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Easily manage a catalog catalogue of VM templates in private cloud and public cloud providers including Amazon, Azure, and Google with the Abiquo multicloud platform |
Display VM templates
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, and Google with the Abiquo multicloud platform |
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This page describes how to manage VM templates that are already in the Catalogue |
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Display VM templates
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This section describes how to display VM templates in the catalogue. |
To display VM templates:
Select Private or Public
Select a Datacenter or Public cloud region from the list
If you do not see the expected templates, click the round-arrow Refresh button beside the Datacenter name or contact your system administrator
Optionally, select a template Category
Optionally, select icon or list view
On the right, the platform will display all the templates available for the selected datacenter or public cloud region.
You can also search and filter VM templates in the same way as for VMs and other entitites.
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Privileges: Manage VM templates from Catalogue |
Icon view
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In Icon view, to activate the VM template operations menu, select a VM template. This menu will vary, depending on the context.
Screenshot: Options menu of VM template
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Screenshot: Options menu of a VM instance template, created from VM disks
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In list view, to display the VM Template operations buttons, select a VM template.
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Organize VM templates into categories
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Local categories belong to a single enterprise and cannot be seen or used by other enterprise
Global categories are visible to all users and are marked with the text "
(global)", and you will require the "Manage VM template global categories" privilege to manage them.
The predefined categories are "Applications servers", "Database servers", "Others", and "Web servers". If you download a VM template from a remote repository and its category does not exist yet, the platform will create the new global category with this name.
The default global category is "Others" and you cannot delete this category.
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To create a VM template category:
Go to Catalogue → Private or Public → select datacenter or public cloud region → Virtual machine templates
Check that there is no other category with the name you wish to use
Open the Categories menu
At the bottom of menu, click the + add button
Enter the category name
Optional: to create a global category, mark the checkbox to Make the category global
Click Save to continue
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The new category will be added to the Categories list.
To add a VM template to a category:
Edit the template
Go to General
Select the category.
When you delete a category, all the templates belonging to this category will be changed to the category ''Others''.
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Privileges: Manage VM templates from Apps libraryCatalogue, Export template to public cloud, Export template to private cloud |
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To export to public cloud, you must first prepare the templates according to the cloud provider instructions.
See Preparing templates for export to public cloud
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Abiquo uses the BPM - V2V conversion service to perform any required conversions and to upload the template to public cloud. During an export, the platform will queue the BPM and V2V processes for conversions, instances, and persistent templates. |
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Before you begin:
Check cloud providers. See Introduction See Introduction to mobility above
Prepare templates for export to public cloud according to the cloud provider's instructions. See Preparing templates for export to public cloud
To export a template to a datacenter or public cloud
Go to
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Catalogue
Select the private cloud datacenter where the VM template is stored
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Select the VM template and from its options menu, select Export
From the dialog, select Private or Public cloud.
For public cloud
select the public cloud provider and region
select one bootable system disk.
For private cloud
select the datacenter
select disks from the template to export.
Click Export
For private cloud, select the datacenter
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Replace template disk(s) with new disk(s), so future VMs use the new disk(s). To replace a disk, you can use the Abiquo UI or API. See Manage VM templates and Appliance manager template API upload and download
Delete a template, which requires that no deployed VMs are using the template and it has no instances. Note that you can promote instances to master main templates and then delete the instances
Make a template unavailable to users, when it is in use
To delete a shared template or make it unavailable, you must be logged in to the owner enterprise. If you make it unavailabeunavailable, it will only be marked as unavailable for all users when the template owner performs a refresh of the Apps LibraryCatalogue.
To remove a template that is not in use, click from the template edit icon options menu button and , select Delete from the menu.
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Abiquo will remove the template from the Apps Library Catalogue and the NFS repository file system.
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To make a template unavailable in the UI:
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From the
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template icon options menu, select Delete. A confirmation
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dialog will open with details of the template use.
Confirm that you would like to force the delete. Abiquo will delete the disk files but not the template definition. The platform will mark this template as unavailable.
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In the Apps libraryCatalogue, the platform will not display the unavailable template in the default view. To display the template again, click the filter button and mark the checkbox to display Deleted templates, which are unavailable templates with no disk files. The platform will mark the template icon with a red X symbol.
