"ResetType@Redfish.AllowableValues" no longer present?

max
Minnow

Posts: 15

"ResetType@Redfish.AllowableValues" no longer present? Jul 15, 2020 15:44:53 GMT

Quote

Post by max on Jul 15, 2020 15:44:53 GMT

Hi,

When wanting to "reset" a server, our software used to query /redfish/v1/Systems/<system name> and look at the ResetType@Redfish.AllowableValues field, to see if we can use ForceRestart, GracefulRestart, or if we need to send ForceOff -> sleep some time -> On.
This is needed because some vendors did not bother to implement ForeceRestart -even though they all do support "chassis power reset" through RCMP+ protocol-, while others do.
An annoyance I wrote about before in 2017 ( Make implementation common reset types mandatory thread)

We noticed however that some vendors are now no longer sending ResetType@Redfish.AllowableValues with the system information, but seems to provide a "@redfish.ActionInfo" instead with that information.

E.g. Lenovo SR635 sends:

{
   "@odata.context":"/redfish/v1/$metadata#ComputerSystem.ComputerSystem",
   "@odata.etag":"\"1594825713\"",
   "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self",
   "@odata.type":"#ComputerSystem.v1_7_0.ComputerSystem",
   "Actions":{
      "#ComputerSystem.Reset":{
         "@Redfish.ActionInfo":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/ResetActionInfo",
         "@Redfish.OperationApplyTimeSupport":{
            "@odata.type":"#Settings.v1_2_1.Settings.OperationApplyTimeSupport",
            "MaintenanceWindowDurationInSeconds":600,
            "MaintenanceWindowResource":{
               "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self"
            },
            "SupportedValues":[
               "Immediate",
               "AtMaintenanceWindowStart"
            ]
         },
         "target":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/Actions/ComputerSystem.Reset"
      }
   },
   "AssetTag":"Free form asset tag",
   "Boot":{
      "BootOptions":{
         "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/BootOptions"
      },
      "BootSourceOverrideEnabled":"Disabled",
      "BootSourceOverrideEnabled@Redfish.AllowableValues":[
         "Disabled",
         "Once",
         "Continuous"
      ],
      "BootSourceOverrideMode":"Legacy",
      "BootSourceOverrideMode@Redfish.AllowableValues":[
         "Legacy",
         "UEFI"
      ],
      "BootSourceOverrideTarget":"None",
      "BootSourceOverrideTarget@Redfish.AllowableValues":[
         "None",
         "Pxe",
         "Floppy",
         "Cd",
         "Usb",
         "Hdd",
         "BiosSetup",
         "Diags"
      ],
      "Certificates":{
         "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/Boot/Certificates"
      }
   },
   "Description":"System Self",
   "EthernetInterfaces":{
      "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/EthernetInterfaces"
   },
   "Id":"Self",
   "IndicatorLED":"Off",
   "IndicatorLED@Redfish.AllowableValues":[
      "Lit",
      "Blinking",
      "Off"
   ],
   "Links":{
      "Chassis":[
         {
            "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Chassis/Self"
         }
      ],
      "Chassis@odata.count":1,
      "ManagedBy":[
         {
            "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Managers/Self"
         }
      ],
      "ManagedBy@odata.count":1,
      "PoweredBy":[
         {
            "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Chassis/Self/Power#/PowerSupplies/1"
         },
         {
            "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Chassis/Self/Power#/PowerSupplies/0"
         }
      ],
      "PoweredBy@odata.count":2
   },
   "LogServices":{
      "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/LogServices"
   },
   "Manufacturer":" ",
   "Memory":{
      "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/Memory"
   },
   "MemoryDomains":{
      "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/MemoryDomains"
   },
   "Model":" ",
   "Name":"System",
   "NetworkInterfaces":{
      "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/NetworkInterfaces"
   },
   "PartNumber":" ",
   "PowerState":"Off",
   "Processors":{
      "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/Processors"
   },
   "SKU":" ",
   "SecureBoot":{
      "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/SecureBoot"
   },
   "SerialNumber":" ",
   "SimpleStorage":{
      "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/SimpleStorage"
   },
   "Status":{
      "Health":"OK",
      "HealthRollup":"OK",
      "State":"Enabled"
   },
   "Storage":{
      "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/Storage"
   },
   "SystemType":"Physical"
}

And if you then query /redfish/v1/Systems/Self/ResetActionInfo you get the same info as before:

{
   "@odata.context":"/redfish/v1/$metadata#ActionInfo.ActionInfo",
   "@odata.etag":"\"1594825760\"",
   "@odata.id":"/redfish/v1/Systems/Self/ResetActionInfo",
   "@odata.type":"#ActionInfo.v1_1_1.ActionInfo",
   "Description":"This action is used to reset the Systems",
   "Id":"ResetAction",
   "Name":"ResetAction",
   "Parameters":[
      {
         "AllowableValues":[
            "GracefulShutdown",
            "ForceOff",
            "On",
            "ForceRestart"
         ],
         "DataType":"String",
         "Name":"ResetType",
         "Required":true
      }
   ]
}

Apparently this construct is allowed in the newer Redfish specification version, but needless to say this breaks any and all existing software that was written before "@redfish.ActionInfo" was part of the spec.
Can anybody enlighten me why this breaking change was made?

