Introduction

The purpose of this document is to support a technical evaluation of the Abiquo cloud platform with a structured test plan to evaluate Abiquo functionality.   This document assumes that the reader has a basic understanding, and has seen a demonstration of the Abiquo solution.

Intended audience: This document is intended to provide Abiquo customers and evaluators the information that they require to evaluate Abiquo within their existing lab environment. The document assumes that readers are already familiar with the virtualization, storage and network technologies that the Abiquo platform will manage.

Evaluation documentation and support: An Abiquo trial license includes the following for the trial period;

• Access to dedicated Sales Engineers and Account Management teams

• Abiquo software and documentation

• Access to Abiquo support

For an overview of the Abiquo solution visit:

• Enterprises: https://www.abiquo.com/enterprise-cloud-management/

• Service Providers: https://www.abiquo.com/cloud-managed-service-providers/

This document is not intended to replace the full product documentation which can be accessed online. The most up to date information can also be found on our Wiki: https://wiki.abiquo.com

During the trial process don't hesitate to reach out to our support desk if you need assistance. The support desk can be reached at https://support.abiquo.com

Sample test schedule

The following represents a sample schedule for a trial of Abiquo. Estimated times are indicative only and the actual time taken for some tasks may be longer or shorter in some environments.

The following is an example schedule that allows the trial to be completed in one week or less and for the key objectives to be demonstrated during that period. The schedule assumes that all pre-requisites are in place and that dedicated technical resources familiar with the environment are available. Depending on the organization's objectives and the environment available, not all test cases will be relevant. A more detailed plan linking tasks to resources can be created in collaboration with the customer's project team.

Participants and users in tests

Outline tasks for 5+ days schedule of work

The following sections describe some typical test cases that can be performed to evaluate the Abiquo solution in support of the customer business case and objectives.

Use cases

Discover physical infrastructure for cloud operator

Use Case 1.1 - Create a private cloud datacenter

Customers want to use existing virtualized infrastructure. Each Abiquo datacenter can manage a pool of IT resources (servers, networking, etc.) that are in the same physical location in the same Local Area Network (LAN).

Steps:

To create a new private cloud datacenter:

1. Go to Infrastructure view

   

2. Go to the Private tab, click the + add button

3. Enter the Name of the datacenter and the Location. Click Next

   

4. Enter the IP address of the monolithic Abiquo server, and click Duplicate IP addresses to copy the remote service locations

5. To use Catalogue features such as OVA template upload, for the Appliance manager, change the protocol to HTTPS and the port to 443

6. Click Accept to use this remote services configuration for the datacenter.

   

Expected results: A new Abiquo datacenter is created with resources managed by Abiquo.
You can create public cloud regions that will share the same remote services.

Use Case 1.2 - Define logical racks and VLAN network requirements

Abiquo enables the Cloud Operator to group physical servers into logical racks. The cloud operator determines the groupings of physical servers. For examples, some data centers would group servers with similar specifications together and provide those resources with a certain service level to end users. Racks must be added to a physical datacenter to begin adding physical hypervisors to the physical infrastructure.

Steps:

To create a rack:

1. Open the Infrastructure view and select Private and the datacenter name. If you are not on the Infrastructure details tab (with Servers, Network, etc.), open it by clicking the server button.

2. On the DATACENTERS list, click the plus button

3. Select Create Rack

4. Enter details of the Rack 

   

5. Click Network and enter details for your switch and environment. The platform will use these settings to create a pool of VLAN tags to assign to private networks

   

6. Click Save

Expected results: The rack will be available in the datacenter to add hypervisors to the physical infrastructure.

Use Case 1.3 - Create datastore tiers for datastore service levels

Create storage service levels to provide datastore storage to users. You can limit and price storage by service levels by enterprise, even across different datacenters, in which case the tiers will be automatically grouped by name into Abstract datastore tiers.

Steps:

To create datastore tiers

1. In the Infrastructure view, click the Datastore tiers tab, and click + Add to create a datastore tier.
   

   

2. On the Enterprise access tab, allow all enterprises to access the tier.

Expected results: When you add your hypervisors, you can add their datastores to the appropriate service levels.
See Manage datastore service levels with datastore tiers and Abstract datastore tiers for storage service levels

Use Case 1.4 - Acquire the physical infrastructure

Customers will use Abiquo to manage the physical infrastructure. That infrastructure needs to be acquired by Abiquo so that it can be managed and so that the resources can be consumed.

Steps:

To add a physical machine (host):

1. Use the + button to create a new physical machine. For example, for a vCenter host (note: you can also add vCenter clusters as hosts).

   

   
   Select the hosts to add to Abiquo and configure them as described here.

   1. For each hypervisor host, you must enable a network interface (by assigning a Network Service Type). This is the network interface that is listening on VLANs.

      

   2. For each hypervisor host, you must enable at least one datastore (mark the checkbox). 
       Do not enable the vm_repository for use as a datastore.

      

Repeat the process of adding the physical machine for additional hypervisor hosts. Add the datastores to a datastore tier.

Expected results: Physical resources are managed by Abiquo and are available to be consumed by virtual datacenters.

