Systems and methods for automated firewall provisioning for virtual machines

A computer-implemented method for managing firewall rules, the method implemented by a computer system including at least one processor, the method comprising:

• receiving, from an admin computer device, group-based firewall rules, wherein the group-based firewall rules identify a plurality of groups of virtual machines (VMs) executable on a VM server system and a respective set of firewall policies to be applied to the VMs in each group, and wherein the group-based firewall rules contain no data that identifies a specific VM;
• receiving, from a virtual machine (VM) server system including a hypervisor, group membership data, the group membership data identifying the plurality of groups and a respective list of VMs associated with each group and currently resident on the VM server system, wherein the group membership data includes a new VM, and wherein the group membership data is received at the at least one processor i) after the hypervisor initiates a build of the new VM but ii) prior to the hypervisor completing the build of the new VM;
• parsing the group membership data according to the group-based firewall rules to generate VM-specific firewall rules;
• and
• transmitting the VM-specific firewall rules to a firewall, wherein each VM-specific firewall rule is configured for application by the firewall to communication requests identifying an IP address of one of the VMs.

At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon for managing firewall rules, wherein when executed by at least one processor of a firewall configuration server, the computer-executable instructions cause the processor to:

• receive, from an admin computer device including a hypervisor, group-based firewall rules, wherein the group-based firewall rules identify a plurality of groups of virtual machines (VMs) executable on a VM server system and a respective set of firewall policies to be applied to the VMs in each group, and wherein the group-based firewall rules contain no data that identifies a specific VM, wherein the group membership data includes a new VM, and wherein the group membership data is received at the at least one processor i) after the hypervisor initiates a build of the new VM but ii) prior to the hypervisor completing the build of the new VM;
• receive, from a virtual machine (VM) server system, group membership data, the group membership data identifying the plurality of groups and a respective list of VMs associated with each group and currently resident on the VM server system;
• parse the group membership data according to the group-based firewall rules to generate VM-specific firewall rules;
• and
• transmit the VM-specific firewall rules to a firewall, wherein each VM-specific firewall rule is configured for application by the firewall to communication requests identifying an IP address of one of the VMs.