This section describes how to manage your tenant's cloud resources in the multi-cloud platform.

The Cloud tenant admin guide describes the main administrative tasks of the enterprise administrator.

Manage your users
Manage templates
Manage virtual datacenter resources
Manage VM backups
Manage VM snapshots
Administer VMs
Manage VApp specs
Manage VM workflows

For details of how to work with virtual appliances and VMs, see the Cloud tenant user guide.

For details of how to work with networks, firewalls, and load balancers, see the Cloud tenant network guide.

Manage users

Display users for tenant admin

To display users in card view, select the card view tab from the view selectors in the top right-hand corner.

Users view with user cards and pages

Create a user

Suspend or enable a user account

If you need to stop a user from working with or logging in to the platform on a temporary basis, you can suspend the user account.

To suspend a user account:

Go to Users
Select a user
Click the pencil edit button. The user dialog will open
Go to Advanced, and unselect the Activated checkbox

The platform will suspend the account. When a user account is suspended, the platform will log the user out immediately. Be careful not to disable your own account! Fortunately, the main cloud administrator account cannot be disabled.

To enable the user account again, select the Activated checkbox.

If the user makes too many failed login attempts, the platform will automatically suspend their account for the account lock duration or until it is enabled by an administrator.

Manually reset a user password

If a user cannot automatically reset their password or if the user account is locked for too many password attempts, you can manually reset the password and unlock the account.

To manually reset a user password:

Open the Users view and select the user
Click the Edit button at the top-right of the Users page. The user form will open.
Enter the new password
Recommended: go to Advanced and select the checkbox to Reset password on next login
If the user account is locked and you wish to unlock it, go to Advanced, and select the Activated option
Click Save. If the user is currently logged in, they will be automatically logged out when you save a new password,

The user password will be reset. Notify the user of their new password.

Manage users with the API

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

Search for users and filter users

To search for users and filter users to display only those with specific text in the user details:

Go to Users view → Users
In the filter box on the right-hand side, enter a text string to search for which can include wildcards.
For more details about how the platform's search works, see Search for VMs and filter the search

Display users by status

In list view, the user status a colored icon in the Activated column:

Green dot for active accounts
Red dot for suspended accounts
Red padlock symbol for accounts suspended automatically after too many failed login attempts

To filter groups of users, click on the pages to display the following:

All users on the All page
Active users on the Activated page
Suspended users on the Suspended page

Delete a user

To delete a user:

Select the user account and click the trash bin delete button
Confirm the delete

Abiquo will delete the user account but the user's VMs and other resources will remain in the cloud platform and users in the same enterprise with the appropriate permissions can work with them.

Add credentials for public cloud

This page describes how to add credentials for public cloud for your own tenant, with a standard account or as a customer of a reseller.

To add credentials to a different enterprise, go to Users → edit an enterprise → Credentials.
See Add public cloud credentials for a tenant

Your enterprise (cloud tenant) should have its own public cloud account or subscription for each cloud provider, and it cannot share these with any other tenants.

Before you begin, check your provider's documentation and pricing. You will need credentials to access the cloud provider's API. We provide basic guides (see Obtain public cloud credentials) but you should always check with your provider.

Privileges: Manage provider credentials

To add public cloud credentials for your tenant:

In the bottom left corner of the screen, select the User icon, to open the User icon menu
Select Edit credentials
Select Public
Select the Provider. There may be a separate provider for regions requiring different credentials

To add credentials for compute with optional billing and pricing:

Enter the Access key ID:
1. For AWS, enter the Access key ID
2. For Azure standard accounts and CSP customers, the format is subscription-id#app-id#tenant-id
3. For GCP the format is project_id#client_id#client_email#private_key_id
4. For OCI the format is tenancy#user#fingerprint
5. Secret access key: this may be an API key, App secret key, API credential, App password, etc.
Optionally, for Amazon, GCP, or OCI billing, select Also use for pricing.
For Azure, to add billing credentials, go to Pricing.
See Add public cloud pricing credentials for a tenant

To add credentials for billing only with no compute access:

For a standard AWS customer account, do the steps at Add a customer AWS account for billing only
For a customer of an Azure CSP or an Amazon organization do these steps.
1. Enter the Access key ID as follows:
  - For Azure, the format is subscription-id##tenant-id
  - For AWS, the format is account-id
2. For the Secret access key, you can enter a random string
3. Click Add account. Abiquo will validate your credentials with the cloud provider before saving them.

Add public cloud credentials for billing only

The platform will display the cloud provider credentials in the Current credentials area.

