Bios failover update with service processor having direct serial peripheral interface (spi) access

A method of failover updating a basic input/output system (BIOS) of a host computer with a service processor (SP), comprising:

• receiving, at the SP, a failover backup image from the host computer through a system interface, and storing the failover backup image in a volatile memory of the SP, wherein the host computer comprises a central processing unit (CPU), a memory and a BIOS chip storing a current BIOS image, wherein the CPU is configured to load a copy of the current BIOS image to the memory and execute the current BIOS image as a BIOS, wherein the BIOS being executed at the CPU of the host computer is configured to retrieve a copy of the current BIOS image from the BIOS chip and send the copy of the current BIOS image as the failover backup image to the SP through the system interface, and wherein the SP is connected to the BIOS chip of the host computer via a serial peripheral interface (SPI);
• monitoring, at the SP, operation of the BIOS being executed at the CPU of the host computer by receiving, from the BIOS through the system interface, a notification signal;
• detecting, at the SP, an error in the operation of the BIOS being executed at the CPU of the host computer based on the notification signal;
• and
• in response to detecting the error, sending, by the SP, a copy of the failover backup image to the BIOS chip of the host computer through the SPI to replace the current BIOS image stored in the BIOS chip of the host computer with the copy of the failover backup image.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable codes, wherein the codes, when executed at a processor of a service processor (SP), are configured to:

• receive a failover backup image from a host computer through a system interface, and storing the failover backup image in a volatile memory of the SP, wherein the host computer comprises a central processing unit (CPU), a memory and a BIOS chip storing a current BIOS image, wherein the CPU is configured to load a copy of the current BIOS image to the memory and execute the current BIOS image as a BIOS, wherein the BIOS being executed at the CPU of the host computer is configured to retrieve a copy of the current BIOS image from the BIOS chip and send the copy of the current BIOS image as the failover backup image to the SP through the system interface, and wherein the SP is connected to the BIOS chip of the host computer via a serial peripheral interface (SPI);
• monitor operation of the BIOS being executed at the CPU of the host computer by receiving, from the BIOS through the system interface, a notification signal;
• detect an error in the operation of the BIOS being executed at the CPU of the host computer based on the notification signal;
• and
• in response to detecting the error, send a copy of the failover backup image to the BIOS chip of the host computer through the SPI to replace the current BIOS image stored in the BIOS chip of the host computer with the copy of the failover backup image.