At the risk of sounding like an ignoramus: In a *server* OS, what exactly is gained by encryption? Unless the plan is someone physically sitting at the console to type in the decryption key (for every zone??) on every boot, the machine needs to have the decryption key accessible at runtime to function. Which makes the whole enterprise a bit like buying a fabulously secure lock for your house that you have to leave the key in at all times or the house falls down - why bother?
I get that people *think* it buys them something, or may be required to do it by someone who does. But is that anything more than an illusion? I mean, yes, it could live on the USB key and if the server is off someone can take the key away and the data on the disks is not decryptable if someone walks off with the server. But under what circumstances is that useful? -Tim On Sat, Mar 14, 2015 at 8:11 PM, Richard Elling via smartos-discuss < [email protected]> wrote: > > On Mar 14, 2015, at 2:08 PM, Jonathan Paget via smartos-discuss < > [email protected]> wrote: > > >> Are there any encryption options? > > Your only real option is for a KVM guest to use encryption inside a Zone > (CentOS and Ubuntu offer encryption at their install screens). Some > people use ZVOLs as back-ends for FreeBSD's GELI on FreeBSD, or use GELI to > encrypt the underlying vdevs of their zpool, but FreeBSD Jails aren't > anywhere near a complete alternative to zones. > > > lofi on SmartOS, managed with the lofiadm command. There would be some > assembly required, but shouldn't need any new code. > -- richard > > > If you need to run Windows guests, you could probably find a way to > PXE-boot them off of iSCSI targets (running in another Zone) that have > encrypted back-ends or just have them use Samba to access encrypted volumes. > > > Yes I understand everything I typed above is very ugly. I would really > like to see encrypted added to the illumos/ZFS or OpenZFS feature set, > would do it myself if I currently held the necessary skillset. > > > On Sat, Mar 14, 2015 at 2:00 PM, George Linn via smartos-discuss < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Are there any encryption options? Specifically if the SmartOS >> installation is used primarily for hosting Zones. Could sleep better >> knowing that if my machine was physically compromised my data would be a >> bit more difficult to access. >> >> ------------------------------ >> *From:* Brian Bennett via smartos-discuss < >> [email protected]> >> *To:* [email protected]; George Linn < >> [email protected]> >> *Sent:* Saturday, March 14, 2015 4:29 PM >> *Subject:* Re: [smartos-discuss] ZFS encryption >> >> ZFS encryption was integrated into Solaris 11 after OpenSolaris updates >> stopped. That's not to say it couldn't be added, but it hasn't been a >> priority so far. >> >> -- >> Brian Bennett >> Systems Engineer, Cloud Operations, Joyent, Inc. >> 655 Montgomery St., Suite 1600 | San Francisco | California | 94111 >> [email protected] | www.joyent.com >> office 415-400-0645 | mobile 619-663-IPv6 >> >> >> >> On Mar 14, 2015, at 11:17 AM, George Linn via smartos-discuss < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >> After some searching, it seems that there is no integrated encryption for >> ZFS in SmartOS that would allow something like the following to happen: >> >> *zfs create -o encryption=on rpool/export/somthing* >> >> Can encryption be used with ZFS at all on SmartOS? I see some examples >> of creating encrypted block devices in OpenIndiana but I am not sure how >> this is helpful in a general sense on SmartOS since my disk space is all >> allocated during the initial installation of SmartOS. >> >> >> *smartos-discuss* | Archives >> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/184463/=now> >> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/184463/26986985-d0246faa> | >> Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription >> <http://www.listbox.com/> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------- >> smartos-discuss >> Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/184463/=now >> RSS Feed: >> https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/184463/26967883-1315225c >> Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; >> Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com >> >> >> *smartos-discuss* | Archives >> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/184463/=now> >> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/184463/26912851-a47b45cc> | >> Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription >> <http://www.listbox.com/> >> > > *smartos-discuss* | Archives > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/184463/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/184463/21953302-fd56db47> | > Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com/> > > > *smartos-discuss* | Archives > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/184463/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/184463/24549504-c4bff9d3> | > Modify > <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> > Your Subscription <http://www.listbox.com> > -- http://timboudreau.com ------------------------------------------- smartos-discuss Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/184463/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/184463/25769125-55cfbc00 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=25769125&id_secret=25769125-7688e9fb Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
