WO2015097819A1

WO2015097819A1 - Information processing device and method

Info

Publication number: WO2015097819A1
Application number: PCT/JP2013/084928
Authority: WO
Inventors: 浩明久保田
Original assignee: 株式会社東芝
Priority date: 2013-12-26
Filing date: 2013-12-26
Publication date: 2015-07-02

Abstract

According to an embodiment, an information processing device which is applied to a client management system which manages the desktop environments of a plurality of client terminals comprises: a storage means for storing attribute information which signifies attributes of disk image files for the desktop environments; an acquisition means for acquiring the stored attribute information in response to a manipulation by an operator; and a display means for displaying, on the basis of the acquired attribute information, a list of the disk image files in a format which expresses information relating to mutual correlation.

Description

Information processing apparatus and method

Embodiments described herein relate generally to an information processing apparatus and method.

Recently, in various companies, introduction of a system (client management system) for managing a large number of client terminals in an office with a server is being considered.

In the client management system, the desktop environment (operating system (OS), application program) of many client terminals can be centrally managed by a server in the client management system. The desktop environment is a disk image file such as a virtual hard disk (VHD) format, and is managed as a virtual image file including an OS and application programs.

JP 2013-186793 A

However, when there are many objects (virtual image files) to be managed, there is an inconvenience that it is difficult to manage these objects efficiently.

An object of one aspect of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus and method that can efficiently manage a desktop environment (virtual image file) of a client terminal.

According to the embodiment, the information processing apparatus is an information processing apparatus applied to a client management system that manages a desktop environment of a plurality of client terminals, and includes attribute information indicating an attribute of a disk image file for the desktop environment. Information relating to mutual relationship between the storage means for storing, the acquisition means for acquiring the stored attribute information in accordance with the operation of the operator, and the list of the disk image files based on the acquired attribute information Display means for displaying in a format that expresses.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration example of a client management system to which an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment is applied. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a data structure of image attribute information according to the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed by the image file list display unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating another example of a screen displayed by the image file list display unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing still another example of a screen displayed by the image file list display unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing still another example of a screen displayed by the image file list display unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing still another example of a screen displayed by the image file list display unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration example of a client management system to which an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment is applied. The client management system 10 is a server system for managing a plurality of client terminals. The client management system 10 can be realized by one or a plurality of servers (physical servers). Here, it is assumed that the client management system 10 is realized by a plurality of servers.

As shown in FIG. 1, the client management system 10 is a system connected to a plurality of

client terminals

20 and 30 via a network, and includes an execution server 100, an information processing apparatus 200, and the like.

The client management system 10 of this embodiment can manage two types of

client terminals

20 and 30 of the first type and the second type. The client terminal 20 shown in FIG. 1 is a first type client terminal. The first type client terminal is a so-called virtual client terminal. A virtual machine monitor (hypervisor) is installed as virtualization software in the local storage provided in the first type client terminal. The first type client terminal executes the virtualization software and the OS and application program in the virtual image file distributed from the client management system 10.

That is, in the first type client terminal (hereinafter referred to as a rich client terminal) 20, the virtual machine monitor 22 is executed on the physical hardware 21 such as a CPU, memory, storage, and various I / O devices. The virtual machine monitor 22 is virtualization software such as a hypervisor, and functions as a virtualization layer on the physical hardware 21 by emulating the resources of the physical hardware 21. Several virtual machines are executed on the virtual machine monitor 22 which is a virtualization layer. In FIG. 1, it is assumed that two

virtual machines

23 and 24 are executed on the virtual machine monitor 22. The virtual machine 23 is a virtual machine for executing a management OS (host OS) 23A. On the other hand, the virtual machine 24 executes a virtual OS (guest OS) 24A and an application program 24B in the virtual image file distributed from the client management system 10. The virtual machine 24, that is, the virtual OS (guest OS) 24A and the application program 24B operate as a desktop environment of the rich client terminal 20.

The management OS (host OS) 23 </ b> A can control the virtual machine 24 in cooperation with the virtual machine monitor 22. The management OS (host OS) 23A includes a management module 23B. The management module 23B can download the virtual image file from the client management system 10. The virtual OS (guest OS) 24A includes an agent 24C. The agent 24 </ b> C is a program for executing processing for linking the client management system 10 and the rich client terminal 20.