If a provider does not display in the list, check with your system administrator.
For vCloud Director the administrator must allow your tenant to access a region for it to display in the Provider list

Display prices for your tenant

A tenant administrator with pricing access can display the pricing model for their enterprise.

To display the prices for your enterprise:

Go to Pricing view
Select and edit the pricing model
Go to Resource prices and select the cloud locations
Click Cancel to close the pricing model

Display the pricing model for the tenant enterpris

Manage templates

Upload OVA templates from the local filesystem

This section describes how to upload an OVA file from a local file system to create a VM template in the catalogue.
If your file is very large, you may prefer to save it directly to the VM repository or use the AM API, see Appliance manager template API upload and download

The enterprise you are working in when you upload and save the VM template will be the owner of the VM template.

Privileges: Upload virtual machine template

Before you begin, check these requirements:

Abiquo reads OVA files created with VMware and from the VM marketplace. See also Export an OVA from ESXi vSphere 7 with OVF tool
The file name must have the .ova extension and it must contain an OVF file
The OVA must have a single VM (virtual system)
Abiquo uses the Name tag in the VirtualSystem as the template name. If the Name is not set, the platform uses the ID. The template name will be the default name for VMs that users create from this template
To deploy a VM from an OVA with parameters, the template must have guest tools. See Deploy a VM from an OVA with parameters

If you do not have any hypervisors, the platform will convert the template into ALL possible hypervisor formats. So add your hypervisors first, to reduce use of the NFS repository space.

To add a new template from an OVA file

Go to Catalogue
In the Private cloud section, select the datacenter
On the Virtual machine templates tab, at the bottom of the templates panel, click the + add button
Select Create from OVA file
Click Select file and browse for the file.
Abiquo will display the File name.
Click Save. Abiquo will upload the file and create the template. When Abiquo has created the template, it will open the Edit template dialog

Basic steps to configure a VM template

Here is a brief description of some initial steps to edit a VM template:

On the Disks tab, you can add an extra empty hard disk for your application data.
To add OVA parameters to all VMs, add them on the Variables tab. See Deploy a VM from an OVA with parameters.
On the Advanced tab, if your VM template requires UEFI boot, select the checkbox. If you are not sure, check with your system administrator because a UEFI VM will not boot without this configuration
For the User, enter the default user for the template
For the Password, enter the default password of the user on the VM template
Check and select the Operating system and if required, the OS version. For more details see Set the guest operating system for VMware
Click Save

To modify a VM template, you must log into or switch to the owner enterprise (where the template was created).
To share a VM template with other enterprises, go to Scopes and select access lists

Advanced VM template configuration

To use advanced VM configuration with cloud_init or guest tools:

Install cloud_init (or cloudbase_init) or VMware guest tools on your VM template
Follow the steps on the page for your tool:
- Prepare for guest setup with cloud-init or similar
- Prepare for guest setup with hypervisor tools

For a diagram and comparison of these features, see Guest setup

Related links

For general information about Abiquo templates, see Catalogue view
Upload an ISO disk from the local filesystem
Upload a template disk from the local filesystem for a single file.
For Abiquo OVF file specifications, see OVF reference
For Abiquo disk compatibility, see Template compatibility table
To upload or download templates, the AM remote service must use HTTPS, which means that you must also configure certificates on the Remote services server. See Configure Abiquo Tomcat with HTTPS for Remote RS
Deploy a VM from an OVA with parameters

Add public cloud templates to the catalogue

Create and deploy a VM from a template shortcut

To quickly create and/or deploy a VM from a VM template:

Go to Catalogue → Virtual machine templates
Select a VM template and from the options menu, select Create VM
Enter a Name for the VM. Remember that some hypervisors and providers do not allow duplicate names so if you use a common name, such as the template name, your VM may be renamed
Select a virtual datacenter or create a new one
Select a virtual appliance or create a new one

You can now deploy directly, or go to the virtual appliance, in order to edit the VM.

It is also possible to open the advanced configuration before you deploy.

Modify a virtual machine template

Manage virtual datacenter resources

Synchronize VDCs and resources

To update a virtual datacenter and onboard any changes made in the provider, synchronize the virtual datacenter:

Go to Virtual datacenters → V. Datacenters list
Beside the virtual datacenter Name, click the round arrow Synchronize button

Onboarding public cloud resources in progress

To synchronize specific resources such as networks, public IPs, and so on:

Go to Virtual datacenters → select the resource tab
Click the round arrow Synchronize button for the resource.

For more information, see the resource documentation.

