Management of components in a hosting architecture

摘要

A service provider can maintain one or more host computing devices which may be utilized as bare metal instances by one or more customers of the service provider. Illustratively, each host computing device includes hardware components that are configured in a manner to allow the service provider to implement one or more processes upon a power cycle of the host computing device and prior to access of the host computing device resources by customers. In one aspect, a hosting platform includes components arranged in a manner to limit modifications to software or firmware on hardware components. In another aspect, the hosting platform can implement management functions for establishing control plane functions between the host computing device and the service provider that is independent of the customer. Additionally, the management functions can also be utilized to present different hardware or software attributes of the host computing device.

主权项

1. A hosting platform comprising:
a baseboard management controller for initiating a power cycle of a host computing device associated with the baseboard management controller; and an offload engine component, implemented on an embedded microprocessor, wherein the offload engine component is operable to:
communicate with one or more processors associated with the hosting platform in accordance with a peripheral communication protocol;prior to implementing a boot process for the hosting platform, cause a first manipulation of one or more hardware latches to permit modifications to software code associated with components of the hosting platform;implement at least one management function corresponding to at least of an update to one or more components associated with the components of the hosting platform responsive to the manipulation of the hardware latches;based on a determination that the boot process is associated with untrusted components of the hosting platform, cause a second manipulation of the one or more hardware latches to prevent modifications to software code associated with components of the hosting platform; andresponsive to the implementation of the at least one management function and the second manipulation of the one or more hardware latches, cause the implementation of the boot process associated with untrusted components of the hosting platform.