SONiC support for BMC cards based on Aspeed AST2720 by chinmoy-nexthop · Pull Request #24898 · sonic-net/sonic-buildimage

chinmoy-nexthop · 2025-12-18T18:47:36Z

Why I did it

We need to be able to run SONIC on BMC cards based on AST2720 (ARM64 SOC)

How I did it

New Aspeed platform for ARM64 architecture
Kernel drivers merged via separate PR to sonic-linux-kernel repo.
Build infrastructure: platform/aspeed + device/{aspeed, nexthop ...}
Single sonic-aspeed-arm64.bin target image across all vendors using
this SOC
Initial platform infrastructure under platform/aspeed and
device/{aspeed, nexthop...} directories
SONiC installer support with single partition and
multiple directory-based installs along with updating U-Boot environment
variables for proper boot management
Ability for vendors to bundle their card specific packages, kernel modules
etc to the image and install them at run time (first boot) using the existing
SONiC lazy install infra.
Removed many unwanted dockers and .debs not relevant to the BMC platform

How to verify it

Which release branch to backport (provide reason below if selected)

202411
202505

Tested branch (Please provide the tested image version)

Description for the changelog

Link to config_db schema for YANG module changes

A picture of a cute animal (not mandatory but encouraged)

mssonicbld · 2025-12-18T18:47:44Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2025-12-18T18:47:57Z

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mssonicbld · 2025-12-19T07:06:09Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

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mssonicbld · 2025-12-19T19:44:45Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

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…eval board Platform Introduction: • New Aspeed platform for ARM64 architecture • Kernel drivers via src/sonic-linux-kernel (separate PR) • Build infrastructure: platform/aspeed + device/aspeed → sonic-aspeed.bin target • eMMC installation tooling with ext4 image creation scripts Installation & Image Management: • Initial platform infrastructure under platform/aspeed and device/aspeed directories • SONiC installer-based approach with single partition and multiple directory-based installs (replacing two-partition setup) • eMMC image download support via HTTP/SCP with flashing capabilities • U-Boot environment variable configuration for proper boot management • Fixed sonic-installer for bootonce logic and image creation System Services & Configuration: • New sonic-bmc-platform-aspeed debian package for BMC initialization and management • Reorganized systemd services: added/removed/masked units as needed • Enhanced service dependencies (config-topology, config-setup, etc.) Build & Packaging: • Modernized Debian packaging for debhelper-compat 13 compatibility • Rust stable version 1.86 for build stability • Multi-distribution support: Trixie and Bookworm • Database Docker container support for BMC Hardware Monitoring & Services: • Platform support for fan, temperature sensors, thermal monitoring, reboot cause, and watchdog • GNMI service auto-start on BMC boot with ASIC dependencies removed • New bmcdb database type (similar to dpudb) to avoid BMP_STATE_DB dependencies Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <[email protected]>

mssonicbld · 2025-12-22T05:41:01Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2025-12-22T05:41:15Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <[email protected]>

mssonicbld · 2025-12-22T05:46:58Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2025-12-22T05:47:09Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

mssonicbld · 2025-12-22T05:50:05Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2025-12-22T05:50:16Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

mssonicbld · 2025-12-24T06:03:34Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2025-12-24T06:03:48Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

nats-nokia

Hello Chinmoy – we are also building and using the AST2700 eval board to load SONIC build. We would like to leverage your commit but there are several files that are using the FIT implementation rather than a UEFI implementation. We would like the scripts to support a UEFI installation. Are you planning to add UEFI support?

@lguohan @yxieca

nats-nokia · 2026-01-06T20:42:38Z

files/build_templates/sonic_debian_extension.j2

+# Aspeed BMC platform: Filter services for BMC use case
+if [[ $CONFIGURED_PLATFORM == aspeed ]]; then
+    # Show original service count
+    ORIGINAL_COUNT=$(wc -l < $GENERATED_SERVICE_FILE)


Build error is observed.

+ sudo rm -f syslog-counter_1.0.0_arm64.deb + [[ aspeed == aspeed ]] ++ wc -l ./sonic_debian_extension.sh: line 1288: ./fsroot-aspeed/etc/sonic/generated_services.conf: Permission denied + ORIGINAL_COUNT= + clean_sys

This line requires sudo to resolve
ORIGINAL_COUNT=$(sudo bash -c "wc -l < $GENERATED_SERVICE_FILE")

@nats-nokia , thank you for the feedback. somehow missed notification earlier. We’ll look into this and provide an update soon.

Yes, adding sudo would improve consistency and help safeguard against potential umask changes. Thank you for pointing this out.

