Updating VM templates

Introduction to updating VM templates

There are two main ways to make sure your users have up-to-date templates in Abiquo:

1. Create a new template from an instance of the old template

2. Update existing template disks

Update a VM template by creating a new template

To update a VM template as a new template.

1. Deploy a VM from the template, shut it down gracefully, and create an Abiquo instance (as a backup)

2. Update the VM (e.g. install a new service pack or security patch), then create another instance template

3. Promote the new instance to a master template, and change the name to show users that it is a new version. See https://abiquo.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/doc/pages/311371382/Manage+VM+templates#Promote-an-instance-to-a-master-template

4. Copy the new template to the catalogue in each of your datacenters (with Duplicate VM template)

5. In each datacenter catalogue, share the VM template to your enterprises (with Scopes)

6. Rename the old VM template or change the description to show users that it is deprecated

Considerations

When you want to update a template, remember:

• You can rename and change descriptions of any template (or instance) in the catalogue, even if the template is used by a virtual appliance in the datacenter (deployed or undeployed)

• Any user with the appropriate privileges can create an instance of a template, and the instance will be stored in the user’s enterprise

• You cannot remove a master template if there is an instance in any enterprise. As a cloud admin user, you will need to impersonate each enterprise and check the repository for instances. Or you can check this directly in the repository file system

• You cannot 'un-share' a template if it is being used by any virtual appliance in the datacenter

• You can remove a template disk to make the template Unavailable to users. If you later replace the template disk with the same disk, then the template will become Available again

• To update the template disk, you also need to update the template definition in Abiquo. You can update a template disk file using the Abiquo UI or API, as described in the documentation. After you update the template disk, users will deploy with the new disk

Updating VM template disk files

You can update VM template disk files. The use case is as follows.

• Upload or download a template

• Use it to create a VM 

• Update the template. Abiquo supports changes to:

  • file content

  • size

  • format (see Template compatibility table)

  • capacity

• Update the disk using the UI or the Appliance manager API 

• When the user next deploys the VM, the platform will copy the updated disk

For instructions:

• for the UI method, see https://abiquo.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/doc/pages/311378488/Modify+VM+template+disks#Replace-a-template-disk

• for the API method, see Upload and replace template disks via API

Changing VM template files on the filesystem

Changing the virtual disks of a template on the NFS filesystem, such as replacing a VMDK file in the NFS repository, is not recommended. This is because you would also need to correctly update fields such as virtualimage.diskFileSize in the underlying Abiquo database. Changes to the Abiquo database are not recommended or supported by Abiquo. The OVF information may also need to be updated if you change the underlying virtual disk because sometimes this information may be required to maintain platform coherence.