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 This section lists and describes a functional view of the different components that will appear in the cloud platform documentation

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Concept

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Description

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Apps Library

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The Apps library is the centralized virtual machine template library. Users can deploy their own VMs on a self-service basis using the templates available to them in the Apps Library. Administrators can load virtual machine templates from local disks or remote repositories. They can also download templates from the repository to local disk. The Apps library is also called the Appliance library or Application library. See Basic Appliance Library Concepts

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The aim of this section is to list and describe, from a functional perspective, the different components that it will appear in the documentation

Concept

Description

Base format

The platform's default template format for

a

each hypervisor.

Templates in formats that cannot be deployed on the hypervisor will be converted to this format.

See Template compatibility table#Hypervisor Compatibility Table

Captured

VM

virtual machine

A VM that was created in a hypervisor outside of Abiquo and retrieved by Abiquo, then captured. Abiquo can manage captured VMs in the same way as VMs created in Abiquo. See Import

and Capture Virtual Machines

and capture virtual machines.

Catalogue

The Catalogue is the centralized library for software templates, blueprint, and services. Users can create VMs from the templates available in the catalogue. The catalogue was previously called the Apps library, Appliance library, or Application library.

Cloud

nodeHypervisor or Docker server where virtual workloads are deployed. See Hypervisor Features and Cloud Node 
Datacenter
An Abiquo datacenter is a set of virtual resources managed by remote services. You can create more than one Abiquo datacenter in a physical datacenter using different remote services.

Datacenters and providers that offer pay-as-you-go, scalable, and flexible virtual infrastructure (compute, network and storage) as a service to final users

Datacenter

A group of physical machines on the same LAN (Local Area Network). These machines are usually located in the same place, and share a network and resources (e.g. electrical power)

Datacenter networks

Networks that are created at datacenter level: external, public and unmanaged networks.

Default network

Network that can be set for an enterprise (external, private) or virtual datacenter (public, external, private). If the user does not create a network configuration, the platform will create one using the default network.

Deploy

The process of allocating, provisioning

,

and powering on a VM.

DHCP Relay Abiquo provides a DHCP Relay server to forward DHCP requests and responses over VLANs between virtual machines and the DHCP Server. The DHCP Relay provides VLAN support for the DHCP server but does not provide DHCP Services, i.e. it does not replace the DHCP server. This server is used because a standard DHCP server can manage a maximum of around 200 VLANs.

Enterprise

On our multi-tenant platform, an

Also called launching a VM.

Enterprise

An enterprise is a cloud tenant. So an enterprise could be a third-party company, development group, company department,

etc. that

and so on. All the users in an enterprise can access the same virtual infrastructure.

Enterprise Repository

The Apps Library that belongs to an enterprise, where users can select VM templates for self-service deployment

Generic iSCSI StorageA storage device without a plugin for management by the Abiquo API. For these devices, the Storage Administrator must create volumes and an Administrator must add them to the platform.

Hard Limit

An allocation limit that is the maximum amount of RAM, CPU and HD resources that are available for an enterprise. The limit can be set for an enterprise, an enterprise in a specific location, or a virtual datacenter.

Instance (template or Abiquo instance) A snapshot copy of a VM system disk. In private cloud, an instance template is stored with the original master template from which the VM was deployed, and it uses the original template definition. See Manage InstancesManaged physical machineA physical machine that is registered in the Abiquo platform that the Abiquo API can connect to.Managed iSCSI Storage
External storage device that has an API and is managed by the platform using a plugin compatible with that API, meaning that volumes are created and deleted by the platform.
Managed virtual machine
A VM that was created by the platform, or captured by the platform because it was already running on a hypervisor that was added to the platform. In contrast, a VM that has been retrieved but not captured is not managed by the platform. See Import and Capture Virtual Machines
Management Network

The management network connects the platform servers with the hypervisors, network server, and storage for management purposes.

Network Service Type
A network tag that enables you to define more than one network interface on a host in order to specify it as the physical network for one or more virtual networks.

Persistent Virtual Machine

A VM with one or more disks on a volume of external storage (LUN) so that

Each enterprise has its own partition in the Catalogue.

Excluded network

You can use an Excluded network to reserve a network address range in a private cloud datacenter, to prevent users from creating private networks that use that range.

Hard limit

The maximum amount of resources that are available to an enterprise or virtual datacenter, for example, RAM, CPU, hard disk.

Hypervisor

A virtualization platform enabling the creation of different VMs on the same physical machine.

Instance

See Virtual Machine Instance

Managed networks

VM networks that receive their IP addresses from Abiquo, including: private, external and public networks.

Onboard

The platform can synchronize public cloud regions to onboard VMs and other resources that were created outside of Abiquo in public cloud providers

Persistent virtual machine template

To create a persistent VM template, the platform copies the system disk of a VM template to a volume of external storage, so that system disk data persists after the VM is undeployed

Physical

Machine

machine
or cloud node

A

host or

physical machine, cloud node, or host has a hypervisor running on it in order to provide a virtualization infrastructure

. Also called a Cloud Node. Note that a physical machine may run a hypervisor, but you can also add a vCenter cluster as a physical machine.

Rack

A group of physical machines within a datacenter that share the same switch (as in a physical Datacenter). This grouping is used for networking and high availability.

