ENABLING VIRTUAL DESKTOP CONNECTIONS TO REMOTE CLIENTS

• US 20110153716A1
• Filed: 12/21/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ponomarev, Vadim, Erdogan, Ersev Samim, Malakapalli, Meher P., Alladi, Mahadeva K., Ben-Shachar, Ido, Palekar, Ashwin
• Granted Patent: US 10,146,566 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• 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 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load

Abstract

Disclosed are techniques for providing a platform that allows a user to remotely establish a connection with a virtual machine operating on a server farm In a typical scenario, when a user requests for a connection to access third party plug-in applications, the application program interface may interact with the session broker process to identify sessions or suitable servers to which the user can be connected. The user may access the third party plug-in applications through the identified sessions or suitable servers.

Claims

1. In a system for enabling connections between a client computer and a virtual machine capable of executing on one of a plurality of servers, a method comprising:

receiving at a first server a request from a user of the client computer for a connection;

determining whether the requesting user has a previous virtual machine session;

identifying an internet protocol (IP) address for the previous virtual machine session and an associated virtual machine name;

returning said IP address along with a name of the virtual machine to the client computer in order for the client computer to authenticate a connection with the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the requesting use has a previous virtual machine session is determined by checking a cache of user sessions.

3. The method of claim 1 comprising interpreting “

load balance info”

received from the client computer to determine which personal desktop the client is requesting.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first server tracks user sessions by way of information received from a server hosting the virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising communicating to the server hosting the virtual machine in order to initiate the virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising receiving from the client computer a name associate with a virtual machine farm.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, further comprising instructions for communicating to the server hosting the virtual machine in order to initiate the virtual machine.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, comprising instructions for receiving from the client computer a name associate with a virtual machine farm.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the communication with the client comprise computer-readable instructions that conform to a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

7. A system adapted to connect a client computer to one of a plurality of virtual machines executing on a plurality of servers, comprising:

at least one computing device comprising a processor; and

at least one memory communicatively coupled to said at least one computing device when the system is operational, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed cause;

a redirector module to receive a request from a user of the client computing device and sending a request for a redirection packet for redirecting the client computing device to a target destination; and

a broker module to receive the request and to determine a selected virtual machine hosted on a server to which the user has a preexisting virtual machine session; and

to determine an internet protocol (IP) address identifying the selected virtual machine as the target destination;

send a redirection packet including the IP address to the redirector module and the name of the virtual machine to permit the client computer device to authenticate the virtual machine.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the selected virtual machine is executing on a server farm.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed further cause the redirector module to effect the server to restore the selected virtual machine for execution.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed further cause the broker module to communicate to the server hosting the selected virtual machine in order to initiate the virtual machine.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed further cause the redirector module to effect the connecting of the client computer to the selected virtual machine based on information contained in the redirection packet.

12. The system of claim 7 wherein the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed further cause the broker module to check a cache of user sessions for the preexisting virtual machine session.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed further cause the broker module to track user sessions by way of information received from a server hosting the virtual machine.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the connecting used Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

15. A computer-readable storage medium storing thereon computer executable instructions for enabling the connection of a remote client computer to one of a plurality of virtual machines executing on a plurality of servers, comprising instructions for:

receiving at a first server a request from a user of the client computer for a connection;

determining whether a previous virtual machine session exists on a server for the user;

identifying an internet protocol (IP) address and an associated virtual machine name for the virtual machine running the previous virtual machine session;

returning said IP address along with a name of the previous virtual machine to the client computer in order for the client computer to authenticate a connection with the previous virtual machine.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein determining whether the requesting use has a previous virtual machine session comprises instructions for checking a cache of user sessions.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising instructions for tracking user sessions by way of information received from a server hosting the virtual machine.