The system administrator should log in first and change the passwords and user details.

To change your user password and user details:

1. Click on the username icon at the bottom left of the screen
   
2. Select Edit user
3. Change the Password, enter an Email, a Phone number and an SSH public key, and change other details as required.
   General information
   Advanced
   

Note that you cannot change many of the details of the main cloud administrator account, and you cannot change its role and privileges. However, you can replace the main cloud administrator account  with another equivalent cloud administrator account. You can also edit this user account and other user accounts in Users View.

Your platform may offer or require two-factor authentication (2fa) to improve user login security with an additional authentication code. For platform configuration instructions, see Configure two factor authentication.

Before you begin:

• To use Google Authenticator to obtain the codes, install the Google Authenticator app on your cell phone. 
• To use email authentication to obtain the codes, check that you have a valid email address in your user account on the platform.

To enable two-factor authentication for your user account, do these steps:

1. Click on the user initials or user icon in the lower left corner of the screen, and from the menu, select Two-factor authentication.
2. Select the authentication method and click Enable

3. Copy the Backup codes from the configuration window to a secure place. You can use these codes to log in to the platform if the authentication cycle fails

   The platform will display Backup codes ONCE only

4. Authenticate according to your selected method
   • For Google Authenticator, use the Google Authenticator app on your cell phone to scan the QR code. Google will supply a verification code in the app. During login, the platform will request the Authentication code from the app. 
   • For email, during login, every time you enter your user name and password to log in, a code will be sent to the E-mail address registered in your user account. Enter the Authentication code in the Login dialog

This section describes how to create Cloud tenants, which Abiquo calls Enterprises

Prepare to create cloud tenants

Create an Enterprise

To set enterprise allocation limits:

1. Go to Users → edit Enterprise → Allocation limits
2. Complete the dialog. 

For more details see GUI Edit enterprise Allocation limits

To work with a public cloud region, each enterprise should have its own public cloud account for each cloud provider. All the users in the tenant will work with this same account. 

Before you begin:

1. Obtain credentials to access the cloud provider's API. For Abiquo's basic guides, see Obtain public cloud credentials.  Always check your provider documentation too.

To add public cloud credentials:

1. Go to Users → select and edit enterprise → Credentials → Public
2. Enter the Credentials as described here
   1. Select the Provider: Some providers may require different credentials for groups of regions

   2. Enter Access key ID: Identity to access the cloud provider API

      1. For Azure enter subscription-id#app-id#tenant-id

      2. For Google enter project_id#client_id#client_email#private_key_id

      3. For OCI enter format is tenancy#user#fingerprint

   3. Enter Secret access key

      1. For OCI enter the private key in PEM format.

   
   See GUI Edit enterprise Credentials
3. Click Add account. The platform will validate your credentials with the cloud provider and save them

4. Finish editing the enterprise and click Save

This will add a cloud provider account for a tenant enterprise with access to a public cloud region.

In resellers with Amazon, Azure ARM, and other partner accounts, to create a customer account in the provider and add it to an enterprise in the platform, click the enterprise building Create account button. See Create an account in public cloud for the customer of a reseller

When your enterprise has credentials for a public cloud provider, you can create a user account in a cloud provider. From here you can also click a link to access the cloud provider portal.

Abiquo displays the public cloud account identifiers on the Credentials tab.

To create a user:

1. Go to Users → Edit enterprise → Credentials
   

2. For a provider with credentials, click Create user.
   The platform will send the following to the cloud provider:
   • Details from your user account, including the username and email
   • An automatically generated password
     • The administrator can configure the generation of the password with the "abiquo.guest.password.length" and "abiquo.guest.password.exclude" properties.
   The platform will create an event with the enterprise ID, user ID, user email, date/time, and cloud provider.
   The user in the provider will have the following permissions: 
   
   • Azure: built-in Owner role.
   • AWS: in the same groups as the current user.
   • vCloud: by default the same as the current user, so usually an Organization Administrator
     • The administrator can configure the role to assign with the "abiquo.vcd.org.userRoleName" property
3. The platform displays the user credentials only once and it does not store these credentials
   To access the cloud provider portal, click user portal link or portal link
   • If you click portal link, on the Edit enterprise dialog, then you will need to enter your account ID and password in the cloud provider

To store tenant details and metadata, by setting enterprise properties: 

• Go to Users → edit enterprise → Properties.
• To add properties, enter a Key and Value for each property and click the Add button
  • These fields have a maximum length of 255 characters each   

To edit a property's Value, click the pencil edit button. And to delete a property, click the trash bin delete button.

