BMC Operating Mode [Manual / Normal]

[Ed Tanous]

On 8/9/19 12:13 AM, vishwa wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> IBM systems have a need to run BMC either in Manual or Normal Mode. What 
> it means is this:
> 
> Manual: It's mostly a lab / debug mode, where in the system would be 
> booted with recovery disabled.
> For example: If we enter Quiesce state as part of power-on, then BMC 
> remains in Quiesce state and would *not* attempt to re power-on and 
> reboot the system.
> 
> Normal: This is the default customer mode with recovery enabled in BMC.
> For example: If we enter Quiesce state as part of power-on, then an 
> attempt will automatically be done to re power-on and boot the system.

We have a very similar mechanism in our non-OpenBMC stack.  We would
likely be interested in a generic interface for it, although the details
are different, as the BMC doesn't really monitor Quiesce, but the state
of the boot through ACPI and power rails.

> 
> There are other use-cases, where BMC does a Automatic power-on after 
> coming back from an AC loss. Manual / Normal would influence this.

This is classically a separate setting called "power restore policy".  I
suspect you likely want to keep these separate as well, as the power
policy is something that a user is likely to set independent of
lab/debug/manual mode.

> 
> My current thought is to make this a settings in phosphor-settings. 
> Looking to see if others have any use-case like this.