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To configure an automatic response to changing demands for resources, you can scale out VMs, which is also called horizontal autoscaling. To scale out, the platform clones the base VM and deploys the clones. To scale in, the platform will delete clone VMs but it will just undeploy the base VM. Scaling operations are subject to all standard platform constraints, such as privileges and allocation limits.

To use autoscaling do these steps:

1. Create a base VM, which can be deployed or undeployed
2. Define a scaling group with rules for scaling the VM
3. Create an action plan with scaling actions for the VM. Create triggers for the action plan, which are either monitoring alerts for virtual appliances or schedules for planned scaling

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Define a scaling group

Before you begin:

1. Configure the base VM
2. Ensure that you have enough resources in your virtual datacenter to deploy up to the maximum number of cloned VMs, especially IP addresses

To create a scaling group:

1. In virtual appliance view, select the VM, and from the menu on the VM icon, select the Create scaling group option
2. Enter the scaling parameters and rules
3. Click Save

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When you save the scaling group, Abiquo will mark the VM icon with the scaling group symbol and display the scaling group name. If the minimum number of deployed VMs are not present and the scaling group is not in maintenance, Abiquo will create clones of the base machine and deploy them to reach the minimum size. The number in the bottom right-hand corner of the icon is the number of running VMs in the scaling group, including the base machine.

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To open the scaling group and check its parameters, click the scaling group symbol in the top right-hand corner of the VM icon.

Trigger autoscaling

To trigger autoscaling operations, create an action plan with a scaling action for the VM with the scaling group. Then create triggers to run the action plan. See Manage Action Plans. When scaling, the platform will search for a rule that is valid for the specific time range, or for a default rule. It will create or delete/undeploy the number of VMs in the rule, then wait for the cooldown period before accepting another scaling request. 

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Define a scaling group

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Trigger autoscaling

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How the platform scales out a VM

To scale out, the platform does not deploy VMs that are undeployed in the scaling group. To clone the base VM, the platform will do the following:

1. Create disks using the following:
   
   1. Copies of content of disks from the VM template
   2. Empty disks or volumes for each additional disk used in the VM
   3. Disk controllers used in the VM
2. Apply ALL configuration used in the VM, for example:
   
   1. CPU and RAM
   2. Network connections of the same type (e.g. private network)
   3. Assignment of firewall policies and attachment to load balancers
   4. Chef recipes, backups, cloud-init, variables, and so on
   5. Metrics. The group of metrics from clone machines and the base machine (if it is deployed) can activate alarms in the base machine, even if it is not deployed
   6. Exception – Alarms: the scaling group has only one set of alarms in the base machine

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How the platform scales VMs How the platform scales VMs

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Perform maintenance on a scaling group

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When you delete a scaling group, Abiquo the platform will place all the VMs in the virtual appliance as regular VMs and the scaling group constraints will no longer exist. To delete a scaling group, first put it into maintenance mode, then click the delete button.

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