HERO vs Zombie: Destroying Zombie Guests in Virtual Machine Environments

Nezer Jacob Zaidenberg; Michael Kiperberg; Yael Elinav; Alex Moshinky; Lior Siag

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-38821-7_3

HERO vs Zombie: Destroying Zombie Guests in Virtual Machine Environments

Nezer Jacob Zaidenberg, Michael Kiperberg, Yael Elinav, Alex Moshinky, Lior Siag

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Abstract

Virtual servers are now standard in data centres. Multiple virtual machines (guests) are consolidated on much fewer hosts on-site or on “the cloud”, Thus saving most of the hosting costs. Virtual servers serve most of our computational needs. However, virtual machines consume no physical space. Thus abandoned servers are often unnoticed. The system administrators do not delete the servers. Sometimes the administrators do not know the servers are not in use. (Some servers often “become” unused as business processes changes, and the System administrators are not informed when the last user no longer uses the server) These servers are known as “zombie” machines. “Zombie” machines waste resources and (as they are left unattended and unpatched) pose a cyber security risk. We present HERO (Host Environment Resource Optimization). HERO is a novel tool to optimize resource use and security. HERO uses multiple tests and machine learning approaches to assist system administrators in identifying and removing “zombie” machines.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - 9th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2021, and 10th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2022, Revised Selected Papers
Editors	Luís Ferreira Pires, Slimane Hammoudi, Edwin Seidewitz
Publisher	Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages	48-59
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Print)	9783031388200
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38821-7_3
State	Published - 1 Jan 2023
Externally published	Yes
Event	Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - 9th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2021, and 10th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2022, Revised Selected Papers - Virtual, Online Duration: 6 Feb 2022 → 8 Feb 2022

Publication series

Name	Communications in Computer and Information Science
Volume	1708 CCIS
ISSN (Print)	1865-0929
ISSN (Electronic)	1865-0937

Conference

Conference	Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - 9th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2021, and 10th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2022, Revised Selected Papers
City	Virtual, Online
Period	6/02/22 → 8/02/22

Keywords

Green computing
Inactive virtual machines
Remote management
System administration
Virtual machines
Virtualization sprawling

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Computer Science
General Mathematics

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-031-38821-7_3

Cite this

Zaidenberg, N. J., Kiperberg, M., Elinav, Y., Moshinky, A., & Siag, L. (2023). HERO vs Zombie: Destroying Zombie Guests in Virtual Machine Environments. In L. F. Pires, S. Hammoudi, & E. Seidewitz (Eds.), Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - 9th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2021, and 10th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2022, Revised Selected Papers (pp. 48-59). (Communications in Computer and Information Science; Vol. 1708 CCIS). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38821-7_3

Zaidenberg, Nezer Jacob ; Kiperberg, Michael ; Elinav, Yael et al. / HERO vs Zombie : Destroying Zombie Guests in Virtual Machine Environments. Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - 9th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2021, and 10th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2022, Revised Selected Papers. editor / Luís Ferreira Pires ; Slimane Hammoudi ; Edwin Seidewitz. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2023. pp. 48-59 (Communications in Computer and Information Science).

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abstract = "Virtual servers are now standard in data centres. Multiple virtual machines (guests) are consolidated on much fewer hosts on-site or on “the cloud”, Thus saving most of the hosting costs. Virtual servers serve most of our computational needs. However, virtual machines consume no physical space. Thus abandoned servers are often unnoticed. The system administrators do not delete the servers. Sometimes the administrators do not know the servers are not in use. (Some servers often “become” unused as business processes changes, and the System administrators are not informed when the last user no longer uses the server) These servers are known as “zombie” machines. “Zombie” machines waste resources and (as they are left unattended and unpatched) pose a cyber security risk. We present HERO (Host Environment Resource Optimization). HERO is a novel tool to optimize resource use and security. HERO uses multiple tests and machine learning approaches to assist system administrators in identifying and removing “zombie” machines.",

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Zaidenberg, NJ, Kiperberg, M, Elinav, Y, Moshinky, A & Siag, L 2023, HERO vs Zombie: Destroying Zombie Guests in Virtual Machine Environments. in LF Pires, S Hammoudi & E Seidewitz (eds), Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - 9th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2021, and 10th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2022, Revised Selected Papers. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol. 1708 CCIS, Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, pp. 48-59, Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - 9th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2021, and 10th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2022, Revised Selected Papers, Virtual, Online, 6/02/22. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38821-7_3

HERO vs Zombie: Destroying Zombie Guests in Virtual Machine Environments. / Zaidenberg, Nezer Jacob; Kiperberg, Michael; Elinav, Yael et al.
Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - 9th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2021, and 10th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2022, Revised Selected Papers. ed. / Luís Ferreira Pires; Slimane Hammoudi; Edwin Seidewitz. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2023. p. 48-59 (Communications in Computer and Information Science; Vol. 1708 CCIS).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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Zaidenberg NJ, Kiperberg M, Elinav Y, Moshinky A, Siag L. HERO vs Zombie: Destroying Zombie Guests in Virtual Machine Environments. In Pires LF, Hammoudi S, Seidewitz E, editors, Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development - 9th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2021, and 10th International Conference, MODELSWARD 2022, Revised Selected Papers. Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. 2023. p. 48-59. (Communications in Computer and Information Science). doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-38821-7_3