The second type client terminal is a thin client terminal. These thin client terminals 30 communicate with each of the virtual machines 104 executed on the execution server 100 of the client management system 10 using a screen transfer protocol. In other words, the plurality of thin client terminals 30 are terminals (base terminals) for realizing desktop virtualization using a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). The desktop environment (OS, application program) of each thin client terminal 30 is centrally managed by the execution server 100 which is a virtualization server. Each thin client terminal 30 is assigned one of the virtual machines 104 on the execution server 100. The OS and application programs are executed not by the thin client terminal 30 but by the virtual machine 104 on the execution server 100.

Each thin client terminal 30 transmits input information corresponding to an operation of an input device (for example, a keyboard, a mouse, etc.) by the user to the corresponding virtual machine 104 in the execution server 100. Each thin client terminal 30 receives screen information reflecting input information from the corresponding virtual machine 104 in the execution server 100.

That is, in the thin client terminal 30, the screen transfer software 33 is executed. The screen transfer software 33 is a program that communicates with the virtual machine 104 in the execution server 100 using a screen transfer protocol. The screen transfer software 33 may be an application program that runs on the OS. In this case, in the thin client terminal 30, the OS 32 is executed on the physical hardware 31 such as a CPU, a memory, and various I / O devices, and the screen transfer software 33 is executed on the OS 32.

Next, the execution server 100 and the information processing apparatus 200 included in the client management system 10 will be described.

The execution server 100 is a server that executes a plurality of virtual machines for communicating with a plurality of thin client terminals 30 using a screen transfer protocol. The execution server 100 may be realized by, for example, one physical server virtualized by server virtualization technology.

In this execution server 100, a virtual machine monitor 102 is executed on physical hardware 101 such as a CPU, memory, storage, and various I / O devices. The virtual machine monitor 102 is virtualization software such as a hypervisor, and functions as a virtualization layer on the physical hardware 101 by emulating the resources of the physical hardware 101. On the virtual machine monitor 102, one virtual machine 103 for management and a plurality of virtual machines 104 for executing a virtual desktop environment are executed. The virtual machine 103 executes a management OS (host OS) 103A. On the other hand, each virtual machine 104 executes a virtual OS (guest OS) 104A and an application program 104B in the virtual image file distributed from the information processing apparatus 200.

The management OS (host OS) 103A can control each virtual machine 104 in cooperation with the virtual machine monitor 102. The virtual OS (guest OS) 104A includes an agent 104C. The agent 104 </ b> C is a program that executes processing for linking the client management system 10 and each thin client terminal 30 in the same manner as the agent 24 </ b> C in the virtual machine 24 of the rich client terminal 20.

Although not shown in FIG. 1, the client management system 10 is usually further provided with a connection broker and profile storage.

The connection broker is a server applied to the client management system 10 for managing user profiles and the like. The connection broker can be realized by one physical server.

The connection broker manages a plurality of user profiles by using a profile storage that stores a plurality of user profiles corresponding to each of a plurality of users. The connection broker also has a function for allocating usable virtual machines on the execution server 100 to a user who has performed a logon operation on the thin client terminal 30. Further, the connection broker has a function (roaming function) for allowing each user to use the same user environment even if each user performs a logon operation on which client terminal.

The profile storage stores a large number of user profiles respectively associated with a large number of user identifiers (user IDs) that can use the client management system 10. That is, the profile storage includes a large number of storage locations for storing a large number of user profiles. When a user performs a logon operation to connect (log on) a client terminal to the client management system 10, the user associated with the user ID is displayed in the file system of the virtual machine corresponding to the client terminal. The profile is automatically mounted. For example, in the logon process of the rich client terminal 20, the user profile corresponding to the user who performed the logon operation is mounted on the file system of the virtual machine 24 in the rich client terminal 20. There is no user profile (setting information, user data) in the local storage in the rich client terminal 20, and the user profile is managed in the client management system 10. Therefore, the security of the rich client terminal 20 can be enhanced.

On the other hand, in the logon process of the thin client terminal 30, the user profile associated with the user ID of the user who performed the logon operation is automatically displayed on the file system of the virtual machine 104 of the execution server 100 corresponding to the thin client terminal 30. Mounted.

Thereby, each user can use the same user environment (the same user profile) even when operating either the rich client terminal 20 or the thin client terminal 30 to log on to the client management system 10.

As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus 200 includes an image file storage unit 201, an image attribute information storage unit 202, an image file control unit 203, an image attribute information management unit 204, an image attribute information update unit 205, and an image file list display. A unit 206 and the like.

