CN115269477A - Display control method and server system - Google Patents

Abstract

A display control method and a server system are disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: the baseboard management controller divides the video memory of the display module into a plurality of video memory parts; a plurality of server nodes reserve display equipment numbers and memory spaces for the display modules; the baseboard management controller switches the connection of the display module to a selected server node in the plurality of server nodes; and the selected server node provides display information to the corresponding video memory part in the plurality of video memory parts by using the connection equipment number and the memory space reserved for the display module. The invention adopts an out-of-band management architecture that one baseboard management controller is simultaneously connected with a plurality of server nodes, thereby reducing the management complexity of the data center on the whole. Aiming at the problem of single display card brought by the method, the node display smooth switching based on remote control is realized through virtual hot plug of the display card and resource reservation of each node.

Description

Display control method and server system

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of servers, and in particular, to a display control method and a server system.

Background

With the development of network and server technologies, the demand for cloud computing is increasing. Enterprises and individual users utilize remote servers for service acquisition, such as storing, managing, or otherwise accessing large amounts of data. The remote servers are typically located within one or more data centers. A data center may house hundreds or even thousands of remote servers including their respective hardware or software elements. The large number of hardware or software elements and their possible configurations often complicate the networking of devices within each data center and make efficient management of the various server nodes in the data center increasingly difficult.

Therefore, there is a need for an improved server management method.

Disclosure of Invention

The technical problem to be solved by the present disclosure is to provide a display control method and a server system, which relate to an improved out-of-band management scheme, and the scheme abandons an out-of-band control architecture of a baseboard management controller corresponding to a server node in the prior art, and changes the baseboard management controller to be connected with a plurality of server nodes simultaneously, thereby reducing the management complexity of a data center as a whole. Aiming at the problem of single display card brought by the problem, the node display switching based on remote control is realized through virtual hot plug of the display card and resource reservation of each node.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a display control method including: the baseboard management controller divides the video memory of the display module into a plurality of video memory parts; a plurality of server nodes reserve display equipment numbers and memory spaces for the display modules; the baseboard management controller switches the connection of the display module to a selected server node in the plurality of server nodes; and the selected server node provides display information to the corresponding video memory part in the plurality of video memory parts by using the connection equipment number and the memory space reserved for the display module.

Optionally, the method further comprises: the display module generates visual management information based on the display information; and the baseboard management controller provides the visual management information of the selected server node acquired from the display module to a communication interface for remote visual presentation of the management information.

Optionally, the baseboard management controller is configured to perform out-of-band control on the plurality of server nodes, and the plurality of server nodes share the display module for displaying respective out-of-band management information.

Optionally, the display module is a VGA display module controlled by the baseboard management controller.

Optionally, the VGA display module is connected to the control motherboard via a PCIe interface; and/or the connection device numbers reserved for the display module by the plurality of server nodes comprise PCIe bus numbers reserved for the display module by the respective server nodes.

Optionally, the switching the connection of the display module to a selected server node of the plurality of server nodes by the baseboard management controller includes: the baseboard management controller switches the connection of the display module to a default selected server node in the plurality of server nodes when starting up based on default setting; or the baseboard management controller receives a display switching instruction through a communication interface, informs a currently displayed server node to stop the display device, switches the video memory to a video memory part corresponding to the designated server node, and switches the connection of the display module to the server node designated by the display switching instruction.

Optionally, the memory space reserved by the multiple server nodes for the display module is a Memory Mapped IO (MMIO) space, and is used to map the storage information of the display device to a uniform storage address space.

Optionally, the method further comprises: and the sensing device corresponding to the selected server node collects the running state data of the selected server node, and the running state data is provided to the display module as display information for visual display.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a server system including: the server node cluster is used for executing the operation corresponding to the service provided by the server node cluster; a plurality of baseboard management controllers, each baseboard management controller performing out-of-band control on a plurality of server nodes; the remote control equipment is used for receiving the visual management information of the server nodes sent by the baseboard management controller through the communication interface and visually presenting the visual management information, wherein the baseboard management controller divides the display memory of the display module into a plurality of display memory parts, a plurality of server nodes reserve the display equipment number and the memory space of the display module, the baseboard management controller switches the connection of the display module to one selected server node in the plurality of server nodes, and the selected server node uses the connection equipment number and the memory space reserved for the display module to provide the display information for the corresponding display memory part in the plurality of display memory parts.

