Vmware, Inc.

Ye Li

Andrei Warkentin

Cyprien Laplace

Alexander Fainkichen

Regis Duchesne

Shruthi Muralidhara Hiriyuru

Sunil Kumar Kotian

David Ott

Anoop Jaishankar

John L Manferdelli

Renaud Benjamin Voltz

Cyrien Laplace

Matthew Lentz

An example method of virtualizing a host virtual counter and timer in a central processing unit (CPU) of a virtualized host computer includes: creating, by a hypervisor of the host computer in response to power on of a virtual machine (VM), a guest virtual counter, the guest virtual counter comprising a data structure including scaling factors; mapping a shared memory page having the data structure into an address space of memory allocated to the VM; and notifying a guest operating system (OS) of the VM of a location in the address space for the shared memory page having the data structure, the guest OS being paravirtualized to scale the host virtual counter and timer based on the scaling factors of the guest virtual counter.

Scaling a host virtual counter and timer in a virtualized computer system

Disclosed are various examples of lifecycle and recovery management for virtualized data processing unit (DPU) management operating systems. A DPU device executes a DPU management hypervisor that communicates with a management service over a network. The DPU management hypervisor virtualizes DPU hardware resources and passes control of the virtualized DPU hardware resources to a DPU management operating system (OS) virtual machine (VM). The DPU management hypervisor maintains control of a management network interface card (NIC) of the DPU device.

Lifecycle and recovery for virtualized DPU management operating systems

An example method of managing guest time for a virtual machine (VM) supported by a hypervisor of a virtualized host computer includes: configuring, by the hypervisor, a central processing unit (CPU) of the host computer to trap, to the hypervisor, access by guest code in the VM to a physical counter and timer of the CPU; configuring, by the hypervisor, the guest code in the VM to use the physical counter and timer of the CPU rather than a virtual counter and timer of the CPU; trapping, at the hypervisor, an access to the physical counter and timer by the guest code; and executing, by the hypervisor, the access to the physical counter and timer on behalf of the guest code while compensating for an adjustment of a system count of the physical counter and timer to maintain the guest time as scaled with respect to frequency of the physical counter and timer.

Guest time scaling for a virtual machine in a virtualized computer system

The disclosure herein describes deploying a Virtual Secure Enclave (VSE) using a universal enclave binary and a Trusted Runtime (TR). A universal enclave binary is generated that includes a set of binaries of Instruction Set Architectures (ISAs) associated with Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) hardware backends. A TEE hardware backend is identified in association with a VSE-compatible device. A VSE that is compatible with the identified TEE hardware backend is generated on the VSE-compatible device and an ISA binary that matches the TEE hardware backend is selected from the universal enclave binary. The selected binary is linked to a runtime library of the TR and loads the linked binary into memory of the generated VSE. The execution of a trusted application is initiated in the generated VSE using a set of interfaces of the TR. The trusted application depends on the TR interfaces rather than the selected ISA binary.

Deploying enclaves on different tee backends using a universal enclave binary

An example method of exception handling in a computer system is described. The computer system includes a physical central processing unit (PCPU) and a system memory, the system memory storing a first stack, a second stack, and a double fault stack associated with the PCPU. The method includes: storing, by an exception handler executing in the computer system, an exception frame on the double fault stack in response to a stack overflow condition of the first stack; switching, by the exception handler, a first stack pointer of the PCPU from pointing to the first stack to pointing to the double fault stack; setting a current stack pointer of the PCPU to the first stack pointer; and executing software on the PCPU with the current stack pointer pointing to the double fault stack.

Behavioral implementation of a double fault stack in a computer system

Disclosed are various examples of providing provide efficient waiting for detection of memory value updates for Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) architectures. An ARM processor component instructs a memory agent to perform a processing action, and executes a waiting function. The waiting function ensures that the processing action is completed by the memory agent. The waiting function performs an exclusive load at a memory location, and a wait for event (WFE) instruction that causes the ARM processor component to wait in a low-power mode for an event register to be set. Once the event register is set, the waiting function completes and a second processing action is executed by the ARM processor component.

