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In private cloud datacenters, Abiquo supports guest setup with cloud init or hypervisor tools. In public cloud providers, Abiquo supports cloud init, and in AWS it also supports provider setup tools. The Abiquo Chef integration also uses cloud-init. Guest setup runs the first time you deploy a VM. The hypervisor tools guest setup also runs on Linux VMs in datacenters when you add a NIC. If the guest setup is not successful, the VM deploy or reconfigure will fail and roll back.

For private cloud datacenters, the guest setup functionality is described in this tableas follows.

Functionality	Cloud-init	Hypervisor tools
Set fully qualified domain name (FQDN)
Generate a random password at deploy and optionally send by email and/or SMS to owner
Inject network configuration if no DHCP server is available
Inject SSH keys into guest.
Configuration drive with environment variables and user-data presented to guest OS on an ISO disk. See Configuration drive

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Editing a VM with a FQDN set by Abiquo based on the VM UUID (with the default localdomain) and the Guest initial password option selected

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Prepare templates for guest setup

To prepare templates for guest setup

Load templates with support for cloud-init (configuration drive) support or hypervisor guest tools installed
In the Apps library, edit the template:
1. Select the appropriate guest setup option (Cloud-Init or Hypervisor tools)
2. Optionally select "Set initial guest password"

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Windows guest tools configuration

Abiquo will use an unattend file with the variables $adminPassword, $domain and $hostName. You can configure the path to your own Windows unattend file on the Abiquo Remote Services by setting the following property and placing the file at that location.

Code Block
// Path to Windows unattend file com.abiquo.esxi.experimental.customize.win.unattendfile=/root/windows_unattend.xml

The default Abiquo unattend file is supplied here. You may wish to create a custom file to change attributes such as the time zone (TimeZone) and the workgroup name (JoinWorkgroup).

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title	Click here to show the default unattend file

Code Block

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
   <settings pass="generalize" wasPassProcessed="false">
      <component name="Microsoft-Windows-PnpSysprep" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
         <PersistAllDeviceInstalls>true</PersistAllDeviceInstalls>
      </component>
   </settings>
   <settings pass="oobeSystem" wasPassProcessed="false">
      <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
         <OOBE>
            <SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
            <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
            <SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
            <ProtectYourPC>1</ProtectYourPC>
         </OOBE>
         <TimeZone>W. Europe Standard Time</TimeZone>
         <UserAccounts>
            <AdministratorPassword>               
               <Value>$adminPassword</Value>
               <PlainText>true</PlainText>
            </AdministratorPassword>               
         </UserAccounts>
      </component>
   </settings>
   <settings pass="specialize" wasPassProcessed="false">
      <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
         <RegisteredOwner>Administrator</RegisteredOwner>
         <RegisteredOrganization>Organization</RegisteredOrganization>
         <ComputerName>$hostName</ComputerName>
      </component>
      <component name="Microsoft-Windows-DNS-Client" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
         <DNSDomain>$domain</DNSDomain>
      </component>
      <component name="Microsoft-Windows-UnattendedJoin" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
         <Identification>
            <JoinWorkgroup>WORKGROUP</JoinWorkgroup>
         </Identification>
      </component>
      <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
         <RunSynchronous>
            <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
               <Path>C:\sysprep\guestcustutil.exe cleanBootExecute</Path>
               <Order>1</Order>
            </RunSynchronousCommand>
            <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
               <Path>C:\sysprep\guestcustutil.exe flagComplete</Path>
               <Order>2</Order>
            </RunSynchronousCommand>
            <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
               <Path>C:\sysprep\guestcustutil.exe deleteContainingFolder</Path>
               <Order>3</Order>
            </RunSynchronousCommand>
         </RunSynchronous>
      </component>
   </settings>
</unattend>

Set initial guest password

The platform can set an initial password for a VM before it deploys. The administrator can configure this option in a VM template but the user can edit the VM to change the option.

Before you begin, perform the following configuration on the platform.

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Enable password emails in Configuration view, see Configuration View#Security
Abiquo will mail the password to the VM owner, so on the Abiquo Server, check that you have set the mail properties with the address of the mail server and mail user. See Abiquo Configuration Properties#mail.
To customize the email template, see Configure Email Templates
Check that all VM owners have a valid email address

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Optionally customize the SMS template, see Configure Email Templates
Enter SMS gateway address to enable password SMS in Configuration view, see Configuration View#Security. The platform will send the password email to {{user phone number}}@{{sms gateway}}
Check that all VM owners have a valid phone number. Check the documentation of your SMS gateway provider for format requirements

To prevent user access to VMs while waiting for Windows password on ESXi set the following abiquo.properties on the Remote Services server

Code Block

# Time to wait for guest tools to get up and running after power on
# This value is 15 minutes
com.abiquo.esxi.experimental.customize.configure.timeoutms=900000 
# Polling interval for checking if guest tools is up and running after power on 
# This value is 10 seconds
com.abiquo.esxi.experimental.customize.configure.periodms=30000

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The VM owner can display their own VM password
To allow a user to display the passwords of all VMs they can access, assign the privilege to Display initial virtual machine password

Prepare templates for guest initial passwords

To prepare a template to generate a random password in the VM, for the first time it deploys:

Edit an appropriate template and select the Guest setup option
Select the Guest initial password checkbox
Set the appropriate username for the template

On Linux, enter "root"
On Windows, enter "Administrator"

Note that the user can edit the VM before it deploys and change the Guest initial password option.

The platform does not save the initial password, so on Linux, before deploying an instance template, edit the instance's password to set it to the current VM password.

Tip
Enter the user SSH public key before you deploy VMs. Some connections will require the SSH key pair, for example, the remote access connection to Windows VMs in public cloud via RDP.

Set fully qualified domain name

Abiquo can set a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) before the VM is deployed, with one of the following options:

The FQDN that the user manually enters for the VM, which has the highest priority
A hostname based on the Abiquo database ID, plus VM network domain name (from VM NIC or VDC default VLAN), or localdomain (automatic)
A hostname that is the VM_uuid (or Abiquo database ID on Windows), plus VM network domain name, or localdomain (automatic)

To select the type of automatic hostname, use the following property on the Abiquo API server

Code Block
// Generate VM name from database ID. If false use VM_uuid on Linux and VM_database ID on Windows abiquo.api.experimental.hostname13charsFromVirtualMachineDatabaseId=true

The user can set the FQDN when creating the VM using the API. The user can edit the VM and change the FQDN when the VM is not deployed. In this case, the API will check that the FQDN is valid.

After the VM is deployed, the user can change the FQDN in the VM operating system. In this case, Abiquo will update the FQDN stored in the platform.

Chef templates

In

Include Page

	Configure guest setup
	Configure guest setup

Chef uses cloud init

In private cloud datacenters, the Abiquo Chef integration now works with uses cloud init. You will need a cloud-init or cloud-base-init compatible template.

In all public cloud providers, Chef is always available and supported, even if you do not select the Guest setup option in the VM template.

Configure the Chef server for your enterprise as usual. See Abiquo Chef Integration Guide

Version	Old Version 27	New Version 28
Changes made by	MS	MS
Saved on	Nov 09, 2020	Dec 31, 2021