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 BMC,
5Chassis, Host, and Hypervisor. The most critical feature of
6phosphor-state-manager (PSM) software is its support for requests to power on
7and off the system by the user.
8
9This software also enforces any restore policy (i.e. auto power on system after
10a system power event or bmc reset) and ensures its states are updated correctly
11in situations where the BMC is rebooted and the chassis or host are in
12on/running states.
13
14This repository also provides a command line tool, obmcutil, which provides
15basic command line support to query and control phosphor-state-manager
16applications running within an OpenBMC system. This tool itself runs within an
17OpenBMC system and utilizes D-Bus APIs. These D-Bus APIs are used for
18development and debug and are not intended for end users.
19
20As with all OpenBMC applications, interfaces and properties within
21phosphor-state-manager are D-Bus interfaces. These interfaces are then used by
22external interface protocols, such as Redfish and IPMI, to report and control
23state to/by the end user.
24
25## State Tracking and Control
26
27phosphor-state-manager makes extensive use of systemd. There is a writeup
28[here][1] with an overview of systemd and its use by OpenBMC.
29
30phosphor-state-manager monitors for systemd targets to complete as a trigger to
31updating the its corresponding D-Bus property. When using PSM, a user must
32ensure all generic services installed within the PSM targets complete
33successfully in order to have PSM properly report states.
34
35phosphor-state-manager follows some basics design guidelines in its
36implementation and use of systemd:
37
38- Keep the different objects as independent as possible (host, chassis, bmc)
39- Use systemd targets for everything and keep the code within PSM minimal
40- Ensure it can support required external interfaces, but don't necessarily
41  create 1x1 mappings otherwise every external interface will end up with its
42  own special chassis or host state request
43- If something like a hard power off can be done by just turning off the
44  chassis, don't provide a command in the host to do the same thing
45
46phosphor-state-manager implements states and state requests as defined in
47phosphor-dbus-interfaces for each object it supports.
48
49- [bmc][2]: The BMC has very minimal states. It is `NotReady` when first started
50  and `Ready` once all services within the default.target have executed. It is
51  `Quiesced` when a critical service has entered the failed state. The only
52  state change request you can make of the BMC is for it to reboot itself.
53  - CurrentBMCState: NotReady, Ready, Quiesced
54  - RequestedBMCTransition: Reboot
55  - Monitored systemd targets: multi-user.target and
56    obmc-bmc-service-quiesce\@.target
57- [chassis][3]: The chassis represents the physical hardware in which the system
58  is contained. It usually has the power supplies, fans, and other hardware
59  associated with it. It can be either `On`, `Off`, or in a fail state. A
60  `BrownOut` state indicates there is not enough chassis power to fully power on
61  and `UninterruptiblePowerSupply` indicates the chassis is running on a UPS.
62  - CurrentPowerState: On, Off, BrownOut, UninterruptiblePowerSupply
63  - RequestedPowerTransition: On, Off
64  - Monitored systemd targets: obmc-chassis-poweron\@.target,
65    obmc-chassis-poweroff\@.target
66- [host][4]: The host represents the software running on the system. In most
67  cases this is an operating system of some sort. The host can be `Off`,
68  `Running`, `TransitioningToRunning`, `TransitioningToOff`, `Quiesced`(error
69  condition), or in `DiagnosticMode`(collecting diagnostic data for a failure)
70  - CurrentHostState: Off, Running, TransitioningToRunning, TransitioningToOff,
71    Quiesced, DiagnosticMode
72  - RequestedHostTransition: Off, On, Reboot, GracefulWarmReboot,
73    ForceWarmReboot
74  - Monitored systemd targets: obmc-host-startmin\@.target,
75    obmc-host-stop\@.target, obmc-host-quiesce\@.target,
76    obmc-host-diagnostic-mode\@.target
77- [hypervisor][4]: The hypervisor is an optional package systems can install
78  which tracks the state of the hypervisor on the system. This state manager
79  object implements a limited subset of the host D-Bus interface.
80  - CurrentHostState: Standby, TransitionToRunning, Running, Off, Quiesced
81  - RequestedHostTransition: On
82
83As noted above, PSM provides a command line tool, [obmcutil][5], which takes a
84`state` parameter. This will use D-Bus commands to retrieve the above states and
85present them to the user. It also provides other commands which will send the
86appropriate D-Bus commands to the above properties to power on/off the chassis
87and host (see `obmcutil --help` within an OpenBMC system).