Use Case 1.5 - Define the datacenter utilization rules

Customers need the ability to define Utilization rules for the data center. Performance based load balancing rules will always look for a physical host with the most resources available. Progressive load balancing will continue to fill up each server with virtual machines until it reaches the percentage capacity defined by the customer. Once capacity is reached Abiquo will begin to fill the next server.

Steps:

To create allocation rules

1. Select the data center and edit. Select the Allocation Rules tab

   

2. Add a new DATACENTER rule on the right pane with the + icon. Select the Rule type such as Compute load level as below. You can use this role to oversubscribe CPU. For example, in a test system with small VM templates, you could set RAM to 100% and CPU to 400%. You can also set a storage load level rule for datastore usage.

   

   
   Note: If you are adding a vCenter cluster directly as a physical machine, use the server rule not the cluster rule.

   

This rule can be used for oversubscription of CPU. For example, in a test system with small VM templates, you could set RAM to 100% and CPU to 400%. You can also set a storage load level rule for datastore usage.

Expected results: A utilization business rule will defined for the datacenter

Use Case 1.6 - Create public IPs for consumption by cloud tenants

Abiquo uses the public IP management function to offer virtual datacenter users the opportunity to use available public IPs in their virtual infrastructure.

Steps:

To create a public network and IPs

1. From the Infrastructure view, select Datacenter, Network tab, and select the Public sub-tab.

2. Click the + icon to add a network

3. Fill in the necessary information and click Save

   

4. Create IPs as required. Click Accept

5. Review the list of available IPs and make unavailable any IPs that are required for administration purposes. Use the arrow button to move selected IPs from available to unavailable. Use the double arrow buttons to move all IPs.

   

6. You can quarantine a public IP if it is misued. Enterprises cannot use IPs that are in quarantine. Select the IP and Click the quarantine button to make an IP unavailable to enterprises.

Expected results: Users of the datacenter will be able to obtain public IPs for their virtual datacenters.
*Note: External networks are functionally the same as public networks but they belong to a single enteprise and they DO NOT get accounted for billing purposes. External networks can also use an external DHCP server (as Unmanaged networks) and be set as defaults for VMs at Enterprise and VDC level. Public networks can be set as the default at virtual datacenter level.

Use Case 1.7 - Capture existing VMs and support a phased deployment

Abiquo customers can leverage existing hardware and existing VMs. Abiquo allows customers to phase in the deployment. After you add a physial machine to Abiquo, you can scan it for existing VMs. Abiquo highlights existing VMs that it does not manage with a warning symbol () and you can later capture these VMs to manage them with Abiquo. This functionality allows customers to phase in the deployment of Abiquo.

Steps:

1. Create virtual datacenters for the host hypervisor type and appropriate networks for the VMs

2. In Infrastructure view, select the host and press the retrieve VMs button to scan for VMs

3. Select a VM that is not managed by Abiquo

4. Click the Capture VM button.

See: Import and capture virtual machines for more information.

Expected results: When you capture a VM to add it to Abiquo, it is almost identical to a VM that you can create in Abiquo. You can also save a copy of the VM disks as a VM template in the Catalogue. This is called an Instance template, and it can be useful if you wish to destroy and recreate the VM from the initial template.

Use Case 1.8 - Create public cloud regions

Customers wish to offer convenient public cloud services with the same easy user interface. Your trial Abiquo monolithic server can manage one datacenter and multiple public cloud regions.

Steps:

To create a new public cloud region

1. Go to Infrastructure → Public

2. Click the + add button

3. Enter the Name for the region, select the public cloud Provider and mark the checkboxes for the Region(s) you wish to use. Click Next.

   

4. Enter the IP address of the monolithic Abiquo server. Click Duplicate IP addresses to copy the remote service location.

   

5. Click Save to use this remote services configuration for the datacenter.

Expected results: Abiquo creates new public cloud region(s) and resources can managed by Abiquo.

Use Case 1.9 - Add public cloud credentials

Abiquo enables the Cloud Operator or Tenant Administrator to enter their public cloud credentials.

Steps:

To add credentials for the current enterprise:

1. In the bottom left-hand corner of the screen, click on the user icon.

2. From the dropdown menu, select Edit credentials
   

   

3. Select the cloud provider

4. Enter the Access key ID and the Secret access key

5. Click Add account

   

6. Click Close

Expected results: The credentials will be added to the tenant's account

Create a global catalogue for templates and blueprints

Use Case 2.1 - Create a global service catalogue with a remote template repository 

A Remote Template Repository can provide VM templates that are ready to download. These VM templates use the OVF standard. A Remote Template Repository contains an index of VM Templates. This index can be published on the Internet for public access or on the Intranet of your company for controlled and secured access. This system allows VM template creators to share their templates with many Abiquo users. Abiquo supplies some sample templates in a Remote Repository hosted on Amazon S3. You can download some of these templates for testing.

Steps:

1. In the Catalogue select the data center.

2. Click the + add button and select Create from remote repository

   

   
   The Abiquo Repository should have been added as default. You can add a testing repository at https://packer-repo.s3.amazonaws.com/ovfindex.xml.

