Methods and systems for searching and indexing virtual environments

• US 10,346,550 B1
• Filed: 08/27/2015
• Issued: 07/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X1 Discovery, Inc.
• Original Assignee: X1 Discovery, Inc.
• Inventors: Botta, Brent, Bray, Stuart, Vilett, Roland, Cole, Todmund
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Allen, Nicholas E
• Application Number:
  US14/838,230
• Time in Patent Office: 1,412 Days
• Field of Search: 707723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/148 File search processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Methods and systems for generating search indexes in a virtual desktop environment are disclosed. An initial index generation module is configured to generate initial iterations of search indexes for a plurality of users associated with respective virtual desktops and store the initial iterations of search indexes on a shared data store. An incremental search indexing module is configured to update existing iterations of search indexes associated with the plurality of users according to respective schedules. A search processing module is configured to receive a search query from a first user while the first user is logged into the first virtual desktop, identify, utilizing an iteration of the search index associated with a first user and stored on the server storing search indexes for the plurality of users associated with respective virtual desktops, matching documents, and to cause search results corresponding to the matching documents to be presented via the first virtual desktop.

Claims

1. A system configured to generate search indexes, comprising:

at least one computing device;

an interface configured to communicate with a virtual desktop farm;

a non-transitory computer storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that direct the at least one computing device to implement;

a load balancing module configured to distribute indexing processes across multiple servers;

a throttling module configured to inhibit excessively loading system resources by limiting a number of user indexing processes executed by the system and a number of concurrent data scanning operations;

an initial index generation module configured to generate initial iterations of search indexes for a plurality of users associated with respective virtual desktops, wherein the initial index generation module is configured to;

determine, for a first user associated with a first virtual desktop executed using the virtual desktop farm, if a search index has been generated for the first user;

at partly in response to a determination that a search index has not been generated for the first user, begin generation of an initial iteration of a search index for the first user in accordance with the limitation on the number of user indexing processes and with the limitation on the number of concurrent data scanning operations;

receive an indication that the first user has logged off the first virtual desktop;

continue generating the initial iteration of the search index associated with the first user while the first virtual desktop executed using the virtual desktop farm is shut down;

store the initial iteration of the search index associated with the first user on a shared data store that stores search indexes for the plurality of users associated with respective virtual desktops executed using the virtual desktop farm;

an incremental search indexing module configured to initiate and perform an update to one or more existing iterations of search indexes associated with the plurality of users according to a schedule, including at least an existing iteration of a search index associated with the first user while the first virtual desktop, executed using the virtual desktop farm, is shut down;

a search processing module configured to receive a search query from the first user while the first user is logged into the first virtual desktop, identify, utilizing an iteration of the search index associated with the first user and stored on the server storing search indexes for the plurality of users associated with respective virtual desktops, matching documents, and to cause search results corresponding to the matching documents to be presented via the first virtual desktop.

2. The system as defined in claim 1, further comprising an index server farm configured to interface with a network file share and an email server farm, wherein the system is configured to index documents of the plurality of users stored on the network file share and the email server farm.

3. The system as defined in claim 1, further comprising a user interface refresh module configured to refresh the search results presented via the first virtual desktop with a frequency no greater than a specified maximum.

4. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the throttling module is further configured to enable a user to specify a first throttling value for an initial indexing operation, and a second throttling value for an incremental indexing operation, wherein the first throttling value is different than the second throttling value.

5. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the load balancing module is configured to detect if a load balancing server has failed, and in response cause a backup load balancing server to assume tasks of the failed load balancing server.

6. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the search processing module is configured to run one or more search terms included in the search query received from the first user against the iteration of the search index associated with the first user, obtain matching results from a plurality of portions of the iteration of the search index, merge the matching results for the plurality of portions, and sort the merged results in a default order or in an order specified by the first user.

7. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the incremental search indexing module is further configured to enable the first user to specify an interval and/or time of day to execute an index update process.

8. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the system is further configured to provide centralized management of indexing processes for the plurality of users.

9. The system as defined in claim 1, wherein the system is further configured to determine when virtual desktops were last disconnected from the system, how many indexing process crashes have occurred, how many search user interface process crashes have occurred, and sizes of users'"'"' respective search indexes stored on the shared data store, and generate and provide one or more reports including the foregoing.

10. A computer-implemented of method of managing search engine indexing with respect to a virtual desktop architecture, the method comprising:

receiving, via a first plurality of virtual desktops executing on a virtual desktop farm, at a virtual resource management system comprising at least a processor device, indexing parameters from a first plurality of users, the indexing parameters identifying data types, or data sources, or both data types and data sources to be indexed;

generating, by the virtual resource management system, initial iterations of search indexes for the first plurality of users associated with respective virtual desktops executing on the virtual desktop farm and utilizing a shared data storage system;

storing the initial iterations of search indexes on the shared data storage system;

generating, by the virtual resource management system, updated iterations of the search indexes on the shared data storage system for at least a portion of the first plurality of users associated with respective virtual desktops, including search indexes of users logged off their respective virtual desktops; and

receiving, by the virtual resource management system, a search query from a first user in the first plurality of users, while the first user is logged into a first virtual desktop executing on the virtual desktop farm, and identifying, utilizing an iteration of the search index associated with the first user and stored on the shared data storage system, matching documents, and causing search results corresponding to the matching documents to be presented via the first virtual desktop, wherein the first user is inhibited from accessing initial or updated iterations of indexes of other users stored on the shared data storage system.