The image file storage unit 201 is a storage medium that stores a virtual image file including an OS and application programs. The virtual image file includes a virtual image file for the rich client terminal 20 and a virtual image file for the thin client terminal 30. The virtual image file for the rich client terminal 20 is distributed to each rich client terminal 20. On the other hand, the virtual image file for the thin client terminal 30 is distributed to the execution server 100. That is, each virtual image file is a disk image file such as a virtual hard disk (VHD) format.

The image attribute information storage unit 202 is a storage medium that stores the attributes of each virtual image file stored in the image file storage unit 201, that is, image attribute information indicating the properties and settings of each virtual image file. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the image attribute information includes a file identifier (File ID), name information (Name), a parent file identifier (Parent ID), software name information (Software), status information (Status), and creation date information. (Created), last delivery date information (Latest) and logon number information (Number) are associated with each other.

The file identifier is information for identifying the virtual image file. This file identifier is information that is mechanically issued to the virtual image file by the information processing apparatus 200 when the virtual image file is created or updated, for example. Although FIG. 2 illustrates the case where the file identifier is expressed only by numbers, the file identifier may be expressed only by alphabets or a combination of numbers and alphabets.

Name information is information indicating the name of the virtual image file. This name information may be set as appropriate by the administrator (file creator) at the time of creating or updating the virtual image file, or may be set mechanically by the information processing apparatus 200 as with the file identifier. .

The parent file identifier is information indicating a file identifier of a virtual image file (hereinafter referred to as a parent virtual image file or simply parent) used for creating or updating a virtual image file. For example, when a virtual image file is copied and a new virtual image file is created, the copy-source virtual image file corresponds to the parent of the newly created virtual image file. When a certain virtual image file is updated, the virtual image file before the update corresponds to the parent of the virtual image file after the update. In the following, a virtual image file created or updated using a parent virtual image file is referred to as a child virtual image file or simply a child.

Software name information is information indicating the name of the OS or application program included in the virtual image file. In FIG. 2, for the sake of simplification of explanation, a case where one piece of software (OS, application program) is included in each virtual image file is illustrated. However, for example, a virtual image file can be obtained by adding new software. Since the software included in the virtual image file before the update is not deleted when the software is updated, the software name information column includes the software included in the virtual image file before the update and the newly added software. Both are included.

Status information is information indicating the current status of the virtual image file. FIG. 2 illustrates a case where the status information indicates, for example, “blank”, “deleted”, or “currently distributed”. “Blank” indicates a virtual image file that is not currently distributed from the image file storage unit 201 to the rich client terminal 20 or the execution server 100. “Deleted” indicates that the virtual image file has already been deleted from the virtual image file storage unit 201. “Currently distributed (Current)” indicates a virtual image file currently distributed from the image file storage unit 201. The state information may indicate a state other than the above-described “blank”, “deleted”, and “current”.

Creation date information is information indicating the creation date of the virtual image file. The last delivery date information is information indicating the date (delivery date) when the virtual image file was last delivered.

Logon number information is information indicating the number of users logged on to the client management system 10 using the rich client terminal 20 or the thin client terminal 30 in order to use a certain virtual image file.

The image control unit 203 is a module that executes a process of creating or updating a virtual image file in accordance with an operation of the administrator, and a process of distributing the virtual image file to the rich client terminal 20 or the execution server 100. The created or updated virtual image file is stored in the image file storage unit 201 as appropriate.

The image attribute information management unit 204 is a module that manages the image attribute information stored in the image attribute information storage unit 202. Specifically, the image attribute information management unit 204 has a function of acquiring image attribute information corresponding to the condition specified by the administrator from the image attribute information storage unit 202 and sending it to the image file list display unit 206. Conditions specified by the administrator include, for example, the name of the software included in the virtual image file, the creation date of the virtual image file, whether or not it has been deleted from the image file storage unit 201, and the software included in the virtual image file. Version etc. are mentioned.

The image attribute information update unit 205 is a module that executes a process of extracting image attribute information from the virtual image file at every predetermined timing. The extracted image attribute information is stored in the image attribute information storage unit 202 via the image attribute information management unit 204. Examples of the predetermined timing include timing at which a virtual image file is created or updated. That is, the image attribute information update unit 205 acquires a created or updated virtual image file each time a virtual image file is created or updated by the image file control unit 203, and image attribute information is obtained from the virtual image file. And the image attribute information is stored in the image attribute information storage unit 202 (that is, the image attribute information stored in the image attribute information storage unit 202 is updated).

The image file list display unit 206 draws a list of virtual image files in a tree format according to the image attribute information sent from the image attribute information management unit 204, and outputs this to the screen (that is, displays the list of virtual image files). Display in tree format).

