vmsafe API in vShield - MS Windows only?

[JonathanG]

Linux/Unix VMs are not protected using vmsafe, correct?

VMsafe API only provides protection for Microsoft Windows VMs, correct?

[Texiwill]

Hello,

VMsafe is different than vShield so not sure exactly what we are discussing, but here goes.

VMsafe is a Hypervisor API and transport for network security as such it is Guest Operating system Agnostic. THere are very few VMsafe-Net products (Juniper vGW, Trend Micro Deep Security, IBM VSS, Checkpoint, Reflex Systems vTrust) out there and only one VMsafe-mem product (IBM VSS).

vShield on the other hand makes use of VMsafe-Net to implement vShield App and vShield Zones. vShield Edge is an inline edge firewall device that makes use of another API to do portgroup isolation.

vShield Endpoint however is an entirely different beast and has its own API. vShield Endpoint provides a high speed transport mechanism for performing anti-virus/anti-malware and as such requires a vShield Endpoint driver. I believe there is one for windows and linux. Only Trend Micro has a shipping vShield Endpoint product. Others are in Beta.

So none of these tools are Guest OS dependent.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

Communities Moderator, VMware vExpert,

Author: VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security,VMware ESX and ESXi in the Enterprise 2nd Edition

Podcast: The Virtualization Security Podcast Resources: The Virtualization Bookshelf

[anykey]

Hi,

VMsafe provides network access to security engines like firewalls (vShield App, Check VE, HP Tipping poing).

EPSec (End Point Secuirty) is used by vShield Endpoint, which enabled file access to security engines (like trend deep security 7.5) to do things like anti virus. This IS OS dependent, and today only supports windows OS. For this solution to work, a filter driver (made by vmware) needs to be installed in the Guest OS, this today is only available for windows.

Hope this helps.