Support for BMC cards based on Aspeed 2720 - Phase 2 by chander-nexthop · Pull Request #26002 · sonic-net/sonic-buildimage

chander-nexthop · 2026-03-10T10:31:00Z

Address review comments to remove BMC component from platform json
files
We dont intend to use obmc-console, so remove the same from platform packages
Removed the remnant setup.py
Fixed bugs in watchdog code
Moved aspeed services to a debian package instead of platform check + install in common code (build_debian.sh)
Added helper scripts to create and write a disk image into eMMC
show version now printed the chassis serial number too
Usb interface renamed to bmc0
bmc.json to specify BMC IP and Switch Host IP address
eepromd runs, populates DB. show platform syseeprom would work (tested by populating some data into eeprom)

Why I did it

Changes based on review comments received and to cater to the platform HLD sonic-net/SONiC#2215

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Link to config_db schema for YANG module changes

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files - We dont intent to use obmc-console, so remove the same from platform packages - Removed the remnant setup.py Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <chander@nexthop.ai>

mssonicbld · 2026-03-10T10:31:08Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2026-03-10T10:31:21Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <chander@nexthop.ai>

systemd services. This way platform specific changes for the same made to build_debian script cn be removed. 2. Fix the watchdog logic. Add a new systemd service that will pet the watchdog every 60 seconds (after arming it for 180 seconds) 3. Differentiate between user issued reboot and watchdog reset 4. Create a script called platform/aspeed/install-sonic-to-emmc.sh which can be used to burn the image to emmc from OpenBMC Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <chander@nexthop.ai>

mssonicbld · 2026-03-17T15:22:59Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2026-03-17T15:23:14Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

yxieca

Code Review

This PR is a cleanup/refactor for the Aspeed BMC platform in SONiC. Here's a breakdown:

Changes Summary

1. Platform services → proper Debian package ✅ Good

Moves scripts/services from ad-hoc build_debian.sh installation into a proper aspeed-platform-services Debian package (.mk, debian/ scaffolding, rules.mk, one-image.mk)
This is the right pattern — proper packaging vs. raw file copies in build scripts

2. New watchdog keepalive daemon (watchdog-keepalive.sh)

180s timeout, 60s keepalive interval
Custom log rotation (5 files max)
Uses watchdogutil arm/disarm for setup/teardown

3. Watchdog platform API refactor (both AST2700 EVB and NextHop)

Removes self.armed tracking in favor of sysfs state (is_armed() reads sysfs state)
Removes _close_watchdog() (magic 'V' close) — replaces with _disablewatchdog() using ioctl WDIOS_DISABLECARD
Adds proper ioctl methods: _enablewatchdog, _keepalive, _settimeout, _gettimeout, _gettimeleft
arm() now caps at 300s max — is this intentional? Some use cases may need longer timeouts

4. Reboot cause logic improvement (both chassis.py files)

WDIOF_CARDRESET now checks for software reboot cause file before defaulting to watchdog
Previously always returned NON_HARDWARE, now returns WATCHDOG when no software cause found — good fix

5. Removed BMC component from platform.json (both EVB and NextHop)

Removes "BMC" from components list — why? Is BMC FW update not supported via fwutil?

6. Removed obmc-console configs (both EVB and NextHop)

Deleted server.tty.conf files and related install logic — are these now managed elsewhere (OpenBMC side)?

7. USB network init fix (NextHop)

Hardcodes UDC name to 12021000.usb-vhub:p1 instead of auto-detecting first available — could this break on different AST2700 boards?

8. New eMMC installer script (install-sonic-to-emmc.sh)

Installs SONiC from OpenBMC to eMMC with U-Boot env setup
Has commented-out alternatives and hardcoded BOOTCONF="nexthop-b27-r0" — should these be configurable rather than requiring source edits?

Issues

1. Duplicate code across EVB and NextHop

chassis.py reboot cause changes are identical in both ast2700/ and nexthop/common/
watchdog.py changes are identical in both
Should this be a shared base class?