The Redfish protocol offers a lot of flexibility for system vendors about what way they chose to implement things, but that makes it very hard for client software developers to deal with the different implementations.

Last Edit: Jul 15, 2020 16:33:58 GMT by max

mraineri
Administrator

Posts: 1,050

"ResetType@Redfish.AllowableValues" no longer present? Jul 15, 2020 17:56:29 GMT

Quote

Post by mraineri on Jul 15, 2020 17:56:29 GMT

ActionInfo is a newer method of conveying parameter details about a given implementation. However, like with other parts of the data model, there is no requirement to drop older methods; it may be done at some point in time in the future, but ultimately that's the implementations choice. I would hope folks would support both methods until they're confident their customers have migrated to the newer method.

I would suggest reaching out to your vendor on this issue. From a Redfish standards perspective, there shouldn't be a reason for the "ResetType@Redfish.AllowableValues" property to have been removed.

max
Minnow

Posts: 15

"ResetType@Redfish.AllowableValues" no longer present? Jul 15, 2020 18:33:52 GMT

Quote

Post by max on Jul 15, 2020 18:33:52 GMT

Jul 15, 2020 17:56:29 GMT mraineri said:

ActionInfo is a newer method of conveying parameter details about a given implementation. However, like with other parts of the data model, there is no requirement to drop older methods; it may be done at some point in time in the future, but ultimately that's the implementations choice. I would hope folks would support both methods until they're confident their customers have migrated to the newer method.

I would suggest reaching out to your vendor on this issue. From a Redfish standards perspective, there shouldn't be a reason for the "ResetType@Redfish.AllowableValues" property to have been removed.

Your newer method requires yet another HTTP request -while some implementations are already very slow and known to take 5 seconds for each-, while it is not clear to me what advantage the newer method has for the simple and common use case to reset a server.

But apart from that, there is nothing in your standard recommending vendors to keep ResetType@Redfish.AllowableValues for compatibility with older implementations, while I do think you should mention it there.
And a vendor that is new to Redfish and just grabs the latest Redfish specification from your site to implement has no way of knowing that "older" client implementations rely on the "old" way either, as it does not seem to be mentioned anywhere.

The wording you use in the spec. suggests it is fine for a vendor to pick either way to implement, not making it clear what is "old" and what is "new" either:

To specify the list of supported values for a parameter, the service may include the @redfish.AllowableValues annotation.
[...]
The resource may provide a separate @redfish.ActionInfo resource to describe the parameters and values that a particular instance or implementation supports. Use the @redfish.ActionInfo annotation to specify the ActionInfo resource, which contains a URI to the @redfish.ActionInfo resource for the action. For details, see the Action info annotation clause.

This amount of freedom does not lead to very interoperable client software and servers...

Reaching out to vendors is also a bit problematic in practice, because we are not their direct customer.
(We sell server provisioning software to datacenters, but do not buy any significant number of servers ourselves. So do not have an account manager at said vendors we can forward the problem to.
And our customers do not see the urgent need to get involved either, as RMCP+ still does work for servers on which Redfish is not in an usable state).

Last Edit: Jul 15, 2020 19:50:18 GMT by max

jautor
Administrator

Posts: 503

"ResetType@Redfish.AllowableValues" no longer present? Aug 4, 2020 14:22:24 GMT

Quote

Post by jautor on Aug 4, 2020 14:22:24 GMT

Jul 15, 2020 18:33:52 GMT max said:

But apart from that, there is nothing in your standard recommending vendors to keep ResetType@Redfish.AllowableValues for compatibility with older implementations, while I do think you should mention it there.
And a vendor that is new to Redfish and just grabs the latest Redfish specification from your site to implement has no way of knowing that "older" client implementations rely on the "old" way either, as it does not seem to be mentioned anywhere.

That's a good point, and the ResetType parameter is probably the only Action parameter that will fall into this category. I agree and we'll add some text to the schema to recommend that AllowableValues be used regardless of the presence of ActionInfo or not.

Reaching out to vendors is also a bit problematic in practice, because we are not their direct customer.

The majority of the server vendors (and I believe all of the ones that have their own firmware teams), and the companies that supply management (BMC) firmware to almost everyone are members of the DMTF Redfish Forum. So, posting issues here, since we review them with the group, is a very direct method of reaching the personnel that can influence that development...

So keep the posts coming - they work!

Jeff