It was not identified earlier because, the file is created using sudo tee (for example, lines 413 and 418), which results in a root owned file with default permissions of 644 (rw-r--r--). The ubuntu user falls under the “others” category and therefore has read permission .However, if a stricter umask were in effect (for example, 077), the file would be created with permission 600 (owner-only), and the command would fail without sudo. We will push the change.

[05:01:53] ubuntu@ip-172-31-7-82:~/private-sonic-buildimage (chinmoy-aspeed) $ ls -l fsroot-aspeed/etc/sonic/generated_services.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 433 Jan 12 15:53 fsroot-aspeed/etc/sonic/generated_services.conf [05:02:43] ubuntu@ip-172-31-7-82:~/private-sonic-buildimage (chinmoy-aspeed) $ wc -l < fsroot-aspeed/etc/sonic/generated_services.conf 19 [05:03:14] ubuntu@ip-172-31-7-82:~/private-sonic-buildimage (chinmoy-aspeed) $ sudo bash -c "wc -l < fsroot-aspeed/etc/sonic/generated_services.conf" 19 [05:03:49] ubuntu@ip-172-31-7-82:~/private-sonic-buildimage (chinmoy-aspeed) $ whoami ubuntu [05:04:36] ubuntu@ip-172-31-7-82:~/private-sonic-buildimage (chinmoy-aspeed) $ groups ubuntu adm dialout cdrom floppy sudo audio dip video plugdev netdev lxd docker [05:04:40] ubuntu@ip-172-31-7-82:~/private-sonic-buildimage (chinmoy-aspeed) $ sudo -n true [05:04:53] ubuntu@ip-172-31-7-82:~/private-sonic-buildimage (chinmoy-aspeed) $ umask 0002 [05:08:53] ubuntu@ip-172-31-7-82:~/private-sonic-buildimage (chinmoy-aspeed) $ sudo sh -c 'umask' <===== Created with this umask 0022

Minor fix: adding missing 'sudo' - adding sudo would improve consistency and help safeguard against potential umask changes. Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <[email protected]>

mssonicbld · 2026-01-16T06:32:01Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

judyjoseph · 2026-03-01T03:49:49Z

device/aspeed/arm64-aspeed_ast2700_evb-r0/platform_env.conf

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# BMC platform environment
+export BMC_PLATFORM=1


don't need "export"

Will remove.

judyjoseph · 2026-03-01T03:56:09Z

device/aspeed/arm64-aspeed_ast2700_evb-r0/pmon_daemon_control.json

+    "skip_ledd": true,
+    "skip_xcvrd": true,
+    "skip_psud": true,
+    "skip_syseepromd": true,


We could have syseepromd NOT skipped in BMC to get EEPROM data and store in DB ?

This is placeholder code and needs a revisit when the hardware is fully ready

judyjoseph · 2026-03-01T04:13:35Z

files/build_scripts/aspeed_bmc_filter_services.py

+    'procdockerstatsd.service',       # Container resource monitoring
+
+    # Time synchronization
+    'ntp.service',                    # NTP time synchronization


Can you check if NTP is replaced with chrony in sonic master

We will look into this and share an update, @judyjoseph . Kindly let us know if addressing this in the next PR works for you.

Will do and take up enabling of all the required systemd services (and docker containers) as a follow up PR. Same for all the comments that follow. Hope thats fine?

judyjoseph · 2026-03-01T04:14:20Z

files/build_scripts/aspeed_bmc_filter_services.py

+
+    # SONiC NOS services - not needed for BMC
+    'sonic-hostservice.service',     # SONiC host services (VLAN, LAG, etc.) - NOS-specific
+    'hostcfgd.service',              # SONiC host config daemon - NOS-specific


We would need hostcfgd service .. this is one which handles AAA/PAM

Sure @judyjoseph , will take care.

judyjoseph · 2026-03-01T04:14:48Z

files/build_scripts/aspeed_bmc_filter_services.py

+# Services to REMOVE for BMC platform (not needed)
+BMC_EXCLUDED_SERVICES = {
+    # AAA/TACACS - not needed on BMC
+    'tacacs-config.service',


we need AAA/TACACS in BMC - as we can login to BMC directly

Sure @judyjoseph , we will take care.

judyjoseph · 2026-03-01T04:15:49Z

files/build_scripts/aspeed_bmc_filter_services.py

+    '[email protected]',            # Local console - only if VGA/HDMI available
+
+    # Optional services - can be excluded for minimal BMC
+    'auditd.service',                # Security audit - only needed for compliance


auditd also would be needed @qiluo-msft could you confirm if we can skip this service

judyjoseph · 2026-03-01T04:25:43Z

files/build_scripts/aspeed_bmc_filter_services.py

+    'pmon.service',                   # Platform monitor container (sensors, fans, PSU, etc.)
+
+    # Telemetry and monitoring
+    'gnmi.service',                   # gNMI telemetry service


Can we include sysmgr.service, this is needed alone with gnmi for remote reboot backend implementation.

