Linaro Virtual Connect 2020

A satellite management controller (MC) on a server platform interfaces with a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) enabling the platform to be remotely managed and monitored. The communication between the satellite MC and the BMC use protocols defined by DMTF PMCI working group and includes the PLDM and MCTP protocols.

This presentation talks about the integration of OpenBMC project’s PLDM and MCTP libraries on Arm’s Neoverse Reference Design platforms to allow the interfacing of this platform with a BMC. The Neoverse Reference Design platform includes a satellite management controller and these libraries execute as firmware extensions on this controller. This firmware stack processes PLDM requests, reads the Platform Data Records (PDR) on the platform, encodes this information as a PLDM response and returns it to the BMC. A PLDM message loop-back mechanism is used to simplify the validation of message generation and response. This enables the MC to handle RAS error logging, monitoring and control and remote debug communication with the BMC. Key takeaways for the audience include an introduction to PMCI defined messaging between MC and BMC and details of integration and usage of PLDM/MCTP libraries on MC of the Neoverse reference design platform.