Event Guard Module for Virtual Machine Request Throttling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Virtual functions (VFs) in virtualized computing systems are vulnerable to malicious attacks, which can overwhelm the host system by sending excessive requests, depriving other VFs of their allocated resources and causing system instability.
Innovation Solution
Implementing event guard modules that track and count event requests from each VF within predetermined time periods, setting thresholds for each type of event request, and ignoring subsequent requests from a VF that exceeds these thresholds until the period has elapsed, thereby preventing malicious attacks from overwhelming the system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If VFs are allowed to send excessive requests to access physical resources, then resource utilization and responsiveness are improved, but system stability deteriorates due to malicious attacks overwhelming the host system
Solution Approach 1:
The event guard module performs preliminary actions by establishing thresholds for event requests from each VF before attacks occur. The system proactively configures maximum allowed requests per time period, so when excessive requests are detected, the system can immediately block them without needing to react to system overload conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The event guard module acts as an intermediary between VFs and the host system's physical resources. It monitors and controls the flow of event requests, standing between the potentially malicious VFs and the vulnerable host system, filtering out excessive requests while allowing legitimate ones to pass through.
2Reliability
If the system monitors and limits event requests from each VF, then system stability is improved, but device complexity increases due to the need for tracking and threshold management
Solution Approach 1:
The event guard module segments the monitoring function by maintaining separate counters and thresholds for each individual VF. This segmentation allows the system to track events independently for each virtual function, making the complexity manageable through modular organization rather than requiring a single complex global tracking mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
Each VF essentially manages its own event tracking through dedicated counters and thresholds in the event guard module. The system provides the infrastructure for self-monitoring, where each VF's event stream is independently counted and compared against its specific threshold, reducing the need for complex centralized control logic.
3Ease of operation
If excessive event requests from a VF are ignored, then fairness among VFs is improved, but loss of information occurs as legitimate events may be blocked
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter of request handling dynamically based on the event count. When the number of events from a VF remains below the threshold, requests are processed normally. When the threshold is exceeded, the system changes the handling parameter to ignore subsequent events from that VF, creating a dynamic response that adapts to the observed event rate.
Data Source
AI summary
A processing system detects excessive requests sent on behalf of a virtual machine executing at the processing system within a predetermined period of time and denies subsequent requests sent on behalf of that virtual machine until after the predetermined period of time has elapsed in order to grant access to resources of the processing system for servicing requests from other virtual machines and to prevent a virtual machine that has been compromised by an attack from overwhelming the processing system with malicious requests. The processing system sets a threshold number of event requests for each type of event request that can occur within a predetermined period of time. If the number of event requests of a certain type exceeds the threshold for that event type, the processing system ignores subsequent event requests of that type until the predetermined period of time has expired.