| Intel(R) Management Engine Interface (Intel(R) MEI) |
| =================================================== |
| |
| Introduction |
| ============ |
| |
| The Intel Management Engine (Intel ME) is an isolated and protected computing |
| resource (Co-processor) residing inside certain Intel chipsets. The Intel ME |
| provides support for computer/IT management features. The feature set |
| depends on the Intel chipset SKU. |
| |
| The Intel Management Engine Interface (Intel MEI, previously known as HECI) |
| is the interface between the Host and Intel ME. This interface is exposed |
| to the host as a PCI device. The Intel MEI Driver is in charge of the |
| communication channel between a host application and the Intel ME feature. |
| |
| Each Intel ME feature (Intel ME Client) is addressed by a GUID/UUID and |
| each client has its own protocol. The protocol is message-based with a |
| header and payload up to 512 bytes. |
| |
| Prominent usage of the Intel ME Interface is to communicate with Intel(R) |
| Active Management Technology (Intel AMT) implemented in firmware running on |
| the Intel ME. |
| |
| Intel AMT provides the ability to manage a host remotely out-of-band (OOB) |
| even when the operating system running on the host processor has crashed or |
| is in a sleep state. |
| |
| Some examples of Intel AMT usage are: |
| - Monitoring hardware state and platform components |
| - Remote power off/on (useful for green computing or overnight IT |
| maintenance) |
| - OS updates |
| - Storage of useful platform information such as software assets |
| - Built-in hardware KVM |
| - Selective network isolation of Ethernet and IP protocol flows based |
| on policies set by a remote management console |
| - IDE device redirection from remote management console |
| |
| Intel AMT (OOB) communication is based on SOAP (deprecated |
| starting with Release 6.0) over HTTP/S or WS-Management protocol over |
| HTTP/S that are received from a remote management console application. |
| |
| For more information about Intel AMT: |
| http://software.intel.com/sites/manageability/AMT_Implementation_and_Reference_Guide |
| |
| |
| Intel MEI Driver |
| ================ |
| |
| The driver exposes a misc device called /dev/mei. |
| |
| An application maintains communication with an Intel ME feature while |
| /dev/mei is open. The binding to a specific feature is performed by calling |
| MEI_CONNECT_CLIENT_IOCTL, which passes the desired UUID. |
| The number of instances of an Intel ME feature that can be opened |
| at the same time depends on the Intel ME feature, but most of the |
| features allow only a single instance. |
| |
| The Intel AMT Host Interface (Intel AMTHI) feature supports multiple |
| simultaneous user connected applications. The Intel MEI driver |
| handles this internally by maintaining request queues for the applications. |
| |
| The driver is transparent to data that are passed between firmware feature |
| and host application. |
| |
| Because some of the Intel ME features can change the system |
| configuration, the driver by default allows only a privileged |
| user to access it. |
| |
| A code snippet for an application communicating with Intel AMTHI client: |
| |
| struct mei_connect_client_data data; |
| fd = open(MEI_DEVICE); |
| |
| data.d.in_client_uuid = AMTHI_UUID; |
| |
| ioctl(fd, IOCTL_MEI_CONNECT_CLIENT, &data); |
| |
| printf("Ver=%d, MaxLen=%ld\n", |
| data.d.in_client_uuid.protocol_version, |
| data.d.in_client_uuid.max_msg_length); |
| |
| [...] |
| |
| write(fd, amthi_req_data, amthi_req_data_len); |
| |
| [...] |
| |
| read(fd, &amthi_res_data, amthi_res_data_len); |
| |
| [...] |
| close(fd); |
| |
| |
| IOCTL |
| ===== |
| |
| The Intel MEI Driver supports the following IOCTL command: |
| IOCTL_MEI_CONNECT_CLIENT Connect to firmware Feature (client). |
| |
| usage: |
| struct mei_connect_client_data clientData; |
| ioctl(fd, IOCTL_MEI_CONNECT_CLIENT, &clientData); |
| |
| inputs: |
| mei_connect_client_data struct contain the following |
| input field: |
| |
| in_client_uuid - UUID of the FW Feature that needs |
| to connect to. |
| outputs: |
| out_client_properties - Client Properties: MTU and Protocol Version. |
| |
| error returns: |
| EINVAL Wrong IOCTL Number |
| ENODEV Device or Connection is not initialized or ready. |
| (e.g. Wrong UUID) |
| ENOMEM Unable to allocate memory to client internal data. |
