METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING A ROAMING REMOTE DESKTOP

• US 20150304455A1
• Filed: 06/29/2015
• Published: 10/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: ANTONY, Jinto
• Granted Patent: US 10,389,852 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5088 involving task migration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• 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 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for migrating a linked clone virtual machine (VM) based on a location of a client device. In one embodiment, a client device transmits its location to a VM management center, and a migration application running thereon determines whether the client device and a linked clone VM to which the client device is attempting to connect are at the same location. If the client device and the linked clone VM are not at the same location, the migration application identifies a VM hosting site proximate to the client device, and instructs a hypervisor to “cold” migrate the linked clone VM and its associated redo log to a VM host and a storage device, respectively, at the identified VM hosting site. The link clone VM may then be “actively” linked to a base VM at the VM hosting site, while maintaining “passive” links to base VM(s) at other locations.

Claims

1. A method for providing a roaming remote desktop, comprising:

maintaining, at a first VM hosting site, a delta disk for a linked clone virtual machine (VM), wherein the delta disk includes metadata indicating a base VM to which the linked clone VM is actively linked and one or more other base VMs at other VM hosting sites to which the linked clone VM is passively linked; and

responsive to receiving an updated location of a client device;

migrating the linked clone VM to one of the other VM hosting sites, and

changing the delta disk metadata to indicate the linked clone VM is actively linked to the base VM at the one of the other VM hosting sites and passively linked to the base VM at the first VM hosting site.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one of the other VM hosting sites is chosen as a migration destination for the linked clone VM based on proximity to the location of the client device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein proximity to the location of the client device includes at least one of being within a given radius, being in a same city, being in a same country, being in a same office, being physically closest to the client device, and having less than a given latency.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein proximity to the location of the client device is determined based on location information received from the client device including at least one of latitude and longitude, an internet protocol (IP) address of a Wi-Fi router, an IP address of an internet service provider, and a private IP address.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the location of the client device is received during an attempt by the client device to connect to the linked clone VM, and

wherein the migration is performed before the client device is connected to the linked clone VM.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the location of the client device is received after the client device connects to a different Wi-Fi router or internet service provider (ISP).

7. The method of claim 1,

wherein the base VMs at the first VM hosting site and the other VM hosting sites have identical base disks, and

wherein updates to one of the base disks are automatically propagated to the other identical base disks based on the active and passive links.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the migration of the linked clone VM is a cold migration in which the linked clone VM is transferred in a powered off state.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program instructions for providing a roaming remote desktop, the operations comprising:

maintaining, at a first VM hosting site, a delta disk for a linked clone virtual machine (VM), wherein the delta disk includes metadata indicating a base VM to which the linked clone VM is actively linked and one or more other base VMs at other VM hosting sites to which the linked clone VM is passively linked; and

responsive to receiving an updated location of a client device;

migrating the linked clone VM to one of the other VM hosting sites, and

changing the delta disk metadata to indicate the linked clone VM is actively linked to the base VM at the one of the other VM hosting sites and passively linked to the base VM at the first VM hosting site.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the one of the other VM hosting sites is chosen as a migration destination for the linked clone VM based on proximity to the location of the client device.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein proximity to the location of the client device includes at least one of being within a given radius, being in a same city, being in a same country, being in a same office, being physically closest to the client device, and having less than a given latency.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein proximity to the location of the client device is determined based on location information received from the client device including at least one of latitude and longitude, an internet protocol (IP) address of a Wi-Fi router, an IP address of an internet service provider, and a private IP address.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9,

wherein the location of the client device is received during an attempt by the client device to connect to the linked clone VM, and

wherein the migration is performed before the client device is connected to the linked clone VM.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the location of the client device is received after the client device connects to a different Wi-Fi router or internet service provider (ISP).

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9,

wherein the base VMs at the first VM hosting site and the other VM hosting sites have identical base disks, and

wherein updates to one of the base disks are automatically propagated to the other identical base disks based on the active and passive links.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the migration of the linked clone VM is a cold migration in which the linked clone VM is transferred in a powered off state.

17. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, wherein the memory includes a program for reducing perceived read latency, the program being configured to perform operations for providing a roaming desktop, comprising;

maintaining, at a first VM hosting site, a delta disk for a linked clone virtual machine (VM), wherein the delta disk includes metadata indicating a base VM to which the linked clone VM is actively linked and one or more other base VMs at other VM hosting sites to which the linked clone VM is passively linked, and

responsive to receiving an updated location of a client device;

migrating the linked clone VM to one of the other VM hosting sites; and

changing the delta disk metadata to indicate the linked clone VM is actively linked to the base VM at the one of the other VM hosting sites and passively linked to the base VM at the first VM hosting site.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the one of the other VM hosting sites is chosen as a migration destination for the linked clone VM based on proximity to the location of the client device.

19. The system of claim 17,

wherein the location of the client device is received during an attempt by the client device to connect to the linked clone VM, and

wherein the migration is performed before the client device is connected to the linked clone VM.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the location of the client device is received after the client device connects to a different Wi-Fi router or internet service provider (ISP).