11. The method as defined in claim 10, the method further comprising establishing a one-to-one correspondence between a search user interface process running on a given virtual desktop and an indexing process being executed by the virtual resource management system, wherein the virtual resource management system is configured to host a plurality of index processes for a respective plurality of virtual desktops while concurrently maintaining one-to-one correspondences between a given user interface process and the corresponding indexing process.

12. The method as defined in claim 10, the method further comprising refreshing, by the virtual resource management system, the search results presented via the first virtual desktop with a frequency no greater than a specified maximum.

13. The method as defined in claim 10, the method further comprising throttling one or more indexing operations in accordance with a throttling setting.

14. The method as defined in claim 10, wherein at least one initial iteration is generated at least part while an associated virtual desktop is not operating and at least one updated iteration is generated at least part while an associated virtual desktop is not operating.

15. The method as defined in claim 10, the method further comprising balancing indexing loads across multiple servers.

16. The method as defined in claim 10, the method further comprising:

running a search term included in the search query received from the first user against the utilized iteration of the search index associated with the first user stored on the shared data storage system;

accessing matching results from a plurality of portions of the utilized iteration of the search index;

merging the matching results for the plurality of portions;

sorting the merged results in a default order or in an order specified by the first user; and

causing the sorted merged search results to be displayed via the first virtual desktop.

17. The method as defined in claim 10, the method further comprising enabling the first user to specify a time of day independent of a state of the first virtual desktop to execute an index update process.

18. The method as defined in claim 10, the method further comprising providing centralized management of indexing processes for the first plurality of users.

19. The method as defined in claim 10, the method further comprising:

determining when virtual desktops were last disconnected from the virtual resource management system;

determining how many indexing process crashes have occurred in a first period of time;

determining how many search user interface process crashes have occurred in the first period of time;

determining sizes of users'"'"' respective search indexes; and

generating and providing one or more reports including data on;

when virtual desktops were last disconnected from the virtual resource management system;

how many indexing process crashes have occurred in the first period of time;

how many search user interface process crashes have occurred in the first period of time; and

sizes of users'"'"' respective search indexes.

21. The method as defined in claim 10, the method further comprising indexing documents of users stored on a cloud storage system.

22. The method as defined in claim 10, the method further comprising indexing documents of users stored on a remote Internet Message Access Protocol email system.

23. The method as defined in claim 10, the method further comprising indexing local data sources.

20. A system configured to generate search indexes, comprising:

at least one computing device;

an interface configured to communicate with a virtual desktop farm;

a non-transitory computer storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that direct the at least one computing device to implement;

an initial index generation module configured to generate initial iterations of search indexes for a plurality of users associated with respective virtual desktops executing on the virtual desktop farm and store the initial iterations of search indexes on a shared data store;

an incremental search indexing module configured to update at least some of existing iterations of search indexes associated with the plurality of users according to respective schedules;

a search processing module configured to receive a search query from a first user while the first user is logged into a first virtual desktop executing on the virtual desktop farm, identify, utilizing an iteration of the search index associated with the first user and stored on the server storing search indexes for the plurality of users associated with respective virtual desktops, matching documents, and to cause search results corresponding to the matching documents to be presented via the first virtual desktop executed using the virtual desktop farm, wherein the first user is inhibited from accessing initial or updated iterations of indexes of other users stored on the shared data store.

24. The system as defined in claim 20, the system further configured to index documents of users stored on a cloud storage system.

25. The system as defined in claim 20, the system further configured to index documents of users stored on a remote Internet Message Access Protocol email system.

26. The system as defined in claim 20, the system further configured to index local data sources.

27. The system as defined in claim 20, the system further configured to:

establish a one-to-one correspondence between a search user interface process running on a given virtual desktop and an indexing process being executed by the system; and

host a plurality of index processes for a respective plurality of virtual desktops while concurrently maintaining one-to-one correspondences between a given user interface process and the corresponding indexing process.

28. The system as defined in claim 20, the system further configured to refresh the search results presented via the first virtual desktop with a frequency no greater than a specified maximum.

29. The system as defined in claim 20, the system further configured to throttle one or more indexing operations in accordance with a throttling setting.

30. The system as defined in claim 20, wherein at least one initial iteration is generated at least part while an associated virtual desktop is not operating and at least one updated iteration is generated at least part while an associated virtual desktop is not operating.