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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

Apps library

Catalogue

The

Apps library

Catalogue is

also called

the

Appliance library or Application library. The Apps library is the centralized virtual machine

centralized VM template library.

Users

You can deploy

their own virtual machines

your VMs on a self-service basis using the templates available to them in the

Apps Library

catalogue.

Administrators can load virtual machine


You can upload VM templates from local disks or remote repositories.

They can

And you also download templates from the

repository

catalogue to local disk.
The Catalogue was previously called the Apps library, Appliance library or Application library.

Base format

The base format is the platform's default format for a hypervisor. See Template compatibility table#Hypervisor Compatibility Table

Captured virtual machine

A

virtual machine

VM that was created outside of Abiquo and retrieved (imported) into Abiquo then captured.
Abiquo can manage captured

virtual machines

VMs in the same way as

virtual machines

VMs you created in Abiquo. See Import and capture virtual machines.

Cloud

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

final

cloud 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

the Cloud administrator creates at datacenter level: external, public, and unmanaged networks.

Default network

Network

A network that can be set for an enterprise (external, private) or virtual datacenter (public, external, private).

Deploy

The process of allocating, provisioning, and powering on a virtual machine.

Enterprise

On our multi-tenant platform, an enterprise is a cloud tenant.
So an enterprise could be a third-party company, development group, company department, etc. that can access the same virtual infrastructure.

Enterprise repository

Each enterprise has its own

Apps Library

catalogue where cloud users can select

virtual machine

VM templates for self-service deployment.

Templates


The templates in the enterprise repository can be public (globally shared with all users) or private (local to their enterprise's users only).

Hard limit

The maximum amount of RAM, CPU, and HD resources that

are available to

you can use in an enterprise or virtual datacenter.

Hypervisor

A virtualization platform

enabling the creation of different virtual machines

that enables you to create different VMs on the same physical machine, e.g. VMware ESXi

Instance

A

You can make an instance of your VMs, which is a snapshot copy of selected disks

of a virtual machine

that

is

are stored as an instance template in the

Apps library

catalogue.
In private cloud an instance is stored with the original master template from which the

virtual machine

VM was deployed.
A

virtual machine

VM deployed from an instance will use a copy of the original

virtual machine

VM template definition.

Managed networks

Virtual machine networks that receive their IP addresses from Abiquo, including

When you deploy a VM in a managed network, Abiquo configures the IP addresses.
Managed networks included: private, external and public networks.

Managed - virtual machine

A

virtual machine

VM that was created by the platform, or

imported/captured by the platform because it was already running on a hypervisor

captured from its hypervisor or public cloud region that was added to the platform.
In contrast, a

virtual machine

VM that has been retrieved but not

imported or

captured is not managed by the platform.

Physical machine
or Cloud node

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

Reconfigure

To change the virtual machine configuration after deployment. You must power off a virtual machine in order

When you reconfigure a VM, you change it’s configuration after you deployed it.
If you cannot hot-reconfigure a VM, you must power off the VM to reconfigure it.
Elements that can be changed during a reconfigure include: network interfaces and volumes.

Soft limit

The point where the system alerts the user that they are near the

A soft limit will alert you that you are near an absolute limit of a resource

, called the hard limits

, in a VDC, or in a cloud location. Soft limits < hard limits

Synchronized

When

virtual machines

your VMs or resources are synchronized, the

virtual machine

states of the resources are the same in Abiquo and in the hypervisor

.

Template repository
was Remote repository

A public or private repository of virtual machine templates. Descriptions and virtual machine disk files are served by HTTP.
Standarized external virtual machine template providers.

or public cloud region.

Tenant

In Abiquo, cloud tenants are known as enterprises.

Undeploy

The process of destroying the

virtual machine

VM in the hypervisor and releasing resources on the platform.

Users

Users of the platform are grouped into tenants

Your user belongs to a tenant enterprise, which may be

organizations

an organization,

departments

department, and so on.
Each user has a role with its associated access privileges.

VApp spec

A VApp Spec (Virtual Appliance Spec) is a configuration blueprint saved from a virtual appliance that users can deploy.

Virtual appliance

A group of

Virtual Machines

VMs running in a

Virtual Datacenter

virtual datacenter.
The virtual appliance is like a folder that can contain a related set of

virtual machines

VMs that are used to provide a service,

for example,

such as a web stack.
At the virtual appliance level, you can deploy these virtual machines together, view their performance statistics, create anti-affinity layers for VM high availability, and so on.

Virtual datacenter (VDC)

A partitioned area of the cloud

with a set of

where you can work with virtual resources that

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

belong to your tenant.
The tenant administrator may control your use of the VDC (limit resources, create volumes, obtain public IP addresses, etc).

The


You can access your virtual resources

are available to administrators and users on a

with self-service

basis. The virtual appliances in a virtual datacenter all

.
All of the VMs in a VDC use the same type of virtualization technology (hypervisor, public cloud provider)

or Docker host. These Virtual Appliances

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

Virtual datacenter networks

Networks

created

at virtual datacenter level: private networks that are isolated within the virtual datacenter.

Virtual Machine (VM)

A guest or virtual machine is an instance of a virtual image with network and storage configurations.
On a hypervisor it can be understood as a virtual operating system instance or container.
One Physical Machine with a Hypervisor installed can host various

Virtual Machines. A Docker host can run various Docker containers.

Virtual machine instance

A copy of a Virtual Machine from a cloud node to the repository. The modified template can be deployed in another Virtual Appliance

VMs.

Virtual machine template (also Virtual image in API)

A

virtual machine

VM template contains the disk files that the platform

will use

uses to create a

virtual machine

VM and the VM definition

of the virtual machine

.
In public cloud, the platform

only

stores the

virtual machine

VM definition and it uses the disk files in the provider.

Virtual machine template definition

Description

The VM template definition is description of the

virtual machine

VM and the deployment requirements

sent to the hypervisor to create the virtual machine.

.
This includes

:

the resources

(

such as CPU, RAM

and HD) and hypervisor technology associated with the disk format (pending OVF normalization: Disks and Virtual System)

, and HD.
When you deploy a VM, Abiquo sends the VM template definition to create the VM.