Management Controllers - Intel SE7520AF2 Technical Product Specification

Platform Management Intel® Server Board SE7520AF2 TPS
6.1.6

Management Controllers

At the heart of platform management is a management controller. To support the tiered
management model, the Intel® Server Board SE7520AF2 supports two different management
controllers. Integrated onto the baseboard is the National Semiconductor* 87431x Mini-BMC
(mBMC) to provide the functionality of the onboard platform instrumentation management tier.
The Standard and Advanced modules electrically replace the mBMC with the more full featured
'Sahalee' microcontroller. Sahalee is a custom ARM7-TDMI based microcontroller designed for
baseboard management applications on Intel Server baseboards.
The management controller is a microcontroller that provides the intelligence at the heart of the
Intelligent Platform Management architecture. The primary purpose of the management
controller is to autonomously monitor system 'sensors' for system platform management events,
such as over-temperature, out-of-range voltages, etc., and log their occurrence in the non-
volatile System Event Log (SEL). The management controller also provides the interface to the
sensors and SEL so System Management Software can poll and retrieve the present status of
the platform. The contents of the log can be retrieved 'post mortem' in order provide failure
analysis information to field service personnel. It is also accessible by System Management
Software, such as Intel Server Management (ISM), running under the operating system.
The management controller includes the ability to generate a selectable action, such as a
system power-off or reset, when a match occurs to one of a configurable set of events. This
capability is called Platform Event Filtering, or PEF.
The management controller includes 'recovery control' functions that allow local or remote
software to request actions such as power on/off, power cycle, and system hard resets, plus an
IPMI Watchdog Timer that can be used by BIOS and run-time management software as a way
to detect software hangs.
The management controller provides 'out-of-band' (OOB) remote management interfaces
providing access to the platform health, event log, and recovery control features via LAN (all
tiers). Standard and Advanced systems also allow access via serial/modem, IPMB, PCI SMBus,
and ICMB interfaces. These interfaces remain active on standby power, providing a mechanism
where the SEL, SDR, and recovery control features can be accessed even when the system is
powered down.
Because the management controller operates independently from the main processor(s), the
management controller monitoring and logging functions, and the out-of-band interfaces can
remain operative even under failure conditions that cause the main processors, operating
system, or local system software to stop.
The management controller also provides the interface to the non-volatile 'Sensor Data Record
(SDR) Repository'. IPMI Sensor Data Records provide a set of information that system
management software can use to automatically configure itself for the number and type of IPMI
sensors (e.g. temperature sensors, voltage sensors, etc.) in the system. This information allows
management software to automatically adapt itself to the particular system, enabling the
development of management software that can work on multiple platforms without requiring the
software to be modified.
The following is a list of the major functions that are managed by either the mBMC or the BMC
in the IMM modules.
156 Revision 1.2
Intel order number C77866-003