Here, a procedure of processing in which the image file list display unit 206 displays a list of virtual image files will be described. Here, it is assumed that the image file list display unit 206 displays the screen shown in FIG. 3 according to the image attribute information I ₁ to I ₆ shown in FIG.

First, the image file list display unit 206 determines the file identifier in the image attribute information I ₁ according to the image attribute information I ₁ in which the value of the parent file identifier indicates “−” among the image attribute information I ₁ to I _6. A first block simulating a virtual image file “1” is drawn at the top of the list.

Next, the image file list display unit 206 determines the image attribute information according to the image attribute information I ₂ and I ₃ whose parent file identifier value is “1” among the remaining image attribute information I ₂ to I _6. _Two second blocks simulating virtual image files with file identifiers “2” and “3” in I ₂ and I ₃ are drawn in parallel below the first block.

Subsequently, the image file list display unit 206, of the remaining image attribute information I _{4 ~} I _6, in accordance with image attribute information I ₆ indicating the value "2" of the parent file identifier, the image attribute information I ₆ The third block simulating the virtual image file with the file identifier “6” is drawn below the second block.

Further, the image file list display unit 206 follows the image attribute information I ₄ and I ₅ of the remaining image attribute information I ₄ and I ₅ according to the image attribute information I ₄ and I ₅ indicating that the value of the parent file identifier is “3”. ₄ and I ₅ , two fourth blocks simulating the virtual image files with the file identifiers “4” and “5” are drawn in parallel below the second block.

After that, when the image file list display unit 206 finishes drawing a block simulating the virtual image file corresponding to all the image attribute information I ₁ to I ₆ , it outputs this to the screen and displays a list of the virtual image files. Display in tree format.

Note that at least a name indicated by the name information in the image attribute information and a creation date indicated by the creation date information in the image attribute information are input to the block imitating the virtual image file. Further, a link imitating a virtual image file may be embedded in a block simulating a virtual image file. Furthermore, the block imitating the virtual image file is drawn in a format that can identify the parent-child relationship. Here, a line connecting the first block and the second block, a line connecting the second block and the third block (simulating a virtual image file having the file identifier “2”), and a virtual image having the file identifier “3” A line connecting the second block and the fourth block (simulating a file) is drawn.

The screen shown in FIG. 3 is displayed as described above.

It should be noted that the image file list display unit 206 can display not only the screen shown in FIG. 3 but also other screens. Specifically, the screens shown in FIGS. 4 to 7 can be displayed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed by the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. When the screen shown in FIG. 4 is displayed, the image file list display unit 206 displays the delivery date indicated by the last delivery date information as a virtual image file in addition to the processing executed to display the screen shown in FIG. A difference block that is input in each simulated block and indicates the difference between the attribute information of the parent virtual image file and the attribute information of the child virtual image file (that is, the contents of work performed at the time of creating or updating the virtual image file) A process for further drawing is executed. Note that the difference between the parent virtual image file and the child virtual image file may be appropriately extracted based on information input in advance by the administrator at the time of creating or updating the virtual image file, or a publicly known method for extracting software inventory. It may be appropriately extracted by a program.

Thereby, the creation history or update history of the virtual image file can be expressed more specifically than the screen shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating another example of a screen displayed by the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. When the screen shown in FIG. 5 is displayed, the image file list display unit 206 adds a predetermined block (for example, the current state indicated by the state information) in addition to the processing executed to display the screen shown in FIG. Executes a process of changing the drawing format (color) of the “simulated virtual image file (current)”.

Thereby, for example, the currently distributed virtual image file can be expressed with more emphasis than the screens shown in FIGS.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing still another example of a screen displayed by the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. When the screen shown in FIG. 6 is displayed, the image file list display unit 206 displays “Deleted (Deleted)” in addition to the processing executed to display the screen shown in FIG. In addition to deleting the block imitating the virtual image file ")", a process of redrawing the line indicating the parent-child relationship and the difference block is executed.

Thereby, only the block imitating the virtual image file currently stored in the image file storage unit 201 can be displayed on the screen.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing still another example of a screen displayed by the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. Here, a case will be described in which a search field that allows keyword search using an input device (keyboard) is further provided. For example, when “SoftwareD” is entered in the search field, the image file list display unit 206 adds a virtual image file that does not include “SoftwareD” in addition to the processing executed to display the screen shown in FIG. A process of changing the drawing format (from a solid line to a broken line) of the simulated block (excluding the block positioned at the top of the list) is executed.