| EFAULT Fatal Error (e.g. Unable to access user input data) |
| EBUSY Connection Already Open |
| |
| Notes: |
| max_msg_length (MTU) in client properties describes the maximum |
| data that can be sent or received. (e.g. if MTU=2K, can send |
| requests up to bytes 2k and received responses up to 2k bytes). |
| |
| |
| Intel ME Applications |
| ===================== |
| |
| 1) Intel Local Management Service (Intel LMS) |
| |
| Applications running locally on the platform communicate with Intel AMT Release |
| 2.0 and later releases in the same way that network applications do via SOAP |
| over HTTP (deprecated starting with Release 6.0) or with WS-Management over |
| SOAP over HTTP. This means that some Intel AMT features can be accessed from a |
| local application using the same network interface as a remote application |
| communicating with Intel AMT over the network. |
| |
| When a local application sends a message addressed to the local Intel AMT host |
| name, the Intel LMS, which listens for traffic directed to the host name, |
| intercepts the message and routes it to the Intel MEI. |
| For more information: |
| http://software.intel.com/sites/manageability/AMT_Implementation_and_Reference_Guide |
| Under "About Intel AMT" => "Local Access" |
| |
| For downloading Intel LMS: |
| http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/download-the-latest-intel-amt-open-source-drivers/ |
| |
| The Intel LMS opens a connection using the Intel MEI driver to the Intel LMS |
| firmware feature using a defined UUID and then communicates with the feature |
| using a protocol called Intel AMT Port Forwarding Protocol (Intel APF protocol). |
| The protocol is used to maintain multiple sessions with Intel AMT from a |
| single application. |
| |
| See the protocol specification in the Intel AMT Software Development Kit (SDK) |
| http://software.intel.com/sites/manageability/AMT_Implementation_and_Reference_Guide |
| Under "SDK Resources" => "Intel(R) vPro(TM) Gateway (MPS)" |
| => "Information for Intel(R) vPro(TM) Gateway Developers" |
| => "Description of the Intel AMT Port Forwarding (APF) Protocol" |
| |
| 2) Intel AMT Remote configuration using a Local Agent |
| |
| A Local Agent enables IT personnel to configure Intel AMT out-of-the-box |
| without requiring installing additional data to enable setup. The remote |
| configuration process may involve an ISV-developed remote configuration |
| agent that runs on the host. |
| For more information: |
| http://software.intel.com/sites/manageability/AMT_Implementation_and_Reference_Guide |
| Under "Setup and Configuration of Intel AMT" => |
| "SDK Tools Supporting Setup and Configuration" => |
| "Using the Local Agent Sample" |
| |
| An open source Intel AMT configuration utility, implementing a local agent |
| that accesses the Intel MEI driver, can be found here: |
| http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/download-the-latest-intel-amt-open-source-drivers/ |
| |
| |
| Intel AMT OS Health Watchdog |
| ============================ |
| |
| The Intel AMT Watchdog is an OS Health (Hang/Crash) watchdog. |
| Whenever the OS hangs or crashes, Intel AMT will send an event |
| to any subscriber to this event. This mechanism means that |
| IT knows when a platform crashes even when there is a hard failure on the host. |
| |
| The Intel AMT Watchdog is composed of two parts: |
| 1) Firmware feature - receives the heartbeats |
| and sends an event when the heartbeats stop. |
| 2) Intel MEI driver - connects to the watchdog feature, configures the |
| watchdog and sends the heartbeats. |
| |
| The Intel MEI driver uses the kernel watchdog API to configure the Intel AMT |
| Watchdog and to send heartbeats to it. The default timeout of the |
| watchdog is 120 seconds. |
| |
| If the Intel AMT Watchdog feature does not exist (i.e. the connection failed), |
| the Intel MEI driver will disable the sending of heartbeats. |
| |
| |
| Supported Chipsets |
| ================== |
| |
| 7 Series Chipset Family |
| 6 Series Chipset Family |
| 5 Series Chipset Family |
| 4 Series Chipset Family |
| Mobile 4 Series Chipset Family |
| ICH9 |
| 82946GZ/GL |
| 82G35 Express |
| 82Q963/Q965 |
| 82P965/G965 |
| Mobile PM965/GM965 |
| Mobile GME965/GLE960 |
| 82Q35 Express |
| 82G33/G31/P35/P31 Express |
| 82Q33 Express |
| 82X38/X48 Express |
| |
| --- |
| linux-mei@linux.intel.com |