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Introduction to autoscaling

Abiquo 4.0 introduces horizontal autoscaling of virtual machines through scaling groups created for virtual machines. When a scaling event is triggered, Abiquo will follow the scaling rules of the scaling group. To scale out, it will clone the base virtual machine (with the template disk content) and deploy, and to scale in, it will delete clones or undeploy the base virtual machine.

To use autoscaling do these steps:

1. Create a base virtual machine
2. Define a scaling group for a base virtual machine, including scaling rules
3. Create an action plan for the virtual machine with scaling actions
4. Create scaling triggers, which are either monitoring alerts for virtual appliances or schedules for planned scaling

Screenshot: Create scaling group

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How does Abiquo clone the base virtual machine

Abiquo clones the base virtual machine and deploys the clones. Abiquo will not deploy other virtual machines in the scaling group if they are not deployed.

Horizontal scaling of VMs enables users to configure an automatic response to changing demands for resources. To scale out, the platform clones the base VM and deploys the clones. To scale in, Abiquo will delete clone machines but it will just undeploy the base machine

 To clone the base virtual machine,

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the platform will do the following steps:

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. Assign firewall policies and attach 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 deploye
   6. Exception

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1. 1. – Alarms: the scaling group

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1. 1. has only

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1. 1. one alarm in the base machine

Does the state of the base virtual machine make a difference

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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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Create a scaling group

Before you begin:

1. Configure the base VM
2. Ensure that you have enough resources in

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1. your virtual datacenter to deploy up to the maximum number of cloned

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Create a scaling group

Abiquo supports horizontal autoscaling with virtual machine scaling groups.

Before you begin:

• Create and configure a base virtual machine. When a scaling event is triggered, Abiquo will clone this virtual machine according to your scaling rules. The base virtual machine can be deployed or undeployed, as appropriate
  
  • Abiquo may undeploy the base machine but it will not delete it

1. VMs, especially IP addresses

To create a scaling group:

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

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When you save the scaling group, Abiquo will mark the virtual machine icon with the scaling group symbol and display the scaling group name. If necessary, Abiquo will create clones of the base machine and deploy them in order to reach the minimum size. The number in the bottom right-hand corner of the icon is the number of running virtual machines in the scaling group, including the base machine.

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Triggering autoscaling

To trigger autoscaling operations, you will need to create an action plan for the virtual machine with the autoscaling group, and then create triggers to run the action plan. Example of triggers are virtual appliance alerts or action plan schedules. Scaling operations are subject to all standard Abiquo constraints, such as privileges and allocation limits. See Manage action plans and triggers

What happens during scaling?

When an autoscaling event is triggered, Abiquo When scaling, the platform will search for a scaling rule that is valid for the specific time range, or for a default rule. Abiquo It will create or delete/undeploy the number of virtual machines for the scaling operationVMs in the rule, then wait for the cooldown period before accepting another scaling request.Scaling operations are managed by action plans and subject to all standard Abiquo constraints, such as privileges and allocation limits.

To scale in,   Abiquo deletes and undeploys virtual machines without waiting for user confirmation to force the undeploy of virtual machines with disks that are not stored in the Apps library (ISO configuration drive or additional hard disk).  Abiquo  Abiquo currently selects the virtual machines to delete or undeploy using first in, first out (FIFO), but in future releases the administrator will be able to select the scale in policy, from last in, first out (LIFO) or FIFO. 

To scale out, Abiquo will always create new clones instead of deploying virtual machines that are undeployed, for example, machines that were manually undeployed during maintenance.

What are the constraints on VMs in a scaling group

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You cannot create alarms for cloned virtual machines that are part of a scaling group.  This is because Abiquo will automatically apply the metrics from the base machine, that will be considered in the activation of the alarms from the base machine.

How do metrics and alarms work with scaling groups?

Abiquo will automatically apply the same metrics configuration from the base machine to the clone machines. And Abiquo will automatically consider the metrics from all of the virtual machines as a group, and use these metrics to determine if the alarms in the base machine should activate. This means that even if the base machine is undeployed, an alarm in the base machine can still activate, based on the performance of the clone group.

What is maintenance mode

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Perform maintenance on the scaling group

Maintenance mode temporarily disables autoscaling and enables you to make changes to your virtual machines, for example, to manually deploy or undeploy machines, or to edit the scaling group itself. Remember that if you manually undeploy virtual machines, Abiquo will not reuse them. Abiquo will always clone the base virtual machine to expand the scaling group.

Note that in maintenance mode you can undeploy the base virtual machine but you cannot delete it; to delete the base virtual machine, you will need to delete the scaling group.  

VMs (deploy, undeploy, delete etc.) and edit the scaling group. Note that you cannot delete the base VM. When you leave maintenance mode, Abiquo will apply your modifications to the scaling group, e.g. adding new rules. Then Abiquo will adjust the number of virtual machines in the group to within the minimum and maximum size range.

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• To put the scaling group in maintenance mode

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• Click , click the "cog" maintenance button Trigger or trigger an action plan with the action "Scaling group: start maintenance mode"

You can now make changes to the scaling group:

• Open the scaling group
• Edit the scaling group, e.g. add new rules
• Reconfigure, deploy or undeploy the base machine or clone machines
• Delete clone machines

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• To leave maintenance mode,

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To leave maintenance mode:

• Click the click the "cog" maintenance button again Trigger or trigger an action plan with the action "Scaling group: end maintenance mode".

Delete a scaling group

When you delete a scaling group, Abiquo will not destroy the virtual machines. It will place all the virtual machines in the virtual appliance as regular virtual machines 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.