Screenshot: Synchronize networks

Manage public cloud resources in the multicloud platform

Manage resources that were deleted directly in the cloud provider

When administrators delete resources in the provider, the platform will display the resource name in light gray to indicate that the user cannot work with the resource. The resource types include:

External networks
Firewalls
Classic firewalls
Load balancers
NAT network
NAT IPs

To delete these resources (if they are not in use), select the resource and click the delete button.

Delete or release virtual resources in public cloud

The virtual resources that you onboarded or created in public cloud will be grouped with their associated virtual datacenters.

Before you begin:

If you recently created virtual resources, such as load balancers, synchronize the virtual datacenter to ensure that the platform can find all the dependencies of the virtual datacenter.

To delete onboarded resources in public cloud:

Delete each virtual datacenter
- You can choose to delete each virtual datacenter in the platform only, or in the platform and the provider.
- If you delete in the platform only, the platform will automatically remove VMs, virtual appliances, load balancers, public IPs, and firewalls from the virtual datacenter. It will not delete the firewalls
- When you delete a virtual datacenter, public IPs that are not attached to VMs will remain in the provider and the synchronization process will delete them
- Remember to check which is the default VDC in your provider, such as the AWS default VPC, because it may be inconvenient to delete this VPC

If the enterprise does not have valid credentials for the public cloud provider, when you delete public cloud entities in the platform, they will continue to exist in the public cloud provider

Manage VM backups

Configure a VM backup

Restore a VM backup

View backup events

Manage VM snapshots

Introduction to VM snapshots

Take a snapshot of a VM

Revert to a snapshot

Delete a snapshot

Replace the current snapshot

Display snapshots on the dashboard

Administer VMs

Protect a VM

Display VM initial password

You can select the option to generate an initial guest password when you create a VM. Then when you deploy the VM, the platform will generate a random password and send it to you by email or SMS. After you deploy, you should log in as the root or administrator user and change the initial password.

The owner of the VM and administrators with the privilege to Display initial virtual machine password can also retrieve the guest password from the deployed VM.

To display the initial VM password:

Select the VM
On the control panel, click the key display initial guest password button

Reset VM password

Save configurations as blueprint specs

Introduction to virtual appliance specifications

The virtual appliance specifications (VApp specs) feature lets administrators save complex configurations and present them to users for simple, self-service deployment in their virtual datacenters.

Specs are similar to blueprints because the platform uses them to define the configurations to recreate. Administrators select the locations where users can work with each spec, including datacenters and public cloud regions, such as AWS and Azure ARM.

With specs, you can save the configuration of virtual appliances including VMs, storage, networks, monitoring, Chef, firewalls, and load balancers.

When users create a new virtual appliance based on a spec (also referred to as to "materialize" a spec), the platform will automatically use existing virtual resources or create new ones for this virtual appliance.

The limitations of specs are as follows:

Specs do not store data from VM disks; they use template disks only
Specs do not support external networks and NICs or unmanaged networks and NICs
- In vCloud, specs have basic support for external networks
Specs do not support scaling groups

Users should also be aware of differences in features between private and public cloud environments.