Optionally, the remote control device is configured to: for the visual presentation execution control, the corresponding baseboard management controller receives a corresponding control instruction through the communication interface and performs corresponding out-of-band control operation on the server node; and displaying the execution result of the control based on the response of the baseboard management controller.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computing device comprising: a processor; and a memory having executable code stored thereon, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the method as described in the first aspect above.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable code which, when executed by a processor of an electronic device, causes the processor to perform the method of the first aspect as described above.

Therefore, the display control scheme of the invention can realize the out-of-band control of a single Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) chip on a plurality of server nodes, and the VGA resources are reserved by the node server in combination with the characteristic that VGA inside the BMC chip supports hot plug through the division of VGA video memory, thereby solving the problem that a single display card corresponds to the display switching of a plurality of server nodes.

Drawings

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent by describing in greater detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings, in which like reference numerals generally represent like parts throughout.

Fig. 1 shows an example of hardware deployment of a data center.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic structural diagram of an out-of-band management data center.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic flow diagram of a display control method according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a BMC performing a multi-node connection display in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 5 shows an example of the composition of a server system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a computing device that can be used to implement the display control method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the present disclosure may be embodied in various forms and should not be limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.

A data center may include hundreds or even thousands of servers or server systems of various hardware and software elements (e.g., microprocessors, switches, routers, storage devices, storage adapters, memory modules, power supplies, fans, etc.). These servers (and hardware/software elements) are typically used to form a complex network (e.g., a backbone of a network, etc.) and may provide multiple application and/or service platforms.

Fig. 1 shows an example of hardware deployment of a data center. Fig. 1 can be regarded as a layout diagram of a small data center, and can also be regarded as a partial diagram of a large data center. The data center may be sized according to the number of racks or cabinets included. For example, a small data center may refer to a data center with a rack count of less than 100, while a large data center may refer to a data center with a rack count of more than 500. As shown in the figure, a plurality of cabinets 2 are disposed in a space in which the data center 1 is located. In addition to the cabinets 2, the data center 1 may further include other auxiliary equipment, such as an air conditioner 3 shared by a plurality of cabinets, to meet the temperature and humidity requirements of the data processing equipment (e.g., servers) loaded in the cabinets. In a more complete data center, cold pools and/or hot pools may also be arranged to isolate cold and hot air streams, preventing cold air streams from exchanging with hot air streams before passing through the servers.

Within each data center, a plurality of servers (each of which may also be referred to herein as a "server node") are disposed in one or more physical enclosures or cabinets (often referred to as server cabinets). In recent years, with the development of cloud technology, a large number of large-scale and even ultra-large-scale data centers (for example, data centers including tens of thousands of server nodes) providing cloud services have been introduced.

As data centers grow in size, managing the various server nodes of a data center becomes increasingly difficult. From the technical point of view, management for a server can be divided into two management modes, out-of-band (out-of-band) and in-band (in-band). The in-band management means that the management control information and the service information carried by the server are transmitted through the same logical channel; in the out-of-band management mode, the management control information for the server itself and the service information carried by the server are transmitted in different logical channels. The out-of-band management realizes the management of each server node through a special channel, separates the management data from the service data and establishes an independent channel for the management data. In the channel, only management data, statistical information, charging information and the like are transmitted and separated from the bearing service data, so that the efficiency and reliability of server management can be improved, and the security of management data can be improved, thereby better meeting the increasingly complex network management requirements of a data center.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic structural diagram of an out-of-band management data center. The data center 1 includes a plurality of server racks 2, wherein each server rack 2 includes a plurality of racks, each rack including a server node such as server 100. As shown, the servers located in each server rack 2 are typically managed by a Rack Management Controller (RMC) 300. RMC 300 is located in a different out-of-band network than the server-providing platform services and may itself comprise a separate server or controlling device.

