Fault Resilient Booting - Intel S7000FC4UR Technical Product Specification

Intel® Server System S7000FC4UR TPS
19. BIOS Error Handling
This chapter defines the following error handling features:

Fault Resilient Booting

Error Handling and Logging
Error Messages and Beep Codes
19.1 Fault Resilient Booting
Fault Resilient Booting (FRB) is an Intel-specific feature that detects and handles errors during
the system boot process. The FRB feature provides a recovery mechanism in the event of a
system hang during BIOS POST.
There are several possible failures during the booting process that can be detected and handled
by the BIOS and BMC. The server system implements this FRB support:
BSP POST Failure (FRB-2)
Operating System Load Failure
Note: The server system does not support recovery from processor BIST (FRB-1) or BSP reset
(FRB-3) failure.
19.1.1 BSP POST Failure (FRB-2)
FRB-2 involves the use of a watchdog timer, which can be configured to reset the system after a
specified amount of time in the event of a POST hang. The BIOS sets the FRB-2 timer to 6
minutes if the BIOS Setup FRB-2 Enable menu item is enabled.
The BIOS disables the watchdog timer before prompting the user for a boot password (user
password), while scanning for Option ROM, and when the user enters BIOS Setup. If the
system hangs during POST anytime before the BIOS disables the FRB-2 timer, the BMC
generates an Asynchronous System Reset (ASR) as soon as the timer expires.
The BMC retains status bits after the ASR that the BIOS can read on the subsequent boot cycle
to log the appropriate event into the System Event Log (SEL) and display an appropriate error
message to the user in the POST Error Manager.
19.1.2 Operating System Load Failure (OS Boot Timer)
The BIOS provides an additional watchdog timer to provide fault resilient booting to the
operating system. This timer option is disabled by default. The timeout value and the option to
enable the timer are configured in BIOS Setup.
Revision 1.0
BIOS Error Handling
223