Abstract: A microcode (uCode) hot-upgrade method for bare metal cloud deployment and associated apparatus. The uCode hot-upgrade method applies a uCode patch to a firmware storage device (e.g., BIOS SPI flash) through an out-of-band controller (e.g., baseboard management controller (BMC)). In conjunction with receiving a uCode patch, a uCode upgrade interrupt service is triggered to upgrade uCode for one or more CPUs in a bare-metal cloud platform during runtime of a tenant host operating system (OS) using an out-of-bound process. This innovation enables cloud service providers to deploy uCode hot-patches to bare metal servers for persistent storage and live-patch without touching the tenant operating system environment.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and systems for upgradable microcode (uCode) loading and activation in runtime for bare metal deployments that support runtime update of the uCode loading procedure as well as dynamic load of activation procedure(s) specific to uCode patch and activation policy specific to users. The solution provides several advantages, including enabling cloud service providers to hot-patch the uCode through a standalone uCode loader runtime service in BIOS firmware for bare metal deployment without tenant system involvement. The support of runtime update of uCode loading procedures decouples uCode loading logic from uCode loader framework. This removes dependencies on the uCode loader runtime service when needing to update the uCode loading logic.

Abstract: A microcode (uCode) hot-upgrade method for bare metal cloud deployment and associated apparatus. The uCode hot-upgrade method applies a uCode patch to a firmware storage device (e.g., BIOS SPI flash) through an out-of-band controller (e.g., baseboard management controller (BMC)). In conjunction with receiving a uCode patch, a uCode upgrade interrupt service is triggered to upgrade uCode for one or more CPUs in a bare-metal cloud platform during runtime of a tenant host operating system (OS) using an out-of-bound process. This innovation enables cloud service providers to deploy uCode hot-patches to bare metal servers for persistent storage and live-patch without touching the tenant operating system environment.