3. Select the templates and click Download to save them to the local datacenter catalogue

Note that by default the Cloud Admin has the privilege to Manage repository (to add and delete remote repositories) and Admins have access to the catalogue and the privilege to Download VM templates from remote repository.

Expected results: Templates can be downloaded from the Remote Repository to the datacenter's local repository.

Use Case 2.2 - Leverage existing VM templates by importing into the catalogue

Some customers have built standard VM templates for inclusion in a global catalogue. These templates allow customers to enforce standards across their datacenters.

Steps:

To upload a custom VM template:

1. On the Catalogue tab select the data center

2. Click the + add button and select the option to Create from OVA
   

   

3. Select the OVA file.

4. After you upload the OVA, edit the template as required. On the Advanced tab, check that the Operating system is set correctly

5. Also set the User and Password

Expected results: The template will be uploaded to your catalogue and you can use it to deploy VMs within a virtual appliance.

• To share the template with all other enterprises, edit it and go to Scopes, and select the "Global scope". See https://abiquo.atlassian.net/wiki/pages/resumedraft.action?draftId=311371311

• Note: Your Appliance Manager remote service must be correctly configured to allow disk uploads.

• Browser upload uses HTTP protocols and larger disk files may require a different process.

• To add OVA parameters to all VMs created from a template, add them as Variables. See Deploy a VM from an OVA with parameters.

• For more details about guest setup configuration, see Guest setup

Use Case 2.3 - Create a cache of approved VM templates in public cloud

A public cloud provider may offer thousands of Vm templates in each region. There are no guarantees that these VM templates are appropriate and safe for your users. You can create a cache with a selection of approved VM templates that can be made available to your users on a self-service basis.

Steps:

To import a template from a public cloud region into the platform's template cache, do the following steps:

1. Go to Catalogue → Public

2. Select the public cloud region

3. Then click the + add button at the bottom of the screen

   

4. The Import template popup will open

5. Enter the search criteria for your template

   

   1. In the ID field, you can enter an ID, such as an AMI ID 

   2. In the Name field, you can enter text to search for in the name 

   3. Select Private templates to display images that are only available to your user account in the public cloud provider. 

      1. In vCloud Director this option displays templates in the same organization as your user

      2. In OCI, to search for private templates, you must search by the template ID only.

   Then click Search to perform the search. The search can take some time and return several pages of templates

6. To import a template, click the import symbol in the top right-hand corner of the template

   1. If your Azure template has terms of use, then you will need to accept these now or when you first create a VM from the template. 

      1. Accepting the terms of use requires the privilege to Manage virtual machine template terms of use and it enables programmatic deployment of the template for your Azure subscription. If you then disable programmatic deployment in the portal but you would like to deploy the template, you will need to delete it from the platform and import it again.

      2. If you share the template with another enterprise, then a user of that enterprise will need to accept the terms of use before they can create a VM

   When a template has been imported, the color of the import symbol will change to gray

7. When you have finished importing templates click Close 

Expected results: Abiquo caches the details of the VM Templates to make them available to users on a self-service basis

Create customer organization hierarchy

Use Case 3.1 - Create a reseller and an enterprise for a cloud tenant to consume cloud resources

In the Abiquo platform an enterprise can be created to make logical deployment resources available to cloud tenants. The following example depicts a sample enterprise hierarchy.

• ACME Hosting {root level – Reseller (corporate or service provider level)}

  1. Local Bank {Enterprise}

  2. Wernham Hogg {Enterprise}

  3. Dundler Mifflin {Enterprise}

You can manage reseller customers and their credentials in a tenant hierarchy. Your customers will be able to access their billing data on the Dashboard.

Steps:

To define a basic enterprise hierarchy, first define a reseller enterprise, and a reseller scope.   

1. Go to Users

2. Go to Scopes and for the reseller, create a reseller scope

   1. Name the scope with the same name as the reseller, e.g. ResellerEnterpriseScope

   2. Select an appropriate Parent scope, for example, the Global scope or no parent scope

      

3. Create an enterprise and select the Reseller checkbox to make it a reseller enterprise

   1. For the Default scope of the enterprise, select the reseller scope for the enterprise. Abiquo will automatically add the enterprise to its Default scope

      1. Note that if you change the default scope of an enteprise, Abiquo will not remove the enterprise from its previous scope

         

   2. Go to the Datacenters tab and drag datacenters and/or public cloud regions into the Allowed pane

      

Then create a customer of your reseller:

1. Go to Scopes again and create a customer scope

   1. Name the scope with the same name as the customer, e.g. CustomerEnterpriseScope

   2. As the Parent scope, for example, the Reseller scope

2. Create the customer enterprise

   1. For the Default scope, select the Customer scope for the enterprise. Abiquo will automatically add the enterprise to its Default scope

   2. Note that if you change the default scope of an enteprise, Abiquo will not remove the enterprise from its previous scope

   3. Go to the Datacenters tab and drag datacenters and/or public cloud regions into the Allowed pane

Expected results: After you create users, the enterprises will be available for logins, resource allocation, and for the customer to login to via the customer portal.

