Provisioned virtual computing

• US 8,725,886 B1
• Filed: 10/19/2007
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omnissa, LLC
• Original Assignee: Desktone Incorporated (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pulier, Eric, Battersby, Clinton B., Gaffney, Paul J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Ian N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alexander, Jenee
• Application Number:
  US11/875,297
• Time in Patent Office: 2,398 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226, 709/224, 709/229
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data

Abstract

A policy indicative of overprovisioning and underprovisioning indicators defining rules to specify a triggering event indicating the need to reassess the provisioning of a user. Such reprovisioning occurs automatically upon occurrences of predetermined events, and may even be undetectable to the user. Since the reprovisioning can either expand or contract the resources available to a particular user, users are matched to an optimal, or “best fit” computational resource set to correspond to the demands of the particular user. Provisioning determining a class of the user, and is indicative of an expected resource load the user imposes. The provisioner continuously monitors usage imposed by the user to aggregate a user profile indicative of provisioning demands, automatically reevaluating the class based on the aggregated user profile according to predetermined events, and selectively reassigning the provisioning environment based on the reevaluation.

Claims

1. A method of providing a desktop computing environment to each of multiple users comprising:

assigning each of the multiple users to a class among a plurality of classes, each class being indicative of computing resources that a user in the class is expected to consume when using the desktop computing environment;

after receiving a request for a desktop computing environment from one of the multiple users;

determining a class assigned to the user;

within the determined class, computing environment parameters based on a user profile corresponding to the user;

applying the environment parameters to a virtual machine supporting a provisioned environment for the user corresponding to the determined class for the user, the provisioned environment including processor, memory, and storage resources according to the class and an operating system and applications assigned to the user to provide the user'"'"'s desktop computing environment;

assigning the user to the provisioned environment corresponding to the class;

monitoring and recording usage of the provisioned environment by the user including processor and memory utilization;

for each of the multiple users, after occurrence of predetermined events;

evaluating the recorded usage of the provisioned environment by the user to determine whether to modify the provisioned environment for the user; and

modifying the provisioned environment for the user according to the evaluation and a best fit metric to match parameters of the provisioned environment with recorded usage by the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined classes define a range of platforms to address computing requirements, including at least one of:

a terminal server class having a shared operating system and memory pool serving a plurality of low impact users;

a hypervisor class separating individual users by providing an isolated operating system and memory pool; and

a grid class operable to be diverted to an alternate computing facility with virtually unlimited computing capabilities offered as a service.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein monitoring usage is performed in an ongoing continuous manner, such that continuously monitoring the usage generates a user profile indicative of:

utilization of a central processing unit by the virtual machine;

memory usage of the virtual machine; and

page faults of the virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein modifying the provisioned environment occurs upon a determination of misprovisioning of the user, misprovisioning indicative of the user being underprovisioned or overprovisioned by the assigned provisioning environment.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the hypervisor class provides user isolation by maintaining a desktop, the desktop having an independent operating system, and memory space immune from violations in other environments.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the determined platform indicates a specific selection of computing devices with which to service the user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the predetermined events triggering reevaluation occur with respect to a particular provisioned environment of a user and initiate the automatic reevaluation of provisioning, the reevaluation applicable upon successive logins.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined events including:

user logout, the reevaluation applicable upon successive logins;

explicit user requests for reevaluation; and

triggering events having a correlation to underprovisioning occurrences.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the triggering events denote occurrences likely to identify misprovisioning of a user, the triggering events including at least one of:

excessive page faults indicating a lack of available memory;

disproportionate central processing unit usage; and

application load time.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the users further define user groups, further comprising:

separating the user groups of users from provisioning classes, such that users in a designated group are assigned provisioning levels independent of the provisioning levels of the other users in the group.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the best fit metric defines a policy, the policy defining rules selectable by an enterprise for provisioning users, the rules specifying overprovisioning and underprovisioning thresholds, wherein the triggering events are defined by the rules.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

monitoring the provisioning environment to detect service provisioning deficiencies;

remedying the detected deficiencies by at least one of;

increasing environment parameters defining available computing resources;

or

reassigning the provisioning environment to a different class having increased computing resources;

reviewing performance and utilization data in the aggregate user profile to detect over-provisioned virtual desktops; and

removing excessive computing resources by at least one of;

decreasing computing environment parameters;

or

reassigning the provisioning environment to a different class having decreased computing resources.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein assigning the provisioning environment further includes:

determining, based on the user profile, environmental parameters indicative of the provisioned environment, the environmental parameters including operating system independence, memory space independence, and processor specification.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein evaluating the environmental parameters further comprises:

receiving an indication of a triggering event indicative of a need to reevaluate a particular user;

comparing a user profile indicative of provisioning demands of the user to a current set of environmental parameters defining the users resource availability, and based on the comparing;

changing the class of the user;

or

modifying the environment parameters independently of the environmental parameters of other users.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the class further comprises determining if a requester requires a dedicated operating system and processor:

assigning, if a dedicated operating system is called for, the user to a hypervisor class providing a dedicated operating system specific to processes of the user; and

assigning the user to a grid class if a dedicated processor is called for.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein reassigning is based on a user profile including a history of previous events, and reevaluating includes analyzing events independently of computing activity of other users.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring usage further includes gathering a history of previous events by determining processor utilization, memory usage, and page faults.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein matching to the class further includes defining separation of memory space, operating system and processor.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the classes define separation of memory space, operating systems and processor, a hypervisor class providing separate memory space and operating systems, and a grid class providing a separate processor, memory space and operating system.

