INCORPORATING LICENSE MANAGEMENT DATA INTO A VIRTUAL MACHINE

• US 20180113999A1
• Filed: 10/25/2016
• Published: 04/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2016
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Flexera Software LLC
• Original Assignee: Flexera Software LLC
• Inventors: Azmat, Haroon
• Application Number:
  US15/334,238
• Publication Number:
  US 20180113999A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• 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 21/1078 Logging; Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors

Abstract

Certain aspects of the technology disclosed involve providing a virtual machine instance with license management data to identify and differentiate various virtual machine instances. A virtual appliance may generate license management data in response to a triggering event of a virtual machine. The triggering event may include any of a migration, clone, snapshot, or request via a representational state transfer endpoint. The virtual machine may provide the license management data to a license server and a licensed application configured to run on the virtual machine. The license management data may be used in resource management systems, such as a license management system, to defeat licensing exploits in a cloud computing environment.

Claims

1. A method for incorporating license management data into a virtual machine instance comprising:

generating, by a virtual appliance, license management data in response to a triggering event resulting in formation of the virtual machine instance, wherein the virtual machine instance is hosted by a compute node in a cloud computing environment, wherein the license management data includes a unique identifier associated with the virtual machine instance and specific decoration required to modify a file anchor stored in the virtual machine instance;

storing, by the virtual appliance, the license management data into a trusted storage associated with the virtual appliance, wherein the trusted storage includes an association between the license management data and the virtual machine instance;

providing, by the virtual appliance, the license management data to a license server; and

providing, by the virtual appliance, the license management data to a licensed application configured to run on the virtual machine instance, wherein the specific decoration enables modification of the file anchor stored in the second virtual machine instance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering event includes any of a migration, clone, snapshot, or request via representational state transfer endpoint.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage associated with the virtual machine instance is trusted storage.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the license management data in a second trusted storage associated with the license server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the license management data to the license server comprises:

exposing, by the virtual appliance, representational state transfer endpoints; and

extracting, by the license server, the license management data using an endpoint application programming interface.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the license management data to the licensed application comprises:

exposing, by the virtual appliance, representational state transfer endpoints; and

extracting, by the licensed application, the license management data using an endpoint application programming interface.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the virtual appliance, a notification of the triggering event from a control node managing the compute node in the cloud computing environment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein license management data is provided to the licensed application prior to launch of the virtual machine instance.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, by the virtual appliance to a control node managing the compute node, authorization to launch the virtual machine instance subsequent to providing the license management data to the licensed application;

receiving, by the compute node from the control node, a notification to launch the virtual machine instance, wherein the notification to launch is transmitted by the control node in response to receiving authorization to launch from the virtual appliance; and

launching, by the compute node, the virtual machine instance hosted by the compute node.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the license management data includes any of:

a unique identifier associated with the virtual machine instance;

a unique identifier associated with a user;

a time stamp;

a secure shell (SSH) key; and

a virtual file anchor.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the license management data includes any of:

a first unique identifier associated with the virtual machine instance, wherein the first unique identifier operates as a file anchor by requiring specific decoration for modification; and

a second unique identifier associated with the virtual machine instance, wherein the second unique identifier varies based on a time indicated by an irreversible time stamp.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the license management data includes a unique identifier associated with the virtual machine instance, the unique identifier operating as a file anchor by requiring specific decoration for modification, wherein the specific decoration required for modification changes based on a time indicated by an irreversible time stamp.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating, by the virtual appliance, another irreversible time stamp, wherein the another irreversible time stamp indicates a later time than the irreversible time stamp;

providing, by the virtual appliance, the another irreversible time stamp to the licensed application subsequent to storing the license management data in storage,

wherein the another irreversible time stamp causes the specific decoration required to modify the unique identifier to change to another specific decoration,

wherein the another specific decoration is not provided to the virtual machine instance.

