On Premises, Remotely Managed, Host Computers for Virtual Desktops

• US 20150058969A1
• Filed: 08/21/2014
• Published: 02/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omnissa, LLC
• Original Assignee: Desktone Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ringdahl, Kenneth N., Alvino, Anthony Jr., Allan, Daniel B.
• Granted Patent: US 10,439,988 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4675 Dynamic sharing of VLAN information amongst network nodes configuration of the network or of network elements H04L41/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/72 using reservation actions during connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/781 Centralised allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/70 Virtual switches
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks

Abstract

Virtual desktops are hosted on one or more remote desktop hosts at one or more private locations of an enterprise, remote from a service provider location, and behind a firewall on a private computer network. The desktops are remotely managed through resources at a service provider data center, optionally along with other virtual desktops hosted on desktop hosts at the service provider data center. The remote desktop hosts can be pre-configured with known storage, compute and connectivity resources. The remote desktop hosts can be remotely managed through a resource management appliance, i.e., a management system running resource management software, which can be located at either the service provider data center or the tenant data center.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a service provider management system on a service provider computer network;

a resource management system;

one or more desktop hosts, the one or more hosts residing on an enterprise computer network connected through a firewall to a publicly accessible computer network;

the resource management system connecting to the one or more desktop hosts, such connection enabling the resource management system to provision virtual desktops on the one or more desktop hosts,

the virtual desktops using resources on the enterprise computer network behind the firewall with respect to the publicly accessible computer network and the service provider computer network,

the resource management system being able to provision such resources for a virtual desktop on the one or more host computers;

the service provider management system being in communication with the resource management system to track resources available for the enterprise;

the virtual desktops being accessible by client computers over the enterprise computer network and over the publicly accessible computer network though a virtual private network extending the enterprise computer network, the virtual desktops being used by users on the client end points to access the resources on the enterprise computer network.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the connection of the resource management system to the one or more desktop hosts is through a virtual private network extending the service provider computer network.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the resource management system is located on the enterprise computer network and connects directly to the one or more desktop hosts on the enterprise computer network.

4. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising:

a tenant appliance located at the service provider data center, the tenant appliance tracking information about desktops allocated on the desktop hosts.

5. The computer system of claim 4, further comprising:

a desktop manager connected to the desktop hosts, the desktop manager communicating the information about the desktops to the tenant appliance.

6. The computer system of claim 4, further comprising:

a first desktop manager connected to the desktop hosts at a first location of a tenant, the desktop manager communicating the information about the desktops to the tenant appliance;

a second desktop manager connected to the desktop hosts at a second location of a tenant, the desktop manager communicating the information about the desktops to the tenant appliance; and

wherein the tenant appliance aggregates the information from the first and second desktop managers for the tenant.

7. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising a host manager providing an interface through which the resource management system connects to the one or more desktop hosts.

8. A desktop host for supporting virtual desktops, comprising:

at least one network connection for connection to an enterprise computer network and at least one network connection for connection to a management computer network;

the desktop host being responsive to instructions from a resource management system received over the management computer network for provisioning virtual desktops on the host computer, the virtual desktops being provisioned with resources including network access to the enterprise computer network;

each virtual desktop being configured to be accessed by client end points connected to the enterprise computer network.

9. The desktop host of claim 8, wherein the enterprise computer network and the management computer network are separate networks with separate physical network connections.

10. The desktop host of claim 8, wherein the enterprise computer network and the management computer network are the same computer network.

11. The desktop host of claim 10, wherein the resource management system resides on the enterprise computer network and is responsive to instructions received from a service provider management appliance to instruct the desktop host to provision the virtual desktops.

12. The desktop host of claim 10, further comprising a host manager providing an interface to receive the instructions from the resource management system to provision the virtual desktops.

13. A method of managing a desktop hosting environment using a network communication protocol, the method comprising:

configuring a desktop host on a local area computer network of an enterprise;

configuring a management appliance on a service provider computer network;

reporting to the management appliance, over the communication connection, information about status and available capacity of the desktop host; and

receiving instructions from the management appliance to provision virtual desktops on the desktop host.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

reporting to the management appliance status of virtual desktops on desktop host.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

the management appliance receiving a request to allocate a virtual desktop to a user device;

allocating a virtual desktop on the desktop host to the user device;

providing a network address to the user device for accessing the virtual desktop.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising configuring the remote desktop host to provision and manage desktops on a segment of a virtual network that is co-resident to the remote desktop host, the network segment including services comprising domain name services, dynamic host configuration protocol services, gateway services and directory services.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the virtual desktops use a network communication protocol to establish computer network connection with a tenant or desktop manager appliance, the method comprising:

allocating an internal network address for the tenant appliance being one of a plurality of tenant appliances on the computer network which manage a plurality of virtual desktops on the remote desktop host over a virtual private network connection;

establishing a persistent network connection between the virtual desktops and the tenant appliance; and

reporting to the tenant appliance over the persistent network connection as to the session status and power state of each virtual desktop.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising configuring an access gateway to enable direct access to the virtual desktop when the user device is not on the enterprise computer network.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

a tenant appliance receiving a connection request from the user device across the computer network for a desktop allocation;

the tenant appliance sending a configuration request to grant access to the virtual desktop from that user device;

the tenant appliance returning network connection information for the virtual desktop to the endpoint device; and

the endpoint device connecting to the virtual desktop via the access gateway.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving instructions comprises:

a resource management appliance on an enterprise computer network receiving, through a gateway on a public network an instruction from a service provider management appliance on a server provider computer network;

the resource management appliance provide the instruction to a host manager appliance providing an interface to the desktop host.