Use Case 3.2 - Define resource allocation limits for an enterprise

The hard and soft limits offer the Cloud Operator a way to limit the amount of physical resources that an enterprise will be able to consume. This is very useful to avoid common problems in cloud platforms, such as resource over allocation or an enterprise using resources belonging to others, or even preventing DoS attacks. These limits will also help System Administrators to anticipate user needs and anticipate resource demands.
The exact meaning of these limits is:

• Hard Limit: The maximum amount of virtual resources (CPU, RAM, Local Hard Disk, External Storage, Repository, VLANs, Public IPs) that an enterprise will be allowed to consume.

• Soft Limit: A limit that is always less than the Hard Limit that is used to alert users. When an enterprise reaches the soft limit, an alert will be shown to users to inform that they are reaching the resource allocation limits for their enterprise.

Hard and Soft Limits are used by the Resource Scheduler in order to decide if a user can deploy a virtual appliance or not.

Steps:

To set limits based on the business agreement with the enterprise holder:
1. Login as SysAdmin
2. Go to the Users view and select a specific enterprise
3. Edit the enterprise and select the Allocation limits tab
4. Set Hard limits to define the maximum resources that the enterprise can use to deploy virtual appliances/VMs, and set Soft limits for warning. You cannot set a soft limti on its own.

The platform will display a warning when the tenant reaches a Soft limit and enterprise users will not be able to deploy VMs after the tenant reaches the Hard limits. You can create an integration with the event streaming API to perform additional actions when tenants reach either limit. An example of a basic integration is an event notifier.

Expected results: The platform will create an event for administrators if the users approach their Soft Limit and enterprise users will not be able to deploy VMs past the Hard Limits.

Use Case 3.3 - Delegate administration of an enterprise

The Enterprise Administrator can manage configurations at the enterprise level and provide access to standard users within the enterprise. Typically, this role is assigned to people who are responsible for administration of Cloud services for a specific group.

Steps:

To create an Enterprise Admin user do these steps:

1. Log in as SysAdmin

2. Select a specific enterprise

3. Go to the Users pane and click + to add the new user

4. Select the default ENTERPRISE_ADMIN role

5. For the Scope, select the enterprise scope

   

6. Go to the Advanced tab and enter user details as required. The public key is required for remote access to VMs

   

7. Click Save

Expected results: An Enterprise Admin will be available. This user can manage template libraries and users for the enterprise.

To enable the user to access more Abiquo features, you may wish to clone the Enterprise Admin role and add more privileges. See Manage Roles

Use Case 3.4 - Define enterprise business policy

Business policies are used to help manage where enterprise tenants can deploy. The policies include

• Limits – Resource limits manage overall allocation that can be consumed by the enterprise

• Permissions – Define the allowed datacenters and public cloud regions where the enterprise can deploy

• Reservations – Reserve hosts for specific enterprises, and optionally allow the enterprises to use reserved hosts only

• Restrictions – E.g. Do not allow two enterprises to deploy on the same host

Steps:

To set limits based on the business agreement with the Enterprise holder

1. Log in as SysAdmin

2. In Users view, select a specific enterprise

3. Select Edit and go to Reservations

4. Select a datacenter and rack where a server will be reserved for this enterprise

5. Move one of the available servers to add the server to the Reserved servers list.

   

6. Log in as ANY user NOT in this enterprise (note rack reserved servers should not be available).

7. Log in as ANY user in the enterprise with the reserved server.

Expected results: The reserved hardware is only available to the users in the enterprise that has been allocated the reservation of the hardware.

Manage enterprise for enterprise administrator

Use Case 4.1 - Create a virtual datacenter from the resource cloud

A Virtual Datacenter is an abstraction of a physical datacenter that offers the same capabilities (such as network infrastructure, external storage system, backup, security, etc) with the added advantages of cloud computing:

• Virtualization

• Pay-as-you-go billing

• Quick scalability

• Technology and hardware abstraction.

This gives cloud users the opportunity to run their applications in a more economical and flexible way. A virtual datacenter offers the classical datacenter infrastructure, as a service.
A virtual datacenter groups resources such as VMs, and public IP addresses, and load balancers that will be attached to VMs within virtual appliances.

Note: you may choose to bill your customers by virtual datacenter, and as such, you may prefer that your administrators create the virtual datacenters for your customers, or automate their creation.

Steps:

To create a virtual datacenter:

1. Log in as an Enterprise admin or the Cloud Admin.

2. Click the Cloud icon to open myCloud Virtual datacenters view

3. Click on the + icon in the V. Datacenters pane

4. Fill in necessary info, select Datacenter, and Hypervisor type. Specify the virtual datacenter's name, select the physical datacenter where its applications will be deployed and if there is more than one hypervisor type, select the hypervisor you want to use. Please note that the hypervisor depends on the physical datacenter configuration, so select the physical datacenter first.

5. Click Save. A virtual datacenter for the enterprise will be available for virtual appliances to be created and deployed within.

Note: To create a virtual datacenter for another cloud tenant, you will need to switch to that tenant first in Home view or Users view.

