System and method for on-demand delivery of operating system and/or applications

• US 9,229,732 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2012
• Issued: 01/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Marketing Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wyse Technology L.L.C. (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Tsui, Andrew Kin Ning, Mylvara, Satya, Calomeni, Mark, Deshpande, Amit, Fausak, Andy
• Primary Examiner(s): LAZARO, DAVID R
• Application Number:
  US13/527,216
• Publication Number:
  US 20120259958A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,295 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/231
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4416 Network booting; Remote initial program loading [RIPL]

Abstract

A system includes a module to determine a dependency between at least one operating system and at least one application, an interface module to permit an independent selection of an operating system image and an application image, a service to stream a first portion of the application image, and to stream, on-demand, a second portion of the application image, and a memory to store at least one of the operating system image and the application image. The at least one application is compatible with the at least one operating system. Methods and machine-readable medium, and hardware apparatus are provided.

Claims

1. A system for streaming one or more operating system images and/or one or more application images, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory comprising instructions operable, when executed by the processor, to cause the processor to;

determine a dependency between at least one operating system and at least one application;

permit an independent selection, based on the determined dependency, of at least one operating system image comprising the at least one operating system, and at least one application image comprising the at least one application, to stream to a remote device;

stream a first portion of the at least one application image to the remote device to allow the at least one application to initially run, and configured to stream, on-demand, a second portion of the at least one application image to the remote device in response to the at least one application initially running; and

the memory configured to store at least one of the at least one operating system image and the at least one application image,

wherein the determined dependency between the at least one operating system and the at least one application comprises determining whether the at least one application is compatible with the at least one operating system.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising an operating system streaming service configured to stream the at least one operating system image to the remote device.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising an integrated common database configured to manage streaming of the at least one operating system image and streaming of the selected at least one application image to the remote device.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the system is configured to enable at least one of a portion of the at least one operating system image and a portion of the at least one application image to be stored in a storage cache local to the remote device.

5. The system of claim 1, further including a web-based user interface.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a virtual disk configured for at least one of writing out paging files when applications are run on the remote device, streaming the at least one operating system image, and streaming the at least one application image.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a virtual file system to be utilized for streaming the at least one application image.

8. A method for streaming one or more operating system images and one or more application images, the method comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one operating system to stream to the remote device;

providing a representation of a set of available applications based on the selected at least one operating system;

receiving a selection of at least one application from the set of available applications to stream to the remote device;

streaming, to a remote device, at least one operating system image comprising the selected at least one operating system;

streaming, to the remote device, a first portion of at least one application image comprising the selected at least one application to allow the selected at least one application to initially run; and

streaming, on-demand to the remote device, a second portion of the at least one application image in response to the selected at least one application initially running.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein streaming the at least one operating system image to the remote device is in response to accessing of the remote device by a user local to the remote device.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising at least one of writing out paging files when running applications on the remote device, streaming the at least one operating system image, and streaming the at least one application image, using a virtual disk.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one application image is streamed using a virtual file system.

12. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, the instructions executable by one or more processors to perform one or more operations, the instructions comprising:

code for causing one or more processors to receive a selection of at least one operating system to stream to a remote device;

code for causing one or more processors to provide a representation of a set of applications compatible with the selected at least one operating system;

code for causing one or more processors to receive a selection of at least one application from the set of compatible applications to stream to the remote device;

code for causing one or more processors to stream a first portion of at least one application image comprising the selected at least one application to allow the selected at least one application to initially run; and

code for causing one or more processors to stream a second portion of the at least one application image.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the code for causing one or more processors to stream the first portion of the at least one application image comprises code for causing one or more processors to stream the first portion of the at least one application image using a virtual file system.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions comprise code for causing one or more processors to perform at least one of writing out paging files when running applications on the remote device, streaming at least one operating system image comprising the selected at least one operating system, and streaming the at least one application image, using a virtual disk.

15. A hardware apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory comprising instructions operable, when executed by the processor, to cause the processor to;

provide a representation of a set of applications compatible with at least one operating system; and

permit a selection of at least one operating system and a selection of at least one application;

a streaming service configured to stream a first portion of at least one application to allow the at least one application to initially run, and configured to stream, on-demand, a second portion of the at least one application after streaming the first portion; and

a network interface to stream,

wherein the at least one application is compatible with the at least one operating system.

16. The hardware apparatus of claim 15, wherein the streaming service is configured to stream the at least one operating system to the remote device.

17. The hardware apparatus of claim 16, further comprising an integrated common database configured to manage streaming of the at least one operating system and streaming of the at least one application to the remote device.

18. The hardware apparatus of claim 15, further comprising a virtual disk configured for at least one of writing out paging files when applications are run on the remote device, streaming the at least one operating system, and streaming the at least one application.

19. The hardware apparatus of claim 16, wherein the hardware apparatus is configured to enable at least one of a portion of the at least one operating system and a portion of the at least one application to be stored in a storage cache local to the remote device.

20. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, the instructions executable by one or more processors to perform one or more operations, the instructions comprising:

code for causing one or more processors to provide a representation of a set of applications compatible with at least one operating system;

code for causing one or more processors to permit a selection of at least one application based on at least one operation system;

code for causing one or more processors to stream a first portion of at least one application to allow the at least one application to initially run; and

code for causing one or more processors to stream, on-demand, a second portion of the at least one application.