failure and check if PEL is created.
+
+[1]: (https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-logging/blob/master/extensions/openpower-pels/README.md)
+[2]: (https://gerrit.openbmc-project.xyz/#/c/openbmc/docs/+/27804/2/designs/gard_on_bmc.md)
+[3]: (https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-logging)
+[4]: (https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-dbus-interfaces/blob/master/xyz/openbmc_project/Logging/Create.interface.yaml)
+[5]: (https://github.com/dgibson/dtc)
+[6]: (https://github.com/open-power/pdbg)
+[7]: (https://elinux.org/Device_Tree_Reference)
+[8]: (https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-logging/blob/master/extensions/openpower-pels/registry/message_registry.json)