SESSION MONITORING OF VIRTUAL DESKTOPS IN A VIRTUAL MACHINE FARM

• US 20110153838A1
• Filed: 12/18/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Belkine, Artem, Ben-Shachar, Ido
• Granted Patent: US 8,949,408 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/301 where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5016 Session
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/08 specially adapted for terminal emulation, e.g. Telnet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066

Abstract

Disclosed are techniques for determining the status of virtual machine sessions on a computing device for a user by reading from a memory location written to by a program executing within a virtual machine. The memory location is preferably a registry key that contains the status of a remote user session operating on a guest operating system operational on the virtual machine, the virtual machine executing in a virtual environment comprising a plurality of virtual machines operating on a computing device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

writing from computer instruction executing within a virtual machine information into a memory location regarding the status of a remote user session operating on a guest operating system operational on the virtual machine, the virtual machine executing in a virtual environment comprising a plurality of virtual machines operating on a computing device;

a host program operational on the computing device, the host program reading the status of the remote user session from the memory location; and

updating a second computing device with the status of the user session.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the reading of the memory location comprises reading a registry key within the guest operating system.

3. The method of claim 1 comprising a virtualization manager program polling the values stored in the registry key by the computer instructions executing within the virtual machine.

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

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the information tracked includes session state.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the host program is operating in a second operating system that is operational on the computing device.

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 host module that determines the status of user sessions operation on a virtual machine by polling a memory location in which a virtual machine reports the status of user sessions on the virtual machine, the host module reporting the status information to a server that uses the status information to reconnect remote computing devices with preexisting user sessions; and

the virtual machine to report status of user sessions on said virtual machines by writing the status of said user sessions to the memory location.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the system is one of a plurality of servers in a server farm.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the memory location is a registry key within the guest operating system.

10. The system of claim 9, the at least one memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed cause:

a virtualization manager program to poll the values stored in the registry key by the computer instructions executing within the virtual machine.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that report the users session to a server that tracks user sessions by way of information received from the computing device hosting the virtual machine.

12. The system of claim 7 wherein the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that poll the registry information at different rates based on the previous state of the user session.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the host module is operating in a second operating system that is operational on the computing device.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the user sessions are connected to a virtual machine using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, comprising instructions that instantiate a host module in a second operating system for reading from the memory.

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 server a request from a client computer for a connection;

determining whether a previous virtual machine session exists on a server for the user by reading from a memory location written by a program executing within a virtual machine the status of a remote user session operating on a guest operating system operational on the virtual machine, the virtual machine executing in a virtual environment comprising a plurality of virtual machines operating on a computing device.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein the memory location is a registry key within the guest operating system.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, comprising instructions that instantiate a virtualization manager program that polls the values stored in the registry key by the computer instructions executing within the virtual machine.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, comprising instructions that report the users session to a server that tracks user sessions by way of information received from the computing device hosting the virtual machine.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 15 comprising instructions that poll the registry information at different rates based on the previous state of the user session.