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This document refers to VMware hypervisors including vCenter clusters and vCenter hosts in private cloud datacenters.
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Abiquo can manage VMware hypervisors in your multi-cloud platform with VMware hosts at different levels as:
vCenter server hosts
vCenter clusters (as hosts)
Abiquo can also work with NSX-T to create network configurations such as firewalls, load balancers, and NAT.
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Supported versions
Abiquo has been tested with the following latest versions.
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Feature | Description |
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vCenter server |
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dvSwitch |
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High availability |
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Fault tolerance |
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Replication |
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Clusters |
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VM live migration |
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Templates |
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DVD | The ISO feature supports DVDs, and you can import CD-ROM configurations on VMs with IDE and SATA controllers |
Remote access |
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Network drivers | E1000, PCNet32, VMXNET3 |
Boot |
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CPU hot-add |
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Hot-reconfigure of NICs, disks |
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SDN - NSX | Abiquo supports SDN using NSX-V with gateway, ECMP, and NAT configurations. |
SDN - NSX-T | Abiquo supports SDN using NSX-T. See Configure the Abiquo NSX-T integration |
Snapshots | Abiquo lets users obtain a snapshot of their VM through the UI. |
GuestOS | Support in VM template for latest |
DRS rules |
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Metrics | Customize the built-in metrics to obtain from ESXi |
Hardware version | Property to specify downgrade of |
Add vCenter as a 
Abiquo does not support fault tolerance because it requires two VMs with the same name to be present in a cluster at the same time.
default format)...
Feature | Description |
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Datastores | VMFS, NFS, vVol. |
VM disk controller types |
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VM SCSI controllers |
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VM system disks | By default, for VMs deployed on ESX/ESXi hypervisors:
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Disk resize |
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Storage live migration | For vCenter hosts, Abiquo detects storage vMotion on all datastores |
System disk resize...
You can add VMware vCenter clusters directly as hosts, so Abiquo will use vCenter clusters instead of individual vCenter servers. When you create a physical machine/hypervisor host in Abiquo for a cluster, select VMware vCenter cluster.
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You can make more efficient use of your infrastructure, because when users deploy VMs, Abiquo will allocate them to VMware clusters, and VMware will allocate them to hosts
Abiquo does not need to track VMs within the cluster , because it considers that they are all on the same host.only interacts with the cluster
All of the VMs in the cluster will be directly listed under the cluster and not on individual hosts.
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Even in a test system, do not add the same VMware servers in more than one mode (for example, do not add a vCenter server, and then add the same server in a vCenter cluster) |
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For vCenter clusters, you must use dvSwitches (VMware distributed virtual switches or VDSs). Abiquo will retrieve the dVSwitches from the cluster itself, not from the individual hosts.
Optionally, configure the properties for the dVSwitches (see Abiquo configuration properties and search for .dvs.).
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If your host has already been configured with another vSwitch, you may need to delete the port group before adding a host to Abiquo.
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Host datastores
Abiquo will deploy VMs to datastores that you register in the platform.
For vCenter clusters, you should use shared datastores, so when VMs move, they will always be accessible to all hosts.
For vCenter hosts, when you use a shared datastore, the platform Abiquo creates a different datastore on each physical machine that is using the datastore. This means that a shared datastore can be enabled on one host and disabled on another, either as a result of user configuration or an issue (e.g. an NFS communication error on one host).
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Abiquo should discover and list all of the datastores that you will use for deploying VMs. When you add your vCenters, you will select datastores from this list to use in Abiquo.
Abiquo expects to be able to identify each datastore with a UUID, so it will initially try to create a UUID folder on each datastore.
By default, Abiquo retrieves a datastore if it is accessible and not in maintenance mode on all the hosts in the cluster that mount it.
So by default, if there is a host that has all the datastores mounted, but Abiquo cannot access them (e.g. because the host is down), Abiquo will not return any datastores. You can configure Abiquo to avoid this situation.
Allow datastores mounted on at least one host
You can configure Abiquo to retrieve a datastore if it is mounted, not in maintenance mode, and accessible on at least one host in the cluster.
To allow datastores if they are return a datastore mounted on at least one host:
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com.abiquo.esxi.clusterdatastore.atleastone=true...
To activate the properties, restart the tomcat service of the Remote Services
Ignore datastores by name
You can also configure Abiquo to ignore datastores by name when you add a host or on an existing host, so that Abiquo will not check or use the datastores. You can still use these datastores outside of the platform.
To ignore datastores by name:
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com.abiquo.esxi.discovery.datastore.ignorebyname=Backup_.* |
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To activate the properties, restart the tomcat service of the Remote Services
Ignore datastores that are not writeable
To configure Abiquo to Abiquo will automatically ignore datastores that are not writeable:
On the Remote Services server, in the
abiquo.propertiesfile, set the following property.Code Block com.abiquo.esxi.experimental.unsafe.ignorebaddatastore=trueTo activate the properties, restart the tomcat service of the Remote Services
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accessible.
See Configure datastore discovery for VMware
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Datastore checks
As part of the infrastructure check, Abiquo will check datastores to ensure that it can deploy VMs.
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datastore is accessible
datastore is mounted as read/write on all hosts in the cluster or the current host
datastore is not in maintenance mode
If you activated a datastore, but it fails the datastore check, then Abiquo will automatically deactivate it. If it passes a check in the future check, then Abiquo will automatically activate it again. If a deactivated datastore fails the datastore check, then Abiquo will ignore it!
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Manage datastores in Abiquo
To add, update, and delete datastores, refresh the datastores on the host in Abiquo:
Edit the physical machine, and go to the Datastores
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Click the round arrow refresh button.
To delete a datastore, make sure it is empty and not attached to the host.
The datastore refresh will handle inaccessible datastores as follows.
Remove inaccessible datastores if they are not used by any managed VMs
Disable inaccessible datastores if they are used by any managed VMs.
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Configuration of VM disks
Abiquo supports thin provisioning, and IDE, SCSI, and SATA disk controllers, and you can configure defaults for the platform.
See https://abiquo.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/doc/pages/560988173/Configure+VM+disks+on+VMware and for more options, such as ISO disks, see Configure SATA for VMware hypervisors.
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VM templates
You can upload OVA and disk files to the Catalogue so users can create VMs from VM templates by self-service.
See Template compatibility table , Add VM templates to the catalogue and Importing templates into the catalogue
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VM snapshots
Abiquo enables users to manage VM snapshots in the user interface. For a full feature description and configuration details, see Abiquo and VM snapshots for VMware.
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The platform supports remote access through to vCenter VMs with WebMKS using a WebMKS proxy.
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Log in to the Abiquo Remote Services server (or for a Monolithic installation, log in to the Abiquo Server) and set the appropriate properties for your system to appropriate values in the the /opt/abiquo/config/abiquo.properties file.
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For a list of properties filtered from the main table for of Abiquo 6.1.2, see VMware vCenter host and cluster properties table.
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