Providing temporary exclusive hardware access to virtual machine while performing user authentication
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsValiuddin Y. Ali, Manuel Novoa, Christopher I Dalton, Boris Balacheff, Shab H Madina, Lan Wang, Jeffrey C Parker
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A computer system includes an authentication service running in a virtual machine. The authentication service uses the hardware components of the computer system in performing a user authentication process and responds to a remote call from another virtual machine by performing the user authentication process and returning a result.
Claims18
A computer system comprising:
- a plurality of hardware components;
- and
- a processor executing a computing environment comprising:
- a virtualization layer implementing a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) within the computer system, wherein the virtualization layer controls the sharing of one or more of the plurality of hardware components by the plurality of VMs;
- and
- an authentication service running in a first virtual machine of the plurality of VMs, the authentication service using the one or more of the plurality of hardware components to perform a user authentication process;
- wherein the authentication service performs the user authentication process and returns a result of the user authentication process to a second virtual machine of the plurality of VMs, in response to a remote procedure call from the second virtual machine and upon determining that an authentication of a user of the computer system is required;
- the virtualization layer operates to dynamically provide the first virtual machine with exclusive access to the one or more of the plurality of the hardware components when the authentication service performs the user authentication process by accessing each of the one or more hardware components;
- and
- the virtualization layer further operates to release the one or more hardware components for use by other VMs executing within the computing environment upon the completion of the user authentication process.
A method, performed in a computing environment having a virtualization layer implementing a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) within the computing environment, wherein the virtualization layer controls the sharing of one or more of the plurality of the hardware components by the plurality of the VMs, comprising:
- establishing an authentication service in a first virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines, the authentication service using the one or more of the plurality of hardware components to perform a user authentication process;
- performing, by the authentication service, the user authentication process and returning a result of the user authentication process to a second virtual machine of the plurality of VMs, in response to a remote procedure call from the second virtual machine and upon determining that an authentication of a user is required;
- granting, dynamically and by the virtualization layer, the first virtual machine with exclusive access to one or more of the plurality of hardware components when the authentication service performs the user authentication process by accessing each of the one or more hardware components;
- and
- releasing, by the virtualization layer, the one or more hardware components for use by other VMs executing within the computing environment upon the completion of the user authentication process.
A non-transitory computer readable media comprising instructions that when executed by a processor of a computing environment having a virtualization layer implementing a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) within the computing environment, wherein the virtualization layer controls the sharing of one or more of the plurality of the hardware components by the plurality of the VMs, performs a method of:
- establishing an authentication service in a first virtual machine of the plurality of virtual machines, the authentication service using the one or more of the plurality of hardware components to perform a user authentication process;
- performing, by the authentication service, the user authentication process and returning a result of the user authentication process to a second virtual machine of the plurality of VMs, in response to a remote procedure call from the second virtual machine and upon determining that an authentication of a user is required;
- granting, dynamically and by the virtualization layer, the first virtual machine with exclusive access to one or more of the plurality of hardware components when the authentication service performs the user authentication process by accessing each of the one or more hardware components;
- and
- releasing, by the virtualization layer, the one or more hardware components for use by other VMs executing within the computing environment upon the completion of the user authentication process.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.