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Screenshot: Deploy an instance of the Core in a new VM. There are now two VMs - one with the core template and one with an instance of the core template VM  Screenshot: The core template has two instances: Core_Instance_1 and Core_Instance_1_Instance_1   Now the administrator would like to delete the template, but there are VMs and instances. So the administrator will make the template unavailable. The platform will delete the disk files and users cannot create new VMs from the template. Screenshot: The administrator clicks the template edit menu and selects Delete   Screenshot: The platform displays the details of deployed VMs and instances on the "Virtual machine template in use" popup. The administrator clicks Yes to continue. The template disk files and the disk conversions will be deleted from the Apps LibraryCatalogue. You cannot recover them within the platform   Screenshot: To view the unavailable template, click the template filter and select the Deleted checkbox. Click on the unavailable template to view the instances and they will display in the Instances panel below the master main templates. |
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Manage instance templates in datacenters
An Abiquo instance is a template that uses copies of one or more disks from a VM. For information about how to create instances, see Manage virtual machines#SaveVMdiskstocreateaninstancetemplateSave VM disks to create an instance template
In a datacenter, the platform stores an instance with the original master main template. This means that you cannot delete a master main template if it has instances. However, you can promote an instance to a master main template.
The platform identifies master main templates with the "M" symbol on the template icon and instances with the "S" symbol on the template icon.
To display the instances under a master main template:
Click on the
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main template and the Instances panel will open with the instance templates.
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You can modify the instance template, to change the CPU, RAM, icon, and so on, and these changes will not affect the master main template.
Promote an instance to a
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main template
When you promote an instance, Abiquo first makes a copy of the instance and then promotes it to create a new master main template. This is useful when you want to delete a master main template but keep its instance template(s).
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This feature is available in the API. See https://wiki.abiquo.com/api/latest/VirtualMachineTemplatesResource.html#create-a-virtual-machine-template-in-a-datacenter-repository-by-download-promote-or-export |
To promote an instance:
Select the original
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main template to display its instances
Select the instance, and from its options menu, select Promote
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Enter a Name for the new
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main template. Select the disks to promote
Remember that there must always be at least one disk and that the disk at position 0 must be a boot disk.
The name should help users to identify this template among the other templates
The platform will display the completed template in the Apps library Catalogue view and you can edit it as required
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From the instance template's options menu, select Promote to mastermain   Enter a Name to identify the template   The platform displays the promoted instance in the main section of the Apps library Catalogue   |
Manage instances of deleted templates
You cannot delete a master main template if it has VMs deployed or instances with VMs deployed, but you can make it unavailable, which deletes the template disk file. If a master main template is unavailable, to display it and access the instances panel, select the checkbox to display Deleted VM templates. If you wish to create a VM from an instance of a deleted master main template, first promote the instance to a master main template.
Make an instance template unavailable
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Confirm that you would like to delete the instance template   To display the unavailable instance:
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You cannot force the delete of an instance if it is in use in a VM.
If you try to delete an unavailable instance, an error popup will appear because the template is already unavailable.
To make the instance available again, replace the unavailable template files on the file system. When it detects the template files, the platform will mark the instance as available.
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To remove a failed instance template:
Select the template
From the options menu, select Delete
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Manage instance templates in public cloud
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In a public cloud region, the instance template is independent of the original master main template. The platform saves the VM configuration as part of the custom template. To ensure that you can identify relationships between templates, name your instances carefully.
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For details about deleting instance templates, see see Delete private templates in public cloud below.
To find an Abiquo instance that was deleted from the Catalogue but not from the public cloud provider:
Go to Catalogue view, click on Import template
Select Private
To search for the template by the Name field, enter the name you gave your Abiquo instance template when you created it, or the Template ID
Click Search
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Troubleshooting If a template is still in the Catalogue, it will not display in the results of the remote search. |
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In public cloud, to delete a private template (or custom template), such as an Abiquo instance:
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From the template
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icon options menu, select delete
Optionally select the checkbox to Delete this template in the cloud provider
Confirm the delete
By default, the platform will delete the template from the Apps library Catalogue only and it will remain in the cloud provider.
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Other Pages related to VM template management
VM templates in the Apps libraryCatalogue
Add VM Templates templates to the Apps Librarycatalogue
Manage virtual machines#SaveVMdiskstocreateaninstancetemplateSave VM disks to create an instance template