Power efficient memory value updates for arm architectures

System and method for creating and managing trusted execution environments (TEEs) using different underlying hardware TEE mechanisms use a virtual secure enclave device which runs in a virtualized environment in a computer system. The device enables an enclave command transmitted to the virtual secure enclave device to be retrieved and parsed to extract an enclave operation to be executed. A TEE backend module is used to interact with a particular hardware TEE mechanism among those available in the computer system. The module ensures the enclave operation for the software process is executed by the particular hardware TEE mechanism, or the TEE scheme based on a particular hardware TEE mechanism.

Unifying hardware trusted execution environment technologies using virtual secure enclave device

System and method for managing migration of trusted execution environments (TEEs) based on migration policies utilizes a source migration agent in the source host computer and a destination migration agent in a destination host computer to migrate a source TEE in the source host computer to the destination host computer. A migration policy data of the source TEE is first transmitted to the destination migration agent from the source migration agent to determine whether the destination host computer satisfies migration policies specified in the migration policy data. In response to a determination that the destination host computer satisfies the migration policies specified in the migration policy data, a destination TEE is created in the destination host computer and memory pages of the source TEE are transmitted to the destination TEE. The memory pages are then restored at the destination TEE for execution.

System and method for cross-architecture trusted execution environment migration

Techniques for enabling efficient guest OS access to PCIe configuration space are provided. In one set of embodiments, a hypervisor can reserve a single host physical memory page in the host physical memory of a host system and can populate the single host physical memory page with a value indicating non-presence of PCIe device functions. The hypervisor can then create, for each guest physical memory page in a guest physical memory of a virtual machine (VM) corresponding to a PCIe configuration space of an absent PCIe device function in the VM, a mapping in the hypervisor's second-level page tables that maps the guest physical memory page to the single host physical memory page.

Enabling efficient guest access to peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) configuration space

System and method for providing secure execution environments in a computer system uses an enclave virtual computing instance to create a secure execution environment, which is deployed in response to a request for such a secure execution environment for content from a software process running in the computer system.

System and method for providing secure execution environments using virtualization technology

Techniques for optimizing CPU usage in a host system based on VM guest OS power and performance management are provided. In one embodiment, a hypervisor of the host system can capture information from a VM guest OS that pertains to a target power or performance state set by the guest OS for a vCPU of the VM. The hypervisor can then perform, based on the captured information, one or more actions that align usage of host CPU resources by the vCPU with the target power or performance state.

Optimizing host CPU usage based on virtual machine guest OS power and performance management

An example method of interfacing with a hypervisor in a computing system is described, which includes a processor having at least three hierarchical privilege levels including a third privilege level more privileged than a second privilege level, the second privilege level more privileged than a first privilege level. The method includes: identifying an input/output (I/O) space instruction, not supported by the processor, to be performed for backdoor communication between the hypervisor and guest software executing in a virtual machine (VM) managed by the hypervisor, the hypervisor executing at the third privilege level; writing one or more parameters to one or more registers of the processor that are mapped to one or more unsupported registers used by the I/O space instruction; writing a value indicative of the I/O space instruction to a designated register of the processor; executing an instruction, by the guest software executing at the first or second privilege level, which is trapped to the third privilege level.

Unified hypercall interface across processors in virtualized computing systems

System and method for providing trusted execution environments uses a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) device of a computer system to receive and process commands to create and manage a trusted execution environment for a software process running in the computer system. The trusted execution environment created in the PCI device is then used to execute operations for the software process.

System and method for implementing trusted execution environment on PCI device

System and method for performing a remote attestation for creation of a trusted execution environment (TEE) using a virtual secure enclave device running in a virtualized environment utilizes a trusted bootloader appliance in a TEE virtual computing instance, which is created in response to a request for a TEE from a software process running in the system. The trusted bootloader appliance manages the provisioning of a TEE in the TEE virtual computing instance for the software process. The remote attestation includes performing a first stage attestation on the trusted bootloader appliance by a hardware platform of the computer system and performing a second stage attestation on the provisioned TEE by the trusted bootloader appliance.

Growing community of inventors

Newton Highlands, MA, United States of America

Ye Li