Structure for securing leased resources on a computer

• US 8,028,069 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2008
• Issued: 09/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Begun, Ralph M., Heinzmann, Andrew S., Bandholz, Justin P., Lopez, Fernando A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Philip B
• Application Number:
  US12/165,313
• Publication Number:
  US 20080263560A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,184 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226, 709/220, 709/223, 718/104
• US Class Current: 709/226
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering

Abstract

A design structure embodied in a machine readable storage medium for designing, manufacturing, and/or testing a design is for securing of leased resources on a computer. The design structure includes 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 non-transitory machine readable storage medium containing a design structure for at least one of designing, manufacturing, and testing a design, wherein the design structure, when read from the non-transitory machine readable storage medium by a processor, executes a functionality of a computer for securing resources, the computer 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;

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

(ii) determining whether the resource is leased and whether the resource is enabled;

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

(iv) if the resource is leased and enabled, 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.

2. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1, the programmable logic device further configured for:

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

3. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising a first data embedded in configuration data of each resource, wherein the first data indicates whether the resource is enabled.

4. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of resources includes at least one of a processor, a hard drive, a memory module and a server blade.

5. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the programmable logic device is connected to each of the plurality of resources via an SMBUS.

6. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the configuration data comprises serial product data of a resource.

7. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the configuration data resides on an EEPROM of the resource.

8. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the requestor comprises a BIOS program of another computer.

9. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising a second data embedded in configuration data of each resource, wherein the second data indicates whether the resource is enabled.

10. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the design structure comprises a netlist, which describes the computer.

11. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the design structure resides on the non-transitory machine readable storage medium as a data format used for the exchange of layout data of integrated circuits.