Technical Product Specification

Platform Management Overview Intel® Server Board S2600IP and Intel® Workstation Board W2600CR TPS
80 Intel order number G34153-004 Revision 1.4
4.6.2 Boot Recovery Mode
The BMC’s boot block supports firmware transfer updates. The Operational Firmware Transfer
mode preserves several files in the PIA Linux file system. Boot Recovery mode cannot preserve
the files because it does not understand Linux file systems, and treats it as a large binary data
section. This means a Boot Recovery update completely replaces the PIA with the factory
default version: an empty SEL, a default SDR, and default IPMI configuration and user settings.
Boot Recovery mode can successfully complete an update in some situations where the
Operational Firmware Transfer mode will fail. If there is an incompatibility or bug in the
operational code causing it to crash or hang, only a Boot Recovery Mode Update works.
Another example is if the flash layout of the sections changes across an update. Because the
operational Firmware Transfer mode tries to preserve the contents of the PIA section, in this
case, it will corrupt the flash where the old PIA section was. Because the Boot Recovery mode
is blindly writing binary data to flash, in this case, it will succeed.
There are two ways to enter Boot Recovery mode:
 The Force Firmware Update jumper is asserted when A/C power is applied.
 The operational code is corrupt and the boot loader cannot boot.
In the Boot Recovery mode, the BMC only responds to the small set of commands listed above.
Only the KCS SMS interface is supported; USB-based Fast Firmware Update is not supported.
4.6.3 Force Firmware Update Jumper
The Force Firmware Update jumper can be used to put the BMC in Boot Recovery mode for a
low-level update. It causes the BMC to abort its normal boot process and stay in the boot loader
without executing any Linux code.
The jumper is normally in the de-asserted position. The system must be completely powered off
(A/C power removed) before the jumper is moved. After power is re-applied and the firmware
update is complete, the system must be powered off again and the jumper must be returned to
the de-asserted position before normal operation can begin.
There is no boot-block-write protection jumper.
4.6.4 Fast Firmware Update over USB
The BMC supports a Fast Firmware Update mode in addition to the standard KCS SMS
interface. This is a special protocol that goes over the USB connection between the host and
the BMC.
4.7 Advanced Management Feature Support
This section explains the advanced management features supported by the BMC firmware.
4.7.1 Enabling Advanced Management Features
The Advanced management features are to be delivered as part of the BMC FW image. The
BMC’s baseboard SPI flash contains code/data for both the Basic and Advanced features. An
optional add-in card Intel
®
RMM4 lite is used as the activation mechanism. When the BMC FW