Expected results: A virtual datacenter for the enterprise will be available for virtual appliances to be created and deployed within.

Use Case 4.2 - Create private networks

Abiquo uses the private IP management function to offer virtual datacenter users the opportunity to use different private IP ranges and networks in their virtual infrastructure

Steps:

1. From V. Datacenters, select a virtual datacenter and select the Network tab, then the Private sub-tab

2. Click the + icon to add a new network

3. Fill in the necessary information

4. Click "Accept"

Expected results: A specified private IP range is now available for the specific enterprise/virtual datacenter

Use Case 4.3 - Reserve public IPs or use external IPs

Virtual datacenters within each enterprise has can purchase or reserve public IP addresses to be used on their VMs. External IPs can be made available to the enterprise without the need for users to reserve them.

Steps:

To optionally obtain public IP addresses for your virtual datacenter, so that you can later assign them to your VMs:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Select a virtual datacenter → Network → Public

2. On the Allocated public IPs page, click the + add button

3. To add the public IP to a virtual datacenter, click the Add to VDC link near the IP address

Now when you edit a VM in the VDC and go to Network → Public, the platform will display the public IP address and you can add it to your VM.

To obtain a public IP directly for a VM, the user with appropriate privileges can click Purchase public IPs.

Expected results: When a user creates a VM on the virtual appliance screen and configures the VM, there are Public IPs available to use.

Use Case 4.4 - Onboard the existing virtual infrastructure from public cloud

Customers will use Abiquo to manage virtual infrastructure in the public cloud. The tenant administrator can acquire the existing virtual infrastructure so that it can be managed by Abiquo.

Steps:

To onboard public cloud resources

1. Go to Virtual datacenters view. Click the + add button and select Synchronize public cloud.
   

   

2. Select the public cloud region

3. Select the virtual datacenter to synchronize from the list.

   

4. Click Synchronize

Abiquo will import this virtual infrastructure from the provider. Note that Abiquo will detect network configuration but it will not enforce a standard configuration.

Expected results: Imported virtual infrastructure is now managed by Abiquo and is available to virtual datacenter users.

Use Case 4.5 - Define allocation limits for the virtual datacenter

Tenant administrators can define allocation limits to restrict resources available to cloud users in the virtual datacenter. These allocation limits complement the limits set by cloud operators for the tenant. When users reach the soft limit, a warning message can be displayed. When users reach the hard limit, their action will be blocked. In public cloud the external storage limit is not used.

Steps:

Select the virtual datacenter and edit. Go to the Allocation limits tab.
To allow your users unlimited resources, set the limits to 0.

Expected results: A set of allocation limits will be defined for the virtual datacenter.

Use Case 4.6 - Obtain floating public IPs from the cloud provider

Tenant administrators can obtain public IPs from certain cloud providers and make them available to users in their enterprises. These IPs may be called floating IPs in Abiquo because they are not attached to an Abiquo network. They may be called by different names in different providers, for example, in AWS, they are called Elastic IPs. Note that some cloud providers may charge for public IPs as soon as you obtain them from the provider. As part of an evaluation, you may wish to perform this action AFTER you create a VM and just before you launch it, in order to reduce costs.

Steps:

1. In the V. Datacenters list, click on the name of a virtual datacenter in public cloud

2. Go to Network → Public

3. Click on the round arrow synchronize button to obtain any existing public IP addresses

4. Click on the + button to obtain a new floating IP address

5. Click on the Add to virtual datacenter link

6. If you have created a VM, then you can now edit its configuration and add the IP address. Or you can remove the IP address from the virtual datacenter and delete it from Abiquo.

Expected results: A public IP will be created and can be added to the virtual datacenter and VM as required. As in private cloud you can also obtain a public IP from within the VM configuration.

Use Case 4.7 - Create enterprise users

Enterprise users are able to log in via the enterprise's management console and deploy virtual resources.
The enterprise user role is the one with the least privileges. This role can manage (create/modify/delete) a group's virtual infrastructure. Typically, this role is assigned to someone who uses the cloud service each day for virtual provisioning.

Steps:

1. Login as Cloud Admin or Enterprise Admin

2. Select the enterprise

3. Go to the "Users" pane click + to add the new user

4. For the Role, select USER and for the Scope, select the "Enterprise scope" and fill in necessary info

   

5. Optionally, restrict the user to a set of VDCs

   

6. Enter public key for remote access to VMs

   

Expected results: An Enterprise user is created and they can log in and deploy VMs in the selected enterprise.

Use Case 4.8 - Create custom user roles

The Abiquo installation creates 3 default roles each configured with a set of pre-defined privileges. For some deployments additional roles will be required to support the desired models for system administration.

Steps:

To create a custom user role:

1. Login as SysAdmin

2. Select Users → Roles

3. Select the USER role and click the Clone button (or click + to add the new role)

4. Fill in the necessary info. (Do not enter External roles now, but you can enter them later to use AD or SAML, etc.)

   

5. Save the role

6. Select the role again and select the required privileges, then click Save. See Manage Roles#Privileges table

7. Create a new user and assign the new role to this user

Expected results: A custom role is created and a user who is assigned the new role is restricted by the selected privileges.