14. A method for incorporating license management data into a virtual machine instance comprising:

generating, by a virtual appliance, license management data in response to any of a migration, clone, or snapshot operation of a first virtual machine instance resulting in a second virtual machine instance, wherein the license management data includes a unique identifier associated with the second virtual machine instance and specific decoration required to modify a file anchor stored in the second virtual machine instance;

storing, by the virtual appliance, the license management data into a first trusted storage associated with the virtual appliance, wherein the first trusted storage includes an association between the license management data and the second virtual machine instance;

providing, by the virtual appliance, the license management data to a license server, wherein the license management data is stored in a second trusted storage associated with the license server; and

inserting, by the virtual appliance, the license management data into a licensed application configured to run on the second virtual machine instance, wherein the specific decoration enables modification of the file anchor stored in the second virtual machine instance.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the file anchor stored in the second virtual machine instance is modified to include the unique identifier associated with the second virtual machine instance.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the specific decoration required to modify the file anchor changes based on a time indicated by an irreversible time stamp stored in the second virtual machine instance.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

generating, by the virtual appliance, another irreversible time stamp, wherein the another irreversible time stamp indicates a later time than the irreversible time stamp;

providing, by the virtual appliance, the another irreversible time stamp to the second virtual machine instance subsequent to inserting the license management data into the licensed application,

wherein the another irreversible time stamp causes the specific decoration required to modify the unique identifier to change to another specific decoration,

wherein the another specific decoration is not provided to the second virtual machine instance.

23. The method of claim 14, wherein the first virtual machine instance and the second virtual machine instance are hosted by a compute node in a cloud computing environment.

18. A system for incorporating license management data into a virtual machine instance comprising:

a control node managing a compute node in a cloud computing environment, wherein the compute node is configured to host virtual machine instances; and

a virtual appliance running on the compute node, wherein the virtual appliance is configured to perform a method including;

generating license management data in response to a triggering event resulting in creation of a virtual machine instance;

providing the license management data to a license server; and

providing the license management data to a licensed application configured to run on the virtual machine, wherein the license management data is stored in storage associated with the virtual machine.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein providing the license management data to the licensed application comprises:

exposing, by the virtual appliance, representational state transfer endpoints; and

extracting, by the licensed application, the license management data using an endpoint application programming interface.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving, by the virtual appliance, a notification of the triggering event from the control node prior to launch of the virtual machine instance.

21. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

transmitting, by the virtual appliance to the control node, authorization to launch the virtual machine instance subsequent to providing the license management data to the licensed application;

receiving, by the compute node from the control node, a notification to launch the virtual machine instance, wherein the notification to launch is transmitted by the control node in response to receiving authorization to launch from the virtual appliance; and

launching, by the compute node, the virtual machine instance hosted by the compute node.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the license management data includes a unique identifier associated with the virtual machine instance, the unique identifier operating as a file anchor by requiring specific decoration for modification, wherein the specific decoration required for modification changes based on a time indicated by an irreversible time stamp.

24. A system for incorporating license management data into a virtual machine instance comprising:

a control node managing a compute node in a cloud computing environment, wherein the compute node is configured to host virtual machine instances; and

a virtual appliance running on the compute node, wherein the virtual appliance is configured to perform a method including;

generating license management data in response to any of a migration, clone, or snapshot operation of a first virtual machine instance resulting in a second virtual machine instance, wherein the license management data includes a unique identifier associated with the second virtual machine instance and specific decoration required to modify a file anchor stored in the second virtual machine instance;

storing the license management data into a first trusted storage associated with the virtual appliance, wherein the first trusted storage includes an association between the license management data and the second virtual machine instance;

providing the license management data to a license server, wherein the license management data is stored in a second trusted storage associated with the license server; and

inserting the license management data into a licensed application configured to run on the second virtual machine instance, wherein the specific decoration enables modification of the file anchor stored in the second virtual machine instance.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the virtual appliance is further configured to receive a notification of the triggering event from the control node prior to launch of the virtual machine instance.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the virtual appliance is further configured to transmit authorization to launch the second virtual machine instance to the control node to cause a hypervisor to launch the second virtual machine instance.