SERVICE DRIVEN FIRMWARE UPGRADE METHODOLOGY IN BMC

1 . A method of operating a baseboard management controller (BMC), comprising:

receiving, at the BMC, an update package containing one or more updated software components of a firmware image of the BMC;

determining that a group of updated software components of the one or more updated software components are updateable base on a configuration; and

storing the group of updated software components in a read/write partition, wherein a respective link associated with each of the group of updated software components exists in a read-only partition.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more software components, of the firmware image, that are non-updateable are stored in the read-only partition.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that a first subset of the group of updated software components have corresponding existing software components in the read/write partition, wherein the storing the group of updated software components includes:

replacing the existing software components with the first subset of the group of updated software components.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that a second subset of the group of updated software components do not have corresponding existing software components in the read/write partition, wherein the storing the group of updated software components includes:

writing the second subset of the group of updated software components in the read/write partition;

creating a respective link associated with each software component of the second subset in the read-only partition.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

during starting up of the BMC, obtaining, from the read-only partition, a first link associated with a first component of the firmware image stored in the read/write partition;

locating the first component in the read/write partition according to the first link; and

loading the first component from the read/write partition into a memory of the BMC.

6 . A method of operating a baseboard management controller (BMC), comprising:

receiving, at the BMC, an update package containing one or more updated software components of a firmware image of the BMC;

determining that a first group of updated software components of the one or more updated software components are service components; and

creating a first layer on top of existing layers in an overlay file system, the first layer containing the first group of updated software components.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein a bottom layer of the overlay file system contains a kernel of the BMC.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the bottom layer is stored in a read-only partition, wherein the first layer is stored in a read/write partition.

9 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

determining that a second group of updated software components of the one or more updated software components are core components of the BMC and include the kernel; and

flashing the bottom layer with the second group of updated software components.

10 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

determining that the one or more updated software components include an updated installation service component; and

prior to creating the first layer, creating, by an existing installation service component on top of the existing layers of the overlay file system, a second layer containing the updated installation service component.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

executing the updated installation service component on the second layer, wherein the first layer is created by the updated installation service component.

12 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

during starting up of the BMC, providing a merged layer combing all layers of the overlay file system;

locating the first group of updated software components on the merged layer; and

loading the first group of updated software components from the merged layer into a memory of the BMC.

13 . An apparatus, the apparatus being primary baseboard management controller (BMC), comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to:

receive, at the BMC, an update package containing one or more updated software components of a firmware image of the BMC;

determine that a first group of updated software components of the one or more updated software components are service components; and

create a first layer on top of existing layers in an overlay file system, the first layer containing the first group of updated software components.

14 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein a bottom layer of the overlay file system contains a kernel of the BMC.

15 . The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the bottom layer is stored in a read-only partition, wherein the first layer is stored in a read/write partition.

16 . The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the code is further configured to:

determine that a second group of updated software components of the one or more updated software components are core components of the BMC and include the kernel; and

flash the bottom layer with the second group of updated software components.

17 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the code is further configured to:

determine that the one or more updated software components include an updated installation service component; and

prior to creating the first layer, create, by an existing installation service component on top of the existing layers of the overlay file system, a second layer containing the updated installation service component.

18 . The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the code is further configured to:

execute the updated installation service component on the second layer, wherein the first layer is created by the updated installation service component.

19 . The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the code is further configured to:

during starting up of the BMC, provide a merged layer combing all layers of the overlay file system;

locate the first group of updated software components on the merged layer; and

load the first group of updated software components from the merged layer into a memory of the BMC.