Manage virtual appliances for enterprise user 

Use Case 5.1 - Create virtual appliances

A virtual appliance is simply a group of one or more related virtual machines that can be used to offer a service. Each virtual machine is an independently installable run-time entity comprising an operating system, applications and other application-specific data. Note that a default virtual appliance will be created in each virtual datacenter.

Steps:

To create a virtual appliance:

1. Open the cloud Virtual datacenters view. It should open at the Virtual appliances tab

2. Select the virtual datacenter you want to deploy a virtual appliance in

3. Click the + add button at the bottom of the the Virtual Appliances tab

   

4. Enter the details of the virtual appliance

   

5. Click on Open or the virtual appliance Name to enter the virtual appliance editor. A virtual appliance will not do anything unless you add at least one VM template to it

6. Click the Create virtual machine button. You can now select from the VM templates that are ready to be deployed.
   Simply double-click a template to create a VM with the default label, or click once and enter your own friendly name for the your VM

   

Expected results: A virtual appliance is created with a VM template available from the Catalogue.

Use Case 5.2 - Deploy and undeploy a virtual appliance

Enterprise users should be able to to manage their virtual appliances. They can easily deploy and undeploy their virtual appliances.

Steps:

To start the virtual appliance, click the Deploy virtual appliance button in the top right-hand corner of the Virtual machines panel.

This will deploy and start the VMs in the virtual appliance. You can also deploy virtual appliances using the controls that appear when a virtual appliance is selected in the virtual datacenter view.  When the virtual appliance is deployed, the Deploy button becomes an Undeploy button or a Deploy all VMs button. To destroy all the VMs and all your data on the hard disks, click the Undeploy button.

Use Case 5.3 - Reconfigure a VM to add network and storage

Enterprise users should have the ability to modify their VMs.

Steps:

1. To change VM settings, from the VM options menu, select Edit.

   

2. The VM edit dialog will open. On the General tab, enable remote access, obtain the password and optionally increase CPU and/or RAM. Also make a note of the SSH user and password if they are available.

3. On the Network tab, go to Private and select the default_private_network or another network

   

4. Add an IP address or add the Auto-generated IP tag to the VM

5. If the original IP is in the same network, remove the original IP, so as to not have two IP addresses in the same network

6. On the Storage tab, add a hard disk by clicking the + add button at the bottom of the page

   

7. Enter appropriate values for a disk in your environment and click Save.

Expected results: The platform will reconfigure your VM

Additional public cloud use cases 

Use Case 6.1 - Create virtual storage volumes in public cloud

You can create storage volumes and attach them to a VM to extend usable disk space capacity. These volumes are usually persistent, so you can reuse them after you detach them and even after you destroy the VM.

Steps:

To create a new storage volume:

1. Select the virtual datacenter

2. Click the + add button

3. Enter the details as described below.

   

4. For Total size, the minimum size is as follows:

   1. AWS and Azure: 1 GB

   2. GCP: 10 GB

   3. OCI: 50 GB

5. For the Tier, select the service level. Some tiers may not be available in all regions, for example, the AWS "io2" service level.

6. For AWS and GCP, enter an Availability zone. This must be the same Availability zone as for the VM network

7. For Controller type for OCI, select PARAVIRTUALIZED or SCSI. Note that in OCI, volumes may onboard as IDE but the platform will later update them.

8. In public cloud, the platform does not apply the Controller

9. Encrypted is available in AWS and OCI

Expected results: The volume is now available to be attached to a virtual machine before or after it is deployed.

Use Case 6.2 - Export a VM template from a private cloud datacenter

The cloud platform can support multiple datacenters and public cloud regions, with different technologies and service levels.
The VM template mobility feature enables VM templates to be moved between datacenters and public cloud regions.

Steps:

You must first prepare the template according to the cloud provider instructions. See VM Template Mobility

1. Go to Catalogue → select the private cloud datacenter where the VM template is stored.

2. Select the VM template and from its options menu, select Export
   

   

3. For private cloud, select the datacenter

   

4. For public cloud, select the public cloud region

   

5. For public cloud, select one bootable system disk. For private cloud, select disks

   

Expected results: A compatible VM template can be exported (copied) to another private cloud datacenter or a public cloud region

Validate cloud application

Use Case 7.1 - Access the running VM via the Abiquo platform

Customers should be able to access VMs deployed by the cloud management application

Steps:

1. Obtain the login credentials for the VM, which may be assigned to the VM template.

2. Select the VM and on the VM control panel, near Remote access, click Show password to obtain the password. (You may also be able to obtain the login credentials from here).

3. To open a remote access window, click the console icon on the left-hand side of the control panel buttons.

4. Enter the remote access password or private key as prompted

5. At the VM login prompt, enter the VM login credentials.

Expected results: A console window will open and the user is presented with the login to the VM

Use Case 7.2 - Validate co-existence with existing management tools

Customers that already use hypervisor management tools such as VMware's vCenter want to ensure that the cloud management application will seamlessly coexist with the existing tools. For example, when using vCenter hosts, if a VM is moved by vMotion, then Abiquo will recognise the move. If you are using vCenter clusters as hosts, then Abiquo does not need to recognise the moves because the VMs are effectively on the same host.

