Book Image

VMware vCloud Security

Book Image

VMware vCloud Security

Overview of this book

Security is a major concern, in particular now that everything is moving to the cloud. A private cloud is a cloud computing platform built on your own hardware and software. The alternative is to deploy the services you need on a public cloud infrastructure provided by an external supplier such as Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Cloud, or HP Public Cloud. While a public cloud can afford greater flexibility, a private cloud gives you the advantage of greater control over the entire stack. "VMware vCloud Security" focuses on some critical security risks, such as the application level firewall and firewall zone, virus and malware attacks on cloud virtual machines, and data security compliance on any VMware vCloud-based private cloud. Security administrators sometimes deploy its components incorrectly, or sometimes cannot see the broader picture and where the vCloud security products fit in. This book is focused on solving those problems using VMware vCloud and the vCloud Networking and Security product suite, which includes vCloud Networking and Security App, vShield Endpoint, and vCloud Networking and Security Data Security. Ensuring the security and compliance of any applications, especially those that are business critical, is a crucial step in your journey to the cloud. You will be introduced to security roles in VMware vCloud Director, integration of LDAP Servers with vCloud, and security hardening of vCloud Director. We'll then walk through a hypervisor-based firewall that protects applications in the virtual datacenter from network-based attacks. We'll create access control policies based on logical constructs such as VMware vCenter Server containers and VMware vCloud Networking and Security security groups but not just physical constructs, such as IP addresses. You'll learn about the architecture of EPSEC and how to implement it. Finally, we will understand how to define data security policies, run scans, and analyze results.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)
VMware vCloud Security
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

vShield Endpoint components and intercommunication


To plug in Endpoint directly into the vSphere, which is the backbone of a vCloud environment, the following components are needed:

  • A SVA that will be hardened and delivered by VMware partners, such as Bitdefender, Symantec, Trend Micro, McAfee, and Kaspersky

  • The Thin Agent for virtual machines to offload security events, which is included in VMware Tools

  • vShield Endpoint ESXi hypervisor module (MUX) that enables communication between the first two components in the hypervisor layer

For example, in the case of an antivirus solution, vShield Endpoint monitors the virtual machine's file events, such as a file open request, and notifies the antivirus engine, which scans and returns a disposition. The solution supports both on-access and on-demand (scheduled) scans initiated by the antivirus engine in the SVA.

VMCI is an inter-process communication used between the thin agent and the MUX component. However, there are caveats around this. If you use...