File Manager Service in OpenBMC

[Sunitha Harish]

On 12/02/24 3:45 am, Andrew Jeffery wrote:
> Hi Sunitha,
>
> On Fri, 2024-02-09 at 11:23 +0530, Sunitha Harish wrote:
>> Thank you Andrew for the reply.
>>
>> When IBM manages a single server with multiple management
>> clients(redfish clients), they need to save some server related data
>> (host data) in the form of files at BMC's persistent file system.
>>
> What are the specific use-cases though? It seems that we've jumped
> straight to an implementation detail (persisted files) when it's not
> clear to me *what* it is that's needing to be communicated to begin
> with.

IBM has usecases implemented under /ibm/v1 path at bmcweb, which uploads and manages files on the BMC.
These are APIs to Create, Update, Get and Delete a file.
The data which needs to be persisted in the BMC are considerably big enough - that can not be modeled via DBus properties.
Moreover, the data which is stored are meant to be interpreted by the host & the client who is managing the host via this BMC.
So the preferred way of storing this is files.

>>   Here
>> BMC is used as a common persistent storage, which is accessible to all
>> connected redfish clients.
> Okay, but why is that necessary? Can you please enumerate the use-
> cases?
>
> The use-cases are what allows us to find an intersection of interests
> with others in the community.
>
> Discussions in the abstract in the context of a specific implementation
> approach feel to me like they might struggle to gain traction.

This is the primary usecase of IBM. But, if there are any other way of getting this done in a any other way, please suggest and we can work together on that.
With this email, i am actually looking for someone who may have similar usecase of providing the user a facility to manage files at BMC.

>> Additionally, for IBM usecase, BMC need not consume these files, as they
>> are targeted to be used by the host/hypervisor.
>>
> If they're not used by the BMC can you unpack why they need to be
> stored on the BMC?

Customers setup the systems such that, multiple management clients (primary & backup) can manage a single BMC. There will be some host data, which are needed in common to
both the primary and backup management consoles consumption. The best place to persist them is at BMC. Customer need not buy another trusted storage area to save the data.

>
> Andrew
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