Method and system for providing a roaming remote desktop

• US 9,069,608 B2
• Filed: 03/06/2013
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Antony, Jinto
• Primary Examiner(s): LIN, WEN TAI
• Application Number:
  US13/787,641
• Publication Number:
  US 20140258533A1
• Time in Patent Office: 846 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 a plurality of identical base disks at respective virtual machine (VM) hosting sites, the VM hosting sites being further configured to maintain redo logs which store differences between parent and linked clone VMs;

identifying a VM hosting site proximate to a location of a client device;

migrating a linked clone VM to a VM host at the identified VM hosting site; and

establishing a remote desktop connection between the client device and the linked clone VM,

wherein, at any given time, the linked clone VM is actively linked to one of the base disks and passively linked to one or more other base disks, the active and passive links being maintained as metadata in a file representing a redo log of the linked clone VM,

wherein the link between the linked clone VM and a base disk at the identified VM hosting site is changed to an active link and the remaining links between the linked clone VM and the other base disks are passive links after the linked clone VM is migrated to the VM host at the identified VM hosting site, and

wherein updates to one of the base disks upon which the linked clone VM relies are automatically propagated to other base disks that are identified as copies of the updated one of the base disks based on the active and passive links.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, receiving the location of the client device from the client device, wherein the location is determined by the client device based on one of a 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.

3. The method of claim 2, 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.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the migration of the linked clone VM is a cold migration.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the migration is over a wide area network (WAN).

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

maintaining a plurality of identical base disks at respective virtual machine (VM) hosting sites, the VM hosting sites being further configured to maintain redo logs which store differences between parent and linked clone VMs;

identifying a VM hosting site proximate to a location of a client device;

migrating a linked clone VM to a VM host at the identified VM hosting site; and

establishing a remote desktop connection between the client device and the linked clone VM,

wherein, at any given time, the linked clone VM is actively linked to one of the base disks and passively linked to one or more other base disks, the active and passive links being maintained as metadata in a file representing a redo log of the linked clone VM,

wherein the link between the linked clone VM and a base disk at the identified VM hosting site is changed to an active link and the remaining links between the linked clone VM and the other base disks are passive links after the linked clone VM is migrated to the VM host at the identified VM hosting site, and

wherein updates to one of the base disks upon which the linked clone VM relies are automatically propagated to other base disks that are identified as copies of the updated one of the base disks based on the active and passive links.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, the operations further comprising, receiving the location of the client device from the client device, wherein the location is determined by the client device based on one of a 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.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, 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.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the migration of the linked clone VM is a cold migration.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6, wherein the migration is over a wide area network (WAN).

11. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

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

maintaining a plurality of identical base disks at respective virtual machine (VM) hosting sites, the VM hosting sites being further configured to maintain redo logs which store differences between parent and linked clone VMs,

identifying a VM hosting site proximate to a location of a client device,

migrating a linked clone VM to a VM host at the identified VM hosting site, and

establishing a remote desktop connection between the client device and the linked clone VM,

wherein, at any given time, the linked clone VM is actively linked to one of the base disks and passively linked to one or more other base disks, the active and passive links being maintained as metadata in a file representing a redo log of the linked clone VM,

wherein the link between the linked clone VM and a base disk at the identified VM hosting site is changed to an active link and the remaining links between the linked clone VM and the other base disks are passive links after the linked clone VM is migrated to the VM host at the identified VM hosting site, and

wherein updates to one of the base disks upon which the linked clone VM relies are automatically propagated to other base disks that are identified as copies of the updated one of the base disks based on the active and passive links.

12. The system of claim 11, the operations further comprising, receiving the location of the client device from the client device, wherein the location is determined by the client device based on one of a 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.