System and method for distributed management of shared computers

• US 20050091078A1
• Filed: 11/02/2004
• Published: 04/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tabbara, Bassam, Hunt, Galen C., Welland, Robert V., Hydrie, Aamer, Stutz, David S., Levi, Steven P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,711,121 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/282
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/042 comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0659 by isolating or reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0661 by reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/06 for supporting key management in a packet data network cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key management H04L9/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A multi-tiered server management architecture is employed including an application development tier, an application operations tier, and a cluster operations tier. In the application development tier, applications are developed for execution on one or more server computers. In the application operations tier, execution of the applications is managed and sub-boundaries within a cluster of servers can be established. In the cluster operations tier, operation of the server computers is managed without concern for what applications are executing on the one or more server computers and boundaries between clusters of servers can be established. The multi-tiered server management architecture can also be employed in co-location facilities where clusters of servers are leased to tenants, with the tenants implementing the application operations tier and the facility owner (or operator) implementing the cluster operations tier.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating, at a computer, a landlord key pair and a tenant key pair, each key pair including a private key and a public key, the landlord key pair being used to establish secure communication between the computer and a landlord device, and the tenant key pair being used to establish secure communication between the computer and a tenant device;

keeping the landlord private key and the tenant private key secure at the computer without disclosing the keys to any other device;

forwarding the landlord public key and the tenant public key to the landlord device; and

forwarding the tenant public key to the tenant device;

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising generating a storage key to encrypt data to be stored on a mass storage device.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, further comprising discarding the current storage key each time the tenant private key is changed, and generating a new storage key.

4. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein the generating the storage key comprises combining a landlord symmetric key and a tenant symmetric key to generate the storage key.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising forwarding the tenant key to the tenant device via the landlord device.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the landlord device comprises a cluster operations management console.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the tenant device comprises an application operations management console.

8. A method comprising:

maintaining, at a computer, a storage key to encrypt data to be stored on a mass storage device;

using, as the storage key, only a landlord key if no tenant key has been generated at the computer; and

if a tenant key has been generated at the computer, then combining the landlord key and the tenant key to generate the storage key.

9. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising combining the landlord key and the tenant key by using the landlord key to encrypt the tenant key.

10. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising combining the landlord key and the tenant key by using the tenant key to encrypt the landlord key.