This makes it possible to highlight and display on the screen only the blocks that imitate the virtual image file related to the predetermined keyword.

As described above, the image file list display unit 206 can display a list of virtual image files on the screen in various forms of tree formats.

Next, a procedure of processing executed by the information processing apparatus 200 according to the present embodiment will be briefly described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, when a predetermined condition is input by an operation of the administrator, the image file list display unit 206 requests the image attribute information management unit 204 to acquire image attribute information corresponding to the input condition ( Step S1).

Subsequently, in response to a request from the image file list display unit 206, the image attribute information management unit 204 acquires image attribute information corresponding to the condition input by the administrator, and the acquired image attribute information is stored in the image file list. The data is sent to the display unit 206 (step S2).

Thereafter, upon receiving the input of the image attribute information sent from the image attribute information management unit 204, the image file list display unit 206 draws a list of virtual image files in a tree format according to the received image attribute information. This is output to the screen (step S3). Note that an example of the process of displaying the list of virtual image files in step S3 has already been described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, and detailed description thereof is omitted here.

According to the embodiment described above, since the image file list display unit 206 capable of displaying a list of virtual image files in a tree format instead of a table format is provided, the state of the virtual image file is visually displayed to the administrator. Can be presented. Thereby, the administrator can easily confirm whether or not the application program included (installed) in the currently used virtual image file is the latest version. In addition, the installation status of the application program can be grasped and the number of licenses can be managed correctly. Furthermore, it is possible to easily prompt the user who uses the old virtual image file to use the new virtual image file. In addition, it is possible to optimize the consumption of hardware resources by correctly deleting unused virtual image files.

In summary, the administrator can grasp the current status of a plurality of virtual image files and the relevance between the plurality of virtual image files, and can efficiently manage the virtual image files efficiently. That is, the management of the desktop environment (virtual image file) of the client terminal can be made efficient.

Note that the processing of the present embodiment can be realized by a computer program. Therefore, the computer program can be installed and executed on a computer through a computer-readable storage medium storing the computer program. Similar effects can be easily realized.

In addition, although several embodiment of this invention was described, these embodiment is shown as an example and is not intending limiting the range of invention. These novel embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

Claims

An information processing apparatus applied to a client management system that manages a desktop environment of a plurality of client terminals,
Storage means for storing attribute information indicating attributes of the disk image file for the desktop environment;
An acquisition means for acquiring the stored attribute information in response to an operation by an operator;
An information processing apparatus comprising: a display unit configured to display a list of the disk image files in a format expressing information relating to each other based on the acquired attribute information.
The attribute information includes first information in which a parent-child relationship between a first disk image file and a second disk image file used to create the first disk image file is defined,
The display means is configured to identify the parent-child relationship between the first disk image file and the second disk image file based on the first information included in the acquired attribute information in a tree format. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a list of the information is displayed.
3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display unit displays a difference between the attribute information of the first disk image file and the attribute information of the second disk image file together with the list of the disk image files.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit highlights a predetermined portion of the list of the disk image files in accordance with an operation of the operator.
The attribute information includes second information indicating a current state of the disk image file,
When the acquired attribute information includes attribute information including second information indicating that the attribute information has already been deleted, the display means selects a disk image file corresponding to the attribute information from the list of disk image files. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a list of disk image files is displayed after being excluded.
A method applied to a client management system for managing a desktop environment of a plurality of client terminals and executed by an information processing apparatus having storage means for storing attribute information indicating attributes of a disk image file for the desktop environment. ,
Obtaining the stored attribute information in response to an operation of the operator;
Displaying the list of the disk image files in a format expressing information relating to each other based on the acquired attribute information.
The attribute information includes first information in which a parent-child relationship between a first disk image file and a second disk image file used to create the first disk image file is defined,
The displaying includes the disc image file in a format capable of identifying a parent-child relationship between the first disc image file and the second disc image file based on the first information included in the acquired attribute information. The method according to claim 6, wherein a list of the items is displayed.
The method according to claim 7, wherein the displaying includes displaying a difference between the attribute information of the first disk image file and the attribute information of the second disk image file together with a list of the disk image files.
The method according to claim 6, wherein the displaying highlights a predetermined part of the list of the disk image files in accordance with the operation of the operator.
The attribute information includes second information indicating a current state of the disk image file,
In the display, if the acquired attribute information includes attribute information including second information indicating that the attribute information has already been deleted, the disk image file corresponding to the attribute information is displayed in the disk image file. The method according to claim 6, wherein a list of disk image files is displayed after being excluded from the list.