1# Phosphor State Manager Documentation
2
3This repository contains the software responsible for tracking and controlling
4the state of different objects within OpenBMC. This currently includes the
5BMC, Chassis, and Host. The most critical feature of phosphor-state-manager
6software is its support for requests to power on and off the system by the user.
7
8This software also enforces any restore policy (i.e. auto power on system after
9a system power event or bmc reset) and ensures its states are updated correctly
10in situations where the BMC is rebooted and the chassis or host are in
11on/running states.
12
13This repository also provides a command line tool, obmcutil, which provides
14basic command line support to query and control phosphor-state-manager
15applications running within an OpenBMC system. This tool itself runs within an
16OpenBMC system and utilizes D-Bus APIs. These D-Bus APIs are used for
17development and debug and are not intended for end users.
18
19As with all OpenBMC applications, interfaces and properties within
20phosphor-state-manager are D-Bus interfaces. These interfaces are then used
21by external interface protocols, such as Redfish and IPMI, to report and
22control state to/by the end user.
23
24## State Tracking and Control
25
26phosphor-state-manager makes extensive use of systemd. There is a writeup
27[here][1] with an overview of systemd and its use by OpenBMC.
28
29phosphor-state-manager follows some basics design guidelines in its
30implementation and use of systemd:
31- Keep the different objects as independent as possible (host, chassis, bmc)
32- Use systemd targets for everything and keep the code within
33  phosphor-state-manager minimal
34- Ensure it can support required external interfaces, but don't necessarily
35  create 1x1 mappings otherwise every external interface will end up with its
36  own special chassis or host state request
37- If something like a hard power off can be done by just turning off the
38  chassis, don't provide a command in the host to do the same thing
39
40phosphor-state-manager implements states and state requests as defined in
41phosphor-dbus-interfaces for each object it supports.
42- [bmc][2]: The BMC has very minimal states. It is `Ready` once all services
43  within the default.target have executed. The only state change request you
44  can make of the BMC is for it to reboot itself.
45  - CurrentBMCState: NotReady, Ready
46  - RequestedBMCTransition: Reboot
47- [chassis][3]: The chassis represents the physical hardware in which the system
48  is contained. It usually has the power supplies, fans, and other hardware
49  associated with it. It can be either `On` or `Off`.
50  - CurrentPowerState: On, Off
51  - RequestedPowerTransition: On, Off
52- [host][4]: The host represents the software running on the system. In most
53  cases this is an operating system of some sort. The host can be `Off`,
54  `Running`, `Quiesced`(error condition), or in `DiagnosticMode`(collecting
55  diagnostic data for a failure)
56  - CurrentHostState: Off, Running, Quiesced, DiagnosticMode
57  - RequestedHostTransition: Off, On, Reboot, GracefulWarmReboot,
58    ForceWarmReboot
59
60As noted above, phosphor-state-manager provides a command line tool,
61[obmcutil][5], which takes a `state` parameter. This will use D-Bus commands to
62retrieve the above states and present them to the user. It also provides other
63commands which will send the appropriate D-Bus commands to the above properties
64to power on/off the chassis and host (see `obmcutil --help` within an OpenBMC
65system).
66
67The above objects also implement other D-Bus objects like power on hours, boot
68progress, reboot attempts, and operating system status. These D-Bus objects are
69also defined out in the phosphor-dbus-interfaces repository.
70
71## Restore Policy on Power Events
72
73The [RestorePolicy][6] defines the behavior the user wants when the BMC is
74reset. If the chassis or host is on/running then this service will not run.
75If they are off then the `RestorePolicy` will be read and executed by
76phosphor-state-manager code.
77
78## BMC Reset with Host and/or Chassis On
79
80In situations where the BMC is reset and the chassis and host are on and
81running, its critical that the BMC software do two things:
82- Never impact the state of the system (causing a power off of a running system
83is very bad)
84- Ensure the BMC, Chassis, and Host states accurately represent the state of the
85system.
86
87Note that some of this logic is provided via service files in system-specific
88meta layers. That is because the logic to determine if the chassis is on or
89if the host is running can vary from system to system. The requirement to
90create the files defined below and ensure the common targets go active is a
91must for anyone wishing to enable this feature.
92
93phosphor-state-manager discovers state vs. trying to cache and save states. This
94ensure it's always getting the most accurate state information. It discovers the
95chassis state by checking the `pgood` value from the power application. If it
96determines that power is on then it will do the following:
97- Create a file called /run/openbmc/chassis@0-on
98  - The presence of this file tells the services to alter their behavior because
99    the chassis is already powered on
100- Start the obmc-chassis-poweron@0.target
101  - The majority of services in this target will "fake start" due to the file
102    being present. They will report to systemd that they started and ran
103    successfully but they actually do nothing. This is what you would want in
104    this case. Power is already on so you don't want to run the services to turn
105    power on. You do want to get the obmc-chassis-poweron@0.target in the Active
106    state though so that the chassis object within phosphor-state-manager will
107    correctly report that the chassis is `On`
108- Start a service to check if the host is on
109
110The chassis@0-on file is removed once the obmc-chassis-poweron@0.target becomes
111active (i.e. all service have been successfully started which are wanted or
112required by this target).
113
114The logic to check if the host is on sends a command to the host, and if a
115response is received then similar logic to chassis is done:
116- Create a file called /run/openbmc/host@0-on
117- Start the obmc-host-start@0.target
118  - Similar to above, most services will not run due to the file being created
119    and their service files implementing a
120    "ConditionPathExists=!/run/openbmc/host@0-request"
121
122The host@0-on file is removed once the obmc-host-start@0.target and
123obmc-host-startmin@0.target become active (i.e. all service have been
124successfully started which are wanted or required by these targets).
125
126## Building the Code
127```
128To build this package, do the following steps:
129
130    1. meson build
131    2. ninja -C build
132
133To clean the repository again run `rm -rf build`.
134```
135
136[1]: https://github.com/openbmc/docs/blob/master/architecture/openbmc-systemd.md
137[2]: https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-dbus-interfaces/blob/master/xyz/openbmc_project/State/BMC.interface.yaml
138[3]: https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-dbus-interfaces/blob/master/xyz/openbmc_project/State/Chassis.interface.yaml
139[4]: https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-dbus-interfaces/blob/master/xyz/openbmc_project/State/Host.interface.yaml
140[5]: https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-state-manager/blob/master/obmcutil
141[6]: https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-dbus-interfaces/blob/master/xyz/openbmc_project/Control/Power/RestorePolicy.interface.yaml
142