Sure, @judyjoseph thank you for sharing your comments here . Shall we plan to address the systemd-related feedback in the next PR?

Have added all the containers requested for. @judyjoseph please have a look.

oleksandrivantsiv · 2026-03-02T20:21:06Z

platform/aspeed/sonic-platform-modules-nexthop/common/scripts/usb-network-init.sh

+set -e
+
+# Configuration
+GADGET_NAME="g1"


At the moment, I’m not sure whether this script and the service that starts it on system boot can be fully vendor‑independent. It’s possible that initialization of the usb0 network interface varies by vendor, in which case this logic should be moved into the vendor‑specific folder.

Can you add more details on what all will be vendor specific? I would prefer to have this in common services, till more details emerge

I mean that at this moment I'm not sure whether the creation and initialization of the usb0 device will be the same for NVIDIA as it is for Nexhop. For now, let's keep it as is, but we may need to revisit this implementation in the future.

Of course! Refactoring should be done when we have more vendors adding support for their platforms.

Moved the USB creation to Nexthop platform module.

oleksandrivantsiv · 2026-03-02T22:54:05Z

platform/aspeed/one-image.mk

+$(SONIC_ONE_IMAGE)_ARCH = arm64
+$(SONIC_ONE_IMAGE)_MACHINE = aspeed
+$(SONIC_ONE_IMAGE)_PLATFORM = aspeed
+$(SONIC_ONE_IMAGE)_IMAGE_TYPE = onie


Can you confirm whether the generated image is compatible with the sonic-installer that runs on platforms using U-Boot?
Reference: https://github.com/sonic-net/sonic-utilities/blob/master/sonic_installer/bootloader/uboot.py

Yes, we use uboot in our hardware and the eval board. Port first burn to eMMC, we use sonic-installer install to install subsequent images.

oleksandrivantsiv · 2026-03-02T22:54:35Z

platform/aspeed/one-image.mk

+$(SONIC_ONE_IMAGE)_INSTALLS += $(SYSTEMD_SONIC_GENERATOR)
+$(SONIC_ONE_IMAGE)_LAZY_INSTALLS += $(ASPEED_EVB_AST2700_PLATFORM_MODULE)
+$(SONIC_ONE_IMAGE)_LAZY_INSTALLS += $(ASPEED_NEXTHOP_B27_PLATFORM_MODULE)
+# $(SONIC_ONE_IMAGE)_DOCKERS = $(DOCKER_DATABASE) $(DOCKER_GNMI) $(DOCKER_RESTAPI) $(DOCKER_OBMC_CONSOLE) $(DOCKER_PLATFORM_MONITOR) $(DOCKER_BMCWEB)


looks like this line is not needed

We use it for our internal dev. Will be upstreamed when ready.

- Move TACACS+, hostcfgd, auditd, sysmgr to BMC_REQUIRED_SERVICES - Switch from ntp to chrony for time synchronization - Add BMC overrides for sysmgr and telemetry (remove swss/syncd deps) - Add telemetry, sysmgr, lldp docker images to BMC platform - Fix telemetry auto-start by adding [Install] section to service template - Remove unused BMC_PLATFORM variable from platform_env.conf Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <[email protected]>

oleksandrivantsiv · 2026-03-04T00:08:01Z

platform/aspeed/scripts/sonic-usb-network-init.sh

+GADGET_NAME="g1"
+FUNCTION_TYPE="ncm"  # Options: ncm, ecm, eem, rndis
+INTERFACE_NAME="usb0"
+SUBNET_MASK="24"


SUBNET_MASK variable is not used

Will fix. Thanks for pointing out.

oleksandrivantsiv · 2026-03-04T00:09:21Z

platform/aspeed/scripts/sonic-usb-network-init.sh

+
+# Step 1: Load kernel modules
+logger -t usb-network "Loading kernel modules..."
+modprobe libcomposite 2>/dev/null || true


Is there any particular reason why the drivers are loaded from the script rather than by modprobe at system start?

These modules pertain to USB gadget configuration for aspeed. So has to be aspeed specific. I will investigate if there is a way to do this in a platform specific way, without having to rely on the platform specific debian package.

Moved the USB network initialization to the Nexthop vendor platform module

oleksandrivantsiv · 2026-03-04T00:13:54Z

platform/aspeed/scripts/sonic-usb-network-init.sh

+modprobe libcomposite 2>/dev/null || true
+modprobe usb_f_${FUNCTION_TYPE} 2>/dev/null || true
+modprobe u_ether 2>/dev/null || true
+modprobe aspeed_vhub 2>/dev/null || true


Please do not redirect errors during driver loading to /dev/null. If the driver is critical and required for the USB interface, any error that occurs during loading should be logged along with the return code; otherwise, debugging will be impossible.

