Modify a VM Template

Modify a virtual machine template

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Modify VM template disks

Edit VM template disks
Add disk from local file
Add disk from ISO file
Add an empty disk
Add a template disk
Manage template disk conversions
Edit a template disk
Replace a template disk
Delete a template disk

This page describes how to add disks to your VM templates as part of the process to Modify a VM template in private cloud

To create VMs more quickly and save space on your NFS server, you can add empty disks to your VM templates.
When users deploy VMs, the platform will create these disks directly on the hypervisor datastore.
See the section below on Add an empty disk!

Edit VM template disks

To edit VM template disks in private cloud:

Log in to the tenant where the template was created
In the Catalogue, edit the template, and go to Disks.

To change the boot order of a disk

Click the pencil edit button near the Sequence number and enter a new number. There must always be a boot disk in the 0 position, and the boot disk cannot be an empty disk.

To download a disk

Select the disk
Click the Download symbol on the right-hand side of the disk details

To add a disk:

Click the + Add button in the top right of the Disk dialog
Select one of the options: Disk from local file, Disk from iso file, Empty disk or Template disk.
Enter the Details of the disk as described in the following sections

Add disk from local file

Enter the details of the disk to upload.

Field	Value
Type	The type of the template disk. See Template compatibility table To use the disk in the platform, it must have a correct type (not Unknown). If you have not added any hypervisors yet, the V2V conversion process will generate conversions for ALL supported hypervisors
Capacity	For the Capacity enter the hard disk space that the hypervisor will need to deploy this disk in MB, GB, or TB. To get the capacity of the hard disk, use the process described at Determine the size of a VM disk file. If you enter another value, the platform may ignore it or fail to deploy a VM. For fixed formats, the capacity is the physical size of the template disk. For sparse and compressed formats, the capacity is the provisioning size.
File name	Click Select file and use your browser to choose the file to upload.
Require DS tier	Select Datastore tier will be required when creating a virtual machine if the user must select a datastore tier.
Allocation type	With appropriate privileges, you can modify this value in a VM before you deploy it
Controller type	Select a controller type from: `IDE`, `SCSI`, `SATA` (ESXi), and `VIRTIO` (KVM)
Controller	On ESXi you can enter a SCSI controller type. The default value is `lsilogic`
Name	The name of the disk

Add disk from ISO file

Enter the details of an ISO disk you will upload

Field	Value
File name	Click Select file and use your browser to choose the file to upload
Datastore tier will be required while creating a virtual machine	Optionally select this checkbox to require the user to select a datastore tier. To create a VM, the user will require the privilege to Manage virtual machine hard disks
Controller type	Recommended controllers for ISO disks are `SATA` or `IDE`
Controller	For SCSI controllers only
Name	The name of the disk
Add an extra empty disk	If you enter a disk size, the platform will create this hard disk and use it to install the ISO. Users can change the size of this disk before they deploy

Add an empty disk

Enter the Capacity (or size) of the deployed disk and the disk Controller type and for SCSI disks, the Controller information.

Field	Description
Capacity	The deployed size of the hard disk the unit
Datastore tier	Only available for existing disks
Datastore tier will be required...	Select this checkbox to indicate that the user must select a datastore tier while creating a VM. The user will require the privilege to manage hard disks in order to create a VM
Allocation type	Optional. Allocation type of the disk.
Controller type	The controller type of disk
Controller	Optional for SCSI controllers only. See Template disk controllers for SCSI
Name	The name of the hard disk

When you deploy the VM, the platform will create the empty disk on the hypervisor datastore.

Add a template disk

Select a template from the Catalogue and then select a disk from the template.

Abiquo will select the original disk, not the conversions. If you require other formats, generate conversions for these formats.

Manage template disk conversions

To display and manage disk conversions, go to Disks, select the disk and check the conversion details in the Selected disk conversions panel.
To manually launch conversions to template formats, click Generate missing conversions. The platform will create conversions for any new hypervisor types.
To restart a failed conversion, click the Restart conversion link beside the conversion.

Edit a template disk

To edit a disk:

Select the Disk
Click the pencil Edit button and make changes as described below

Field	Description
Type	The disk type of the template. If the type is incorrect or `UNKNOWN`, you cannot deploy a VM with the disk. See Template compatibility table
Capacity	For the Capacity enter the hard disk space that the hypervisor will need to deploy this disk in MB, GB, or TB. To get the capacity of the hard disk, use the process described at Determine the size of a VM disk file. If you enter another value, the platform may ignore it or fail to deploy a VM. For fixed formats, the capacity is the physical size of the template disk. For sparse and compressed formats, the capacity is the provisioning size.
Capacity units	MB, GB, or TB
File name	To download the disk, click Download beside the file name
Datastore tier	To set the storage service level of the template disk, select a Datastore tier. You can modify this value in a VM before you deploy it
Datastore tier will be required while creating a virtual machine	Optional. The user will require privileges to select a datastore tier to create a VM
Allocation type	The user with appropriate privileges can modify this value in a VM before they deploy it
Controller type	If you change the controller type your VM may not boot. The user can modify this value after they create a VM and before they deploy it.
Controller	On ESXi for SCSI You can use multiple controllers on a VM and you can change the controller, even after deploy The default value is `lsilogic` or a value set by the system administrator See Template disk controllers for SCSI
Name	Hard disk name

Replace a template disk

To upgrade a VM template operating system so users automatically deploy the new version, you can replace a template disk with an upgraded disk from your local file system.

Edit the VM template and select the disk
Click the double arrow disk replace button
Select the correct Type. If the type is incorrect or UNKNOWN, you cannot deploy a VM with the disk.
See Template compatibility table
For the Capacity enter the hard disk space that the hypervisor will need to deploy this disk in MB, GB, or TB.
To get the capacity of the hard disk, use the process described at Determine the size of a VM disk file. If you enter another value, the platform may ignore it or fail to deploy a VM.
- For fixed formats, the capacity is the physical size of the template disk.
- For sparse and compressed formats, the capacity is the provisioning size.
Click Select file and browse to find your file
Click Save

The platform will upload the disk and update it in the catalogue.

If you are replacing a disk with a long filename, the platform may remove part of the filename, but it should still be possible to deploy a VM from the VM template

Delete a template disk

Before you begin, check that the template is not in use. A template is in use if it has deployed VMs or dependent instances.

To delete a template disk:

Select the Disk to delete
Click the delete trash can icon

Edit VM template variables

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Share VM templates from the Scopes tab

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Activate hardware profiles for a VM template

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Activate datastore tiers for a VM template

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Add a bootstrap script to a VM template

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Edit template Advanced tab

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Add tags to a VM template

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Manage VM templates with the API

API Documentation

For the Abiquo API documentation of this feature, see Abiquo API Resources and the page for this resource VirtualMachineTemplatesResource.

Pages related to VM templates

Main Apps library page with links to related pages: Appliance Library View
Guest setup