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Table of Contents


Abiquo is a hypervisor-independent cloud solution that can manage multiple virtualization technologies. It is able to deploy virtual appliances to many different hypervisors, and manage them from a rich web interface. The following sections describe the template disk formats supported by the Abiquo platform, and the formats supported by the hypervisors Abiquo manages.


title
Tip

API Feature

To retrieve the information about Supported Disk Format Types from the Abiquo API, use the requests of the DiskFormatTypes Resource

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Abiquo identifies the disk formats by their URIs as given in the following table. These URIs were found in OVF files exported in these formats. However, over time vendors may change their reference information and URIs. Therefore customers who wish to import OVF files should check that their file formats will be correctly identified by Abiquo.


Disk format

URI

Technical reference

Description

RAW

http://raw/


Device disk format

VMDK_STREAM_OPTIMIZED

http://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/interfaces/vmdk_access.html#streamOptimized

vmdk_50_technote.pdf
see Stream-Optimized p11

VMware stream optimized format

VMDK_FLAT

http://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/interfaces/vmdk_access.html#monolithic_flat

vmdk_50_technote.pdf
see Simple Extents p5

VMware fixed disk

VMDK_SPARSE

http://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/interfaces/vmdk_access.html#monolithic_sparse

vmdk_50_technote.pdf 
see Hosted Sparse Extents p6
/ ESXi Host Sparse Extents on p9

VMware sparse disk

VHD_FLAT

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualserver/bb676673.aspx#monolithic_flat

VHD specification Word file
see Fixed Hard Disk Image p3

VHD fixed disk

VHD_SPARSE

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualserver/bb676673.aspx#monolithic_sparse

VHD specification Word file

see Dynamic Hard Disk Image p3

VHD sparse disk

VHDX_FLAT

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831446.aspx#monolithic_flat


VHDX fixed disk

VHDX_SPARSE

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831446.aspx#monolithic_sparse


VHDX sparse disk

VDI_FLAT

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=8046#monolithic_flat


VDI fixed disk

VDI_SPARSE

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=8046#monolithic_sparse


VDI sparse disk

QCOW2_FLAT

http://people.gnome.org/~markmc/qcow-image-format.html#monolithic_flat


QCOW2 fixed disk

QCOW2_SPARSE

http://people.gnome.org/~markmc/qcow-image-format.html#monolithic_sparse


QCOW2 sparse disk

AMI

http://amiprotocol.sourceforge.net/ami-specif.html#1.9.2.user.xml


AMI

ISO

http://iso


ISO format

Abiquo will record UNKNOWN as the format for disks that are not in one of the above formats and the user will not be able to deploy VMs from these disks.

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The hypervisor default format (also called the base format) for each hypervisor is marked with a  (star) (star) . 

You can configure the list of formats offered and the base format using Abiquo Configuration Properties. See Abiquo configuration properties#pluginmetadata


Format

AWS

ESX/ESXi

Hyper-V

KVM

RAW

(error)

(error)  

(tick)

(tick)

(tick)

(tick)

(tick)(tick) (star)

(tick)

VMDK_FLAT

(tick) (star)


(tick) (star)


(tick) (star)

VMDK_SPARSE

(tick)


(tick)



VMDK_STREAM_OPTIMIZED

(tick)


(tick)



VHD_FLAT

(tick)



(tick)


VHD_SPARSE

(tick) (star)



(tick) (star)


VHDX_FLAT

(tick)



(tick) Deploy VHDX templates

(error)

(error) No conversions TO or
FROM VHDX

(error)

(error) No persistent VHDX templates


VHDX _SPARSE

(tick)



(tick) Deploy VHDX templates

(error)

(error)   No conversions TO or
FROM VHDX

(error)

(error) No persistent VHDX templates


VDI_FLAT





VDI_SPARSE





QCOW2_FLAT

(tick)




(tick)

QCOW2_SPARSE

(tick)




(tick)

AMI

(tick)

(tick)

(error)

(error) no conversions




ISO

(tick)


(tick)

(tick)

(tick)

(tick)

(tick)


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Hypervisor default format and conversions

In the above table, the hypervisor default format (also called the base format) for each hypervisor is marked with a  (star) (star). This is the preferred deployment format for this hypervisor, and if there is a disk in the base format, Abiquo will deploy this disk.

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Raw format for persistent VMs

The Disk from device or raw format is used for persistent VM templates. Before creating a persistent VM template, Abiquo converts the template's disks to raw format and then dumps them to a volume on the selected storage



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Note about ISO disks

Abiquo supports ISO disks, which may be bootable installation disks (added to templates) or data disks (added to VMs). See: