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This document gives a brief explanation of guest operating systems for creating VMs on VMware, for VMware vSphere and ESXi versions 5, 6, and 7. It contains examples of how to define VMware guest operating systems in the Abiquo multicloud platform. Abiquo can read the guest OS type from the OVF file and OVA file and create the appropriate template in vCenter. |
Introduction to guest operating system definitions
When you create a VM template, to enable VMware hypervisors to correctly configure VMs from the template, specify the guest operating system type and version. In an OVF file that describes a VM template, you can specify the operating system using the CIM standard ID number and a version number. CIM means "common information model" and DMTF maintains this standard. The main website for DMTF's CIM standard is https://www.dmtf.org/standards/cim/. The DMTF issues new versions periodically.
Hypervisors have their own lists of supported operating systems, for example, VMware has the VirtualMachineGuestOsIdentifier, which you can find in the VMware documentation.
How the multi-cloud platform uses the guest operating system
When you upload an OVA file into the Abiquo multi-cloud platform, it will automatically read the operating system type and version from the OVF. Simply select the OVA to upload. Abiquo reads OVA files created with VMware.
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Abiquo interprets the CIM numeric codes. But you can also edit the VM template in the catalog and set the guest operating system type and version. The multi-cloud platform also uses the guest operating system type to display an appropriate icon and you can configure the icon files for each OS type.
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The details of the operating system are stored in the Abiquo template only, not in the VM definition. This means that if you deploy a VM and then make changes to the template, there will be no changes to your VM. If you do not supply an operating system version, then the multi-cloud platform will use the latest version of the selected operating system.
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... <osType>WINDOWS_10_64</osType> <osVersion>Server</osVersion> ... |
The template definition will deploy on ESXi 6.X+ with the following OS type and version, which VMware uses to represent 64-bit Windows 10 server guests.
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windows9Server64Guest |
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... <osType>CENTOS_64</osType> <osVersion>8</osVersion> ... |
The template definition will deploy on ESXi 6.7+ as the following OS type.
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centos8_64Guest |
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To define a VM with a Windows 2019 server 64-bit guest operating system on ESXi 7.0+, when you create or edit a template, select the OS type of WINDOWS and enter 2019 as the version. Abiquo (5.1.2+) will create the following template in the catalogcatalogue.
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... <osType>WINDOWS</osType> <osVersion>2019</osVersion> ... |
When you deploy a VM from this template on vSphere 7.X+, Abiquo 5.1.2+ will set the following guest OS, which VMware uses to represent 64-bit Windows 2019 Server guests.
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windows2019srv_64Guest |
This was the latest version of the WINDOWS operating system at the time of the release of Abiquo 5.1.2. So Abiquo 5.1.2 will also use this version if you do not specify a version.