The server 100 may include various components, such as one or more CPUs 110 and a hardware storage 120. The CPU110 and the storage device 120 are used for each server node to implement its service function, for example, providing a corresponding cloud computing function for a user, and the like. Further, an out-of-band control module 200 is also installed on each server 100. The out-of-band control module 200 may include a Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) 210, a sensing device 220, and a communication device 230. The various components on the out-of-band control module 200 may be connected to the server 100, for example, via a bus, I2C, etc., and in one embodiment, the out-of-band control module 200 may be included on a motherboard of the server 100. In yet another embodiment, the out-of-band control module 200 may be located on a separate out-of-band control board. Regardless of the connection method, the out-of-band control module 200 may be regarded as a part of the server 100, that is, a dedicated module for performing out-of-band operations such as monitoring, control, and alarm, in addition to the service provided by the server 100.

The CPU120 may include multiple cores and may act as the main processor of the server 110. In implementations such as deep learning platforms, the server 100 may also include heterogeneous processors such as GPUs. At the same time, BMC 210 and/or communication device 230 operate as an out-of-band device independent of CPU 120. BMC 210 may independently communicate with specific service hardware (e.g., sensing device 220) and monitor the state or parameters of the CPU. The communication device 230 may also operate out of band independently of the CPU, may perform information interaction with the BMC 210, and may be implemented as, for example, an add-on Card (PCIe) Card, a PCI express Card (Mezzanine Card), or the like.

The BMC 210 may include a dedicated microcontroller embedded on the motherboard of each server to manage various server operations and monitor server conditions. For example, BMC 210 may provide an interface between system management software and platform hardware. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the interfaces herein may comprise communication channels or communication media.

In addition, BMC 210 may form part of an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) to represent a standard for system monitoring and event recovery. The above standards define interfaces that use common information for accessing manageable functions in the server. The smart platform management interface includes, among other things, default instructions for reading temperature, voltage, fan speed, intrusion, and other parameters. System event logs, watchdog timing, and power control may also be accessed through the smart platform management interface and provided by BMC 210. The server host transfers the smart platform management interface information to the BMC 210 through a Low Pin Count (LPC) bus, and some device channels are established on the LPC bus for the purpose of transferring information, such as a Keyboard Controller Specification (KCS) interface, a Block Transfer (blck Transfer) interface, and the like). The BMC 210 may manage monitoring of the intelligent platform management interface and control maintenance functions such as power cycles, issuance of alert signals, and the like. In addition, the BMC 210 may provide other functions including, for example, superIO, SOL (Serial-over-LAN), system basic input/output System (BIOS) services, video graphics (e.g., video Graphics Adapter (VGA), embedded in the BMC 210 for displaying output), and remote management.

The BMC 210 may provide remote management of each server to an administrator over a network. Notably, the BMC 210 typically operates concurrently with the RMC 300 to provide remote management capabilities to administrators. As shown in the figure, the out-of-band management data visualized for the manager can be provided on the remote management terminal 500 through a WebUI (Web user interface) function via the network 400. Administrators typically communicate with the RMC 300 and/or the BMC 210 via the network 400 using a Remote Management Control Protocol (RMCP). In the manner described above, RMC 300 and/or BMC 210 may receive commands and/or requests corresponding to the server 100 via the network 400 and may upload sensing data measured by the sensing devices 220. The BMC 210 may transmit an alert signal to an administrator via the network 400, for example, when a monitored parameter exceeds a preset limit.

