Systems and methods for secure host resource management

• US 7,870,565 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2005
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Mathew, Tisson, Khosravi, Hormuzd M., Rajagopal, Priya, Schluessler, Travis, Durham, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Van H
• Application Number:
  US11/173,885
• Publication Number:
  US 20070006236A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,021 Days
• Field of Search: 719/310, 719/318, 719/321, 719/327
• US Class Current: 719/318
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0866 for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/387 for adaptation of different data processing systems to different peripheral devices, e.g. protocol converters for incompatible systems, open system

Abstract

Systems and methods are described herein to provide for secure host resource management on a computing device. Other embodiments include apparatus and system for management of one or more host device drivers from an isolated execution environment. Further embodiments include methods for querying and receiving event data from manageable resources on a host device. Further embodiments include data structures for the reporting of event data from one or more host device drivers to one or more capability modules.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors;

an interface module executed by the one or more processors to receive event management data related to an event type from at least one host device driver, the interface module to send the event management data;

an event routing service executed by the one or more processors to receive the event management data from the interface module; and

at least one capability module coupled to the event routing service to receive the event management data for events characterized by event ids that the at least one capability module has subscribed to,

wherein the interface module is a memory scan interface module, and

wherein the memory scan interface module accesses the memory of a host device independently of the operating system of the host device,

wherein the interface module, the event routing service, and the at least one capability module are part of a platform that is independent of the host device, and

wherein the interface module, the event routing service, and the at least one capability module are executed within an environment isolated from the host device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the event management data is an event resource data record.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interface module is a mailbox interface module.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the mailbox interface module is to communicate with the at least one host device driver over a bus.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the mailbox interface module is to send control information to the at least one host device driver.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the bus includes a PCI bus.

7. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the mailbox interface module is to communicate with the at least one host device driver using direct memory access.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the mailbox interface module is to communicate using first-in-first-out methods.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory scan interface module has Direct Memory Access to memory mapped registers of the host device independently of the operating system of the host device.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one capability module is to set its particular threshold for an event and communicate the particular threshold to the event routing service.

11. A system, comprising:

a host device, having at least one host device driver and at least one memory mapped register;

a management device, including;

an interface module to receive event management data related to an event type from the at least one host device driver, the interface module to send the event management data;

an event routing service to receive the event management data from the interface module; and

at least one capability module coupled to the event routing service to receive the event management data for events characterized by an event id that the at least one capability module has subscribed to; and

a PCI bus to communicatively couple the host device to the management device,

wherein the management device is to execute within an environment isolated from the host device wherein the host device cannot access the memory of the management device and further wherein the management device accesses the memory of the host device, and

wherein the management device is to scan memory of the host device to determine one or more managed entities having one or more manageable resources on the host device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the event management data includes an event resource data record.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the management device is to query the one or more managed entities for the one or more manageable resources.