US 2014/0351956 A1 · ENFORCING RESTRICTIONS RELATED TO A VIRTUALIZED COMPUTER ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

An administrator may set restrictions related to the operation of a virtual machine (VM), and virtualization software enforces such restrictions. There may be restrictions related to the general use of the VM, such as who may use the VM, when the VM may be used, and on what physical computers the VM may be used. There may be similar restrictions related to a general ability to modify a VM, such as who may modify the VM. There may also be restrictions related to what modifications may be made to a VM, such as whether the VM may be modified to enable access to various devices or other resources. There may also be restrictions related to how the VM may be used and what may be done with the VM. Information related to the VM and any restrictions placed on the operation of the VM may be encrypted to inhibit a user from circumventing the restrictions.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for enforcing restrictions on a virtual machine (VM), said method comprising:

executing the VM on a physical computer, the VM configured to give a user access to guest software on the VM, the VM being executed using virtualization software and a virtual disk for storing data accessible to the guest software;
determining when an action relating to operation of the VM violates one or more restrictions, the one or more restrictions being defined by contents of a policy file;
intercepting the action relating to operation of the VM that violates the one or more restrictions;
and
restricting the action relating to the operation of the VM that violates the one or more restrictions.

2 more elements

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising one or more sequences of instructions, the instructions when executed by one or more processors causing the one or more processors to execute the operations of:

executing a VM on a physical computer, the VM configured to give a user access to guest software on the VM, the VM being executed using virtualization software and a virtual disk for storing data accessible to the guest software;
determining when an action relating to operation of the VM violates one or more restrictions, the one or more restrictions being defined by contents of a policy file;
intercepting the action relating to operation of the VM that violates the one or more restrictions;
and
restricting the action relating to the operation of the VM that violates the one or more restrictions.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

14/340,506Filed 24 Jul 2014

Priority

14 Sep 2006

Published

27 Nov 2014

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

G06F 21/6281
To a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database: at program execution time, where the protection is within the…
G06F 9/45558
Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors: hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
G06F 12/1408
Protection against unauthorised use of memory or access to memory: by using cryptography
H04L 63/0236
Filtering policies: filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL

Family

Application11/522,172Division · filed 14 Sep 2006

Application13/853,766Continuation · filed 29 Mar 2013

Application14/340,506Continuation

Application13/853,766Division

US 8,528,107 B1Related patent

US 8,812,876 B1Related patent

US 9,390,286 B2Related patent

US 2014/0351956 A1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Enforcing restrictions related to a virtualized computer environment

Life of this patent

Enforcing restrictions related to a virtualized computer environment

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20