Secured virtual storage appliance installation image

1. A method of securing an installation image of a virtual storage appliance to be installed on a host computer, comprising:

initiating installation of the virtual storage appliance from an archive image stored on the host computer and establishing a pre-installation operating state, the archive image including the installation image with a lockbox storing a first key for accessing the installation image, the lockbox being encrypted using a second key derived from a stable system value obtainable from an execution environment of the host computer in the pre-installation operating state;

obtaining the stable system value from the execution environment and using it in decrypting the lockbox to retrieve the first key and access the installation image of the virtual storage appliance included in the archive image; and

using the accessed installation image to install the virtual storage appliance on the host computer, the virtual storage appliance being installed in a manner establishing a post-installation operating state exclusive of the pre-installation operating state and in which the stable system value is no longer obtainable from the execution environment of the host computer.

2. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer program instructions, the instructions being executable by a host computer to cause the host computer to perform a method of securing an installation image of a virtual storage appliance to be installed on the host computer, the method comprising:

initiating installation of the virtual storage appliance from an archive image stored on the host computer and establishing a pre-installation operating state, the archive image including the installation image with a lockbox storing a first key for accessing the installation image, the lockbox being encrypted using a second key derived from a stable system value obtainable from an execution environment of the host computer in the pre-installation operating state;

obtaining the stable system value from the execution environment and using it in decrypting the lockbox to retrieve the first key and access the installation image of the virtual storage appliance included in the archive image; and

using the accessed installation image to install the virtual storage appliance on the host computer, the virtual storage appliance being installed in a manner establishing a post-installation operating state exclusive of the pre-installation operating state and in which the stable system value is no longer obtainable from the execution environment of the host computer.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual storage appliance is implemented using a software image also usable to realize a dedicated hardware storage appliance, and uses underlying raw storage resources to present value-added storage to applications executing in a computer system including the host computer.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the value-added services include one or more of RAID, data deduplication, compression, and clustering and failover, and wherein the virtual storage appliance is a consumer of lower-level storage resources including plain virtual disks, and a provider of higher-level storage resources to the applications.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stable system value relates to a partitioning of a system device on which the archive image and installation image are stored, and further including, in connection with using the accessed installation image to install the virtual storage appliance, modifying the partitioning of the system device to thereby make the stable system value unavailable in the post-installation operating state.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the partitioning of the system device in the post-installation operating state includes cores and swap partitions not present in the pre-installation operating state.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the archive image is written to a root runtime device provided to the virtual storage appliance by a virtualizer during creation of a virtual machine for the virtual storage appliance, and the archive image includes a self-installer that, on first boot, performs an installation of the installation image to a backend mirror device partitioned from storage provided by the virtualizer to the virtual storage appliance, and thereafter repartitions the root runtime device and images it from the backend mirror device to yield the installed installation image.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the lockbox includes a second stable system value being a unique instance identifier that only the virtual storage appliance matches, uniquely keying the installation image to the virtual storage appliance.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the virtual storage appliance is implemented using a software image also usable to realize a dedicated hardware storage appliance, and uses underlying raw storage resources to present value-added storage to applications executing in a computer system including the host computer.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the value-added services include one or more of RAID, data deduplication, compression, and clustering and failover, and wherein the virtual storage appliance is a consumer of lower-level storage resources including plain virtual disks, and a provider of higher-level storage resources to the applications.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the stable system value relates to a partitioning of a system device on which the archive image and installation image are stored, and wherein the method further includes, in connection with using the accessed installation image to install the virtual storage appliance, modifying the partitioning of the system device to thereby make the stable system value unavailable in the post-installation operating state.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the partitioning of the system device in the post-installation operating state includes cores and swap partitions not present in the pre-installation operating state.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the archive image is written to a root runtime device provided to the virtual storage appliance by a virtualizer during creation of a virtual machine for the virtual storage appliance, and the archive image includes a self-installer that, on first boot, performs an installation of the installation image to a backend mirror device partitioned from storage provided by the virtualizer to the virtual storage appliance, and thereafter repartitions the root runtime device and images it from the backend mirror device to yield the installed installation image.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 , wherein the lockbox includes a second stable system value being a unique instance identifier that only the virtual storage appliance matches, uniquely keying the installation image to the virtual storage appliance.

15. A computer, comprising:

processing circuitry; and

memory storing computer program instructions executed by the processing circuitry to cause the computer to perform a method of securing an installation image of a virtual storage appliance to be installed on the computer, the method including:

initiating installation of the virtual storage appliance from an archive image stored on the computer and establishing a pre-installation operating state, the archive image including the installation image with a lockbox storing a first key for accessing the installation image, the lockbox being encrypted using a second key derived from a stable system value obtainable from an execution environment of the computer in the pre-installation operating state;

obtaining the stable system value from the execution environment and using it in decrypting the lockbox to retrieve the first key and access the installation image of the virtual storage appliance included in the archive image; and

using the accessed installation image to install the virtual storage appliance on the computer, the virtual storage appliance being installed in a manner establishing a post-installation operating state exclusive of the pre-installation operating state and in which the stable system value is no longer obtainable from the execution environment of the computer.

16. The computer of claim 15 , wherein the virtual storage appliance is implemented using a software image also usable to realize a dedicated hardware storage appliance, and uses underlying raw storage resources to present value-added storage to applications executing in a computer system including the host computer.

17. The computer of claim 16 , wherein the value-added services include one or more of RAID, data deduplication, compression, and clustering and failover, and wherein the virtual storage appliance is a consumer of lower-level storage resources including plain virtual disks, and a provider of higher-level storage resources to the applications.

18. The computer of claim 15 , wherein the stable system value relates to a partitioning of a system device on which the archive image and installation image are stored, and wherein the method further includes, in connection with using the accessed installation image to install the virtual storage appliance, modifying the partitioning of the system device to thereby make the stable system value unavailable in the post-installation operating state.

19. The computer of claim 18 , wherein the partitioning of the system device in the post-installation operating state includes cores and swap partitions not present in the pre-installation operating state.

20. The computer of claim 18 , wherein the archive image is written to a root runtime device provided to the virtual storage appliance by a virtualizer during creation of a virtual machine for the virtual storage appliance, and the archive image includes a self-installer that, on first boot, performs an installation of the installation image to a backend mirror device partitioned from storage provided by the virtualizer to the virtual storage appliance, and thereafter repartitions the root runtime device and images it from the backend mirror device to yield the installed installation image.