AUTOMATED STATE MIGRATION WHILE DEPLOYING AN OPERATING SYSTEM

• US 20110138375A1
• Filed: 02/17/2011
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Drew, Daniel N., Nanda, Sukanta Kumar, Baron, Anthony, Sardesai, Shantanu
• Granted Patent: US 8,448,166 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files

Abstract

Migration of a user state from a source computing device to a destination computing device using a state migration point (SMP) is disclosed. The destination computing device may be the same as the source computing device but with a different operating system. The user state is securely stored by the SMP until the user state is restored on the destination computing device or a predetermined period of time has elapsed. Additional SMPs can be added without an architectural change. SMPs can be used to simultaneously migrate the states of multiple users of the source computing device to multiple destination computing devices. The SMPs can be restricted to migrate only the user states of computing devices with particular IP subnets. The SMPs can retain user states for a period of time after restoration in order to provide a backup, if necessary.

Claims

1. A server management system for migrating a user state of a computing device from a source computing device to a destination computing device, comprising:

(a) a plurality of state migration points (“

SMP”

) suitable for securely storing the user state of the source computing device in a state migration point directory (“

SMP directory”

);

(b) a plurality of management points (“

MP”

) suitable for storing association information, wherein each association information comprises the identity of the source computing device, with an identity of the destination computing device, and a list of the plurality of SMP'"'"'s; and

(c) one or more software modules configured to;

(i) select one of the plurality of MP'"'"'s to acquire and populate the association information;

(ii) poll the SMP'"'"'s on the list to locate a SMP having a capacity to store the user state of the source computing device in the SMP directory of the SMP being polled, transferring the user state of the source computing device to the SMP directory of the SMP for secure storage in the SMP directory; and

(iii) receive a request from the destination computing device for the user state, authenticating that the destination computing device matches the identity of the destination computing device associated with the identity of the source computing device.

2. The server management system of claim 1 wherein polling comprises sequentially polling the SMPs on the list to locate a SMP having a capacity to store the user state of the computing device in the SMP directory of the SMP being polled.

3. The server management system of claim 1 wherein receiving a request comprises randomly receiving a request at an SMP.

4. The server management system of claim 1 wherein the capacity of one or more SMPs is based on the number of computers being handled by the one or more SMPs.

5. The server management system of claim 1 wherein the source computing device and the destination computing device are a same computing device.

6. A method of migrating a user state of a computing device from a source computing device to a destination computing device, comprising:

setting up a pool including a plurality of state migration points (“

SMPs”

) suitable for securely storing the user state of the source computing device in a state migration point directory (“

SMP directory);

setting up a pool including a plurality of management points (“

MP) suitable for storing association information, wherein each association information comprises the identity of the source computing device with an identity of the destination computing device, and a list of the plurality of SMP'"'"'s;

selecting one of the plurality of MPs to acquire and populate the association information; and

polling the SMP'"'"'s on the list to locate a SMP having a capacity to store the user state of the source computing device in the SMP directory of the SMP being polled, transferring the user state of the source computing device to the SMP directory of the SMP for secure storage in the SMP directory; and

receiving a request from the destination computing device for the user state, authenticating that the destination computing device matches the identity of the destination computing device associated with the identity of the source computing device, and

as a result of authenticating, transferring the user state of the source computing device securely stored in the SMP directory to the destination computing device.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the source computing device includes a plurality of user states, each user state associated with a different user and wherein each of the plurality of user states is transferred to a separately identifiable location of the identified SMP and is separately stored at the separately identifiable location in the identified SMP, and each user state is associated with a different destination computing device from among a plurality of destination computing devices.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the plurality of user states are each transferred from the SMP to an associated one of the plurality of destination computing devices after authenticating each one of the plurality of destination computing devices.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the SMP creates a secure directory and wherein the user state of the source computing device is transferred to the secure directory for storage.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein polling comprises sequentially polling the SMPs on the list to locate a SMP having a capacity to store the user state of the computing device in the SMP directory of the SMP being polled.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein receiving a request comprises randomly receiving a request at an SMP.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein the capacity of one or more SMPs is based on the number of computers being handled by the one or more SMPs.

13. The method of claim 6 wherein the source computing device and the destination computing device are a same computing device.

14. A method of migrating a user state of a computing device from a source computing device to a destination computing device, comprising:

setting up a pool including a plurality of state migration points (“

SMP) suitable for securely storing the user state of the source computing device in a state migration point directory (“

SMP directory”

);

setting up a pool including a plurality of management points (“

MP) suitable for storing association information, wherein each association information comprises the identity of the source computing device with an identity of the destination computing device, and a list of the plurality of SMP'"'"'s;

selecting one of the plurality of MP'"'"'s to acquire and populate the association information;

polling the SMP'"'"'s on the list to locate a SMP having a capacity to store the user state of the source computing device in the SMP directory of the SMP being polled, transferring the user state of the source computing device to the SMP directory of the SMP for secure storage in the SMP directory;

receiving a request from the destination computing device for the user state, authenticating that the destination computing device matches the identity of the destination computing device associated with the identity of the source computing device,

as a result of authenticating, transferring the user state of the source computing device securely stored in the SMP directory to the destination computing device; and

decrementing a total count of computers remaining needing to restore user state by one.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the source computing device and the destination computing device have MAC addresses and wherein the source computing device and the destination computing device are associated using the MAC addresses.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the capacity of one or more SMPs is based on the number of computers being handled by the one or more SMPs.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprising associating one source computing device with one or more destination computing devices.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the SMP also stores information identifying the source computing device associated with the transferred user state.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein the source computing device includes a plurality of user states and wherein the destination computing device is one among a plurality of computing devices, wherein each of the user states is to be transferred to a different one of the computing devices in the plurality of computing devices.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein the source computing device and the destination computing device are different computing devices.