MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING SESSIONS

• US 20150019733A1
• Filed: 06/26/2013
• Published: 01/15/2015
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 10,623,243 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• 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:

one or more computers of a Program Execution Service (PES) including processors 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;

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

provide, to the computing device, a copy of the data store for the user and an image of the operating system running within the virtual desktop instance;

provide, to the computing device, a virtual desktop monitoring module configured to run a local virtual desktop instance from the image of the operating system and the virtual desktop monitoring module configured to attach the copy of the data store to the local virtual desktop instance on the computing device; and

receive a request from the computing device to synchronize the copy of the data store with the data store on the one or more volumes.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions, upon execution, further cause the PES to synchronize the copy of the data store with the data store on the one or more volumes based on policy rules associated with the user.

3. The system of claim 2, 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. A computer-implemented method comprising:

transmitting, via a network connection, a request to a Program Execution Service (PES) to access a virtual desktop instance;

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

receiving, via the network connection, at least a portion of user content in a data store and storing the at least a portion of the user content in a local data store;

launching, by a virtual desktop monitoring module, a local virtual desktop instance based on a local image of the operating system; and

attaching, by the virtual desktop monitoring module, 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.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising sending a request to the PES to enter a disconnected mode;

and receiving least the portion of the user content.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising determining that the network connection is likely to be interrupted based at least in part on a degradation in the network bandwidth;

and receiving least the portion of the user content.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising, subsequent to determining that the network connection is likely to be interrupted, launching the local virtual desktop instance and receiving least the portion of the user content.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 further comprising capturing information related to execution of the operating system onto the copy of the data store.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 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.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprising terminating the local virtual desktop instance.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the local image of the operating system is a different operating system version than an operating system used to generate the virtual desktop instance.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising receiving at least a portion of a desktop profile for the user and storing it in a local data store, wherein the operating system running in the local desktop instance is configured according to the desktop profile for the user.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 further comprising synchronizing changes to the desktop profile for the user in the local data store with a desktop profile for the user stored in a data store maintained by the PES.

16. Non-transitory physical computer storage comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a 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 for the user and a data store for the user, wherein upon attachment of the one or more volumes to the virtual desktop instance an operating system within the virtual desktop instance is personalized according to the desktop personalization information for the user and at least a portion of operating system input/output operations are redirected to the data store for the user;

provide, to a computing device associated with the user, at least a portion of the desktop personalization information and at least a portion of the data store for the user;

enable the computing device to run a local virtual desktop instance and to attach a local data store that includes at least the provided portion of the desktop personalization information and the provided portion of the data store for the user; and

receive a request from the client computing device to synchronize the local data store with the data store on the one or more volumes.

17. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 16, wherein the adapted version of the image of the operating system 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.

18. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 16, 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.

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

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

configure a virtual desktop instance corresponding to the request; and

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

20. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 19, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, direct the computing system to synchronize the second virtual desktop instance with the local data store.