Connection-based resource management for virtual desktop instances

• US 10,268,493 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2015
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Thomas, Nathan Bartholomew, Verma, Varun, Suryanarayanan, Deepak, Padukone, Ajit Nagendra, Dhande, Nakul Namdeo
• Primary Examiner(s): Swift, Charles M
• Application Number:
  US14/862,008
• Publication Number:
  US 20170083354A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,309 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45591 Monitoring or debugging support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/48 Program initiating; Program switching, e.g. by interrupt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4806 Task transfer initiation or dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4868 with creation or replication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 to service a request
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 : the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5022 : Mechanisms to release resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 : the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 : considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5044 : considering hardware capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 : considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5055 : considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 : Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 : Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 : Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A computing system that provides virtual computing services may generate and manage remote computing sessions between client computing devices and virtual desktop instances hosted on the service provider'"'"'s network. A computing resource instance manager may monitor connections to and disconnections from a virtual desktop instance during particular time periods, and may apply a resource management policy to determine whether and when to shut down an underlying virtualized computing resource instance following a disconnection (e.g., immediately, after some period of time, or only between certain hours). A storage volume for the virtual desktop instance may be detached during a shutdown. In response to a reconnection request, the virtualized computing resource instance (or another such instance) may be restarted and the storage volume may be reattached. The computing resource instance manager may develop a model for predicting when to shut down or restart an instance based on historical data or machine learning.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

performing, by one or more computers on a service provider network;

provisioning, by a computing resource instance manager implemented on one of the one or more computers on behalf of a service provider customer, resources that implement a virtual desktop instance for a user, wherein the resources that implement the virtual desktop instance comprise a computing resource instance and a storage volume accessible to the computing resource instance over a network;

detecting that the user has connected to the virtual desktop instance through a client over a network connection and that the virtual desktop instance has been started, wherein starting the virtual desktop instance comprises attaching for network access the storage volume to the computing resource instance;

detecting that the user has disconnected from the virtual desktop instance based at least in part on monitoring of the network connection for an inactivity period that exceeds an inactivity threshold;

determining, in response to the detection that the user has disconnected from the virtual desktop instance and based at least in part on a resource management policy, that the virtual desktop instance should be shut down;

shutting down, in response to the determination, the virtual desktop instance while maintaining data for the virtual desktop instance on the storage volume, wherein shutting down the virtual desktop instance comprises shutting down the computing resource instance, detaching the storage volume from the virtual desktop instance, and making the computing resource instance available for another user;

detecting that a user has reconnected to the virtual desktop instance through a client; and

in response to detecting that a user has reconnected to the virtual desktop instance, restarting the virtual desktop instance, wherein restarting the virtual desktop instance comprises attaching for network access the storage volume to a different computing resource instance and booting up the different computing resource instance for the virtual desktop instance.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the resource management policy specifies criteria associated with shutting down service provider resources.

3. The method of claim 2,

wherein at least some of the criteria represents a customer-specific shutdown policy defined by the service provider customer, a user-specific shutdown policy defined by an end user, or an instance-specific shutdown policy.

4. The method of claim 2,

wherein the criteria comprises one or more of:

an amount of time that must pass following a disconnection before shutting down the service provider resources;

a window of time during which service provider resources can be shut down;

a window of time during which service provider resources cannot be shut down;

or

a schedule for shutting down service provider resources.

5. A system, comprising:

a plurality of computing nodes that collectively provide virtual computing services to one or more clients, each of the computing nodes comprising at least one processor and a memory;

one or more virtualized computing resource instances executing on a respective one of the computing nodes, wherein one of the virtualized computing resource instances is configured to implement a virtual desktop instance for a client;

a storage volume implemented on another one of the computing nodes, wherein the storage volume is attached for network access to the one of the virtualized computing resource instances; and

a computing resource instance manager executing on at least one of the computing nodes;

wherein the computing resource instance manager is configured to;

detect that the client has connected to the virtual desktop instance over a network connection and that the storage volume is attached for network access to the one of the virtualized computing resource instances;

detect that the client has been disconnected from the virtual desktop instance based at least in part on monitoring of a network connection for an inactivity period that exceeds an inactivity threshold;

determine, based at least in part on a resource management policy, whether or not the one of the virtualized computing resource instances should be shut down in response to the detection that the client has been disconnected from the virtual desktop instance;

shut down, in response to the determination, the one of the virtualized computing resource instances while maintaining data for the virtual desktop instance on the storage volume, wherein to shut down the one of the virtualized computing resource instances the computing resource instance manager is configured to;

detach the storage volume from the one of the virtualized computing resource instances; and

make the one of the virtualized computing resource instances available for another client; and

restart, in response to detection that a client has reconnected to the virtual desktop instance, the virtual desktop instance, wherein to restart the virtual desktop instance the computing resource instance manager is configured to;

attach for network access the storage volume to a different computing resource instance; and

boot the different computing resource instance for the virtual desktop instance.

