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Table of Contents

Introduction to guest setup

Abiquo 4.0.2 supports guest setup with cloud init or hypervisor tools . The and the Abiquo Chef integration now uses cloud-init. 

Guest setup runs the first time you deploy a virtual machineVM. The hypervisor tools guest setup also runs on Linux machines when you add a NIC. 

Guest setup includes the following functionality described in this table.

FunctionalityCloud-initHypervisor tools
Set fully qualified domain name (FQDN)(tick)(tick)
Generate a random password at deploy and send by email to owner(tick)(tick)
Inject network configuration if no DHCP server is available(tick)(tick)
Inject SSH keys into guest(tick)(error)
Configuration drive with environment variables and user-data presented to guest OS on an ISO disk.
See Automate first boot with Configuration drive and cloud-init		(tick)(error)


If the guest setup is not successful, the virtual machine VM deploy will fail and roll back.

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To prepare templates for guest setup

  1. Load templates with either support for cloud-init (configuration drive) support or hypervisor guest tools installed
  2. 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.

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The default Abiquo unattend file is supplied here. You can copy this file to create a custom unattend file on the Remote Services server (for use by Virtual Factory), and change attributes such as the time zone (TimeZone) and the workgroup name (JoinWorkgroup).

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Abiquo can generate a random password in the virtual machine VM for the root user on Linux root or Windows the Administrator user on Windows, for the first time it the VM is deployed. Before you deploy, you can edit the virtual machine VM to change this settingthe template setting using the Guest initial password checkbox.

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Abiquo will mail the password to the owner, so on the Abiquo Server, check that you have set the mail properties  with the mail properties with the address of the mail server and mail user. See Abiquo Configuration Properties#mail

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Abiquo does not save the initial password, which creates the following limitations:

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so on Linux, before deploying an instance template, edit the instance's password to set it to the current VM password 

Guest password for Windows

For Windows templates:

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, edit the template and set the user to Administrator

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. You can configure Abiquo so that it will lock the

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VM while waiting for password configuration

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Set . To do this, set the following abiquo.properties to wait for password configuration on the Abiquo Remote Services 

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

 

Virtual machine settings

To When you create a virtual machine with guestSetup, use a template that supports cloud-init or has hypervisor tools installed. Set the appropriate value of the guestSetup attribute for the template.When you create the virtual machineVM using a guest setup template, Abiquo will detect the guestSetup support and configure the guestSetup value for the virtual machine.VM. Abiquo will also configure the value of the guestInitialPassword from the template. Before you deploy, you can change this value.

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Set fully qualified domain name

Abiquo can set a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) as followsbefore the VM is deployed, with one of the following options:
Manually
  1. The FQDN that the user manually enters for the
virtual machine
  1. VM, which has the highest priority
Automatically used the option defined the property below
  2. A
host name
  1. hostname based on the Abiquo database ID, plus VM network domain name (from VM NIC or VDC default VLAN), or localdomain (automatic)
  2. A
host name
  1. hostname that is the VM_uuid, plus VM network domain name, or localdomain
. 

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  1. (automatic)

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

Code Block
// Generate VM name from database ID. If false use VM_uuid  
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 virtual machine VM is not deployed. In this case, the API will check that the FQDN is valid.

After the virtual machine 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. 

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From Abiquo 4.0.2, in private cloud, the Abiquo Chef integration now works with cloud init. You will need a cloud-init or cloud-base-init compatible template. Configure the Chef server for your enterprise as in previous versions. 

From Abiquo 4.0.2 in all public cloud providers, Chef is always available and supported, even if you do not select the Guest setup option in the template. 

Configure the Chef server for your enterprise as in previous versions.