As shown in fig. 2, the server 100 includes a processor 110 for computing and a storage 120 for storage, similar to a general personal computer, but differs in that the server 100 does not generally include an interactive device such as a display or a keyboard. Given that the room is typically noisy and for security reasons, the server manager will typically implement remote access to the server, monitoring of the operating status and corresponding control operations via a remote service (e.g., webUI) and with the help of the BMC chip as described above. As previously mentioned, with the explosive development of cloud computing, the size of a data center, i.e., the number of server nodes contained in a single data center, is also increasing, so that the management (e.g., monitoring, maintenance, etc.) of the data center becomes difficult. In order to reduce the management overhead of a data center, the invention abandons the existing out-of-band management architecture in which the BMC and the server nodes correspond to each other one by one, and adopts a structure in which one BMC chip provides out-of-band management service for a plurality of server nodes simultaneously. Therefore, the management person can complete inquiry and management of a plurality of server nodes aiming at the IP of one BMC chip, and the management efficiency of a large number of server nodes is improved by increasing the management level.

Usually, the VGA graphics card is integrated inside the BMC in the form of a display module (e.g., VGA IP core), and since there are only 1 VGA display module inside the BMC chip, the problem of supporting multiple server nodes with a single BMC chip faces the limitation of the display module. Although the above problem may be solved by customizing the BMC chip including a plurality of display modules, the display modules occupy a large area on the circuit board and cannot be expanded.

Therefore, the invention provides a display control method, which realizes the sharing of the display modules of the multiple server nodes through the virtualization of the display modules.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic flow diagram of a display control method according to an embodiment of the invention. The method may be a method used in a server management architecture that uses one BMC chip for out-of-band management of multiple nodes.

In step S310, the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) divides the video memory of the display module into a plurality of video memory portions. The operation may be an operation performed on the video memory of the display module when the BMC chip completes its own initialization. In one embodiment, the display module is a VGA display module controlled by the BMC, for example, a VGA graphics card that may be integrated within a BMC chip. At this time, when the BMC is started, the video memory (e.g., 4 segments of RAM) of the VGA may be divided for reservation of the corresponding server node.

For convenience of description, a structure in which four server nodes are managed out of band using one BMC chip will be described below. In one embodiment, 4 groups of CPUs may be combined on the same motherboard in one server rack to form a 4-node server. And only one BMC chip is used for out-of-band management of the 4 nodes. In the one-to-four example, the BMC chip may divide the RAM of the VGA into 4 portions (e.g., 4 equal portions) corresponding to four ranges of N1-range, N2-range, N3-range and N4-range, respectively, at the time of power-up initialization, and may set N1-range to correspond to node N1, N2-range to correspond to node N2, N3-range to correspond to node N3 and N4-range to correspond to node N4. These video memory ranges may be used as video memory for the corresponding nodes when the out-of-band control content of the corresponding server node needs to be displayed.

In step S320, a plurality of server nodes reserve connection device numbers and memory spaces for the display modules. The above operation may be performed at the time of startup of the server node. As will be described in more detail below, the BMC may internally virtualize the VGA display module (e.g., VGAIP core) as a PCIeEP (Endpoint) device. Because the PCIe ep device supports hot plug, each server node may reserve a connection device number, for example, a PCIe bus number (since both the device and the function number of the graphics card are determined, only the bus number needs to be reserved) for the display module in the PCIe enumeration stage of each server node, and reserve a certain memory space for the actual access of the VGA display module. In one embodiment, the reserved memory space may be an MMIO (memory mapped IO) space, which is used to map the storage information of the display device to a uniform storage address space of the node.

It should be noted that steps S310 and S320 are operations performed by the BMC chip and the server node, respectively, and there is no dependency relationship between the operations, so that the operations can be performed before, after, or even simultaneously. In one embodiment, steps S310 and S320 may be performed by the BMC chip and the server node at initialization time, respectively, upon system power-up.

Although there is no requirement for the execution order of steps S310 and S320, the execution of step S330 needs to be based on steps S310 and S320. In step S330, the BMC switches the connection of the display module to a selected server node of the plurality of server nodes. In one embodiment, the BMC may switch the connection of the display module to a default selected server node of the plurality of server nodes at startup based on a default setting. For example, in the 4-node connection architecture above, the VGAIP core may be made to connect node N1 by default at system startup; or in a setup with memory, the VGAIP core may be made to default to the node last queried before at system startup. In another embodiment, the BMC may receive a switch display instruction via the communication interface and perform a node switch based on the switch instruction. For example, when a manager switches display contents from N1 to N3 in the out-of-band control interface, the BMC may perform a corresponding switching operation.

