Application delivery agents on virtual desktop instances

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10152211-B2
Application number	US-201414538734-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 11, 2014
Priority date	Nov 11, 2014
Publication date	Dec 11, 2018
Grant date	Dec 11, 2018

Abstract

A service provider system may include an application fulfillment platform that delivers desktop applications to end users (e.g., to physical computing devices or virtual desktop instances). An application delivery agent installed on an end user's device may send requests to access platform control plane services on behalf of the agent or the end user (along with security credentials) and may retrieve messages directed to the device from a queue on the platform. Messages may be placed in the queue by control plane services in response to agent requests. Messages may include instructions for the agent to perform installing, uninstalling, updating, or reinstalling a virtualized desktop application package on the device. The agent may request and retrieve (from the queue) information about the intended (or assumed) installation state of applications on the device, compare it to locally stored information about the actual state, and initiate corrective action, if needed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a plurality of computing nodes that collectively provide virtual computing services to one or more clients of a service provider, each of the computing nodes comprising one or more hardware processors and associated memory,
wherein one or more hardware processors of a particular one of the plurality of computing nodes implement:
a virtualized computing resource instance implementing a virtual desktop instance on behalf of a given end user that receives services from the service provider, and an application delivery agent installed on the virtual desktop instance;
wherein one or more hardware processors of one or more other ones of the plurality of computing nodes implement an application fulfillment platform, wherein the application fulfillment platform implements a plurality of control plane services, and wherein the application fulfillment platform comprises an outbound queue from which the application delivery agent can retrieve messages; and
wherein the one or more hardware processors of the particular computing node cause the application delivery agent to:
send, to the application fulfillment platform, a request to access a control plane service implemented on the application fulfillment platform to modify an application portfolio installed on the virtual desktop instance, wherein the request includes a security token, and wherein the security token included in the request is dependent on the type of the service to which access is requested or an entity on whose behalf the request was submitted;
retrieve, from the outbound queue of the application fulfillment platform, a message directed to the virtual desktop instance, wherein the message includes a response to the request that was placed in the outbound queue by the control plane service; and
perform the modification in accordance with one or more instructions to install or uninstall a virtualized application package for a desktop application on the virtual desktop instance, in the response.

2. The system of claim 1 ,
wherein the one or more hardware processors of the particular computing node cause the application delivery agent to:
send, to the application fulfillment platform, a request to register the virtual desktop instance with the application fulfillment platform as a device, wherein the request to register includes a device identity ticket; and
receive the security token for the device from the application fulfillment platform;

wherein the request to access a control plane service was submitted by the application delivery agent on behalf of the application delivery agent; and
wherein the request for service comprises an identifier of the device and the security token for the device.

3. The system of claim 1 ,
wherein the one or more hardware processors of the particular computing node cause the application delivery agent to:
send, to the application fulfilment platform, a request to register the given end user with the application fulfillment platform, wherein the request to register includes a user identity ticket received from an active directory service; and
receive the security token for the given end user from the application fulfillment platform;

wherein the request to access a control plane service was submitted by the application delivery agent on behalf of the given end user; and
wherein the request to access a control plane service comprises an identifier of the given end user and the security token for the given end user.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising performing, via the application delivery agent and it accordance with a second response from the control plane service:
updating a virtualized application package for a desktop application that was previously installed on the virtual desktop instance; or
reinstalling a virtualized application package for a desktop application on the virtual desktop instance that was previously uninstalled from the virtual desktop instance.

5. A method, comprising:
performing, by one or more hardware processors with associated memory implementing an application delivery agent installed on a computing resource instance:
accessing a queue on an application fulfillment platform, wherein the application fulfillment platform is implemented on resources of a service provider, wherein the queue stores messages directed to the computing resource instance to modify an application portfolio of the computing resource instance, and wherein accessing the queue comprises presenting a security credential for the computing resource instance that was previously generated by the application fulfillment platform;
retrieving a message from the queue, wherein the message comprises instructions for performing a task on the computing resource instance; and
performing the task to modify the application portfolio of the computing resource instance, wherein the modification comprises installing or uninstalling a virtualized application package for a desktop application on the computing resource instance, in accordance to the instructions in the message.

6. The method of claim 5 ,
wherein the method further comprises:
sending, by the application delivery agent to the application fulfillment platform prior to said accessing, a request to access a control plane service implemented on the application fulfillment platform; and

wherein the message was placed in the queue by the control plane service in response to the request to access the control plane service.

7. The method of claim 5 ,
wherein the security credential comprises one or more of:
a unique identifier of the computing resource instance;
a security token for the computing resource instance;
a unique identifier of an end user of a service provider customer on whose behalf the computing resource was provisioned; or
a security token for the end user of a service provider customer on whose behalf the computing resource was provisioned; and

wherein the method further comprises:
storing, on the computing resource instance by the application delivery agent prior to said accessing, the security credential, wherein said storing comprises encrypting the security credential prior to storage.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the computing resource instance is a virtual desktop instance that is provisioned on behalf of an end user of a service provider customer.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the message comprises instructions for performing a task to configure a previously provisioned virtual desktop instance or a previously rebuilt virtual desktop instance.

10. The method of claim 5 , further comprising performing, via the application delivery agent and in accordance with a second message from the queue:
updating a desktop application that was previously installed on the computing resource instance; or
reinstalling a desktop application on the computing resource instance that was previously uninstalled from the computing resource instance.

11. The method of claim 5 ,
wherein the message comprises instructions for performing, by the application delivery agent, delivering the desktop application to the computing resource instance, wherein said delivering the desktop application to the computing resource instance comprises:
retrieving the virtualized application package for the desktop application, wherein the virtualized application package comprises a plurality of pages of virtualized program instructions that represent the desktop application; and
virtualizing the virtualized program instructions for subsequent execution on the computing resource instance.

12. The method of claim 5 , wherein said accessing and said retrievi

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Koushik Sheshadri Supreeth
• Lin Yang
• Kumar Rohit Krishna
• Karapetyan Gevorg

Classifications

• G06F9/455

  Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines · CPC title

• H04L63/10 Primary

  for controlling access to devices or network resources · CPC title

• G06F8/61

  Installation · CPC title

• G06F9/45533

  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