Ipmi Feature¶
This package implements core-functionality for IPMI as well as several services built on IPMI. See IPMI Specification 2nd Generation v2.0 for more information. This document details the design on the IPMI feature. For using and configuring this feature package, see the package readme. For specific functionality within this package see the other documents.
Purpose¶
The IPMI feature provides firmware functionality that implements behavior described in the IPMI specification. IPMI enables out-of-band and monitoring capabilities independent of the host system's CPU, firmware, and operating system by communicating with the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC).
The IPMI feature is intended to be directly used by platforms without the need to customize the core code. Instead platforms should leverage the exposed PCDs and library options to either customize the core functionality or implement their own in the library plugins.
Structure¶
The IPMI stack consists of several layers of functionality each with a set API for consumers to leverage.
Transport Library - This consists of the KCS and SSIF IPMI transport libraries. These are responsible for implementing the necessary physical transport logic for the platform. This layer does not need to understand the structure of IPMI messages. The transport library definitions are in the transport library header file.
Generic IPMI - Implements the generic IPMI in a protocol, PPI, or MM driver. This layer is responsible for taking a high level IPMI request and building the IPMI request and parsing the response. Generic IPMI will rely on the transport library to handle the hardware specifics. External consumers of the IPMI package should consider using the base library. The generic transport interface is defined in the IPMI interface header file but should be considered internal.
IPMI Base Library - Supplies a library abstraction for the basic functionality provided by the Generic IPMI component. This is the API surface that should be used for platform components implementing non-standard IPMI messages. The library definitions are in the base library header file.
IPMI Command Library - Implements wrappers for specific IPMI functions. This calls into the IPMI base library. This is provided as a convenient wrapper for standard IPMI messages. Supported commands are defined in the command library header file
Functional IPMI Drivers - Implements functionality around IPMI. Consists of the drivers such as IpmiWatchdog which rely on the IPMI command library.
Extending the IPMI Command Set¶
Platforms may implement custom or specialized IPMI commands and functionality that are not implemented in this repo. In this case, the platform should leverage the IPMI base library to abstract the interface into a single command which they can provide an opaque command and response buffer. Platforms may call directly into the protocols/PPIs if needed, but for consistency it is advised to use the base library.
Testing the IPMI feature¶
Because IPMI relies on communication with a BMC, real testing often requires a physical device or complicated virtual environment. To facilitate unit tests and more accessible function tests, this package makes use of a mock IPMI library to test in user mode components or a environment without real IPMI support. This library can either be compiled into a host-based unit test for build time tests or can be used as the transport library for the generic ipmi modules to fake IPMI support in UEFI. When support is added for new IPMI features, support should also be added in the mock library to facilitate unit tests for the new feature.