Virtualized desktop allocation system using virtual infrastructure

• US 8,555,274 B1
• Filed: 03/31/2006
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omnissa, LLC
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chawla, Puneet, Anderson, Jennifer-Ann M., Chen, Gerald C., Qurashi, Junaid, Lin, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Camquy
• Application Number:
  US11/395,012
• Time in Patent Office: 2,748 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/1
• 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: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

A plurality of virtual machines (VMs) is established and maintained by virtualization software on one or more physical servers. Desktop management software operates to provide the VMs to remote users as virtualized desktops. The desktop management software includes a connection broker, that allows a remote user to select a type of virtualized desktop and initiate a desktop session. The desktop management software further includes lease management functionality, that ensures users are provided access to a particular virtualized desktop for only a fixed period of time. In addition, the desktop management software provides an administrative console, which allows an administrator to set various parameters, including QoS parameters, and parameters specifying the resources allocated to each user. The desktop management software interacts with lower level software to provide load-balancing functionality, that adjusts the resources provided to each VM based on the needs of the VM. The load-balancing functionality also ensures that QoS parameters are met, and that the parameters specifying the maximum resources allocated to each user are not exceeded.

Claims

1. A method of providing a remote virtualized desktop to a user, comprising:

setting resource parameters for a user, each of the resource parameters specifying a maximum resource allocation for a resource for all virtual machines provided to a particular user at one time, the resource parameters comprising at least one of a central processing unit (CPU) usage or a memory usage;

receiving a request from a remote computer or remote terminal associated with the user for a remote virtualized desktop;

determining whether providing access to a virtual machine for providing the requested virtualized desktop would cause the maximum resource allocation of any of the resource parameters set for the user to be exceeded;

if none of the maximum resource allocations of the set resource parameters would be exceeded, providing a connection between the remote computer or remote terminal and the virtual machine, thereby providing the remote virtualized desktop; and

if at least one of the maximum resource allocations of the set resource parameters would be exceeded, denying the request for the remote virtualized desktop.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of physical servers are partitioned into a plurality of virtual machines that implement virtualized desktops, and wherein the virtual machine for providing the requested remote virtualized desktop is selected from the plurality of virtual machines.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether providing access to the virtual machine for providing the requested virtualized desktop would cause the maximum resource allocation of any of the resource parameters set for the user to be exceeded comprises:

attempting to power on a virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether providing access to the virtual machine for providing the requested virtualized desktop would cause the maximum resource allocation of any of the resource parameters set for the user to be exceeded comprises:

associating the virtualized desktop into a pool of virtualized desktops associated the user; and

determining whether a sum of resources allocated to the virtualized desktops in the pool exceeds one of the resource parameters.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user has access to a plurality of virtualized desktops located on a plurality of physical servers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection has a fixed lease.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

if the lease has expired, disconnecting the provided virtual machine from the remote terminal or remote computer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the provided virtualized desktop is designated as a private desktop available only to a specified user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the provided virtualized desktop is designated as a public desktop available to any user with appropriate permission.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtualized desktop is a member of a logical group of virtualized desktops.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing content that controls a processor, when executed, to perform a method comprising:

in response to a request for a virtualized desktop to be provided to a particular user,

associating the virtualized desktop with the particular user by adding the virtualized desktop to a resource pool for the particular user;

conditionally providing a connection between a remote terminal or remote computer and the virtualized desktop if a maximum amount of resources guaranteed to the resource pool for the particular user are not exceeded, thereby guaranteeing, to the resource pool for the particular user at one time, a maximum amount of resources defined by one or more resource parameters; and

denying the request for the virtualized desktop if providing the connection exceeds the maximum amount of resources guaranteed to the resource pool of the particular user.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the resource parameters of the resource pool comprise at least one of a central processing unit (CPU) usage and a memory usage.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, the conditionally providing the connection between the remote terminal or remote computer and the virtualized desktop based upon guaranteed resources further comprising:

determining whether adding the virtualized desktop to the resource pool for the user would cause a value of a resource parameter of the one or more resource parameters to be exceeded.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, the method further comprising:

determining whether the sum of resources guaranteed to virtualized desktops in the resource pool exceeds one of the resource parameters.

15. The computer-readable of claim 11, the method further comprising:

providing the connection between the remote terminal or remote computer and the virtualized desktop only when adding the virtualized desktop to the resource pool would not cause one of the resource parameters of the resource pool to be exceeded.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 wherein the tangible medium is a computer memory and the content are instructions stored in the memory.

17. A method of providing a remote virtualized desktop to a user, comprising:

providing a plurality of Quality of Service (QoS) parameters, each of the QoS parameters having a value that describe a maximum load to service a particular user at one time;

receiving a request for a remote virtualized desktop from the user;

determining whether providing access to a virtual machine for providing the requested remote virtualized desktop would cause the value of one of the plurality of QoS parameters that describes the maximum load to service the particular user to be exceeded;

if none of the provided QoS parameter values would be exceeded, providing a connection between a remote terminal or remote computer and the virtual machine, thereby providing the requested remote virtualized desktop; and

if at least one of the QoS parameter values would be exceeded, denying the request for the remote virtualized desktop.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein a plurality of physical servers are partitioned into a plurality of virtual machines that implement virtualized desktops, and wherein the virtual machine for providing the requested remote virtualized desktop—

is selected from the plurality of virtual machines.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of the plurality of QoS parameters describes the maximum number of virtual machines that may be allocated to any one user and/or describes the maximum number of virtual machines that may run on a physical server.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of the plurality of QoS parameters describes the maximum number of virtual machines that may be managed by a virtual machine management server.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the user has access to a plurality of virtualized desktops located on a plurality of physical servers.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the connection has a fixed lease.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

if the lease has expired, disconnecting the provided virtual machine from the remote terminal or remote computer.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the provided virtualized desktop is designated as a private desktop available only to a specified user.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the provided virtualized desktop is designated as a public desktop available to any user with appropriate permission.

26. The method of claim 17, wherein the provided virtualized desktop is a member of a logical group of virtualized desktops.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing content that controls a processor, when executed, to perform a method comprising:

in response to a user request for a remote virtualized desktop,

determining whether providing access to a virtual machine for providing the requested remote virtualized desktop would cause the value of one of the plurality of QoS parameters that describes a maximum load to service the particular user to be exceeded;

providing a connection between a remote terminal or remote computer and the virtualized desktop if providing the connection would not cause a Quality of Service (QoS) parameter value to be exceeded; and

denying the user request for the remote virtualized desktop if providing the connection would cause a QoS parameter value to be exceeded,

wherein each of the QoS parameter values specifies a maximum load to service a particular user at one time.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 27, wherein the QoS parameters comprise at least one of the maximum number of virtual machines that may be allocated to any one user, the maximum number of virtual machines that may run on a physical server, and/or the maximum number of virtual machines that may be managed by a virtual machine management server.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 27 wherein the tangible medium is a computer memory and the content are instructions stored in the memory.