Subsequently, in step S340, the selected server node provides display information to a corresponding video memory portion of the plurality of video memory portions by using the connection device number and the memory space reserved for the display module. For example, if the currently selected server node is node N3, node N3 may identify the accessed display module as the previously reserved display device number, and perform memory mapping using the previously reserved MMIO space. The content can be delivered to N3-range in the VGA video memory, and the generation of corresponding visual content is completed according to the content.

To this end, the display control method of the present invention may further include: the display module generates visual management information based on the display information; and the baseboard management controller provides the visual management information of the selected server node acquired from the display module to a communication interface for remote visual presentation of the management information. For example, the display contents of the display module in the BMC chip are provided to a remote management terminal via the WebUI function.

Therefore, when one BMC chip is used for performing out-of-band control on the plurality of server nodes, the plurality of server nodes can share one display module for displaying out-of-band management information through the operation.

In one embodiment, the VGA display module is connected with the control motherboard via a PCIe interface. For example, the VGA display module can be recognized by the control motherboard as a PCIe device, such as a PCIe embedded EP device, or a PCIe device. Alternatively or additionally, the VGA within the BMC may be controlled as a pci eep device to support the hot-swap feature. Therefore, the display switching of different server nodes can be facilitated in the power-on process. For this purpose, the connection device numbers reserved by the plurality of server nodes for the display module include PCIe bus numbers reserved by the respective server nodes for the display module. Specifically, since the Device and Function numbers of the display module are fixed, only the Bus number needs to be reserved.

In a practical scenario, the VGA display module in the BMC chip may be connected to a PCIe bus, which may be connected to the server nodes N1-N4 via switches (e.g., hub switches). When the display switching is needed, for example, when a manager switches the display from N1 to N2, the BMC may normally deactivate the current display device at the node N1, switch the VGA memory from N1-Range to R2-Range, and switch the connection of the display module to the node N2 via the switch, thereby completing the connection switching of the display module.

Further, in addition to content display, the BMC may also monitor and control various server nodes. For this purpose, the display method may further include that a sensing device corresponding to the selected server node collects the operation state data of the selected server node, and the operation state data is provided to the display module as display information for visual display.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a BMC performing a multi-node connection display in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. The illustrated motherboard 1000 may be a motherboard mounted in a rack. However, unlike the architecture shown in fig. 1, four server nodes N1 to N4 may be installed on the motherboard 1000 at the same time. Although not shown in detail in the figures, it should be understood that N1-N4 may include separate processors, e.g., CPUs, and separate memories and internal structures. In other words, although the server nodes N1 to N4 are installed on one motherboard 1000, the four nodes may each perform required service operations, for example, in a deep learning platform implementation, perform respective deep learning tasks; in a commerce website implementation, respective e-commerce functions are performed, and so on.

The four nodes N1-N4 may be connected to the same BMC chip 200 on the motherboard 1000, e.g., via respective PCIe buses and other connections, e.g., I2C, and out-of-band management for the four nodes N1-N4 is implemented by one BMC chip 200. The BMC chip 200 includes a built-in VGA function. Specifically, the BMC chip includes a built-in VGA video memory (corresponding to VGARAM as illustrated) and VGAIP core. In order to provide the display function for the nodes N1 to N4, when the BMC chip is powered on to complete self initialization, the VGARAM is divided into four parts, namely N1-range, N2-range, N3-range and N4-range, and is used for displaying the following nodes N1 to N4, and then the four nodes N1 to N4 can be powered on.

Subsequently, the BMC may cause each of the nodes N1-N4 to reserve a corresponding resource, such as a PCIe bus number core MMIO space, for the VGA display module (e.g., VGAIP core), and implement the VGA display module as a PCIe ep device that supports the hot-plug feature.