6. The system of claim 5,

wherein to detect that the client has been disconnected from the virtual desktop instance, the computing resource instance manager is configured to:

monitor data that is transmitted between the client and the one of the virtualized computing resource instances; and

compare the data to one or more patterns or characteristics.

7. The system of claim 5,

wherein to detect that the client has been disconnected from the virtual desktop instance, the computing resource instance manager is configured to determine that a session gateway has detected that the client has been disconnected from the virtual desktop instance.

8. The system of claim 5,

wherein determining whether or not the one of the virtualized computing resource instances should be shut down is based, at least in part, on an amount of time that has passed since the client was disconnected from the virtual desktop instance.

9. The system of claim 5,

wherein the computing resource instance manager is configured to generate a model for shutting down the one of the virtualized computing resource instances based, at least in part, on historical data for disconnections for the virtual desktop instance;

and

wherein determining whether or not the one of the virtualized computing resource instances should be shut down is based, at least in part, on the model.

10. The system of claim 5,

wherein the computing resource instance manager is configured to:

detect that the client has been reconnected to the virtual desktop instance; and

restart the one of the virtualized computing resource instances in response to detecting that the client has been reconnected to the virtual desktop instance.

11. The system of claim 5,

wherein the computing resource instance manager is configured to:

detect that the client has been reconnected to the virtual desktop instance; and

provision another one of the virtualized computing resource instances to implement the virtual desktop instance in response to detecting that the client has been reconnected to the virtual desktop instance, wherein the other one of the virtualized computing resource instances is an instance of a same type as the one of the virtualized computing resource instances.

12. The system of claim 5,

wherein the computing resource instance manager is configured to:

detect that the client has been reconnected to the virtual desktop instance; and

provision another one of the virtualized computing resource instances to implement the virtual desktop instance in response to detecting that the client has been reconnected to the virtual desktop instance, wherein the other one of the virtualized computing resource instances is an instance of a different type than the one of the virtualized computing resource instances.

13. The system of claim 5,

wherein the computing resource instance manager is configured to:

generate a model for restarting the one of the virtualized computing resource instances based, at least in part, on historical data for reconnections for the virtual desktop instance; and

restart the one of the virtualized computing resource instances based, at least in part, on the model.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions that when executed on one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform:

monitoring operation of a virtualized computing resource instance that implements a virtual desktop instance for one or more clients, wherein said monitoring comprises tracking connections to the virtual desktop instance and disconnections from the virtual desktop instance by the one or more clients during one or more time periods of a pre-determined duration, wherein the disconnections are based at least in part on an inactivity period that exceeds an inactivity threshold;

generating, based at least in part on said monitoring, a model for determining when to proactively shut down the virtualized computing resource instance or when to shut down the virtualized computing resource instance following a disconnection from the virtual desktop instance;

shutting down the virtualized computing resource instance based at least in part on applying the model, wherein shutting down the virtualized computing resource comprises detaching a storage volume currently attached for network access to the virtualized computing resource and where data for the virtual desktop instance is maintained;

tracking that the virtualized computing resource instance has been shut down;

making the virtualized computing resource instance that has been shut down available for another client;

detecting that a client has reconnected to the virtual desktop instance; and

restarting the virtual desktop instance responsive to the detection, wherein restarting the virtual desktop instance comprises attaching for network access the storage volume to a different virtualized computing resource instance and booting up the different virtualized computing resource instance for the virtual desktop instance.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein when executed on the one or more computers, the program instructions further cause the one or more computers to perform:

generating, based at least in part on said monitoring, a model usable to determine when to restart the virtualized computing resource instance following a shutdown of the virtualized computing resource instance.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14,

wherein generating the model comprises applying a machine learning technique that is based, at least in part, on a fitness function for avoiding having the virtualized computing resource instance in a shutdown state when a client requests a connection to the virtual desktop instance or for minimizing the amount of time that the virtualized computing resource instance is active but no client is connected to the virtual desktop instance.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein when executed on the one or more computers, the program instructions further cause the one or more computers to perform:

making the virtualized computing resource instance available for implementing another virtual desktop instance.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein when executed on the one or more computers, the program instructions further cause the one or more computers to perform:

providing, based at least in part on said monitoring, information about connections to and disconnections from the virtual desktop instance to a billing mechanism of a service provider, wherein the billing mechanism distinguishes between time periods during which a client is connected to the virtual desktop instance and time periods during which no client is connected to the virtual desktop instance.