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

Base Format

Concept

Description

Apps Library

The Apps library is the centralized virtual machine template library. Users can deploy their own virtual machines 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

Base format

The platform's default template format for

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

each hypervisor. See Template compatibility table#Hypervisor Compatibility Table

Captured virtual machine

A

virtual machine

VM that was created in a hypervisor outside of Abiquo and

imported into

retrieved by Abiquo, then captured. Abiquo can manage captured

virtual machines

VMs in the same way as

virtual machines

VMs created in Abiquo. See Import and

Capture Virtual Machines

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

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

Cloud node
Hypervisor or Docker where virtual workloads are deployed. See Hypervisor Features and Cloud Node 

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.

See Networks

Default network

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

See Networks for datacenter networks and Manage Networks for virtual datacenter networks

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

virtual machine. See Deploy a Virtual Appliance and Deploy a virtual machineDHCP 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

VM. 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

Each enterprise has its own

Apps Library where users can select virtual machine templates for self-service deployment. Templates in the enterprise repository can be public (globally shared with all users) or private (local to their enterprise's users only). See Manage VM TemplatesGeneric 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. See Storage

Hard Limit

The maximum amount of RAM, CPU and HD resources that are available for an enterprise. These alllocation limits can be set for an enterprise in a specific location, or a virtual datacenter. See Manage Enterprises, Manage Virtual Datacenters

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

virtual machines

VMs on the same physical machine

. Also called a cloud node

.

See Hypervisor Features and Cloud Node

Instance

A snapshot copy of a virtual machine system disk that is stored with the original master template from which the virtual machine was deployed. A virtual machine deployed from an instance will always use the original virtual machine template definition. See Manage Instances

See Virtual Machine Instance

Managed networks

Virtual machine

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

Managed - physical machineA physical machine that is registered in the platform. See Compute in Datacenters Managed iSCSI Storage
(also Integrated 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. See Storage Feature Tables, Storage Servers and Storage
Managed - virtual machine
A virtual machine 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 virtual machine that has been retrieved but not imported or 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. See Platform Networks

Network Service Type
A network tag that enables you to define more than one network interface on a physical machine (hypervisor host) that can then be specified as the physical network for your virtual networks. See Networks

Persistent Virtual Machine

A disk of a virtual machine template is moved

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

(LUN)

, so that system disk data persists after the

Virtual Machine

VM is undeployed

. See Create Persistent Virtual Machines in Datacenters and Manage Persistent Virtual Machine Templates and

Physical

Machine

machine
or

Cloud Node

cloud node

A

host or

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

. See Hypervisor Features and Cloud Node 

Rack

A group of physical machines within a Datacenter that share the same switch (as in a physical Datacenter). This grouping is used for High Availability. See Compute in Datacenters

Reconfigure

To change the

virtual machine

VM configuration after deployment.

You must power off a virtual machine

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.

See Configure Virtual Machines

Remote Service

A component that allows the Abiquo platform to manage infrastructure within a datacenter. The remote services are:

  • Virtualization Manager: Manages The Virtual Appliance lifecycle. Connects to Cloud Nodes to perform Virtual Machine operations.
  • Monitor Manager: Is responsible for Virtual Appliance monitoring. Listens to events occurring in Cloud Nodes and updates Virtual Appliance state.
  • Appliance Manager: Manages the Image Library and the Image repositories.
  • Discovery Manager: Used to autodiscover physical machines. Can retrieve hardware information, Hypervisor type, and existing Virtual Machine information.
  • DHCP Service (Enterprise Edition only): The DHCP service is used to assign an IP address to Abiquo-managed Virtual Machines.
  • Business Process Manager (Enterprise Edition only): Performs asynchronous Virtual-to-Virtual (V2V) operations.
  • Storage Manager (Enterprise Edition only): Manages External Storage in a standard way.
Retrieved or Imported Virtual Machine A virtual machine that was created outside of the cloud platform and later imported from a physical machine added to the platform using the retrieve button. See Import and Capture Virtual Machines Service IP (now Remote Access IP) IP address on a machine that hosts a hypervisor for remote access to virtual machines over the Management Network.

Service Network

The service network includes all the networks that connect the virtual machines in the cloud. These networks include: private networks, external networks, and unmanaged networks, as well as public networks within the cloud. The Network Administrator must manage the VLAN tags and IP address ranges of the Service Network.

Soft Limit

The point where the

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

limits. Soft limits < hard limits. These alllocation limits can be set for an enterprise in a specific location, or a virtual datacenter. See Manage Enterprises, Manage Virtual Datacenters 

Storage Manager

The virtual Storage Manager is the Remote Service component that manages the different storage systems (Storage Pools). The virtual Storage Manager is the interface that allows the Abiquo platform to connect to these Storage Pools.

Storage Network

A high-performance network used to connect the virtual machines to the storage server

Storage Pool

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

Synchronized
When virtual machines are synchronized, the virtual machine

limit.

Synchronized

When VMs are synchronized, the VM states are the same in Abiquo and in the hypervisor

. When virtual datacenters in

or public cloud

are synchronized, the elements are in the same state in Abiquo and in the public cloud region.Template Repository
was Remote RepositoryA 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

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 virtual machine templates. Descriptions and virtual machine disk files are served by HTTP.

Tenant

In Abiquo, cloud tenants are known as enterprises.

Trunk Mode

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

this

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

.

Users

Users are people that are grouped by similar objectives, geographical zone, etc

are grouped into tenants, which may be organizations, departments, and so on. Each user has a

different

role

and privileges

with a group of privileges to allow the user to work with platform features.

VApp

Spec

spec

A VApp

Spec (Virtual Appliance Spec)

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.

See Access Virtual Resources

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

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 are isolated within the virtual datacenter.

Virtual

Machine

machine

or workload 

A guest or virtual machine (VM) is an instance of a virtual image with network and storage configurations.

It

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

or container

. One

Physical Machine

physical machine with a

Hypervisor

hypervisor installed can host various

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

Virtual Machine or workload

An instance of a Virtual Machine Template once it is deployed on a physical machine or a Docker container that is running on a Docker host, or an instance launched in a public cloud region.

Virtual Machine Instance

A copy of selected Virtual Machine disks from a cloud node to the repository or public cloud to public cloud storage. The modified template will be available in the Apps library and can be deployed in another Virtual Appliance

Virtual Machine Template
(also Virtual Image in API)

A virtual disk and virtual machine template definition

Virtual Machine Template DefinitionDescription of the virtual machine and deployment requirements sent to the hypervisor to create the virtual machine. This includes: resources (CPU, RAM and HD) and hypervisor technology associated with the disk format (pending OVF normalization: Disk and Virtual System)

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.