The VGA display module may default to node N1 after power up. When the running state of the node N2 needs to be observed through the WebUI, the BMC system makes hot switch preparation, allocates the VGA display module to the node N2, and switches the video memory from N1-range to N2-range, so that the processes of hot plug of the video card for the node N1 and hot plug of the video card for the node N2 are simulated.

Similarly, handovers to other nodes may be performed on demand, as directed.

The present invention may also be embodied as a server system comprising: the server node cluster is used for executing the operation corresponding to the service provided by the server node cluster; a plurality of baseboard management controllers, each baseboard management controller performing out-of-band control on a plurality of server nodes; and the remote control equipment is used for receiving the visual management information of the server node sent by the baseboard management controller through the communication interface and performing visual presentation. The baseboard management controller divides the display memory of the display module into a plurality of display memory parts, a plurality of server nodes reserve a connecting device number and a memory space for the display module, the baseboard management controller switches the connection of the display module to one selected server node in the plurality of server nodes, and the selected server node uses the connecting device number and the memory space reserved for the display module to provide display information for the corresponding display memory parts in the plurality of display memory parts.

In one embodiment, the remote control device may be used for server control in addition to viewing, and in particular, the remote control device may be used for: for the visual presentation execution control, the corresponding baseboard management controller receives a corresponding control instruction through the communication interface and performs corresponding out-of-band control operation on the server node; and displaying the execution result of the control based on the response of the baseboard management controller.

Fig. 5 shows an example of the composition of a server system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Similar to fig. 2, the server system of the present invention may also include a BMC installed in a rack and performing out-of-band management of services, and the remote control terminal 500 may implement out-of-band management access and control of the server via the network 400. The difference is that in the server system of the present invention, one server node and one BMC chip are not included in one rack, but a plurality of server nodes share one BMC chip. Therefore, a manager of the remote control terminal 500 can complete monitoring, management and control of a plurality of server nodes under the control of one BMC chip, thereby improving the management efficiency of a data center, especially a large data center.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a computing device that can be used to implement the display control method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to fig. 6, computing device 600 includes memory 610 and processor 620.

The processor 620 may be a multi-core processor or may include a plurality of processors. In some embodiments, processor 620 may include a general-purpose host processor and one or more special coprocessors such as a Graphics Processor (GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), or the like. In some embodiments, processor 620 may be implemented using custom circuits, such as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).

The memory 610 may include various types of storage units such as system memory, read Only Memory (ROM), and permanent storage. Wherein the ROM may store static data or instructions that are required by the processor 620 or other modules of the computer. The persistent storage device may be a read-write storage device. The persistent storage may be a non-volatile storage device that does not lose stored instructions and data even after the computer is powered off. In some embodiments, the persistent storage device employs a mass storage device (e.g., magnetic or optical disk, flash memory) as the persistent storage device. In other embodiments, the permanent storage may be a removable storage device (e.g., floppy disk, optical drive). The system memory may be a read-write memory device or a volatile read-write memory device, such as a dynamic random access memory. The system memory may store instructions and data that some or all of the processors require at run-time. In addition, the memory 610 may include any combination of computer-readable storage media, including various types of semiconductor memory chips (DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, flash memory, programmable read-only memory), magnetic and/or optical disks, may also be employed. In some embodiments, memory 610 may include a removable storage device that is readable and/or writable, such as a Compact Disc (CD), a read-only digital versatile disc (e.g., DVD-ROM, dual layer DVD-ROM), a read-only Blu-ray disc, an ultra-density optical disc, a flash memory card (e.g., SD card, min SD card, micro-SD card, etc.), a magnetic floppy disc, or the like. Computer-readable storage media do not contain carrier waves or transitory electronic signals transmitted by wireless or wired means.

The memory 610 has stored thereon executable code, which when processed by the processor 620, may cause the processor 620 to perform the display control methods described above.

