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This page is part of the Abiquo walkthrough . |
Abiquo is a thin, unintrusive management layer on top of the existing infrastructure and there is no impact on any VMs that are already running. The Cloud Admins can add the physical and virtual infrastructure to Abiquo in a controlled way on their own timescales.
Private cloud
In the Infrastructure view, on the Private tab, you can incorporate your datacenter's compute, storage, and network resources into the Abiquo platform. You can also create allocation rules to control the use of these resources.
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Compute
In Abiquo datacenters, compute resources are servers that can run running one of the supported hypervisors or container servers. . We also call them physical machines or hyperivsor hosts.
The Cloud Admin adds compute resources to logical groups on , which are Abiquo racks with similar hypervisors or hardware. For a standard networking configuration, you would usually align the Abiquo rack to the a top of rack network switch. The Abiquo rack is also the level where you enable High Availability, so you can align VMWare You can also align VMware clusters with Abiquo racks.
Abiquo is a thin, unintrusive management layer to the existing infrastructure and there is no impact on any VMs that are already running. The Cloud Admins can add the physical and virtual infrastructure to Abiquo in a controlled way on their own timescales. Cloud Admins can easily add hypervisors to Abiquo by entering the IP address of the hypervisor managers or the hypervisors.
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| title | Click here to show/hide the task: Create a rack |
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To create a rack:
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Open the Infrastructure view and select Private and the datacenter name. If you are not on the Infrastructure details tab (with Servers, Network, etc.), open it by clicking the server button in the top right corner of the screen.
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At the top of the DATACENTERS list, click the plus button
Enter details of the Rack
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Click Network and enter details for your switch and environment. The platform will use these settings to create a pool of VLAN tags to assign to private networks
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Click Save
When you add hypervisor datastores to Abiquo, you can present them to the Cloud users in datastore tiers. Tiers enable you to provide multiple storage types with different performance, features and price points. They also enable cloud users to select the tier that is suitable for their requirements or their price point.
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To create datastore tiers
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Through the hypervisor, Abiquo will retrieve information about the physical machine and add the CPU and memory resources to the resource pool.
As part of the physical machine configuration, for standard networks, the Cloud Admin will select a virtual switch that Abiquo will use to configure virtual networks, and the Cloud Admin will select the datastore/s that Abiquo can use when deploying new VMs.
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| title | Click here to show/hide the task: Add a physical machine |
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Task: Add a physical machine
Use the + button to create a new physical machine. For example, for vCenter.
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For each hypervisor host, you must enable a network interface (by assigning a Network Service Type). This is the network interface that is listening on VLANs.
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For each hypervisor host, you must enable at least one datastore (mark the checkbox). 
Do not enable the vm_repository for use as a datastore.
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Repeat the process of adding the physical machine for additional hypervisor hosts. Add the datastores to a datastore tier.
The platform can import VMs that were deployed before the machine was added to Abiquo. You can capture these VMs and manage them with Abiquo.
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Once a physical machine is discovered by Abiquo, customers can scan the host for existing VMs. The existing VMs that are not managed by Abiquo will be highlighted and customers will have the opportunity to capture the existing VMs and bring them under Abiquo management. This functionality allows customers to phase in the deployment of Abiquo
See: Import and Capture VMs for more information. Some VMs will be prefixed with ABQ and managed by Abiquo, and some will be already running and not managed by Abiquo. |
Network
In private cloud, there are two main options for Abiquo networking: SDN integrations and standard networking.
When you add hypervisor datastores to Abiquo, you can present them to the cloud users in datastore tiers to represent different service levels. So you can provide multiple storage types with different performance, features and price points, and cloud users can select the appropriate tier for their requirements.
The platform can retrieve VMs that were launched before you added the hypervisor to Abiquo. You can capture these VMs to manage them with Abiquo.
Network
In private cloud, the options for Abiquo networking are: SDN integrations, standard networking, and guest setup.
Abiquo integrates with the VMware NSX system for software defined networking to manage private networks, NAT, firewalls, and load balancers in Abiquo virtual datacenters.
With standard networking Abiquo networking Abiquo will manage the virtual networks that are provisioned with VMs.
It does not integrate with network devices (e.g. switches), so the Network Admin will need to configure the switches and routers and provide a pool of VLANs that Abiquo can manage.
With guest setup you can use hypervisor tools or cloud-init to configure VM networks.
Datacenter networks
In datacenters, Abiquo manages 3 types of virtual networks of 3 distinct types: private networks, external networks, and public networks.
