General information
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 |
Capacity | For the Capacity enter the hard disk space that the hypervisor will need to deploy this disk in MB, GB, or TB.
|
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 |
Allocation type | With appropriate privileges, you can modify this value in a VM before you deploy it |
Controller type | Select a controller type from: |
Controller | On ESXi you can enter a SCSI controller type. The default value is |
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 |
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 |
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. |
Capacity | For the Capacity enter the hard disk space that the hypervisor will need to deploy this disk in MB, GB, or TB.
|
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 | Optional. |
Allocation type | The user with appropriate privileges can modify this value in a VM |
Controller type | If you change the controller type your VM may not boot. |
Controller | On ESXi for SCSI
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 tableFor 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
Scopes tab for sharing VM templates
Manage VM templates with the API
Pages related to VM templates
- Main Apps library page with links to related pages: Appliance Library View
- Guest setup