Hi Daniel,
MKTME supports encryption of memory(NVRAM) for Virtual Machines(hardware based
encryption). This features uses Linux kernel key ring services, i.e. Operations
like, allocation and clearing of secret/keys. These keys are used in encryption
of memory in Virtual machines. So MKTME provided encryption of entire RAM of a
VM, allocated to it, thereby supporting VM isolation feature.
So to implement this functionality in openstack
1. Nova executes host capability command, to identify if the hardware support
for MKTME (openstack xml host_capabilities command request -->> libvirt ->>
QEMU)-- qemu monitoring commands
2. Once the hardware is identified and if user configures mktme policy to
launch a VM in openstack, Nova
a. Sends a new xml command request to libvirt, then libvirt makes a
syscall to Linux kernel key ring services to get/retrieve a key/key-handle for
this VM ( we are not sure at this point whether to make this syscall directly
in libvirt or through QEMU)
b. Once the key is retrieved , Nova compute executes a VM launch xml
command request to libvirt with a new argument called mktme- keyhandle , which
will send a command request to QEMU to launch the VM( We are in process of
supporting this functionality in QEMU for VM launch operation, with new
mktme-key argument)
We are not sure , where to make this(2a) kernel system calls at present and
looking for suggestions.
Thanks
karim
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel P. Berrangé [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, March 5, 2019 2:15 AM
To: Mohammed, Karimullah <[email protected]>
Cc: Carvalho, Larkins L <[email protected]>; [email protected]
Subject: Re: [libvirt] New Feature: Intel MKTME Support
On Mon, Mar 04, 2019 at 10:44:12PM +0000, Mohammed, Karimullah wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
>
> Thank you for answering our questions. We will soon send our design
> documentation for a review/discussion for MKTME enablement. This is
> not a complex feature , but in any case we wanted to start off with a
> design review , so that we get approved forehand for what we will be
> implementing.
>
> I would like to take liberty in asking you question related to
> Libvirt, I did ask this question in IRC channel did not get any responses.
>
> Can Libvirt directly make an kernel system call? i.e for a XML request
> if we have to make a kernel syscall, can we directly make kernel
> syscall in Libvirt or do we have to go through QEMU to process the
> request. We would like to know the norm of calling kernel system calls in
> Libvirt.
It is hard to give a general answer to that without understanding the context
of the system call in question.
Libvirt can certainly make arbitrary system calls as it needs. If the system
call is discovering information that has an impact on QEMU functionality
though, it may be better to query it via QEMU.
If you can provide more detail & usage context we can give a more useful answer.
Regards,
Daniel
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