System and method for secure provisioning of virtualized images in a network environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9385918-B2
Application number	US-201213460830-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 30, 2012
Priority date	Apr 30, 2012
Publication date	Jul 5, 2016
Grant date	Jul 5, 2016

Abstract

An example method includes setting up a secure channel between a blade and a provisioning server in a network environment, downloading an image of a virtual machine monitor (VMM) from the provisioning server to the blade through the secure channel, and booting the image to instantiate the VMM on the blade. The blade and the provisioning server are mutually authenticated and authorized with a plurality of parameters. Booting the image may include loading the image on a memory element of the blade and transferring control to the image. In some embodiments, booting the image includes modifying a root file system of the image by adding the daemon such that an agent is included in the root file system. The agent can download another image corresponding to an operating system of a virtual machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
setting up, by a boot agent executing in a blade, a secure channel between the blade and a provisioning server in a network environment, wherein the blade and the provisioning server are mutually authenticated and authorized with a plurality of parameters wherein the boot agent is obtained from a management application executing in a switch providing network connectivity to the blade;
downloading an image of a virtual machine monitor (VMM) from the provisioning server to the blade through the secure channel, wherein the VMM is capable of hosting a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) on the blade;
intercepting, at the switch, a boot request from a basic input/output system (BIOS) of the blade; and
booting the image to instantiate the VMM on the blade.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the booting comprises: loading the image on a memory element of the blade; and transferring control to the image.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the booting comprises:
modifying a root file system of the image by adding a daemon such that an agent is included in the root file system, wherein the agent can cause a download of another image corresponding to a virtual machine from the provisioning server.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the agent is configured to create a boot policy agent that can contact the provisioning server to obtain the another image.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of parameters comprises image parameters, cryptographic parameters and network parameters, wherein the image parameters comprise an image name and path, a kernel, a kernel boot option, a root file system, and an image type, wherein the cryptographic parameters include an entropy, a provisioning server public key, a provisioning server private key, a certificate, and a blade server shared key, and wherein the network parameters include a blade Internet Protocol (IP) address, a netmask, a gateway IP address, a blade identifier (ID), and a provisioning server IP address.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the secure channel is set up using a transport layer security (TLS) protocol.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the image is downloaded using a HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) protocol.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the plurality of parameters are retrieved from a switch managing the blade.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
customizing a boot agent code with the plurality of parameters to generate the boot agent, wherein the boot agent code is valid for substantially all blades in a blade server; and
transferring the boot agent to the blade in response to the boot request.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the transferring of the boot agent is performed over a physical connection, the physical connection being a selected one of a group of physical connections, the group consisting of: a) an Ethernet connection; b) an optical fiber connection; and c) a non-Ethernet connection.

11. Logic encoded in non-transitory media that includes instructions for execution and when executed by a processor, is operable to perform operations comprising:
setting up, by a boot agent executing in a blade, a secure channel between the blade and a provisioning server in a network environment, wherein the blade and the provisioning server are mutually authenticated and authorized with a plurality of parameters* wherein the boot agent is obtained from a management application executing in a switch providing network connectivity to the blade;
downloading an image of a VMM from the provisioning server to the blade through the secure channel, wherein the VMM is capable of hosting a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) on the blade;
intercepting, at the switch, a boot request from a BIOS of the blade; and
booting the image to instantiate the VMM on the blade.

12. The logic of claim 11 , wherein the booting comprises:
modifying a root file system of the image by adding a daemon such that an agent is included in the root file system, wherein the agent is configured to download another image corresponding to a virtual machine from the provisioning server.

13. The logic of claim 11 , wherein the booting comprises: loading the image on a memory element of the blade; and transferring control to the image.

14. The logic of claim 11 , wherein the secure channel is set up using a TLS protocol.

15. The logic of claim 11 , further comprising:
customizing a boot agent code with the plurality of parameters to generate the boot agent, wherein the boot agent code is valid for substantially all blades in a blade server; and
transferring the boot agent to the blade in response to the boot request.

16. An apparatus, comprising:
a non-transitory hardware memory element for storing data; and a hardware processor that executes instructions associated with the data, wherein the hardware processor and the non-transitory hardware memory element cooperate such that the apparatus is configured for:
setting up, by a boot agent executing in a blade, a secure channel between the blade and a provisioning server in a network environment, wherein the blade and the provisioning server are mutually authenticated and authorized with a plurality of parameters* wherein the boot agent is obtained from a management application executing in a switch providing network connectivity to the blade;
downloading an image of a VMM from the provisioning server to the blade through the secure channel, wherein the VMM is capable of hosting a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) on the blade; intercepting, at the switch, a boot request from a BIOS of the blade;
intercepting, at the switch, a boot request from a BIOS of the blade; and
booting the image to instantiate the VMM on the blade.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the booting comprises: modifying a root file system of the image by adding a daemon such that an agent is included in the root file system, wherein the agent is configured to download another image corresponding to a virtual machine from the provisioning server.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of parameters comprises image parameters, cryptographic parameters and network parameters, and wherein the network parameters include a blade Internet Protocol (IP) address, a netmask, a gateway IP address, a blade identifier (ID), and a provisioning server IP address.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the secure channel is set up using a TLS protocol.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 , further configured for communicating with a management application that can perform operations comprising:
customizing a boot agent code with the plurality of parameters to generate the boot agent, wherein the boot agent code is valid for substantially all blades in a blade server; and
transferring the boot agent to the blade in response to the boot request.

Assignees

• Civilini Massimo
• Cheong Elaine
• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Civilini Massimo
• Cheong Elaine

Classifications

• H04L41/0806 Primary

  for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play · CPC title

• H04L49/65

  Re-configuration of fast packet switches · CPC title

• H04L41/0869

  Validating the configuration within one network element · CPC title

• H04L41/28

  Restricting access to network management systems or functions, e.g. using authorisation function to access network configuration · CPC title