To set default enterprises properties and values for your users, see Predefine enterprise properties for the UI

For details of how to manage enterprise properties via the API, see Update enterprise properties via API

To onboard all VMs into a single virtual appliance, set the singlevapp enterprise property to true. If you wish to configure the name, set the singlevapp name enterprise property:

"sync.singlevapp":"true",
"sync.singlevapp.name":"sync vapp name"

For instructions on how to set an enterprise property, see Manage Enterprises#Entertenantdetailsandmetadata

Filter local public cloud templates

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

1. Go to Apps library → Public → select the public cloud region
2. Then click the + add button at the bottom of the screen
   

3. The Import template popup will open

4. Enter the search criteria for your template
   

   1. In the ID field, you can enter an ID, such as an AMI ID
      1. In Google Cloud Platform, you can enter a full path ID, for example, ubuntu-os-cloud/global/images/ubuntu-2004-focal-v20220308
   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

5. 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

6. When you have finished importing templates click Close
   

You can now edit your template to customize it for your users, which includes:

• Add custom icon
• Add variables for startup scripts
• Share template with users in a tenant hierarchy
• Recommend and restrict hardware profiles
• Set default template credentials and configure initial password
• Add tags

For more details, see Modify a VM Template

You can onboard virtual resources from public cloud into the platform. If the cloud provider supports virtual datacenter (VDC) entities, such as AWS VPCs or Azure virtual networks, you can onboard them as VDCs and synchronize them. If the cloud provider does not support VDCs, then you can onboard the resources from the public cloud regions, such as Google Cloud Platform regions.

To onboard a virtual datacenter from public cloud:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters
2. At the bottom of the V. Datacenters list, click the + add button
3. Select Synchronize public cloud
4. On the General information tab, select the region and the resources to onboard 
   
   
   For more details see GUI Synchronize public cloud General information
   
   

• On the Roles tab, optionally restrict user permissions in the virtual datacenter
  
  
  For more details see GUI Synchronize public cloud Roles
  
  
  • The platform will mark the Public subnet (identified by a custom route table and NAT gateway) with a globe symbol and set the Internet gateway flag for this subnet. 

  • Users with bespoke network configurations should check the results of the synchronization. 

  • The platform will synchronize private and public IP addresses even if they are not in use by VMs, and mark the IP addresses in use by provider entities with provider identifiers.

  • The platform will import VM templates. If the platform cannot find the VM template, the VM will have no template in the platform. To save a copy of your VM disk to create a template, so you can recreate the VM, make an Abiquo instance of the VM. 

  If you delete a synchronized VDC, the platform will delete it in the provider. If your enterprise does not have valid credentials for the public cloud provider, when you delete public cloud entities in the platform, they will still exist in the public cloud provider

To display classic VMs in public cloud:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters
2. Click the + Add button and select Synchronize public cloud
3. Select the public cloud region

4. Click the See classic link

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

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

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

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

For more information, see the resource documentation.

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.

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

Before you begin:

1. 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:

1. 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, e.g. AWS default VPC, because it may be inconvenient to delete this VPC

The platform onboards and synchronizes virtual resources in public cloud regions for providers that do not use virtual datacenters or similar entities, for example, Google Cloud Platform. You can only synchronize these providers at the public cloud region level. You cannot synchronize a VDC or an individual resource, for example, a load balancer. 