The display control method according to the present invention and the server system implemented thereby have been described in detail above with reference to the accompanying drawings. The display control scheme of the invention can realize the out-of-band control of a single BMC chip to a plurality of server nodes, and support hot plug characteristics by combining the VGA inside the BMC chip through the division of the VGA video memory, and reserve VGA resources by the node server, thereby solving the problem that a single display card is corresponding to the display switching of a plurality of server nodes.

Furthermore, the method according to the invention may also be implemented as a computer program or computer program product comprising computer program code instructions for carrying out the above-mentioned steps defined in the above-mentioned method of the invention.

Alternatively, the invention may also be embodied as a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium (or computer-readable storage medium, or machine-readable storage medium) having stored thereon executable code (or a computer program, or computer instruction code) which, when executed by a processor of an electronic device (or computing device, server, etc.), causes the processor to perform the steps of the above-described method according to the invention.

Those of skill would further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems and methods according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems which perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

Having described embodiments of the present invention, the foregoing description is intended to be exemplary, not exhaustive, and not limited to the embodiments disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen in order to best explain the principles of the embodiments, the practical application, or improvements to the technology in the marketplace, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.

Claims (12)

1. A display control method, comprising:

the baseboard management controller divides the video memory of the display module into a plurality of video memory parts;

a plurality of server nodes reserve display equipment numbers and memory spaces for the display modules;

the baseboard management controller switches the connection of the display module to a selected server node in the plurality of server nodes; and

and the selected server node provides display information for the corresponding video memory part in the plurality of video memory parts by using the connection equipment number and the memory space reserved for the display module.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the display module generates visual management information based on the display information; and

and the baseboard management controller provides the visual management information of the selected server node acquired from the display module to a communication interface for remote visual presentation of the management information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the baseboard management controller is used for out-of-band control of the plurality of server nodes, and the plurality of server nodes share the display module for display of respective out-of-band management information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the display module is a VGA display module controlled by the baseboard management controller.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the VGA display module is connected to a control motherboard via a PCIe interface; and/or

The connection device numbers reserved for the display module by the plurality of server nodes comprise PCIe bus numbers reserved for the display module by the respective server nodes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the baseboard management controller switching the connection of the display module to a selected one of the plurality of server nodes comprises:

the baseboard management controller switches the connection of the display module to a default selected server node in the plurality of server nodes when starting up based on default setting; or

The baseboard management controller receives a switching display instruction through a communication interface, informs a currently displayed server node to stop the display device, switches the video memory to a video memory part corresponding to the designated server node, and switches the connection of the display module to the server node designated by the switching display instruction.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory space reserved by the plurality of server nodes for the display module is a Memory Mapped IO (MMIO) space for mapping storage information of the display device to a unified storage address space.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

and the sensing device corresponding to the selected server node collects the running state data of the selected server node, and the running state data is provided to the display module as display information for visual display.

9. A server system, comprising:

the server node cluster is used for executing the operation corresponding to the service provided by the server node cluster;

a plurality of baseboard management controllers, each baseboard management controller performing out-of-band control on a plurality of server nodes;

the remote control device is used for receiving the visual management information of the server node sent by the baseboard management controller through the communication interface and performing visual presentation,

the baseboard management controller divides the video memory of the display module into a plurality of video memory parts, a plurality of server nodes reserve display equipment numbers and memory spaces for the display module, the baseboard management controller switches the connection of the display module to a selected server node among the plurality of server nodes, and the selected server node uses the connection equipment numbers and the memory spaces reserved for the display module to provide display information for the corresponding video memory parts in the plurality of video memory parts.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the remote control device is to:

for the visual presentation execution control, the corresponding baseboard management controller receives a corresponding control instruction through the communication interface and performs corresponding out-of-band control operation on the server node;

and displaying the execution result of the control based on the response of the baseboard management controller.

11. A computing device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory having executable code stored thereon, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 8.

12. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable code, which when executed by a processor of an electronic device, causes the processor to perform the method of any of claims 1-8.

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