Increasingly, businesses and other entities are using virtualized computing resources (whether running on purchased or leased computer hardware). Virtualized environments are generally very dynamic—virtual machines can easily be spun up, shut down, and moved. A given physical machine may support tens or hundreds of virtual machines and if that machine fails, the images running on the physical machine can be rapidly migrated to one or multiple other physical machines. Unfortunately, virtualized environments can pose problems for firewall rules which tend to rely on static information, such as static IP addresses.
Various embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.
The invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process; an apparatus; a system; a composition of matter; a computer program product embodied on a computer readable storage medium; and/or a processor, such as a processor configured to execute instructions stored on and/or provided by a memory coupled to the processor. In this specification, these implementations, or any other form that the invention may take, may be referred to as techniques. In general, the order of the steps of disclosed processes may be altered within the scope of the invention. Unless stated otherwise, a component such as a processor or a memory described as being configured to perform a task may be implemented as a general component that is temporarily configured to perform the task at a given time or a specific component that is manufactured to perform the task. As used herein, the term ‘processor’ refers to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores configured to process data, such as computer program instructions.
A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the invention is provided below along with accompanying figures that illustrate the principles of the invention. The invention is described in connection with such embodiments, but the invention is not limited to any embodiment. The scope of the invention is limited only by the claims and the invention encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalents. Numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. These details are provided for the purpose of example and the invention may be practiced according to the claims without some or all of these specific details. For the purpose of clarity, technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the invention has not been described in detail so that the invention is not unnecessarily obscured.
Communications between virtual servers 112-116 and resources outside of enterprise network 126 (e.g., communications received from laptop 132 via network 128) pass through data appliance 102, which is placed at the perimeter of enterprise network 126. Such communications may take place using any appropriate communication protocol such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and File Transfer Protocol (FTP). In the example shown in
Other network topologies can also be used in conjunction with the techniques described herein. Examples of such topologies include networks having multiple data appliances; networks where at least some of the network nodes are located at a hosting company's data center; and networks in which data appliance 102 is configured to enforce policies with respect to traffic that stays within enterprise network 126 instead of or in addition to outside traffic.
As explained above, data appliance 102 is configured to enforce various policies. Such policies can apply to particular devices (e.g., virtual server 112), particular users, and/or groups (e.g., of devices or users). As one example, a policy can specify that access to virtual server 112 via HTTPS is permitted by anyone (including an arbitrary member of the public using laptop 132). As another example, a policy can specify that access to virtual server 116 via SSH is permitted by members of the Engineering group, and denied to anyone else. As yet another example, a policy can specify that virtual machines that are running the Ubuntu Linux operating system are allowed to communicate with known-malicious website 134 (e.g., because they are hardened research images), but no other nodes in network 126 are allowed to do so. Other types of actions can also be specified, such as policies requiring that certain types of access be logged. Other types of policies can also be specified, as applicable, such as quality of service policies, instead of or in addition to access/security policies.
Also included in the environment shown in
As shown in
Included in a given record, such as record 202, is various information pertaining to the virtual machine instance, such as the operating system (208), IPv4/IPv6 addresses (210, 212), and an identifier of the host (214). As will be described in more detail below, the information included in the records can be used by data appliance 102 to enforce policies.
The records can also be used to create dynamic groups (represented as “dynamic address objects”). Two examples of dynamic group definitions are depicted in
Policies, such as policy 402, are compiled (146) and, at runtime, used in enforcement by data appliance 102. Specifically, during compilation, the dynamic address object (“dyn-grp1”) will be replaced with the IP address of each virtual machine matching that group's definition, based on the information stored in VM information repository 144. As will be described in more detail below, when the IP address of a particular virtual machine changes (or when any other change implicating a rule is made), the VM information for the virtual machine in repository 144 will be updated, and any applicable firewall rules updated as well.
Suppose virtual machine 112, which is shown in
As previously explained, the received VM info is used to compile rules (146) enforceable by data appliance 102. At 604, such rules (corresponding to policies) are enforced. As one example, at 604, policy 402 is enforced with respect to virtual machine 112, whose IP address (assuming the machine has not yet migrated) is included in compiled rule 404. As another example, if an image is cloned, policies can automatically be enforced against the new image based on any matches of attributes of that image's VM information with filters. Rules can be recompiled, as needed.
Indications of changes in VM information can also be received in other ways. For example, agent 104 can be configured to periodically pull information from sources such as log server 120, perform a diff or other comparison, and provide updates to data appliance 102.
At 706, a determination is made as to whether any firewall rules need to be recompiled based on the changed information. As one example, when virtual machine 112 migrates from host 106 to host 108, rule 404 will need to be recompiled (as rule 408) so that policy 402 continues to be satisfied. As another example, other attributes of a virtual machine might change, but, if such attributes are not used as filters (e.g., in any dynamic address objects), there will be no need to recompile any rules.
Finally, at 708, any implicated rules are recompiled.
Although the foregoing embodiments have been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding, the invention is not limited to the details provided. There are many alternative ways of implementing the invention. The disclosed embodiments are illustrative and not restrictive.
This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/528,748, entitled POLICY ENFORCEMENT IN A VIRTUALIZED ENVIRONMENT filed Jun. 20, 2012 which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
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Parent | 13528748 | Jun 2012 | US |
Child | 14677858 | US |