Enabling virtual desktop connections to remote clients

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10146566-B2
Application number	US-64389209-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2009
Priority date	Dec 21, 2009
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

Disclosed are techniques for providing a platform that allows a user to remotely establish a connection with a virtual machine operating on a server farm In a typical scenario, when a user requests for a connection to access third party plug-in applications, the application program interface may interact with the session broker process to identify sessions or suitable servers to which the user can be connected. The user may access the third party plug-in applications through the identified sessions or suitable servers.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method for enabling connections between a client computer and a virtual machine capable of executing on one of a plurality of servers, comprising:
receiving, at a first server, a request for a virtual desktop connection, the request on behalf of a user from the client computer and comprising information indicative of connecting to the virtual desktop directly;
determining, at a broker module on the server, whether the requesting user has a preexisting virtual desktop session hosted on a previous virtual machine session, and whether a virtual machine is currently available for connection, wherein the broker module maintains a cache of user sessions based on information received from the plurality of servers, said cache allowing the broker module to track preexisting virtual machine sessions;
identifying a current internet protocol (IP) address for the previous virtual machine session based at least in part on the information included in the request for the virtual desktop connection, the IP address having changed from a previous IP address, and the virtual machine's availability; and
returning said current IP address along with a name of the virtual machine to the client computer in order for the client computer to authenticate a connection with the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the requesting user has a remote desktop session associated with a previous virtual machine session is determined by checking a cache of user sessions.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising interpreting information received from the client computer to determine whether the user is requesting a personal desktop or virtual machine pool.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first server tracks user sessions by way of information received from a server hosting the virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising communicating to the server hosting the virtual machine in order to initiate the virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising receiving from the client computer a name associated with a virtual machine farm.

7. A system adapted to connect a client computer to one of a plurality of virtual machines executing on a plurality of servers, comprising:
at least one computing device comprising a processor; and
at least one memory communicatively coupled to said at least one computing device when the system is operational, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed cause:
a redirector code module to send a request for a redirection packet upon receiving a request for a virtual desktop connection from the client computer on behalf of a user;
a broker code module to receive the request for a redirection packet and to determine an internet protocol (IP) address corresponding to a selected virtual machine hosted on a server to which the user has a preexisting virtual desktop session based at least in part on information included in the request for the virtual desktop connection and a determination of the virtual machine's availability for connection, wherein the broker code module maintains a cache of user sessions based on information received from the plurality of servers, said cache allowing the broker code module to track preexisting virtual machine sessions;
the broker code module to send a name corresponding to the selected virtual machine and a redirection packet comprising the internet protocol (IP) address and a redirection token; and
the redirector code module to receive the redirection token from a client; and
the redirector code module to establish communication between the client and the selected virtual machine, based on the redirection token.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the selected virtual machine is executing on a server farm.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed further cause the redirector code module to effect the server to restore the selected virtual machine for execution.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed further cause the broker code module to communicate to the server hosting the selected virtual machine in order to initiate the virtual machine.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed further cause the broker code module to check a cache of user sessions for the preexisting virtual desktop session.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that when executed further cause the broker code module to track user sessions by way of information received from a server hosting the virtual machine.

13. The system of claim 7 , wherein the communication between the client and the selected virtual machine uses Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

14. A computer-readable storage memory storing thereon computer executable instructions for enabling connection of a remote client computer to one of a plurality of virtual machines executing on a plurality of servers, comprising instructions for:
receiving, at a first server, a request for a connection to a virtual desktop hosted on a virtual machine, the request from a user of the remote client computer and comprising information indicative of connecting to the virtual desktop directly;
determining, at a broker module on the server, whether a previous virtual desktop session was hosted on a virtual machine session for the user, and whether the virtual machine is currently available for connection, wherein the broker module maintains a cache of user sessions based on information received from the plurality of servers, said cache allowing the broker module to track preexisting virtual machine sessions;
identifying an internet protocol (IP) address and an associated virtual machine name for the virtual machine running the previous virtual machine session based at least in part on the information included in the request for the virtual desktop connection and the virtual machine's availability;
sending acknowledgement of the request to the remote client computer;
receiving content from a virtual desktop; and
feeding the received content to the remote client computer.

15. The computer-readable storage memory of claim 14 , wherein determining whether the requesting user has a previous virtual machine session comprises checking a cache of user sessions.

16. The computer-readable storage memory of claim 14 , further comprising instructions for tracking user sessions by way of information received from a server hosting the virtual machine.

17. The computer-readable storage memory of claim 16 , further comprising instructions for communicating to the server hosting the virtual machine in order to initiate the virtual machine.

18. The computer-readable storage memory of claim 14 , further comprising instructions for receiving from the client computer a name associated with a virtual machine farm.

19. The computer-readable storage memory of claim 17 , wherein the instructions for communicating to the server comprise computer-readable instructions that conform to a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

Assignees

• Malakapalli Meher P
• Ben Shachar Ido
• Alladi Mahadeva K
• Ponomarev Vadim
• Erdogan Ersev Samim
• Palekar Ashwin
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Malakapalli Meher P
• Ben-Shachar Ido
• Alladi Mahadeva K
• Ponomarev Vadim
• Erdogan Ersev Samim
• Palekar Ashwin

Classifications

• G06F9/505

  considering the load · CPC title

• G06F9/45533 Primary

  Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors · CPC title

• G06F9/452

  Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation (protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131) · CPC title