Steps:

Deploy VMs using Abiquo and Hypervisor management tools
Review the results in both the Abiquo console and the management tool.
Exact tests and the steps to perform them will depend on the deployed infrastructure, for example, using vMotion in vCenter

Expected results: Abiquo co-exists with the management tool with no adverse affects.

Cloud user self service

Use Case 8.1 Cloud users can access the platform on a self-service basis

Customers want to use a self-service model in order to speed up the provisioning of applications/services and improve the efficiency of the IT operation.

Steps:

1. Log in to the platform as an enterprise user

2. Create a virtual appliance within an existing virtual datacenter using VM templates available from the Catalogue

3. Deploy the virtual appliance

4. Review the virtual appliance configuration. E.g. networking, hard disk

Expected results: A customer user can deploy a virtual appliance and consume physical resources that have been made available to them.

Use Case 8.2 Cloud users can monitor their VMs

Users can monitor their VMs and retrieve metrics.

Steps:

1. Log in to the platform as a cloud user

2. Open the configuration of a deployed VM

3. Mark the checkbox to Fetch metrics

4. Select the metrics you wish to retrieve

5. Save the VM configuration

6. Open the Monitoring view and after a short time, the metrics should display

Expected results: A customer user can retrieve and display metrics to monitor the performance of their VM

Integration

Use Case 9.1 - Integrate the cloud management platform with a customer portal

Hosting providers may want to integrate the Cloud Management Platform (CMP) with an existing system such as an existing customer portal or provisioning system. This will provide administrators or customers access to the Abiquo functionality through a familiar interface.

Steps:

Exact steps will depend on the existing application. Please read the API documentation and discuss with the Abiquo Sales Engineer

Expected results: Abiquo functionality can be integrated into an existing portal or ITSM system using the REST API

Use Case 9.2 - Extract billing or chargeback data from the cloud platform

Hosting providers offering a cloud service will want to charge customers for resources that have been reserved or consumed. Abiquo meters usage data and you can import it into your billing system.

Steps:

You can use database scripts and Excel sheets to view accounting data. Alternatively you can create or use Abiquo 'billing connector' to extract this data. See Abiquo Billing Integration

Expected results: Accounting data can be extracted from Abiquo and viewed in Excel (CSV) and/or imported into an existing billing system.

Use Case 9.3 - Integrate the cloud platform with an existing LDAP/AD or OpenID user source

An LDAP or AD user source may already exist and will be the preferred repository for user accounts of the cloud management platform (CMP). The CMP will be able to authenticate against the LDAP/AD user source and create the appropriate users. You can also configure Abiquo to authenticate using SAML.

Steps:

1. Configure the Abiquo server to use LDAP authentication. See LDAP and active directory integration. Please review the documentation as you will need to manually edit the configuration files.

2. Assign the LDAP groups or OpenID groups to User roles as external roles. A user in matching groups will be assigned the Abiquo Role
   

   • Example for OpenID:

     • id=admins,ou=group,o=qa,ou=services,dc=openam,dc=forgerock,dc=org

   • Examples for LDAP:

     • ldap_group_01

     • ldap_group_02

3. Log in to Abiquo using the credentials of an LDAP or OpenID user in the Abiquo group.

Expected results: A user can log in to Abiquo using the credentials that already exist in the Abiquo/LDAP source.

Advanced use cases

This section contains some advanced or optional use cases that may not always be relevant when running an evaluation of a Cloud Management Platform. Whether they are relevant will depend on the overall platform requirements and the existing technology stack that will support the cloud.

Use Case 10.1 - Display cloud provider billing data on dashboard

Abiquo can obtain public cloud cost and usage from the providers and display it on a single multicloud dashboard for the user. If you are using reseller credentials, then if your users have customer credentials, their billing data can also display.

Steps:

To enable the display of the billing details on the dashboard, configure the dashboard according to the instructions for the provider. See Display cloud provider billing data.

For example, to configure billing dashboards for Google Cloud Platform (GCP):

1. Log in to GCP as an administrator

2. Set up billing data export. See https://cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/export-data-bigquery-setup
   To summarize, at the time of writing this doc: Go to Google console →  BigQuery →  select the Project and create a dataset, for example, "billingDatasetId". Note the name of your billing dataset.

3. Check that the account for use in Abiquo has the "Big Query Viewer" role

4. Log in to Abiquo and edit the Abiquo enterprise

5. Go to Properties and enter the properties as described here.

   • dataset_id: Name of your billing dataset, e.g. billingDatasetId

   • googleCloudPlatform_price_factor: Optional markup property

   • googleCloudPlatform_discount: Optional discount property

6. If you already entered the compute credentials but did not mark Also use for pricing, go to Credentials→ Pricing and enter them in the following format:

   • Access key ID: project_id#client_id#client_email#private_key_id

   • Secret access key: private_key

   For details of how to obtain these credentials, see Obtain Google Cloud Platform credentials

7. Assign the "View bills" privilege to user roles

8. Wait for the platform to obtain billing data, then go to Dashboard → Hybrid

Expected results: The billing data will display on the dashboard

Use Case 10.2 - Configure extra charges on VM templates and hardware profiles 

Hosting providers may need to track the licenses used by VMs (e.g. Microsoft Windows licensing), or may wish to offer cloud services based on a per VM pricing model. You can also assign extra charges with cost codes to hardware profiles. Note that Abiquo can also onboard prices of basic Linux templates from public cloud providers.

