Granted Patent B1

US 9,619,245 · App. 13/631,266 · Granted Apr 11, 2017

Inventor: Mahendra Boopathy Ramanujam (Chennai, IN)

Assignee: Chelsio Communications, Inc.

G06F9/4416G06F9/4411G06F3/067

Abstract

Claims (22)

1. A method of configuring and booting a computer system having a computer and a multi-function converged network adapter card coupled to the computer, the converged network adapter card including a set of at least two network interface ports to access, via a network, at least one of a preboot execution environment server target, an iSCSI target, and a Fiber Channel Disk Array target, comprising:

reading, in response to a Power-On Self Test (POST) of the system BIOS of the computer, a single option ROM associated with the converged network adapter (CNA) card to obtain information for booting and configuration, the single option ROM storing information to support a preboot execution environment (PXE) boot, a Fiber Channel Over Ethernet (FCoE) boot, and an Internet Small Computer Interface (iSCSI) boot;

discovering external targets communicatively coupled to the set of at least two network interface ports;

using the single option ROM to automatically configure a plurality of network and storage adapters present on the computer system including configuring a plurality of different types of storage adapters to support communication with one or more of the discovered external targets communicatively coupled to the set of at least two network interface ports wherein an initialization routine stored on the single option ROM is called by the BIOS to scan for different types of adapters present from the group consisting of PXE, FCoE, and iSCSI;

wherein the single option ROM has a sequence of images to support all of the protocols of the adapters of the CNA and support all of the boot solutions for the converged network adapter card; and

wherein the network and storage protocols includes the Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), Fiber Channel Over Ethernet (FCoE);

wherein in response to discovering a PXE server target a PXE adapter is automatically exposed as BCV through a PNP structure, wherein in response to discovering an iSCSI target an iSCSI adapter is automatically exposed as BCV through a PNP structure, and wherein in response to discovering a FCoE target, a FCoE adapter is automatically exposed as BCV through a PNP structure.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the single option ROM stores at least a universal stored device interface (USDI) driver, boot configuration information for all protocols supported by the converged network adapter; a preboot execution environment (PXE), and a universal network device interface (UNDI) and based code driver supporting NIC functions.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the converged network adapter (CNA) card is coupled to a peripheral component interface express (PCIe) bus of the computer and the single option ROM image is used to serve all boot solutions for CNA based PCIe adapters.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein an initialization routine stored on the single option ROM is called by a BIOS to read configuration parameters on each adapter found and setup PXE BEV entries and storage BCV entries based on the configuration parameters.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reading of the single option ROM comprises the system BIOS in a Power-On-Self-Test (POST) scanning the single option ROM and reading a main portion of code stored on the option ROM to enable interoperability of the computer with the converged network adapter card.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the main portion of code communicates to each physical function (PF) of the converged network adapter card and configures a Boot Entry Vector (BEV) for Network Interface Card (NIC) functions, and Boot Connect Vector (BCV) for FCoE and iSCSI targets.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the BEV and BCVs are chained through a Plug and Play (PNP) expansion header.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising the POST calling each BCV to hook INT 13h vector.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

a multi-function converged network adapter card including a plurality of network interface ports to communicate with one or more external targets selected from the group consisting of PXE, FCoE, and iSCSI; and

a single option ROM associated with the converged network adapter (CNA) card to provide information for booting and configuration, triggered by a Power-On Self Test (POST) of the system BIOS of a computer, to automatically configure a plurality of different types of adapters communicatively coupled to the plurality of network interface ports;

wherein the single option ROM stores a sequence of images to: 1) support configuring and booting the network interface card (NIC) and storage protocols supported by the converged network adapter card and 2) support all of the boot solutions for the converged network adapter card including supporting a preboot execution environment (PXE) boot, a Fiber Channel Over Ethernet (FCoE) boot, and an Internet Small Computer Interface (iSCSI) boot;

wherein an initialization routine stored on the single option ROM is called by a BIOS to scan for different types of adapters, allocate memory, discover external targets, coupled to the plurality of network interface ports, the external targets including one or more members selected from the group consisting of PXE targets, FCoE targets, and iSCSI targets, and expose, as BCV through a PNP structure, corresponding adapters for each discovered external target, wherein the initialization routine reads configuration parameters on each adapter found and setups PXE BEV entries and storage BCV entries based on the configuration parameters;

wherein the single option ROM has a sequence of images to support all of the protocols of the adapters of the CNA and support all of the boot solutions for the converged network adapter card to communicate with the discovered targets.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein a main portion of code stored on the option ROM enables interoperability of a computer with the converged network adapter card.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the BEV and BCVs are chained through a Plug and Play (PNP) expansion header.

Assignments (9)

Continuity (1)