Contents

Overview·· 1

Technical background· 1

Benefits· 1

Protocol 1

HDM Redfish implementation· 1

HDM API 2

BIOS configuration items· 2

Overview

Redfish provides HTTPS-based RESTful APIs for device management. Each HTTPS operation submits a resource request or retrieves a UTF-8-encoded resource response in JSON format. This is similar to the process that a Web application returns an HTML file to a browser. Redfish reduces development complexity and is easy to implement, easy to use, and easy to extend. You can use the Redfish interface to implement common HDM and BIOS configurations, including user management, server information query, and management module information query.

Redfish is the combination of a REST API and Software-defined servers (data models), and is defined by DMTF at www.dmtf.org.

Technical background

As a widely supported industry standard, IPMI defines a set of APIs to provide out-of-band management and monitoring functions. These functions are independent from the host system's CPU, firmware (legacy BIOS or UEFI), and operating system.

However, IPMI no longer meets the function scalability of modern data center customers as a legacy API with a history of over 20 years. IPMI is limited to a set of lowest common denominator commands (for example, power on/off, restart, temperature reading, and fan speed). Customers can use only a reduced set of functions. In addition, IPMI-capable extensions specific to vendors are not common across the platforms. Therefore, customers have to develop their own tools to implement tool integration, which relies on inband management software.

Trapped by unstandardized IPMI functions and fragments caused by OEM extensions, vendor-specific solutions are demanding function scalability. To resolve this issue, Redfish is introduced. Based on HTTPS and SSL, Redfish aims to provide a simpler, more secure, and more auditable API than IPMI.

Benefits

As a general management protocol designed for converged infrastructure, Redfish can be easily integrated into commonly used tools to manage converged single-node and multiple-node server infrastructure.

Protocol

In Redfish, each URL represents a resource, service, or a resource collection. In RESTful terms, Redfish uses URIs to indicate resources in order to implement resource interaction with clients.

The format of resources is defined by the Redfish schema, which can be used by clients to define correct semantics. Redfish semantics are designed to be greatly intuitive.

All resources are linked to the service entry point (the root), which is located at /redfish/v1. Main resource types are structured as collections to support standalone, multi-node, or converged rack server systems. Other resources are contained as members of these collections.

HDM Redfish implementation

Developed based on Redfish canonical version 1.5.0, HDM Redfish API can be used to implement HDM and BIOS configuration items such as user management, server information obtaining, and module management.

HDM Redfish API includes HDM API and BIOS API.

HDM API

Table 1 Redfish features

BIOS configuration items

Table 2 BIOS configuration items