Private networks
Private networks only exist within the Abiquo cloud environment. As such Private networks enable VMs in the same virtual datacenter to communicate with each other. Abiquo can completely manage these networks and you can allow users can be allowed to create their own private networks on a self-service basis.
In standard networking, you define a pool of network tags in the Abiquo rack configuration defines an available pool of VLANs and Abiquo will automatically assign an unused VLAN to a new private network. Private networks enable VMs in the same virtual datacenter to communicate with each other. When SDN integrations are used
When you use SDN integrations, Abiquo creates the private networks in the domain of the SDN system as specified by the Admin and using the SDN technology for example VXLANs with VMware NSX.
The Admin can also assign an IP on the external network as a gateway IP for the private networks, enabling to enable external connectivity for the VDC. In public cloud regions that support networking, users can create private networks and work with features such as Availability Zones and NAT.
External networks
In Abiquo datacenters, External networks allow an external network allows communication with the external infrastructure . So the and it belongs to a single enterprise (cloud tenant).
The Cloud Admin must define IP ranges and VLANs that align with the switches and routers beyond the cloud environment.
The Cloud Admin assigns an external network (VLAN) to an Abiquo enterprise (cloud tenant). For example, for service providers, you can assign each customer a dedicated VLAN and provide seamless connectivity to the cloud through existing MPLS or VPN connections.
And for enterprise customers, your departments (Abiquo enterprises) can connect to the corporate LAN.
For a tenant and/or virtual datacenter, you can change the default private network to make an external network the default, which provides easy connectivity when you deploy a new environment.
When using SDN integrations, Abiquo may manage the IP addresses of the external networks. An Unmanaged unmanaged network is a type of the External external network with IP addresses that are managed outside of Abiquo.
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In an Abiquo datacenter, tenants can share a public network. First tenants , which may contain public IP addresses. Tenants obtain (purchase or reserve) IPs in public networks for their virtual datacenters and then they assign them to VMs. Abiquo's accounting services track public networks, so they are ideal for providing true public internet IP addresses that will be charged you can charge back to an enterprise.
In public cloud, the Cloud Admin does not manage public networks. However, tenants acquire floating IPs for their virtual datacenters and assign them to their VMs as in private cloud.
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To create a public network and IPs
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Storage
In Abiquo datacenters, Abiquo uses several different storage types.
Through the hypervisorOn hypervisors, Abiquo supports any storage that can be used as a hypervisor datastore. So Abiquo can provision a new VM to any storage type including Fibre Channelfibre channel, iSCSi, and NFS. Abiquo uses datastore tiers to offer different service levels for the user to deploy and also to create self-service VM hard disks, which are not persistent.
Abiquo uses requires an NFS storage share for its Apps Library Catalogue where it stores VM images and templates are stored within each datacenter.
Abiquo also supports integrated storage and external storage volumes, using iSCSI and NFS. Integrated storage provides the user with a complete self-service experience. The user can create their own volumes, attach those volumes to VMs or delete those volumes, without an Admin being involved. Additionally, Abiquo supports generic iSCSI volumes added by the Admin and provides a storage SDK. External storage devices can be presented to the Cloud users in storage tiers. Tiers enable you to provide multiple storage types with different performance, features and price points. They also enable cloud users to select the tier that is suitable for their requirements or their price point.
Allocation rules
In Abiquo datacenters, allocation rules define how Abiquo will use the underlying infrastructure to deploy VMs. The allocation rules include compute load level rules where you can configure allocation or subscription of CPU and RAM, and storage load level rules for datastores.
Abiquo supports compute allocation rules at the VMware cluster level and the . The Cloud Admin can also use features built into the underlying hypervisor technology, such as VMware's Dynamic Resource Scheduler (DRS).
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| title | Click here to show/hide the task: Create allocation rules |
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To create allocation rules
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Select the data center and edit. Select the Allocation Rules tab
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Public cloud
On the Public tab, the Infrastructure view displays the public cloud regions and the tenants that can use these regions. Each tenant will also require their own set of public cloud credentials that will enable them to use the API of the cloud provider. Abiquo Abiquo offers some basic guides on how to Obtain public cloud credentials.
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| title | Click here to show/hide the task: Add public cloud credentials for the current tenant |
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To add credentials for the current enterprise:
In the top right-hand corner of the screen, click on the user icon.
From the dropdown menu, select Edit credentials
Select the cloud provider
Enter the Access key ID and the Secret access key
Click Add account
Click Close
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In public cloud regions that support networking, users can create private networks and work with features such as Availability Zones. In public cloud, the Cloud Admin does not manage public networks. However, tenants acquire floating IPs for their virtual datacenters and assign them to their VMs as in private cloud.