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gerrit.openbmc.org / openbmc / phosphor-dbus-interfaces / c6cfd2ce938baa348a830748f06bf02a3e7a01c5 / . / xyz / openbmc_project / Software
tree: 6f43855caf7b1742f407532248bffb0f6245a557 [path history] [tgz]
  1. Activation.interface.yaml
  2. ActivationBlocksTransition.interface.yaml
  3. ActivationProgress.interface.yaml
  4. ExtendedVersion.interface.yaml
  5. README.md
  6. RedundancyPriority.interface.yaml
  7. Version.interface.yaml
xyz/openbmc_project/Software/README.md

Software Version Management and Image Update

Overview

There are two types of processes involved in software version management and code update:

  1. ImageManager - This is a process which manages a collection of, likely temporary, images located somewhere in a file system. These are images which are available on the BMC for update.
  2. ItemUpdater - This is a process which manages specific storage elements, likely for an inventory item, to determine which software versions are installed onto that item. A specific example of this would be a process that controls and updates the BIOS flash module for a managed host.

A simple system design would be to include a single ImageManager and two ItemUpdaters: one for the BMC itself and one for the Host.

ImageManager

The ImageManager would provide interfaces at /xyz/openbmc_project/software to allow additional images to be added to the BMC, such as Object.Add() for REST and DownloadViaTFTP() for TFTP. The standard Object.Delete() interface would also be provided to facilitate removing images which are no longer needed. Images maintained in the file system would be presented as a corresponding /xyz/openbmc_project/software/<id> object. In addition, the xyz.openbmc_project.Common.FilePath interface would be provided to specify the location of the image.

It is assumed that the ImageManager has [at least] a bare minimum amount of parsing knowledge, perhaps due to a common image format, to allow it to populate all of the properties of xyz.openbmc_project.Software.Version. ItemUpdaters will likely listen for standard D-Bus signals to identify new images being created.

ItemUpdater

The ItemUpdater is responsible for monitoring for new Software.Version elements being created to identify versions that are applicable to the inventory element(s) it is managing. The ItemUpdater should dynamically create an xyz.openbmc_project.Software.Activation interface under /xyz/openbmc_project/software/, an association of type {active_image,software_version} between the Software.Version and Software.Activation under /xyz/openbmc_project/software/, and an association of type {activation,item} between the Inventory.Item and Software.Activation under /xyz/openbmc_project/software/<id>. Application of the software image is then handled through the RequestedActivation property of the Software.Activation interface.

The ItemUpdater should, if possible, also create its own xyz.openbmc_project.Software.Version objects, and appropriate associations for software versions that are currently present on the managed inventory element(s). This provides a mechanism for interrogation of the software versions when the ImageManager no longer contains a copy.

Details

Image Identifier

The ImageManager and ItemUpdater should use a common, though perhaps implementation specific, algorithm for the <id> portion of a D-Bus path for each Software.Version. This allows the same software version to be contained in multiple locations but represented by the same object path.

A reasonable algorithm might be: echo <Version.Version> <Version.Purpose> | sha512sum | cut -b 1-8

TODO: May need an issue against the REST server to 'merge' two copies of a single D-Bus object into a single REST object.

Activation States

xyz.openbmc_project.Software.Activation has a property Activation that can be in the following states:

  1. NotReady - Indicating that the ItemUpdater is still processing the version and it is therefore not ready for activation. This might be used on an image that has a security header while verification is being performed.
  2. Invalid - Indicating that, while the Software.Version.Purpose suggested the image was valid for a managed element, a detailed analysis by the ItemUpdater showed that it was not. Reasons may include image corruption detected via CRC or security verification failure. An event may be recorded with additional details.
  3. Ready - Indicating that the Software.Version can be activated.
  4. Activating - Indicating that the Software.Version is in the process of being activated.
  5. Active - The Software.Version is active on the managed element. Note that on systems with redundant storage devices a version might be Active but not the primary version.
  6. Failed - The Software.Version or the storage medium on which it is stored has failed. An event may be recorded with additional details.

Blocking State Transitions

It is sometimes useful to block a system state transition while activations are being performed. For example, we do not want to boot a managed host while its BIOS is being updated. In order to facilitate this, the interface xyz.openbmc_project.Software.ActivationBlocksTransition may be added to any object with Software.Activation to indicate this behavior. See that interface for more details.

It is strongly suggested that any activations are completed prior to a managed BMC reboot. This could be facilitated with systemd service specifiers.

Software Versions

All version identifiers are implementation specific strings. No format should be assumed.

Some software versions are a collection of images, each with their own version identifiers. The xyz.openbmc_project.Software.ExtendedVersion interface can be added to any Software.Version to express the versioning of the aggregation.

Activation Progress

The xyz.openbmc_project.Software.ActivationProgress interface is provided to show current progress while a software version is Activating. It is expected that an ItemUpdater will dynamically create this interface while the version is Activating and dynamically remove it when the activation is complete (or failed).

Handling Redundancy

The xyz.openbmc_project.Software.RedundancyPriority interface is provided to express the relationship between two (or more) software versions activated for a single managed element. It is expected that all installed versions are listed as Active and the Priority shows which version is the primary and which are available for redundancy.

REST use-cases

Find all software versions on the system, either active or available.

List /xyz/openbmc_project/software/. This list can be filtered to just active listing .../software/active/ and following the software_version association to retrieve version information. To list just "functional" or running versions list /xyz/openbmc_project/software/functional/.

Find all software versions on a managed element.

List /xyz/openbmc_project/inventory/.../<item>/activation association.

Upload new version via REST

HTTP PUT to /xyz/openbmc_project/software/. ImageManager will assign the <id> when called for Object.Add().

Upload new version via ???

Need additional interfaces defined for alternative upload methods.

Activate a version.

Modify RequestedActivation to Active on the desired Activation.

Switch primary image.

Set Priority to 0 on the desired RedundancyPriority interface.