Virtualization technology is becoming increasingly common in datacenters, since it allows for collocation of multiple workloads, consisting of operating systems, middleware and applications, in different virtual machines (VMs) on shared physical hardware platforms. However, when coupled with the ease of VM migration, this trend increases the potential surface for security attacks. Further, the simplified management of VMs, including creation, cloning and migration, makes it imperative to monitor and guarantee the integrity of software components running within VMs.
This paper presents the IBM Trusted Virtual Datacenter (TVDc) technology developed to address the need for strong isolation and integrity guarantees, thus significantly enhancing security and systems management capabilities, in virtualized environments. It signifies the first effort to incorporate trusted computing technologies directly into virtualization and systems management software. We present and discuss various components that constitute TVDc: the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), the virtual TPM, the IBM hypervisor security architecture (sHype) and the associated systems management software.
By: Stefan Berger; Ramon Caceres; Dimitrios Pendarakis; Reiner Sailer; Enriquillo Valdez; Ronald Perez, Wayne Schildhauer; Deepa Srinivasan
Published in: RC24441 in 2007
LIMITED DISTRIBUTION NOTICE:
This Research Report is available. This report has been submitted for publication outside of IBM and will probably be copyrighted if accepted for publication. It has been issued as a Research Report for early dissemination of its contents. In view of the transfer of copyright to the outside publisher, its distribution outside of IBM prior to publication should be limited to peer communications and specific requests. After outside publication, requests should be filled only by reprints or legally obtained copies of the article (e.g., payment of royalties). I have read and understand this notice and am a member of the scientific community outside or inside of IBM seeking a single copy only.
Questions about this service can be mailed to reports@us.ibm.com .