Reconfigure

To change the VM configuration after deployment

Remote Service

A component that allows the Abiquo platform to manage infrastructure within a datacenter

Retrieved or Unmanaged VMA VM that was created outside of the cloud platform and later imported from a physical machine in Abiquo. You can later capture these VMs so that they are managed by the platform. Or delete the unmanaged VMs that have not been captured. The term 'import' has also been used to mean 'retrieve'.Remote Access IP IP address on a machine that hosts a hypervisor for remote access to VMs over the Management Network. Also called a Service IP

Service Network

The service network includes all the networks in a datacenter that connect the VMs in the cloud (private, external, unmanaged, public)

Soft Limit

The point where

. If your VM does not support hot reconfigure, you must power it first in order to reconfigure it. Elements that can be changed during a reconfigure include: network interfaces and volumes.

Scope

An access list of enterprises and/or datacenters

Soft limit

When the user reaches the soft limit for a resource, the system alerts the user that they are near the absolute limit of a resource, called the hard limit

. These allocation limits can be set for an enterprise, an enterprise in a specific location, or a virtual datacenter

.

Storage Network

A high-performance network used to connect the VMs to the storage server

Storage Pool

A centralized storage infrastructure that allows the user to create iSCSI volumes and attach them to the VMs

Synchronized

VMs

When VMs are synchronized

in private cloud

, the VM states are the same in Abiquo and in the hypervisor

.
Synchronized VDCs and regions

In cloud providers (e.g. AWS, OpenStack cloud) when virtual datacenters or regions are synchronized, the elements are in the same state in Abiquo and in the public cloud region. Note that the public cloud syncrhonization process does not remove elements of configuration from undeployed VMs, for example, NICs and volumes.

Remote Repository

or public cloud region. To synchronize VMs, Abiquo obtains information about the VMs from the hypervisor or provider and updates the information about the VMs in Abiquo.

Template repository
was Remote repository

A public or private repository of

VM templates that can be accessed by Abiquo

virtual machine templates. Descriptions and

VM

virtual machine disk files are served by HTTP.

Also called a Template RepositoryTemplate

See Virtual Machine Template

Tenant

In Abiquo, cloud tenants are known as enterprises.

A cloud tenant is generally a group of users that have access to the same virtual resources, such as virtual datacenters and virtual machines, although Abiquo enables you to create different access profiles for each user.Trunk Mode A physical switch port configuration used in the Service Network that passes on all packets, regardless of their VLAN tags. If trunk mode is not used, the port must be configured for each individual VLAN used in the datacenter

Undeploy

The process of destroying the VM in the hypervisor and releasing resources on the platform.

Unavailable VM template

An unavailable VM template in private cloud is a template with no disk file. In public cloud it is a template that is in the Abiquo

Apps library cache

Catalogue (template details cache) but not available in the cloud provider. Users cannot deploy this template. Administrators can replace the disk file to make the template available again or when the template is no longer in use, they can delete it from the

Apps library

Catalogue.

Undeploy

Users

The process

Users of

destroying the virtual machine in the hypervisor and releasing resources on the platform. VApp SpecA VApp Spec (Virtual Appliance Spec)

the platform are grouped into tenants, which may be organizations, departments, and so on. Each user has a role with a group of privileges to allow the user to work with platform features.

VApp spec

A VApp spec is a configuration blueprint saved from a virtual appliance

that users can easily deploy

Virtual Appliance

A group of Virtual Machines running in a Virtual Datacenter. The virtual appliance is like a folder that

. Users can easily create a new virtual appliance from a VApp spec. A VApp spec is an abbreviation for "virtual appliance specification".

Virtual appliance

A virtual appliance (VApp) is a group of VMs running in a virtual datacenter. The virtual appliance can contain a related set of

virtual machines

VMs that are used to provide a service

. For

, for example, a web stack. At the virtual appliance level, you can deploy these

virtual machines

VMs together, view their performance statistics, create anti-affinity layers for VM high availability, and so on.

Virtual Datacenter

A partitioned area of the cloud with a set of virtual resources

available to users in the same enterprise that

that belongs to one tenant and may be controlled by the tenant administrator

on a self-service basis

(limit resources, create volumes, obtain public IP addresses, etc). The virtual resources are available to administrators and users on a self-service basis. The virtual appliances in a virtual datacenter all use the same type of virtualization technology (hypervisor, public cloud provider)

or Docker host

. These virtual appliances are all in the same public cloud region or physical datacenter and rack. See Manage

Virtual Datacenters

virtual datacenters

Virtual

Datacenter Networks

datacenter networks

Networks created at virtual datacenter level: private networks that

by default

are isolated within the virtual datacenter.

Virtual

Machine

machine

A guest or virtual machine (VM) is an instance of a

VM template

virtual image with network and storage configurations

once it is deployed on a cloud host, or an instance launched in a public cloud provider. It

. On a hypervisor it can be understood as a virtual operating system instance

or container. Also called a Workload

Virtual Machine Template

Abiquo uses virtual machine templates to create virtual machines. A virtual machine template consists of a virtual system disk and a VM template definition. The template may also contain additional disks. In public cloud, Abiquo stores the template definition but the template disk remains in the public cloud provider.

Virtual Machine Template DefinitionDescription of the VM and deployment requirements sent to the hypervisor or provider to create the VM. This includes resources (CPU, RAM and HD) and the hypervisor technology associated with the disk format

. One physical machine with a hypervisor installed can host various VMs.

Virtual machine instance

An Abiquo virtual machine instance is a copy of the selected disks of a deployed VM. To create a VM instance, the platform copies selected VM disks and saves them as a new template in the Catalogue.

Virtual machine template
(also Virtual image in API)

A VM template contains the disk files that the platform will use to create a VM and the definition of the VM. In public cloud, the platform only stores the VM definition and it uses the disk files in the provider.