2. Commented-out code left in

build-emmc-image-installer.sh: #EMMC_SIZE_MB=7168
install-sonic-to-emmc.sh: #BOOTCONF="ast2700-evb"
These should be removed or made configurable

3. watchdog-keepalive.sh logs every 60s

echo "Watchdog keepalive sent" on every iteration generates ~1440 log lines/day — consider removing or making it periodic (every Nth keepalive)

4. Deleted ast2700/setup.py — is the platform wheel now built differently, or was this unused?

5. PR title is vague — "Address pending review comments and some cleanup" doesn't convey the scope. This has significant changes (new Debian package, watchdog refactor, reboot cause fix, eMMC installer).

chander-nexthop · 2026-03-22T14:31:59Z

Code Review

This PR is a cleanup/refactor for the Aspeed BMC platform in SONiC. Here's a breakdown:

Changes Summary

1. Platform services → proper Debian package ✅ Good

Moves scripts/services from ad-hoc build_debian.sh installation into a proper aspeed-platform-services Debian package (.mk, debian/ scaffolding, rules.mk, one-image.mk)

This is the right pattern — proper packaging vs. raw file copies in build scripts

2. New watchdog keepalive daemon (watchdog-keepalive.sh)

180s timeout, 60s keepalive interval

Custom log rotation (5 files max)

Uses watchdogutil arm/disarm for setup/teardown

3. Watchdog platform API refactor (both AST2700 EVB and NextHop)

Removes self.armed tracking in favor of sysfs state (is_armed() reads sysfs state)

Removes _close_watchdog() (magic 'V' close) — replaces with _disablewatchdog() using ioctl WDIOS_DISABLECARD

Adds proper ioctl methods: _enablewatchdog, _keepalive, _settimeout, _gettimeout, _gettimeleft

arm() now caps at 300s max — is this intentional? Some use cases may need longer timeouts

4. Reboot cause logic improvement (both chassis.py files)

WDIOF_CARDRESET now checks for software reboot cause file before defaulting to watchdog

Previously always returned NON_HARDWARE, now returns WATCHDOG when no software cause found — good fix

5. Removed BMC component from platform.json (both EVB and NextHop)

Removes "BMC" from components list — why? Is BMC FW update not supported via fwutil?

This platform itself is a BMC and makes little sense to have a BMC component within it was the point Judy made in the code review. That made sense and hence removed it.

6. Removed obmc-console configs (both EVB and NextHop)

Deleted server.tty.conf files and related install logic — are these now managed elsewhere (OpenBMC side)?

We no longer use obmc-console, instead we have moved to use SONiC's native consutil service and hence removed this.

7. USB network init fix (NextHop)

Hardcodes UDC name to 12021000.usb-vhub:p1 instead of auto-detecting first available — could this break on different AST2700 boards?

This is under the Nexthop platform module and is specific to our card. Will not affect the rest.

8. New eMMC installer script (install-sonic-to-emmc.sh)

Installs SONiC from OpenBMC to eMMC with U-Boot env setup

Has commented-out alternatives and hardcoded BOOTCONF="nexthop-b27-r0" — should these be configurable rather than requiring source edits?

Fair point. As these scripts are helper scripts (not part of the image build) I didn't make them configurable. If we really need that I can make it as such. Do let me know.

Issues

1. Duplicate code across EVB and NextHop

chassis.py reboot cause changes are identical in both ast2700/ and nexthop/common/

watchdog.py changes are identical in both

Should this be a shared base class?

If we make this a shared base class, then we will need a new intermediate python wheel package. Also, chassis.py will change for nexthop card to accommodate eeprom and other features. As of today there are same, but expected to diverge.

2. Commented-out code left in

build-emmc-image-installer.sh: #EMMC_SIZE_MB=7168

install-sonic-to-emmc.sh: #BOOTCONF="ast2700-evb"

These should be removed or made configurable

Eval board ships with a 8G eMMC whereas Nexthop card will ship with a 32G (but 10G due to pSLC). To catrer
to both these cards, I just added lines which can be uncommented depending on which cards these scripts target.
I thought as these are helper scripts, there might be more additions depending vendor requirements. So instead of making this configurable I just added comments. I can fix them if you insist.

3. watchdog-keepalive.sh logs every 60s

echo "Watchdog keepalive sent" on every iteration generates ~1440 log lines/day — consider removing or making it periodic (every Nth keepalive)

Thanks for pointing out, Will fix.

4. Deleted ast2700/setup.py — is the platform wheel now built differently, or was this unused?

yes it was unused.

5. PR title is vague — "Address pending review comments and some cleanup" doesn't convey the scope. This has significant changes (new Debian package, watchdog refactor, reboot cause fix, eMMC installer).

Will fix the title.

judyjoseph · 2026-03-26T23:16:31Z

platform/aspeed/aspeed-platform-services/systemd/watchdog-keepalive.service

+
+[Service]
+Type=simple
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/watchdog-keepalive.sh


do we need infra change to copy the watchdog script from platform/aspeed/aspeed-platform-services/scripts/watchdog-keepalive.sh to /usr/bin -- as I see some line relating to this removed in build_debian.sh‎ ?

No, we now have a separate debian package, aspeed-platform-services. Its install rules takes care of this. Earlier we were doing it from build_debian.sh directly with a platform check. That was a stop gap.

mssonicbld · 2026-03-30T16:23:50Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2026-03-30T16:24:04Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

…mbers This commit adds support for Nexthop Aspeed BMC platforms to address chassis identification and USB network interface naming requirements. 1. Chassis DB Initialization (Dual Serial Numbers) - Add custom nexthop_bmc_chassis_db_init script to populate both: * BMC serial number from BMC EEPROM (i2c-4) * Switch-Host serial number from switch card EEPROM (i2c-10) - Set skip_chassis_db_init=true in pmon_daemon_control.json - Create platform-specific supervisor config for pmon container - Modify docker_init.j2 to copy Aspeed platform supervisor configs - Enable syseepromd daemon for EEPROM information population 2. EEPROM Platform API Implementation - Add eeprom.py: BMC EEPROM handler with system serial reading - Add eeprom_utils.py: Nexthop-specific TLV decoder with custom Vendor Extension fields (IANA 63074) - Update chassis.py to use EEPROM API for serial number retrieval 3. USB Network Interface Naming - Add 70-usb-network.rules to rename usb0 → bmc0 - Add sonic-usb-network-udev-init.sh to install udev rules - Add sonic-usb-network-udev-init.service (runs before usb-network-init) - Update usb-network-init.sh to expect bmc0 interface name - Enable udev service in debian postinst 4. Watchdog Improvements - Simplify get_time_left() to return -1 (remove unsupported ioctl) Testing: - Verified on Nexthop BMC Card - show version displays both serial numbers - USB interface named bmc0 - All pmon daemons start successfully Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <chander@nexthop.ai>

mssonicbld · 2026-03-30T16:35:01Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2026-03-30T16:35:13Z

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itself as type MODULE_TYPE_SWITCH_HOST. This is added to the collection of modules in the chassis object of the BMC and implements the methods set_admin_state, do_power_cycle, get_oper_status etc as outline in the HLD sonic-net/SONiC#2215 Change switch_cpu_utils.sh to use this so that these can be manually tested even before we integrate with bmcctld As required by the HLD introduce a bmc.json file that contains the IPv4 address to be used for the usb network channel between the BMC and the switch cpu. Change usb-network-init.sh to program the IP address contained herein on the bmc0 interface. Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <chander@nexthop.ai>

mssonicbld · 2026-03-31T12:12:29Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2026-03-31T12:12:41Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

Introduce a attribute (default false) in ChassisBase to represent BMC. Override that to true in BMC's Chassis class implementation. Use this to selectively populate the switch host serial attribute in the Chassis DB and print the same in show version. While at this, move the get_serial to SwitchHostModule and expose a new method get_switch_host_serial, which invokes the SwitchHostModule's get_serial method. Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <chander@nexthop.ai>

mssonicbld · 2026-04-01T15:07:18Z

/azp run Azure.sonic-buildimage

azure-pipelines · 2026-04-01T15:07:34Z

Azure Pipelines successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

- Address review comments to remove BMC component from platform json

725925e

files - We dont intent to use obmc-console, so remove the same from platform packages - Removed the remnant setup.py Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <chander@nexthop.ai>

chander-nexthop requested a review from lguohan as a code owner March 10, 2026 10:31

chander-nexthop mentioned this pull request Mar 10, 2026

SONiC support for BMC cards based on Aspeed AST2720 #24898

Merged

4 tasks

chander-nexthop added 2 commits March 12, 2026 09:19

Replace the logic to get the UDC port to be more specific

e15a942

Signed-off-by: Chandrasekaran Swaminathan <chander@nexthop.ai>

judyjoseph requested review from judyjoseph and yxieca March 19, 2026 02:56

yxieca reviewed Mar 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

chander-nexthop changed the title ~~Address pending review comments and some cleanup.~~ Support for BMC cards based on Aspeed 2720 - Phase 2 Mar 22, 2026

judyjoseph reviewed Mar 26, 2026

View reviewed changes

chander-nexthop force-pushed the bmc-review-comments branch from b52abd6 to b216b82 Compare March 30, 2026 16:34

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