Management of computing sessions

• US 10,623,243 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2013
• Issued: 04/14/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Suryanarayanan, Deepak, Farrell, Eugene Michael, Brown, David Everard, Brandwine, Eric Jason, Padukone, Ajit Nagendra
• Primary Examiner(s): Vostal, Ondrej C
• Application Number:
  US13/928,295
• Publication Number:
  US 20150019733A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,484 Days
• Field of Search: 709226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning 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 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70

Abstract

A remote computing session management process is directed to the execution and management of aspects of virtual instances executed on data center computers at a program execution service (PES) platform. A computing session may be established between the PES platform and a computing device connected to the PES platform over a communications network. The data created by the user of the client computing device interacting with the virtual instance may be stored, and following an interruption of the remote computing session, the data may be used when re-establishing the remote computing session.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a Program Execution Service (PES) including one or more computers having a microprocessor and memory, the memory including instructions that, upon execution, cause the one or more computers to;

receive a first request from a computing device to access a first virtual desktop instance, the request identifying a user of the computing device;

identify a first virtual desktop instance corresponding to the first request, wherein the first virtual desktop instance includes at least an operating system;

cause attachment of one or more volumes to the first virtual desktop instance, the one or more volumes including desktop personalization information of the user and a data store of the user, wherein the operating system is personalized according to the desktop personalization information of the user, and wherein one or more operating system folders are mapped to storage in the data store of the user;

receive an indication from the user of the computing device that a network disconnection of the computing device is imminent;

provide, to the computing device, a copy of the data store of the user and an image of the operating system personalized according to the desktop personalization information of the user;

provide, to the computing device, a virtual desktop monitoring module, wherein the virtual desktop monitoring module is configured to execute a local version of the first virtual desktop instance from the image of the operating system, wherein at least one aspect of the local version of the first virtual desktop instance is modified on the computing device, and wherein the virtual desktop monitoring module is configured to attach the copy of the data store to the local virtual desktop instance on the computing device;

determine, at the PES, that the computing device has established a reconnection to the PES based on receiving a request from the computing device to synchronize the copy of the data store with the data store on the one or more volumes; and

synchronize, to the data store of the user, changes made to the copy of the data store.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions, upon execution, further cause the PES to:

receive a second request from the computing device to access a second virtual desktop instance, the request identifying the user of the computing device;

identify a second virtual desktop instance corresponding to the second request; and

cause the data store to be attached to the second virtual desktop instance.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions, upon execution, cause the PES to provide, to the computing device, at least a portion of the copy of the data store upon determining that the computing device will be disconnected from the PES.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions, upon execution, cause the PES to terminate the local virtual desktop instance upon a connection of the computing device to the PES.

5. A computer-implemented method under control of a computer including a processor and memory, wherein the processor is configured by specific computer-executable instructions stored in the memory to perform the computer-implemented method, the computer-implemented method comprising:

transmitting, via a network connection, a request to a Program Execution Service (PES) to access a virtual desktop instance, wherein the virtual desktop instance is configured to execute an operating system personalized according to desktop personalization information of the user;

receiving, via the network connection, access to the virtual desktop instance;

sending an indication from a user to the PES that a network disconnection is imminent;

receiving, via the network connection, at least a portion of user content subsequent to sending the request, the user content comprising an image of the operating system personalized according to the desktop personalization information of the user and a copy of a data store of the user;

storing the at least a portion of the user content in a local data store;

receiving, from the PES, a virtual desktop monitoring module, wherein the virtual desktop monitoring module is configured to execute a local virtual desktop instance, subsequent to sending the request, based on a local image of the operating system, wherein at least one aspect of the local image of the operating system is modified for local execution, and wherein the local image of the operating system is configured according to a desktop profile of the user;

attaching the local data store to the local virtual desktop instance, wherein input/output operations relating to user content are redirected to the local data store attached to the local virtual desktop instance;

disconnecting the network connection to the PES;

subsequently reconnecting the network connection to the PES;

transmitting a request to the PES to synchronize the local data store with the data store; and

transmitting, to the data store of the user, changes made to the user content in the local data store.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein determining that the network connection is to be interrupted is based at least in part on a degradation in the network bandwidth.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 further comprising capturing information related to execution of the operating system onto the copy of the data store.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 further comprising determining that the network connection is restored and transmitting a request to the PES to synchronize the copy of the data store with the data store.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising terminating the local virtual desktop instance.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the local image of the operating system is a different operating system version than the operating system executing within the virtual desktop instance.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 further comprising receiving at least a portion of the desktop profile of the user and storing it in a local data store.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprising synchronizing changes to the desktop profile of the user in the local data store with a desktop profile of the user stored in a data store maintained by the PES.

13. Non-transitory physical computer storage comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing system having a processor and memory, direct the computing system to at least:

configure a virtual desktop instance for a user by creating one or more volumes, the one or more volumes including desktop personalization information of the user and a data store of the user, wherein an operating system within the virtual desktop instance is personalized according to the desktop personalization information of the user and at least a portion of operating system input/output operations are redirected to the data store of the user;

receive, from a computing device associated with the user, an indication from the user that a network disconnection of the computing device is imminent;

provide, to the computing device associated with the user, an image of the operating system personalized according to the desktop personalization information and a copy of the data store of the user;

provide, to the computing device associated with the user, a virtual desktop monitoring module, wherein the virtual desktop monitoring module is configured to execute a local virtual desktop instance based on the image of the operating system, and to attach a local data store that includes at least the provided copy of the data store of the user, wherein virtual desktop instance is personalized according to the desktop personalization information, and wherein at least a portion of local operating system input/output operations are redirected to the local data store;

detect a reconnection of the computing device associated with the user to the computing system based on receiving a request from the computing device associated with the user to synchronize the local data store with the data store on the one or more volumes; and

synchronize, to the data store on the one or more volumes, changes made to the local data store.

14. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 13, wherein the local virtual desktop instance comprises a version of the operating system with a different set of resources, the resources including one or more of processing power requirements or memory requirements.

15. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 13, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, further direct the computing system to enable the computing device to capture changes to the provided portion of the data store on the local data store.

16. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 13, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, further direct the computing system to:

receive a request from the computing device to access a second virtual desktop instance;

configure a second virtual desktop instance corresponding to the request; and

cause the data store to be attached to the second virtual desktop instance.

17. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, direct the computing system to synchronize the second virtual desktop instance with the local data store.