20. A computer system for supporting provisioning of a desktop computing environment to each of multiple users comprising:

an interface to a rendering device for receiving a request for a desktop computing environment from a user from among the multiple users;

a provisioner for determining a class of the user, from among a plurality of classes, each class being indicative of computing resources that a user in the class is expected to consume when using the desktop computing environment;

a user profile, the provisioner further operable to employ the user profile to;

within the determined class, compute environment parameters based on a user profile corresponding to the user; and

apply the environment parameters to a virtual machine so as to provision the requested desktop computing environment for the user corresponding to the determined class for the user, the provisioned desktop computing environment including processor, memory and storage resources sufficient to provide the computing resources that the user is expected to consume according to the class and an operating system and applications assigned to the user;

a connection broker for assigning the user to the provisioned desktop computing environment corresponding to the class,

the provisioner further monitoring and recording usage of the provisioned desktop computing environment by the user including processor and memory utilization;

best fit logic in the provisioner for evaluating the recorded usage of the provisioned desktop computing environment by the user after occurrence of predetermined events, using a best fit metric to match parameters of the provisioned desktop computing environment with recorded usage by the user;

an instance manager for modifying the provisioned desktop computing environment for the user based on the evaluation.

21. The computer system of claim 20 wherein the provisioner is further operable employ the user profile to:

monitor the usage to continue to aggregate the user profile indicative of;

utilization of a central processing unit by the virtual machine;

memory usage of the virtual machine; and

page faults of the virtual machine.

22. The computer system of claim 21 wherein the determined classes define a range of platforms to address computing requirements, including at least one of:

a terminal server class having a shared operating system and memory pool serving a plurality of low impact users;

a hypervisor class separating individual users by providing an isolated operating system and memory pool, the hypervisor class providing user isolation by maintaining the desktop, the desktop having an independent operating system, and memory space immune from violations in other environments; and

a grid class operable to be diverted to an alternate computing facility having substantially more computing resources than the hypervisor class for users invoking at least intermittent bursts of intense usage.

23. The computer system of claim 22 wherein reassigning the user occurs upon a determination of misprovisioning of the user, misprovisioning indicative of the user being underprovisioned or overprovisioned by the assigned provisioning environment.

24. The computer system of claim 20 wherein the provisioner is responsive to predetermined events to initiate the automatic reevaluation, the predetermined events including:

user logout, the reevaluation applicable upon successive logins;

explicit user requests for reevaluation; and

triggering events having a correlation to underprovisioning occurrences.

25. The computer system of claim 24 wherein the triggering events denote occurrences likely to identify misprovisioning of a user, the triggering events including:

excessive page faults;

disproportionate central processing unit usage; and

substantial memory consumption.

26. The computer system of claim 25 wherein the best fit logic defines a policy, the policy defining rules selectable by an enterprise for provisioning users, the rules specifying overprovisioning and underprovisioning thresholds, wherein the triggering events are defined by the rules.

27. A computer program product having a computer readable storage operable to store a set of encoded instructions which, when executed by a processor responsive to the instructions, cause a computer connected to the computer readable storage to perform method of providing an automatically reprovisioned desktop computing environment to each of multiple users comprising:

computer program code for receiving a request for a desktop computing environment from a user among the multiple users;

computer program code for determining a class of the user, from among a plurality of classes, each class being indicative of computing resources that a user in the class is expected to consume when using the desktop computing environment;

computer program code for computing, within the determined class, environment parameters based on a user profile corresponding to the user;

computer program code for applying the environment parameters to a virtual machine so as to provision the requested desktop computing environment for the user corresponding to the determined class for the user, the provisioned desktop computing environment including processor, memory and storage resources sufficient to provide the computing resources that the user is expected to consume according to the class and an operating system and applications assigned to the user;

computer program code for assigning the user to the provisioned desktop computing environment corresponding to the class;

computer program code for, within the determined class, continuously monitoring and recording usage of the provisioned desktop computing environment by the user, including processor and memory utilization;

computer program code for evaluating the recorded usage of the provisioned desktop computing environment by the user after occurrence of predetermined events, including

invoking a best-fit metric to match parameters of the provisioned desktop computing environment with recorded usage by the user; and

modifying the provisioned desktop computing environment for the user based on the evaluation.

28. A method of organizing desktop computing for virtual provisioning of desktop computing environments to each of multiple users comprising:

designating a desktop computing environment for a user by assigning a provisioning environment from a range of available computing environments, designating further comprising;

computing environment parameters based on a user profile corresponding to the user; and

applying the environment parameters to a virtual machine so as to provision the desktop computing environment of the user, the provisioned desktop computing environment comprising processor, memory and storage resources and an operating system and applications assigned to the user sufficient to provide the computing resources that the user is expected to consume according to the class;

monitoring and recording usage of the provisioned desktop computing environment including processor and memory utilization,

periodically reviewing the recorded usage of the provisioned desktop computing environment to detect service provisioning deficiencies using a best fit metric that matches parameters of the provisioned desktop computing environment with the recorded usage by the user, service provisioning deficiencies indicative of at least one of overprovisioning or underprovisioning a user, each provisioned desktop computing environment having an assigned class indicative of an allocation of computing resources and environment parameters indicative of available computing resources;

remedying a detected underprovisioning by at least one of;

increasing environment parameters defining available computing resources;

or

reassigning the user to a different class having increased computing resources;

remedying a detected overprovisioning by at least one of;

removing excessive computing resources by reducing environment parameters;

or

reassigning the user to a different class having decreased computing resources.

29. The method of claim 28 further comprising:

detecting misprovisioning via monitors and triggers, monitors indicative of a usage over time and triggers indicative of a misprovisioning event, further comprising;

monitoring resources to identify a usage threshold indicative of overprovisioning, the monitored resources including at least one of central processing unit utilization, memory utilization, and paging activity; and

intercepting triggers include user feedback, application termination, and help desk calls.