Securing leased resources on a computer

• US 7,707,290 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2006
• Issued: 04/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lopez, Fernando, Begun, Ralph M, Bandholz, Justin P, Heinzmann, Andrew S
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Philip B
• Application Number:
  US11/382,080
• Publication Number:
  US 20070260890A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,450 Days
• Field of Search: 709/200, 709/220, 709/226, 709/223, 718/104
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for securing of leased resources on a computer. In one embodiment of the invention, a computer for securing resources may comprise at least one processor, a plurality of resources, wherein each resource is associated with configuration data and a programmable logic device connected to each of the plurality of resources. The programmable logic device may be configured for determining whether a resource is leased, reading un-encoded configuration data from a resource, and sending the configuration data to a first unit, if the resource is not leased. The programmable logic device may further be configured for reading encoded configuration data from a resource, decoding the configuration data, sending the configuration data that was decoded to a first unit, and logging use of the resource by the first unit, if the resource is leased.

Claims

1. A method for securing leased resources on a computer, comprising:

receiving a request from a requestor for configuration data of a resource of the computer;

determining whether the resource is leased and whether the resource is enabled;

reading un-encoded configuration data from the resource and sending the un-encoded configuration data to the requestor, if the resource is not leased; and

reading encoded configuration data from the resource, decoding the encoded configuration data, sending the decoded configuration data to the requestor and logging use of the resource by the requestor, if the resource is leased and enabled.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading encoded configuration data from the resource and sending the configuration data to the requestor, if the resource is leased and not enabled.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading configuration data from each resource that is leased; and

determining whether each resource that is leased is present based on the configuration data that was read.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

if a resource that is leased is not present, sending a message to a client associated with the computer demanding return of the resource that is leased.

5. A computer for securing resources, comprising:

at least one processor;

a plurality of resources, wherein each resource is associated with configuration data;

a programmable logic device connected to each of the plurality of resources, the programmable logic device configured for;

determining whether a resource is leased and enabled;

reading un-encoded configuration data from the resource and sending the un-encoded configuration data to a requestor, if the resource is not leased; and

reading encoded configuration data from the resource, decoding the encoded configuration data, sending the decoded configuration data to the requestor and logging use of the resource by the requestor, if the resource is leased and enabled.

6. The computer of claim 5, the programmable logic device further configured for:

reading encoded configuration data from a resource and sending the configuration data to a requestor, if the resource is leased and not enabled.

7. The computer of claim 5, further comprising a first data embedded in configuration data of each resource, wherein the first data indicates whether the resource is enabled.

8. The computer of claim 5, wherein the plurality of resources includes at least one of a processor, a hard drive, a memory module and a server blade.

9. The computer of claim 8, wherein the programmable logic device is connected to each of the plurality of resources via an SMBUS.

10. The computer of claim 9, wherein configuration data comprises serial product data of a resource.

11. The computer of claim 10, wherein configuration data of a resource resides on an EEPROM of the resource.

12. The computer of claim 11, wherein the requestor comprises a BIOS program of another computer.

13. The computer of claim 5, further comprising a second data embedded in configuration data of each resource, wherein the second data indicates whether the resource is enabled.

14. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium embodying computer usable program code for securing resources of a computer, the computer program product comprising:

computer usable program code for receiving a request from a requestor for configuration data of a resource of the computer;

computer usable program code for determining whether the resource is leased and enabled;

computer usable program code for reading un-encoded configuration data from the resource and sending the un-encoded configuration data to the requestor, if the resource is not leased; and

computer usable program code for reading encoded configuration data from the resources, decoding the encoded configuration data, sending the decoded configuration data to the requestor and logging use of the resource by the requestor, if the resource is leased and enabled.