Template compatibility table

Abiquo is a hypervisor-independent cloud solution that can manage multiple virtualization technologies. It is able to deploy virtual appliances to many different hypervisors, and manage them from a rich web interface. The following sections describe the template disk formats supported by the Abiquo platform, and the formats supported by the hypervisors Abiquo manages.

API Feature

To retrieve the information about Supported Disk Format Types from the Abiquo API, use the requests of the DiskFormatTypes Resource

Supported disk format types

Abiquo supports the disk format types given in this table for OVF import or OVA import.

Abiquo identifies the disk formats by their URIs as given in the following table. These URIs were found in OVF files exported in these formats. However, over time vendors may change their reference information and URIs. Therefore customers who wish to import OVF files should check that their file formats will be correctly identified by Abiquo.

Disk format	URI	Technical reference	Description
RAW	`https://raw/`		Device disk format
VMDK_STREAM_OPTIMIZED	https://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/interfaces/vmdk_access.html#streamOptimized	vmdk_50_technote.pdf see Stream-Optimized p11	VMware stream optimized format
VMDK_FLAT	https://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/interfaces/vmdk_access.html#monolithic_flat	vmdk_50_technote.pdf see Simple Extents p5	VMware fixed disk
VMDK_SPARSE	https://www.vmware.com/technical-resources/interfaces/vmdk_access.html#monolithic_sparse	vmdk_50_technote.pdf see Hosted Sparse Extents p6 / ESXi Host Sparse Extents on p9	VMware sparse disk
VHD_FLAT	https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualserver/bb676673.aspx#monolithic_flat	VHD specification Word file see Fixed Hard Disk Image p3	VHD fixed disk
VHD_SPARSE	https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualserver/bb676673.aspx#monolithic_sparse	VHD specification Word file see Dynamic Hard Disk Image p3	VHD sparse disk
VHDX_FLAT	https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831446.aspx#monolithic_flat		VHDX fixed disk
VHDX_SPARSE	https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831446.aspx#monolithic_sparse		VHDX sparse disk
VDI_FLAT	https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=8046#monolithic_flat		VDI fixed disk
VDI_SPARSE	https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=8046#monolithic_sparse		VDI sparse disk
QCOW2_FLAT	https://people.gnome.org/~markmc/qcow-image-format.html#monolithic_flat		QCOW2 fixed disk
QCOW2_SPARSE	https://people.gnome.org/~markmc/qcow-image-format.html#monolithic_sparse		QCOW2 sparse disk
AMI	https://amiprotocol.sourceforge.net/ami-specif.html#1.9.2.user.xml		AMI
ISO	`https://iso`		ISO format

Abiquo will record UNKNOWN as the format for disks that are not in one of the above formats and the user will not be able to deploy VMs from these disks.

Hypervisor compatibility table

The following table shows the different formats supported by the hypervisors. If you upload a template in a format not supported by your hypervisor to the Catalogue view , Abiquo will convert it to the most suitable format.

The hypervisor default format (also called the base format) for each hypervisor is marked with a .

You can configure the list of formats offered and the base format using Abiquo Configuration Properties. See Abiquo configuration properties and search for .pluginmetadata.

Format	AWS	Hyper-V
RAW
VMDK_FLAT
VMDK_SPARSE
VMDK_STREAM_OPTIMIZED
VHD_FLAT
VHD_SPARSE
VHDX_FLAT		Deploy VHDX templates No conversions TO or FROM VHDX No persistent VHDX templates
VHDX _SPARSE		Deploy VHDX templates No conversions TO or FROM VHDX No persistent VHDX templates
VDI_FLAT
VDI_SPARSE
QCOW2_FLAT
QCOW2_SPARSE
AMI	no conversions
ISO

Hypervisor default format and conversions

In the above table, the hypervisor default format (also called the base format) for each hypervisor is marked with a . This is the preferred deployment format for this hypervisor, and if there is a disk in the base format, Abiquo will deploy this disk.

Abiquo converts disks from other hypervisor formats into the base format. For example, if you upload a VHD template and you have ESXi hypervisors, Abiquo will convert it into VMDK fixed format

Abiquo will not convert templates that are in other compatible formats for the same hypervisor. For example, if you upload a VMDK Sparse template for ESXi, then Abiquo will deploy the template as a VM with a sparse disk. However, if you somehow have both a sparse and a fixed format for the same disk, Abiquo will deploy the fixed format disk with thin provisioning enabled.

Abiquo will convert an Abiquo instance disk to hypervisor base format, but the administrator can control this conversion with properties. See Abiquo configuration properties and search for .instance.

For each hypervisor, the administrator can override the available formats and the default format using properties. See See Abiquo configuration properties and search for .pluginmetadata.

See also https://abiquo.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/doc/pages/311371369/Catalogue+view#Catalogue-concepts about Virtual-to-virtual conversion (V2V)

Note about ISO disks

Abiquo supports ISO disks, which may be bootable installation disks (added to templates) or data disks (added to VMs). See:

Create template: Upload an ISO disk from the local filesystem
Modify a VM template
VM storage
How to work with ISO disks