Remote control of a plurality of virtual machines using actions facilitated through a graphic user interface

• US 8,863,122 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2009
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Regional Resources Ltd (Imperial Metals Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Bouchier, Paul, Garee, Scott E., Jacquot, Bryan J.
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zhao, Bing
• Application Number:
  US13/383,506
• Publication Number:
  US 20120124580A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,901 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/549 Remote execution
• 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 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system

Abstract

A system is operatively coupled to a remote computer via a network. The system comprises service processing logic and a server executing a virtual machine. The service processing logic controls the virtual machine as directed by the remote computer.

Claims

1. A server computing system operatively coupled to a remote computer via a network, comprising:

service processing logic; and

a processing logic coupled to the service processing logic and executing a plurality of virtual machines;

wherein the service processing logic controls the virtual machines as directed by the remote computer;

wherein the service processing logic generates a first graphical user interface (GUI) to be transmitted to the remote computer, the first GUI to display a list of the plurality of virtual machines and to enable a user of the remote computer to select one of the virtual machines from the list and an action to be performed on the selected virtual machine, the selected action to be performed on the selected virtual machine independent of the other of the plurality of virtual machines;

wherein the service processing logic generates a second GUI to enable the user of the remote computer to select a virtual machine from the plurality of virtual machines to which a hardware peripheral device accessible to the remote computer is to be mapped; and

wherein, in response to a command from the remote computer, the service processing logic causes the selected virtual machine to perform an action selected from the group consisting of starting the virtual machine, stopping the virtual machine, and re-booting the virtual machine.

2. The server computing system according to claim 1, further comprising a virtual machine manager, and wherein the service processing logic controls the virtual machine using the virtual machine manager.

3. The server computing system of claim 1, wherein the service processing logic collects video display data associated with the virtual machine and transmits the video display data to the remote computer for display on the remote computer.

4. The server computing system of claim 1, wherein the service processing logic virtualizes the hardware peripheral device of the remote computer and enables the virtual machine to access the virtualized peripheral device.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising code which, when executed, causes hardware processing logic to:

receive user-input data from a remote computer via a network;

control a virtual machine using said data;

generate a first graphical user interface (GUI) to be transmitted to the remote computer and to thereon display a list of a plurality of virtual machines and to enable a user of the remote computer to select one of the virtual machines from the list and an action to be performed on the selected virtual machine, the selected action to be performed on the selected virtual machine independent of the other of the plurality of virtual machines; and

generates a second GUI to enable the user of the remote computer to select a virtual machine from the plurality of virtual machines to which a hardware peripheral device accessible to the remote computer is to be mapped;

wherein, in response to said user-input data, the selected action includes at least one of power cycling the selected virtual machine, powering on the selected virtual machine, powering off or shutting down the selected virtual machine, and resetting the selected virtual machine.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 5, wherein the hardware processing logic:

transmits to the remote computer video data of a graphical user interface associated with a selected virtual machine; and

transmits to said selected virtual machine user-input data entered into the remote computer in response to displaying said video data.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein the hardware processing logic provides a service to the selected virtual machine, and wherein part of providing said service includes using the hardware peripheral device coupled to the remote computer.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein said computer-readable medium is housed within a server.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5 wherein the code, when executed, causes the hardware processing logic to generate a third GUI to be transmitted to the remote computer to enable the user of the remote computer to select for display on the remote computer a desktop of a server on which a selected virtual machine executes or a desktop of the selected virtual machine.

10. A method, comprising:

providing a first graphical user interface (GIU) from a host computer to a remote computer, the first GUI displaying on the remote computer a list of a plurality of virtual machines and to enable a user of the remote computer to select one of the virtual machines from the list as well as an action to be performed on the selected virtual machine, the selected action to be performed on the selected virtual machine independent of the other of the plurality of virtual machines;

receiving user input from the remote computer via the first GUI, the user input including a selection of a virtual machine and an action to be performed on the selected virtual machine;

in accordance with the user input, performing the action using the host computer on the selected virtual machine; and

generating a second GUI to enable the user of the remote computer to select a virtual machine from the plurality of virtual machines to which a hardware peripheral device accessible to the remote computer is to be mapped;

wherein said action is selected from the group consisting of starting, stopping, re-booting and shutting down.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising providing images associated with a virtual machine from the host computer to the remote computer.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

loading a software-encoded medium into the hardware peripheral device coupled to the remote computer;

service processing logic on the host computer mapping the peripheral device to the virtual machine; and

applying software from the software-encoded medium to the virtual machine.