Triggering application attachment based on service login

• US 10,324,744 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2015
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ulatoski, Jeffrey, Lawson, Steven, Conover, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar, Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mejia, Feliciano S
• Application Number:
  US14/731,022
• Publication Number:
  US 20160359981A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,475 Days
• Field of Search: 718 1, 718100, 726 4, 726 7
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• 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 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/468 Specific access rights for resources, e.g. using capability register
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70

Abstract

Described herein are systems, methods, and software to provide virtualized computing sessions with attachable volumes to requesting users. In one implementation, a virtual computing service identifies a service login for an end user to initiate a virtual computing session. In response to the service login, the virtual computing service identifies a virtual machine to allocate to the virtual computing service, and initiates a user login process to log the end user into the virtual machine. The virtual computing service further initiates, prior to completing the user login process, a volume attach process to attach at least one storage volume to the virtual machine based on credentials associated with the service login.

Claims

1. A method of operating a virtual computing service that provides virtual computing sessions to end users, the method comprising:

in response to a service login to the virtual computing service associated with an end user to initiate a virtual computing session, identifying a virtual machine to allocate to the virtual computing session;

initiating a user login process to log the end user into the virtual machine after the service login, wherein the virtual machine is running on a host computing system, and wherein the user login process comprises providing credentials associated with the end user from the virtual computing service to the virtual machine; and

prior to completing the user login process to the virtual machine, initiating a volume attach process to attach at least one application storage volume to the virtual machine, wherein the at least one application storage volume is identified based on credentials associated with the service login, and wherein the volume attach process comprises making at least one application stored on the at least one application storage volume executable in the virtual machine from the at least one application volume.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the volume attach process comprises mounting the at least one application storage volume to the virtual machine, and overlaying contents of the at least one application storage volume in the virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the contents comprise files and registry keys for the at least one application.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein initiating the volume attach process occurs after initiating the user login process.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the virtual computing service comprises a broker service and a manager service, the broker service configured to identify the virtual machine to allocate to the virtual computing session and initiate the user login process to log the end user into the virtual machine, and the manager service configured to initiate the volume attach process to attach the at least one application storage volume to the virtual machine based on the credentials associated with the service login.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises prior to completing the user login process, initiating a supplementary volume attach process to attach at least one user data storage volume to the virtual machine based on the credentials associated with the service login.

7. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a hardware computing system running a virtual computing service, direct the virtual computing service to perform a method that provides virtual computing sessions to end users, the method comprising:

in response to a service login to the virtual computing service associated with an end user to initiate a virtual computing session, identifying a virtual machine to allocate to the virtual computing session;

initiating a user login process to log the end user into the virtual machine after the service login, wherein the virtual machine is running on a host computing system, and wherein the user login process comprises providing credentials associated with the end user from the virtual computing service to the virtual machine; and

prior to completing the user login process to the virtual machine, initiating a volume attach process to attach at least one application storage volume to the virtual machine, wherein the at least one application storage volume is identified based on credentials associated with the service login, wherein the volume attach process comprises making at least one application stored on the at least one application storage volume executable in the virtual machine from the at least one application volume.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the volume attach process comprises mounting the at least one application storage volume to the virtual machine, and overlaying contents of the at least one application storage volume in the virtual machine to make the at least one application executable from the at least one application storage volume.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the contents comprise files and registry keys for the at least one application.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein initiating the volume attach process occurs after initiating the user login process.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises, prior to completing the user login process, initiating a supplementary attach process to attach at least one user data storage volume to the virtual machine based on the credentials associated with service login.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the at least one application storage volume comprises at least one read-only application storage volume, and wherein the at least one user data storage volume comprises at least one read-write storage volume.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the credentials associated with the service login comprise a username associated used by the end user for the service login.

14. An apparatus comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media;

a processing system operatively coupled to the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media; and

processing instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media to provide a virtual computing service that, when executed by the processing system, direct the processing system to;

in response to a service login to the virtual computing service associated with an end user to initiate a virtual computing session, identify a virtual machine for the virtual computing session, wherein the virtual machine is running on a host computing system;

identify credentials associated with the end user for the service login;

prior to completing a user login process for the end user on the virtual machine, initiate a volume attach process to attach at least one storage volume to the virtual machine based on the credentials, and wherein the volume attach process comprises making at least one application stored on the at least one application storage volume executable in the virtual machine from the at least one application volume.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the at least one storage volume comprises at least one application storage volume and at least one user data storage volume.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the volume attach process comprises mounting the at least one storage volume to the virtual machine based on the credentials, and overlaying contents of the at least one storage volume in the virtual machine.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processing instructions to identify the virtual machine for the virtual computing session direct the processing system to identify a virtual machine identifier from a broker service for the virtual computing session.

18. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the credentials associated with the service login comprise a username used by the end user for the service login.