Steps:

1. To create an extra charge with a cost code for resource pricing

   1. Go to Pricing → Extra charges

   2. Click the + add button

   3. Enter the details and initial prices

2. Configure a VM template in the Catalogue

3. Edit the VM template and go to the Extra charges tab

4. Select the appropriate Extra charges for the VM template

   
   When you create or edit a hardware profile, you can also assign an extra charge.

5. When you create a VM you can also assign extra charges

6. You can use the extra charge with a cost code to track a VM or hardware profile in the Abiquo database either for licensing or charge back.

Expected results: A virtual image or hardware profile can be tracked for licensing or chargeback purposes.

Use Case 10.3 - Users can run collectd plugin to push custom metrics

Users may wish to view custom performance data for a VM. Users can install and configure collectd to gather this data. Users can then install the Abiquo collectd plugin to push the data to the Abiquo API. You can provide VM templates with collectd and the Abiquo collectd plugin already installed to your cloud users.

Steps:

1. User should configure collectd to gather the metrics they wish to display in Abiquo

   • By default, all collectd metrics will be pushed by the Abiquo plugin

2. Open the VM configuration

3. Select Fetch metrics

4. Open the Monitoring view for the VM or virtual appliance

Expected results: The user should be able to view the metrics gathered by collectd in Abiquo

Use load balancers

This use case describes a basic load balancing setup for you to test load balancers in public or private cloud. It contains these secondary use cases:

1. Create security group

2. Create web servers

3. Add load balancer

4. Retrieve index files from web servers

Use Case 11.1 - Create security groups

Abiquo tenant administrators can create firewalls that are security groups, in public cloud (e.g. AWS) or private cloud (using the VMware NSX integration).

Steps:

To create firewalls:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters

2. Select a virtual datacenter or location and go to Network → Firewalls
   

   

3. Select the location or the virtual datacenter and click the double-arrow synchronize button in the top right-hand corner of the page

4. Click the + button and enter firewall general information

   

5. Click the synchronize button to synchronize firewall rules. You will probably see a default rule to allow all outbound traffic.

6. Click the pencil edit button to edit firewall rules. Enter firewall rules, for example, to allow SSH and HTTP traffic

Expected results: Each firewall is created with the appropriate security group policies. As always, check your provider documentation for specific information about security group functionality. And see Manage Firewalls

Use Case 11.2 - Create web servers

Create two basic web servers that will be load balanced

Steps:

1. Use a Linux template to create two VMs (AWS instances)

2. Assign a private IP to each VM that is in the same availability zone (determined by private network)

3. Assign a public IP to each VM

4. If your cloud provider supports firewalls, assign the firewall you created earlier to the VM

5. Deploy the VM

6. Log in using SSH and perform the following actions on both instances

   echo  "Displaying content from VM 1" > index.html  python -mSimpleHTTPServer

   For VM 2, change the text string to "Displaying content from VM 2"

Expected results: This command will start a HTTP server listening on port 8000

Use Case 11.3 - Create load balancer

Abiquo can create load balancers in public cloud providers such as AWS and also in private cloud using VMware NSX.

Steps:

To add a load balancer:

1. Select the location or the virtual datacenter and synchronize it (round arrow button beside the name)

2. Go to Network → Load balancers

3. Click the + add button and enter load balancer general information. Select Public address and An automatically created public address

   

4. Create routing rules. Add a routing rule with HTTP and port 8000 (unless you have certificates prepared for HTTPS)

   

5. Enter a health check if required. AWS will automatically create one if you do not enter one. For the health check enter: Name, HTTP, 8000, Path: /index.html, interval (sec) e.g. 30, timeout (sec) e.g. 5 and attempts e.g. 3

6. Select the firewall you created earlier

   

7. Assign nodes, adding both instances
   

   

8. Click Save

A load balancer is created. As always, check you provider documentation for pricing and functionality. For more information about load balancers in Abiquo, see Manage load balancers.

Note: cloud users will require appropriate privileges to use load balancers.

Expected results: Once complete you'll be able to go to the load balancer's public IP address and retrieve the index files from the web servers.

Use Case 11.4 - Retrieve index files from web servers

To retrieve the files from your web servers, open your browser and enter the public IP address of the load balancer with the port and /index.html.

Reload the page to retrieve the index file from the other web server.

Test case results summary

You can use this check sheet to track completion of the test use cases. Please contact your Platform and Customer Success Engineer if you require any assistance executing the tests or if there are any tests that do not complete successfully. They will be happy to work with you and propose a resolution.