Machine identity persistence for users of non-persistent virtual desktops

• US 9,513,949 B2
• Filed: 02/05/2015
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Beveridge, Daniel James
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Camquy
• Application Number:
  US14/615,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20160055016A1
• Time in Patent Office: 670 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5011 Pool
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4451 User profiles; Roaming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Examples perform creation of a non-persistent virtual machine with a persistent machine identity associated with the user of the virtual machine, to provide consistent virtual desktop sessions to the user. Some examples contemplate that the machine identity is inserted into a virtual machine created through cloning, forking, or from a virtual machine pool.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a memory area associated with a computing device, said memory area storing a plurality of static machine identities, each machine identity of the plurality of machine identities associated with one of a plurality of users; and

a processor programmed to;

receive a request from one of the plurality of users for a virtual desktop session;

determine a particular static machine identity previously associated with the user;

create a non-persistent virtual machine (VM), wherein the created VM is distinct from a previous VM assigned to the user, and wherein creating the non-persistent virtual machine includes forking a child VM from a parent VM, wherein forking the child VM from the parent VM includes initially sharing content between the parent VM and the child VM and storing changes to the child VM as copy on write memory pages;

provision the created virtual machine including inserting the determined static machine identity into the created VM such that machine identity elements are inserted into the created VM to implement virtual persistence between the user and the identity of their assigned virtual desktop while the underlying VM is non-persistent, wherein inserting the determined static machine identity includes associating one or more user attributes with the created VM; and

provide the created VM with the inserted machine identity to the user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to create the VM.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to access a set of attributes defining a previously-created machine identity.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to associate, with the created VM, a set of attributes previously inserted into a VM.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to create the machine identity, associate the created machine identity with the user, and store the created machine identity in the memory area.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to retrieve the machine identity from the memory area.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to provide the machine identity to an operating system.

8. A method for providing virtual desktops, said method comprising:

receiving a request from a user for a virtual desktop session;

determining a particular static machine identity previously associated with the user;

creating a non-persistent virtual machine (VM), wherein the created VM is distinct from a previous VM assigned to the user, and wherein creating the non-persistent virtual machine includes forking a child VM from a parent VM, wherein forking the child VM from the parent VM includes initially sharing content between the parent VM and the child VM and storing changes to the child VM as copy on write memory pages;

provisioning the created VM including inserting the determined static machine identity into the created VM such that machine identity elements are inserted into the created VM to implement virtual persistence between the user and the identity of their assigned virtual desktop while the underlying VM is non-persistent, wherein inserting the determined static machine identity includes associating one or more user attributes with the created VM; and

providing the created VM with the inserted machine identity to the user.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein inserting the determined machine identity comprises associating, with the created VM, a set of attributes previously inserted into a VM.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the machine identity comprises accessing a set of attributes defining a previously-created machine identity.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the machine identity comprises creating the machine identity, associating the created machine identity with the user, and storing the created machine identity.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising associating user installed applications with the machine identity.

13. One or more computer-readable storage media including computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to:

receive a request from a user for a virtual desktop session;

determine a particular static machine identity previously associated with the user;

create a virtual machine (VM), wherein the created VM is distinct from a previous VM assigned to the user, and wherein creating the non-persistent virtual machine includes forking a child VM from a parent VM, wherein forking the child VM from the parent VM includes initially sharing content between the parent VM and the child VM and storing changes to the child VM as copy on write memory pages;

provision the created VM including inserting the determined static machine identity into the created VM such that machine identity elements are inserted into the created VM to implement virtual persistence between the user and the identity of their assigned virtual desktop while the underlying VM is non-persistent, wherein inserting the determined static machine identity includes associating one or more user attributes with the created VM; and

provide the created VM with the inserted machine identity to the user.

14. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 13 including computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to associate a set of attributes of the user with the created VM.

15. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 13 including computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to create the machine identify, associate the created machine identity with the user, and store the created machine identity.

16. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 13 including computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to associate user installed applications with the machine identity.