Managing responsiveness of virtual desktops using passive monitoring

Abstract

Desktop virtualization is a new computing approach to application delivery and management. It leverages OS virtualization and remoting protocols to provide users with remote access to virtual machines running in a centralized data center. It promises significant benefits in terms of improved data security, reduced management complexity, and more efficient and flexible resource usage. However, it brings a lot of management challenges typical for centralized systems, with performance and quality of service management being one of the most important. This paper proposes a management algorithm suitable for efficient resource allocation in virtualized desktop environments and takes application performance QoS features into consideration. It proposes a novel, non-intrusive method for application and remoting protocol agnostic desktop responsiveness monitoring. Moreover, it is based on studies of desktop workload usage which enabled us to discover and leverage workload patterns that can lead to increased efficiency both in terms of desktop responsiveness and resource usage. We have prototyped the system and discuss several case studies validating the approach and illustrating the most important features of the solution.