88
89The above objects also implement other D-Bus objects like power on hours, boot
90progress, reboot attempts, and operating system status. These D-Bus objects are
91also defined out in the phosphor-dbus-interfaces repository.
92
93## Restore Policy on Power Events
94
95The [RestorePolicy][6] defines the behavior the user wants when the BMC is
96reset. If the chassis or host is on/running then this service will not run. If
97they are off then the `RestorePolicy` will be read and executed by PSM code.
98
99The `PowerRestoreDelay` property within the interface defines how long the
100service will wait before issuing the power on request.
101
102## Only Allow System Boot When BMC Ready
103
104There is an optional `only-allow-boot-when-bmc-ready` feature which can be
105enabled within PSM that will not allow chassis or host operations (other then
106`Off` requests) if the BMC is not in a `Ready` state. Care should be taken to
107ensure `PowerRestoreDelay` is set to a suitable value to ensure the BMC reaches
108`Ready` before the power restore function requests the power on.
109
110## BMC Reset with Host and/or Chassis On
111
112In situations where the BMC is reset and the chassis and host are on and
113running, its critical that the BMC software do two things:
114
115- Never impact the state of the system (causing a power off of a running system
116  is very bad)
117- Ensure the BMC, Chassis, and Host states accurately represent the state of the
118  system.
119
120Note that some of this logic is provided via service files in system-specific
121meta layers. That is because the logic to determine if the chassis is on or if
122the host is running can vary from system to system. The requirement to create
123the files defined below and ensure the common targets go active is a must for
124anyone wishing to enable this feature.
125
126phosphor-state-manager discovers state vs. trying to cache and save states. This
127ensure it's always getting the most accurate state information. It discovers the
128chassis state by checking the `pgood` value from the power application. If it
129determines that power is on then it will do the following:
130
131- Create a file called /run/openbmc/chassis@0-on
132  - The presence of this file tells the services to alter their behavior because
133    the chassis is already powered on
134- Start the obmc-chassis-poweron\@0.target
135  - The majority of services in this target will "fake start" due to the file
136    being present. They will report to systemd that they started and ran
137    successfully but they actually do nothing. This is what you would want in
138    this case. Power is already on so you don't want to run the services to turn
139    power on. You do want to get the obmc-chassis-poweron\@0.target in the
140    Active state though so that the chassis object within PSM will correctly
141    report that the chassis is `On`
142- Start a service to check if the host is on
143
144The chassis@0-on file is removed once the obmc-chassis-poweron\@0.target becomes
145active (i.e. all service have been successfully started which are wanted or
146required by this target).
147
148The logic to check if the host is on sends a command to the host, and if a
149response is received then similar logic to chassis is done:
150
151- Create a file called /run/openbmc/host@0-on
152- Start the obmc-host-start\@0.target
153  - Similar to above, most services will not run due to the file being created
154    and their service files implementing a
155    "ConditionPathExists=!/run/openbmc/host@0-request"
156
157The host@0-on file is removed once the obmc-host-start\@0.target and
158obmc-host-startmin\@0.target become active (i.e. all service have been
159successfully started which are wanted or required by these targets).
160
161## Building the Code
162
163To build this package, do the following steps:
164
1651. `meson setup build`
1662. `ninja -C build`
167
168To clean the repository again run `rm -rf build`.
169
170[1]: https://github.com/openbmc/docs/blob/master/architecture/openbmc-systemd.md
171[2]:
172  https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-dbus-interfaces/blob/master/yaml/xyz/openbmc_project/State/BMC.interface.yaml
173[3]:
174  https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-dbus-interfaces/blob/master/yaml/xyz/openbmc_project/State/Chassis.interface.yaml
175[4]:
176  https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-dbus-interfaces/blob/master/yaml/xyz/openbmc_project/State/Host.interface.yaml
177[5]: https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-state-manager/blob/master/obmcutil
178[6]:
179  https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-dbus-interfaces/blob/master/yaml/xyz/openbmc_project/Control/Power/RestorePolicy.interface.yaml
180