Method to overload hardware pin for improved system management

A baseboard management controller (BMC), comprising:

• a connector that facilitates electronic communication between the BMC and a hardware interrupt pin of a host processor;
• a BMC processor;
• BMC firmware in electronic communication with the BMC processor, wherein the BMC firmware defines context information and triggering events for a plurality of sets of instructions that are included in an interrupt handler in host firmware, and wherein the BMC firmware comprises instructions that are executable by the BMC processor to:
• generate an interrupt signal on the hardware interrupt pin;
• and
• provide the context information that corresponds to a triggering event to the host processor, wherein the context information directs the host processor to identify a set of instructions in the host firmware that the host processor should execute in response to the interrupt signal.

A method, comprising:

• providing host firmware that comprises an interrupt handler, wherein the interrupt handler comprises a plurality of sets of instructions corresponding to different functions that can be performed by a host processor in response to an interrupt signal on a hardware interrupt pin;
• providing baseboard management controller (BMC) firmware that defines context information and triggering events for the interrupt handler, wherein the context information comprises different identifiers for different sets of instructions in the interrupt handler and directs the host processor to identify a set of instructions in the host firmware that the host processor should execute in response to the interrupt signal, and wherein the triggering events indicate when particular sets of instructions should be executed;
• configuring a plurality of host computing devices with the host firmware and the BMC firmware;
• providing updated host firmware that includes a modified plurality of sets of instructions in the interrupt handler;
• providing updated BMC firmware that includes updated context information and updated triggering events for the modified plurality of sets of instructions;
• and
• configuring the plurality of host computing devices with the updated host firmware and the updated BMC firmware.