If we can safely ignore a failure to load the driver, then is the driver needed at all?

- Update debian/rules to support multi-package build (common + card-specific) - Add build caching (.dep files) for NextHop and EVB platforms - Add postinst script for common package to handle module loading - Update setup.py to build shared wheel from common/sonic_platform - Remove duplicate b27/setup.py Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <[email protected]>

mssonicbld · 2026-03-05T08:33:48Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2026-03-05T08:33:59Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

mssonicbld · 2026-03-05T18:35:11Z

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azure-pipelines · 2026-03-05T18:35:24Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

chander-nexthop · 2026-03-05T18:38:42Z

@Blueve and @apoorv-arista Please have a look at commit 40f4febf70f3217b844712c7fcea81377fc49fe6 that just got pushed to this PR.

consutil can work. Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <[email protected]>

mssonicbld · 2026-03-05T18:53:35Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2026-03-05T18:53:47Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

yxieca

Per offline discussions. This PR doesn't pose blocking issues and is building a foundation for the BMC project to move forward.

There are open issues from this PR, we agreed to continue working on them with subsequent quick iterations.

judyjoseph · 2026-03-06T17:50:03Z

device/aspeed/arm64-aspeed_ast2700_evb-r0/platform.json

+        },
+        "components": [
+            {
+                "name": "BMC"


Please remove BMC as component. not sure why we need this . Same applies to other platform/sku

Done via #26002

judyjoseph · 2026-03-06T17:50:22Z

device/aspeed/arm64-aspeed_ast2700_evb-r0/platform_components.json

+    "chassis": {
+        "AST2700-EVB-BMC": {
+            "component": {
+                "BMC": {},


BMC as a component here too

Done via #26002

chinmoy-nexthop requested review from lguohan, qiluo-msft and xumia as code owners December 18, 2025 18:47

chinmoy-nexthop force-pushed the bmc-ast2720-arm64 branch from 8091249 to fd82d21 Compare December 19, 2025 07:06

chinmoy-nexthop changed the title ~~Changes to support compilation of a SONIC image to be loaded to Aspeed AST2720 eval board~~ Support for SONiC image compilation and deployment on Aspeed AST2720 eval board Dec 19, 2025

chinmoy-nexthop changed the title ~~Support for SONiC image compilation and deployment on Aspeed AST2720 eval board~~ [WIP] Support for SONiC image compilation and deployment on Aspeed AST2720 eval board Dec 19, 2025

chinmoy-nexthop force-pushed the bmc-ast2720-arm64 branch from fd82d21 to 1287188 Compare December 19, 2025 19:44

chander-nexthop force-pushed the bmc-ast2720-arm64 branch from 1287188 to ae02708 Compare December 22, 2025 05:40

Remove unwanted scripts

df20a9f

Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <[email protected]>

Merge branch 'master' into bmc-ast2720-arm64

1c96a1c

Merge branch 'master' into bmc-ast2720-arm64

8875ce1

yxieca requested a review from saiarcot895 January 5, 2026 17:11

nats-nokia reviewed Jan 6, 2026

View reviewed changes

Thanks Chinmoy Dey <[email protected]> for this change

dd9f18c

Minor fix: adding missing 'sudo' - adding sudo would improve consistency and help safeguard against potential umask changes. Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <[email protected]>

judyjoseph reviewed Mar 1, 2026

View reviewed changes

oleksandrivantsiv reviewed Mar 2, 2026

View reviewed changes

oleksandrivantsiv reviewed Mar 4, 2026

View reviewed changes

chander-nexthop mentioned this pull request Mar 5, 2026

This script sets up console utilities on the bmc to access switch console #25674

Draft

Add support to populate the vendor specific console to REDIS so that

0d23517

consutil can work. Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <[email protected]>

chander-nexthop force-pushed the bmc-ast2720-arm64 branch from 40f4feb to 0d23517 Compare March 5, 2026 18:53

yxieca approved these changes Mar 6, 2026

View reviewed changes

judyjoseph reviewed Mar 6, 2026

View reviewed changes

yxieca merged commit f015004 into sonic-net:master Mar 6, 2026
25 of 26 checks passed

Gfrom2016 mentioned this pull request Mar 10, 2026

[CI] Add aspeed-arm64 build target for AST2700 BMC platform #25963

Merged

7 tasks

		@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
		# BMC platform environment
		export BMC_PLATFORM=1 No newline at end of file

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Why I did it

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Tested branch (Please provide the tested image version)

Description for the changelog

Link to config_db schema for YANG module changes

A picture of a cute animal (not mandatory but encouraged)

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chinmoy-nexthop commented Dec 18, 2025 •

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