Virtual Appliance License Data Injection for VM Instance Differentiation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Software licensors face challenges in implementing licensing management technology that accounts for virtual machine technology, making it difficult to track and differentiate between virtual machine instances, leading to potential software license exploitation.
Innovation Solution
A virtual appliance generates and injects license management data, such as unique identifiers and timestamps, into virtual machines during triggering events like cloning or snapshot operations, allowing for secure storage and cross-referencing with a licensing server to prevent unauthorized use.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If virtual machines are cloned or copied, then productivity and flexibility are improved, but license tracking and differentiation become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by injecting license management data into virtual machines during triggering events such as cloning, snapshot creation, or import operations. This ensures that each virtual machine instance receives unique identification data before it can be exploited, preventing post-creation tracking difficulties while maintaining cloning efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The licensing server implements feedback mechanisms by receiving license management data from virtual machine instances and cross-referencing it with stored data. This feedback loop enables continuous monitoring and differentiation of virtual machine instances, allowing the system to detect and prevent unauthorized software usage while maintaining productive cloning operations.
2Reliability
If license management technology is implemented, then software protection is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a licensing server as an intermediary component that mediates between virtual machine instances and software applications. This intermediary centralizes license management functions, including generating, storing, and verifying license management data, thereby improving software protection while managing system complexity through a dedicated specialized component rather than distributed complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts license management functionality from the virtual machine instances themselves and places it in a separate licensing server. This extraction isolates the complexity of license management into a dedicated external system, allowing virtual machine instances to remain simple while still providing robust software protection through the external licensing infrastructure.
3Adaptability or versatility
If virtual machines are used instead of physical computers, then adaptability and resource utilization are improved, but hardware identification becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the identification parameter from physical hardware identifiers (which are difficult to obtain in virtualized environments) to software-based license management data that includes unique identifiers injected during virtual machine creation events. This parameter change enables reliable identification and tracking of virtual machine instances while preserving the adaptability and deployment flexibility that virtual machines provide.
Data Source
AI summary
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.