Multi host bios upgrade support in phosphor-bmc-code-mgmt:

[P. Priyatharshan]

Thanks Adriana for the clarification.

For host bios update, the images will be copied to BMC(/tmp/images) and will start flashing by making RequestedActivation field "xyz.openbmc_project.Software.Activation.RequestedActivations.Active". In our case, the device location will be same for all the bios images (BMC /tmp/images).So I think the above design you proposed[id = version+volume ID]  may not work effectively for multi host as the id is still going to be same for all the hosts.

We would like to propose the following approach for your review.Kindly go through the below steps and share your valuable suggestions.

1.Number of host will be identified from machine layer [OBMC_HOST_INSTANCES]

2.Code will be modified to create n number of objects based on number of hosts

  Ex: Log taken in YosemiteV2 [4 host]

root at yosemitev2:~# busctl tree xyz.openbmc_project.Software.BMC.Updater
`-/xyz
  `-/xyz/openbmc_project
    `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software
      |-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/1929c585
      |-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host1
      | `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host1/28bd62d9
      |-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host2
      | `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host2/28bd62d9
      |-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host3
      | `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host3/28bd62d9
      `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host4
        `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host4/28bd62d9
root at yosemitev2:~# busctl tree xyz.openbmc_project.Software.Version
`-/xyz
  `-/xyz/openbmc_project
    `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software
      |-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host1
      | `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host1/28bd62d9
      |-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host2
      | `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host2/28bd62d9
      |-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host3
      | `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host3/28bd62d9
      `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host4
        `-/xyz/openbmc_project/software/host4/28bd62d9


3.This will create activation interface for each host. For a multi-host system if the  RequestedActivation is set to "xyz.openbmc_project.Software.Activation.RequestedActivations.Active", then different bios service file will be called based the host.

For single host : biosServiceFile = "obmc-flash-host-bios@" + versionId + ".service";
For multi host  : biosServiceFile =  "obmc-flash-host" + host + "-bios@" + versionId + ".service";


Then it can be used for multi host even if the firmware image we want to install is the same for multiple host targets.

I have created a WIP patch for the design proposed above.Kindly have a glance and share your comments.

https://gerrit.openbmc-project.xyz/c/openbmc/phosphor-bmc-code-mgmt/+/37448

Thanks,
Priyatharshan P

________________________________
From: Adriana Kobylak <anoo at linux.ibm.com>
Sent: 06 October 2020 03:11
To: P. Priyatharshan <PriyatharshanP at hcl.com>
Cc: Patrick Williams <patrick at stwcx.xyz>; Velumani T-ERS,HCLTech <velumanit at hcl.com>; openbmc at lists.ozlabs.org <openbmc at lists.ozlabs.org>; anoo at us.ibm.com <anoo at us.ibm.com>; ojayanth at in.ibm.com <ojayanth at in.ibm.com>; gmills at linux.vnet.ibm.com <gmills at linux.vnet.ibm.com>; ratagupt at linux.vnet.ibm.com <ratagupt at linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Subject: Re: Multi host bios upgrade support in phosphor-bmc-code-mgmt:

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Hi Priyatharshan,

>  Object : /xyz/openbmc_project/software/[FIRMWARE_VERSION]_[DEVICE]
> where device could be host1, 2, ...,N
>  Interface : xyz.openbmc_project.Software.Activation
>
>  Please confirm if our understanding is correct.

I meant that to generate the id, which currently uses the version
string, would instead use the version string plus the string for the
name of the device where it's stored in order to generate the hash. For
example, today the code calls "SHA512_Update("version")", where
"version" is for example "2.9.0-dev-663-g2e34bb673". Instead the code
would detect this version is stored let's say in device "mtd1" or
"mmcblk0p1", it'd then append that device string to version, ex:
"2.9.0-dev-663-g2e34bb673-mmcblk0p1" and pass that string to
SHA512_Update(), therefore creating a different hash depending where
that version of bmc code is stored.

Note that this is for BMC versions only. We discussed that for host
versions, we'd need to modify the code to add a "os-release" file under
/media/ that contained the host version information similar to the BMC's
os-release file. In addition, we'd need to somehow determine that those
files were for host (Bios) versions instead of BMC ones. Perhaps
os-release could have an additional field added to specify the purpose.


> Adriana, Any tentative timeline on your commits availability [generate
> the id based on firmware version plus the device or volume ]

I'd say by early next year at the latest.
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