System for provisioning, allocating, and managing virtual and physical desktop computers in a network computing environment

• US 20090248869A1
• Filed: 03/27/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Software, Inc. (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Ghostine, Peter E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,560,593 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/40 for selective distribution or broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/30 Network data restoration; Network data reliability; Network data fault tolerance

Abstract

A system for provisioning, allocating, and managing virtual and physical desktop computers in an enterprise network computing environment allows for these physical and desktop computers to be grouped logically based on personnel, organizational, or networking efficiencies without regard to the hardware or server that will ultimately run the virtual machine terminal once it is accessed. A connection broker connects incoming connections to one desktop in a desktop group, based on information relating to that incoming connection.

Claims

1. A system for managing user access to a computer system over a network, comprising:

at least one user client device sending a connection request to a server computer over a network connecting said user client device to said server computer, wherein said connection request comprises connection information about said user client device;

a broker service running on said server receiving said connection request;

said broker service routing said connection request to a desktop based on said connection information;

said desktop collecting information about the connectivity status of the user client device; and

said data collector program sending said connectivity status to the broker, wherein the broker stores the connectivity status in a database.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of application resources, wherein said application resources are published to the desktop to which the connection request has been routed.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said application resources are published to the desktop based on an access control list (ACL) for each published resource.

4. A computer system, comprises:

a server computer receiving a connection request;

said server parsing said connection request for technical details, said technical details relating to at least one specific application program available on the server; and

said server allocating a virtual desktop in response to said connection request, said at least one specific application program being accessible on said virtual desktop,

wherein said virtual desktop is created prior to the server receiving the connection request, and

wherein said virtual desktop is a member of a desktop group, each of said desktops in said desktop group having access to an identical plurality of applications including said at least one application.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said virtual desktop comprises system resources of the server, including memory, CPU time, and hard drive space.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein said desktop group comprises a predetermined number of virtual desktops corresponding to a predetermined number of users who are authorized to access said plurality of applications.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein said parsing of the connection request on the server is performed by a broker service running on said server, said broker service establishing the connection to the virtual desktop, said broker monitoring the status of said connection, and said broker service freeing the virtual desktop for use by a subsequent user when the connection is closed.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein said desktop group comprises at least one other desktop group, wherein said desktop groups have policy settings determining application access rights, and wherein said desktop group inherits the policy settings of the other desktop group that is contained within it.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein said desktop group comprises at least one other desktop group, wherein said desktop groups have policy settings determining application access rights, and wherein said desktop group overrides the policy settings of the other desktop group that is contained within it.