Abiquo enables users to work with Azure Resource Groups to manage the resources of a project across multiple Azure regions and save admin time.
Resource groups tab
As part of this feature, the My cloud view of virtual datacenters has a new Global section. In this section, users can work with resource groups on the Resource groups tab.
And after selecting a resource group, users can edit and delete resources from the resource group.
Onboarding resource groups
As part of the process of onboarding existing virtual datacenters from Azure, Abiquo will onboard Azure resource groups.
In previous versions, Abiquo created a default resource group for each region, so Abiquo will also onboard these default groups in the new version.
As part of the upgrade process, the provider ID of some resources may change to include the resource group.
Create a resource group
In order to create a virtual datacenter in Azure, you must first create a resource group. Although you need to select a region when creating the resource group, this is just where the resource group will store its metadata.
Resources with resource groups
When users create a VM in Azure, they must select the appropriate resource group, and optional availability set in which to create it. (Remember that you will need an Availability set to add a VM to a load balancer).
Before you deploy, you can edit a VM and move it from one resource group to another. And remember that you can also increase or decrease the hardware profile.
All virtual resources in Azure will belong to a resource group, so there are changes to the dialogs for managing these entities to add resource groups, and availability sets, where appropriate.
When you create a virtual datacenter, you must select the resource group.
Then, within the virtual datacenter, you can create your resources. We recommend you start on the Networks tab, to create your availability sets.
When you create a firewall, you must select the resource group.
And when you create a volume, you must select the resource group.
After you create all of these resources, you can now access and manage them in the resource group, as well as in the virtual datacenter.
Changing resource groups
In Abiquo, you cannot remove or change the resource group of a resource. If you change the resource group of a VM directly in Azure, then the platform will locate the VM during the next infrastructure check but you should also synchronize its virtual datacenter. If you change the resource group of a virtual datacenter directly in Azure, the platform will not be able to identify it. In this case, you will need to delete the virtual datacenter and onboard it again as a new virtual datacenter.
Automation on resource groups
In future versions, you should be able to create actions on resource groups as part of action plans.
Manage resource groups
The resource group feature requires a new privilege to Manage resource groups. Users who will manage resource groups will also need to be able to display all virtual datacenters and the resources within them, because otherwise there may be "hidden" resources. The Azure region where you create a resource group is where Azure will store the metadata about the resources in the group. This gives you control over the location of your data. After you create a resource group and add resources, you can deploy and modify those resources together.
Delete resource groups
There is an additional privilege to Delete resource groups because when you delete a resource group, you will also delete all of its resources. The platform will display the list of all resources in the provider, and users must then confirm the delete. If the user cannot access all the resources in a resource group, they will not be able to delete it. After the platform deletes the resources in Azure, some of them may still display in the platform. This is so that the resources do not just disappear for other users that may have had access to them! To delete these resources, synchronize with the provider or delete them individually.
If the resource group does not have any resources in Abiquo, you can delete it in the platform only. This means that you must first delete the resources from the platform only, or from the provider.