Mass migration of desktop deployments to virtual desktop infrastructures

1. A desktop virtualization system comprising:

one or more computers, each including one or more processors and one or more storage media, configured to provide:

a tool module to migrate desktop deployments on a plurality of physical machines of a plurality of users on a computer network to corresponding virtual machines, the tool module identifying the plurality of physical machines for the migrating using a network search criteria, wherein at least one of the identified physical machines comprises user data; and

an agent module installed on each of the identified plurality of physical machines, the agent module in electronic communication with the tool module, each agent module being configured to:

extract only non-operating system user data for each user of the plurality of users from the identified plurality of physical machines; and

store the extracted non-operating system user data for the each user to a corresponding virtual disk image file;

wherein the tool module is further configured to:

launch a linked clone virtual machine that shares a common master disk image containing an operating system with a plurality of other linked clone virtual machines, wherein the linked clone virtual machine is a clone virtual machine that is linked to other clones by including one or more delta disk images linked to the master disk image, and wherein the data of the master disk image is accessible by each of the plurality of linked clones during operation through a common datastore; and

attach each corresponding virtual disk image file containing extracted user data from a physical machine to the corresponding linked clone virtual machine associated with the user of the plurality of users.

2. The desktop virtualization system of claim 1 , wherein the tool module discovers the identified plurality of physical machines on the computer network using one or more network search criteria.

3. The desktop virtualization system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more network search criteria includes at least one of organization unit, domains, network address, host, subnet, or Internet Protocol (IP) address range.

4. The desktop virtualization system of claim 3 , wherein an instance of the agent module resident on a first physical machine extracts the user data by scanning the physical machine for data including profile information, configuration data, and application data.

5. The desktop virtualization system of claim 1 , wherein the agent module is configured to tag the first virtual disk image file with a user identifier.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising provisioning each linked clone virtual machine using the user data of the attached virtual disk image file.

7. A method to mass migrate physical desktop machines to a virtual desktop infrastructure, the method comprising:

discovering desktop deployments on a plurality of physical machines on a computer network using at least one network search criteria using a tool module;

gathering only non-operating system user data for each user of a plurality of users from each physical machine of the discovered physical machines using an agent program installed on each discovered physical machine;

creating a virtual disk image for each user of the of the plurality of users from the discovered plurality of physical machines, each virtual disk image containing only non-operating system user specific data collected from the plurality of physical machines;

identifying a destination pool selection;

launching a linked clone virtual machine for each user that shares a master disk image containing an operating system with a plurality of other linked clone virtual machines in the destination pool and separately attaching the virtual disk image for the user to the corresponding linked clone virtual machine associated with the user, wherein the linked clone virtual machine is a clone virtual machine that is linked to other clones by including one or more delta disk images linked to the master disk image, and wherein the data of the master disk image is accessible by each of the plurality of linked clones during operation through a common datastore; and

permitting each user to remotely access the corresponding linked clone virtual machine.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

displaying a list of the discovered physical machines to an administrator; and

receiving an acceptance from the administrator before proceeding to the gathering of the user data.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the gathering of the user data comprises:

installing the agent program on each of the discovered physical machines, the agent program being configured to scan the one of the discovered physical machines on which the agent program is installed for the user data; and

copying the user data to the virtual disk image.

10. A non-transitory machine readable medium for migrating physical desktop machines to a virtual desktop infrastructure, the medium embodying computer instructions causing a processor to implement a method, the method comprising:

discovering desktop deployments on a plurality of physical machines on a computer network using at least one network search criteria using a tool module;

gathering only non-operating system user data for each user of a plurality of users from each physical machine of the discovered physical machines using an agent program installed on each discovered physical machine;

creating a virtual disk image for each user of the of the plurality of users from the discovered plurality of physical machines, each virtual disk image containing only non-operating system user data for the first user collected from the plurality of physical machines;

identifying a destination pool selection;

launching a linked clone virtual machine for each user that shares a master disk image containing an operating system with a plurality of other linked clone virtual machines in the destination pool and separately attaching the virtual disk image for the user to the corresponding linked clone virtual machine associated with the user, wherein the linked clone virtual machine is a clone virtual machine that is linked to other clones by including one or more delta disk images linked to the master disk image, and wherein the data of the master disk image is accessible by each of the plurality of linked clones during operation through a common datastore; and

permitting each user to remotely access the corresponding linked clone virtual machine.

11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:

displaying a list of the discovered physical machines to an administrator; and

receiving an acceptance from the administrator before proceeding to the gathering of the user data.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the gathering of the user data comprises:

installing the agent program on each of the discovered virtual machines, the agent program being configured to scan the one of the discovered virtual machines on which the agent program is installed for the user data; and

copying the user data to the virtual disk image.