Introduction to action plansTo enable more control over cloud operations, users can create action plans that will automatically run tasks on VMs and scaling groups, and to run general tasks, such as sending an email or web hook. Action plans are an important automation functionality of the platform. They can combine general tasks with tasks that run on VMs and scaling groups in different providers and have multiple triggers including alerts from custom metrics, built-in metrics, budget alerts, and schedules. Users can select groups of VMs or scaling groups to run actions based on tags. And multiple action plans can apply to a VM or scaling group.
Display action plansTo display action plans: Go to Control → Action plans
Create an action planBefore you create an action plan, consider the elements that you wish to automate with the action plan. Create VMs or scaling groups, fetch metrics, and create alarms and alerts. To create an action plan: Go to Control → Action plans, and click the + add button Enter the action plan details
Go to Actions to add actions: Click the + add button Select the action Type: general action, VM, scaling group, VMs by tags, scaling groups by tags If you are selecting by tags, then enter the tag filter. See Search for resources by tag and filter search Enter action details
Decrease CPU/RAM: you cannot use this with hot-reconfigure and you must check that the OS is compatible Instance: Name for Instance (clone) template. The platform will append the date to the name supplied Webhook action - Expected HTTP status code: If this status code is returned, continue running the action plan. Default: 204 No Content Email action - To, CC: Enter email addresses as a comma separated list Image RemovedImage AddedFor more details, see Action plan actions table and Webhook actions table below.
Put the actions in run order using the arrow buttons
To run the action plan automatically, go to the Triggers tab and create an alert or schedule trigger. Info |
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When you create actions on VMs also consider the following constraints. User constraints: e.g. allocation limits Platform constraints: e.g. to create an instance, the VM must be deployed and powered off Hypervisor constraints: e.g. with hot reconfigure on ESXi, you cannot reduce CPU or RAM
For the API you can request the JSON schema for each action plan entry type from the API. See: https://wiki.abiquo.com/api/latest/ActionPlansResource.html#list-action-plan-entry-templates |
Action plan actions table Action | Notes and Parameters |
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Virtual machine | |
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Increase CPU | vCPUs | Decrease CPU | vCPUs. Not supported by hot-reconfigure. Check OS compatibility | Increase RAM | | Decrease RAM | | Increase hardware profile | Use the same family and type | Decrease hardware profile | Use the same family and type | Resize disk | Amount Disk unit of GB or MB Selected disk
| Instance | | Set hardware profile | Select from the available hardware profiles | General | |
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Send email | Enter email addresses as a comma separated list | Send webhook | See webhook attributes table | Scaling group | |
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Start maintenance | | End maintenance | | Scale in | | Scale out | |
Webhook action attributes table Attribute | Description | Required | Default value |
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Endpoint | Where to submit the request | true | | HTTP Method | The type of request can be GET, POST, or PUT | false | GET | Expected HTTP status code | If this status code is returned, continue running the action plan | false | 204 No Content | Request headers | Headers such as, secret, authentication, and content-type | false | | Request content | Request body | false | |
Run an action plan nowTo run an action plan immediately to test it, do these steps: Go to Control → Action plans Select the action plan On the Actions pane, click the Run action plan button
Abiquo recommends that you run an action plan manually to test it before you create a trigger to run it automatically.
Create a trigger for an action planThe platform supports two types of triggers to run action plans: Alerts and Schedules. To run your action plan based on metrics, select an existing alert with these steps: Go to Control → Action plans Select an action plan Below the Alerts panel, click the + add button Select an alert. For details about creating an alert, see Manage alerts.
To run your action plan automatically at selected dates and times, cre ate a schedule trigger with these steps: Go to Control → Action plans Select an action plan Below the Schedules panel, click the + add button Enter the details of the schedule using the calendar or time and repeat interval as described below
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To run the action plan at intervals of a fixed number of seconds within a set timeframe: Select an Interval schedule Enter the following parameters Interval seconds: the number of seconds from when the action plan execution starts to when it will start again Repeat count: the number of times to run the action plan. A value of 0 means repeat forever Start time: date and time End time: date and time
After you create an interval schedule, the platform will display the execution count of how many times the action plan has run. If the repeat count is 0, the execution count is null To run the action plan using a Cron-type schedule: Select an Advanced schedule Use the calendar selector.
Delete an action planIf you delete an action plan, Abiquo will also delete the schedule associated with that action plan. |