Save a VApp configuration as a blueprint spec

What do virtual appliance specs save and create

Element	Save in Spec	Create in VApp from saved configuration
VMs	General information: hardware profiles, CPU, RAM, remote access and description	Same. If a matching hardware profile is not found, the platform will activate or create one, or the user can select another available hardware profile
Anti-affinity layers	VMs in layers	Same
Scaling groups	Scaling groups are not supported
VM templates	Template name is saved	The system matches the spec template name against the catalogue template name. The user selects from a list of templates with names that contain the spec template name. The match is done with an SQL %LIKE% command from the spec to the template, so spec template "m0n0" will match with "m0n0" and "m0n0wall" in the Catalogue. But spec template "m0n0wall" will not match with "m0n0" in the catalogue
Template auxiliary hard disks	Template system disks and other datastore hard disks and their tiers are saved	The platform will create template disks in order as in the template with no gaps in the sequence. Then empty additional hard drives and volumes will be added in the same order as in the base virtual appliance. The platform will search for datastore tiers by name, as for templates
Persistent VMs	Persistent VMs are not supported. (Use a VM from an instance of the persistent VM)
Private network, Private IPs	Save private network characteristics: network address and mask only. Save private IPs	The materialize process will present the addresses of the spec private networks. Abiquo will display matching networks in the virtual datacenter in green text, and ones that are not present in red text. Abiquo will display the number of private IPs to use in each network. The user can choose to change any private network, even if it matches the spec network. The user can choose to create a new network (specifying the IP address, mask and gateway), or replace the network with an existing VDC network.
Network gateways	Abiquo will determine if a NIC has a gateway IP address and save this information in the spec	If a NIC has a gateway IP address, when using an existing network, the materialize process will attempt to assign the network's gateway address to the NIC Abiquo will not assign the gateway IP address to a NIC that did not have this address in the original configuration If the materialize process is creating a new network, it will attempt to assign the same gateway address from the spec to the gateway NIC in the new network
Public network	Number of public IPs is saved	The materialize process will try to use public IPs that were already purchased by the enterprise. These public IPs will be momentarily quarantined during the materialization process. If not, the materialize process will purchase new public IPs. The public networks will be used in the order returned by the API. In public cloud, the platform will use floating IPs
External IPs	Not supported, except for basic support in VCD	If you create a spec containing an external IP, the materialize process will fail because the external IP is unsupported. In vCloud, specs have basic support for external networks. The validation process will list the network, and you can select it and then continue with the process. The platform will create the VApp correctly. Remember to ensure that there are enough external IP addresses available for the new virtual appliance
Unmanaged IPs	Not supported	If you create a spec containing an unmanaged IP, the materialize process will fail because the unmanaged IP is unsupported.
Volume (data)	Data on external storage volumes is not included. To use data on a volume, create an instance to save it to a template disk	Empty volumes with the same specifications as the attached volumes are created. Empty volumes are named vappName-UUID
Volume (specifications)	The specifications, disk controller types, and tiers of the volumes are saved in private cloud	Empty volumes with the same specifications as the attached volumes are created. Empty volumes are named vappName-UUID Volumes are attached to the same disk controller type as in the original VM. If this controller type is not compatible with the target hypervisor, then the platform will use the hypervisor default Matches tier names as for VM templates. If no storage tier is found, then the validate will fail. If the storage tier does not contain pools, then the volume create will fail.
Hard disk (data)	Data on hard disks attached to the VM is not included. To use data on a hard disk, create an instance to save it to the template	Empty hard disks with the same specifications as the attached hard disks are created. Empty disks are named Empty disk-UUID
Hard disk (specifications)	The specifications, disk controller types and tiers of the hard disks are saved in private cloud	Empty hard disks with the same specifications as the attached hard disks are created. Empty disks are named Empty disk-UUID Hard disks are attached to the same disk controller type as in the original VM. If this controller type is not compatible with the target hypervisor, then the platform will use the hypervisor default Matches tier names as for VM templates. If no datastore tier is found, then the validate will fail. If the datastore tier does not contain datastores, then the deploy will fail.
Backup configuration	Configured backups are stored in private cloud	Backups are configured
Firewalls	Firewalls attached to VMs or load balancers are saved	Access to a firewall integration is required to create firewalls in the new virtual appliance Users can edit firewall rules during virtual appliance creation Users should be aware of compatibility issues between providers If a VM has no firewall in the spec, and the virtual datacenter has a default firewall, then the platform will assign the default firewall to the VM
Load balancers	Load balancers attached to VMs are saved, including health checks and so on	Access to a load balancer integration is required to create load balancers in the new virtual appliance Users should be aware of compatibility issues between providers
Monitoring (status)	Monitoring status of fetch metrics is saved The selected metrics are saved	Access to a monitoring server is required to retrieve metrics The materialize process creates built-in metrics of the exact same name ONLY and creates all custom metrics
Alarms and Alerts	Alarms and alerts are saved	The materialize process creates all existing alarms and alerts, regardless of the existence of their corresponding metrics
VM variables	VM variables are saved	The materialize process creates VMs with VM variables During the materialize process, users can edit the VM variables
Chef	Chef status, runlist and attributes are stored	The materialize process sets the status and recipes During the materialize process, users can edit the runlist and the attributes
VM bootstrap script	The VM startup script is saved	The startup script is added to the new VM at the end of the materialize process After the materialize process, the user can edit the VM to modify the startup script

Manage VApp specs in the user interface

Users work with spec blueprints in different parts of the UI.

To create VApp specs, go to Virtual datacenters → Virtual appliances, open a VApp and save it as a spec
To create a version of a spec, log in to the owner enterprise (that created the spec). Then go to Virtual datacenters and open a virtual appliance created from the spec and save changes as a new version
To create a virtual appliance based on a spec, go to Virtual datacenters → V. Appliances list → select Create virtual appliance based on spec.
To edit or delete specs, and manage spec versions, go to the owner enterprise → Catalogue→ Virtual appliance specs.

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