If your public cloud provider does not support virtual datacenter entities, to onboard virtual resources do the following steps:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters
2. At the bottom of the V. Datacenters list, click the + add button
3. Select Synchronize public cloud
4. Select a public cloud region

The platform will place all VMs and network resources that are not related to existing virtual resources into a generic virtual datacenter. The platform names this virtual datacenter with the same name as the public cloud region, but the user can rename it. The platform will use this virtual datacenter for future synchronizations, adding or removing resources to match the cloud provider.

If there are already virtual resources in the platform for this provider, then these entities will already be part of a virtual datacenter. The platform will check if any new entities in the provider are related to the existing ones in the platform and place them in the existing virtual datacenter.

If the integration with the provider supports entities that are not in a virtual datacenter, such as firewalls, load balancers, or floating IPs, the platform may load these as separate entities.

If conflicts occur during synchronization, the platform will cancel the synchronization. This could occur if two VMs already exist in different VDCs but are related by a firewall or load balancer. Or if two firewall policies or load balancers exist in different virtual datacenters but are related by a VM.

Before you begin:

• In Azure, before you create a virtual datacenter, Create a resource group and optionally Create an availability set.

To create a new virtual datacenter:

1. Go to myCloud Virtual datacenters view
2. Above the V. datacenters list, click the + add button
3. Select Create a new virtual datacenter from the pull-down menu
4. Complete the dialog as described below
5. Click Save

General information

This section describes the basic details to enter when creating a virtual datacenter. The following sections describe further configuration.

For more details see GUI Create virtual datacenter General information

Create a virtual datacenter with custom networks

Manage resource allocation limits for a virtual datacenter

Set virtual datacenter defaults

Limit user access to the virtual datacenter

After you have entered Allocation limits, Defaults, and Role, click Save.

The platform will create the virtual datacenter and the default private VLAN and display it in the Virtual datacenters view. 

Create a virtual datacenter using the API

In public cloud regions, for Amazon, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, you can work with virtual storage to create volumes to attach to your VM.

Volumes of external storage can be persistent and independent of VMs. Volumes are

• EBS disks in AWS
• Managed Disks in Azure
• Zonal persistent disks in Google Cloud Platform 
• Block volumes in OCI

To display all volumes of your tenant, including recently onboarded volumes:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Volumes
2. Select All virtual datacenters

The platform will display all volumes from public and private cloud.

To display all volumes in the platform in a public cloud region:

1. Go to Cloud virtual datacenters view → Locations
2. Select the location
3. Go to Volumes
   

The platform will display all volumes in the public cloud region.

To onboard volumes from a public cloud region and synchronize existing volumes,

1. Go to Cloud virtual datacenters view → Locations
2. Select the location
3. Go to Volumes
4. Click the double arrow synchronize button

To display all volumes in a virtual datacenter:

1. Go to Cloud virtual datacenters view
2. Select a virtual datacenter
3. Go to Volumes
   

Notes:

• To onboard and synchronize volumes, your user must be able to access All virtual datacenters in the tenant. 
• By default, the platform will destroy the VM system disk (hard disk) when you undeploy or delete the VM. 
• In the Amazon console, when you create a VM (an Amazon Instance), you can select an EBS disk and configure it as "Delete on Termination". This means that the provider will destroy the disk when you terminate the VM. If you onboard a VM with these disks into Abiquo, when you undeploy or delete the VM, the platform will destroy the disks. To keep the disks, before you undeploy the VM, detach the disks from the VM in Abiquo, and the platform will synchronize them as volumes.
• In OCI, Abiquo imports shared volumes that are attached to a VM. You cannot create shared volumes in Abiquo
  • For each VM using the volume, Abiquo reports a new volume
  • You can import shared volumes attached to a VM only
  • You cannot reconfigure or delete shared volumes because you cannot detach them from VMs
  • You can resize shared volumes

To create a new storage volume:

1. Select the virtual datacenter
2. Click the + add button and complete the form:

Create a storage volume in Amazon

Create a storage volume in Google Cloud Platform

For more details see GUI Create volume Storage Public

After you create the volume, to attach it to a VM

1. Go to Virtual datacenters and edit the VM
2. Go to Storage and drag a volume into the storage pane. See VM storage

To modify a storage volume in public cloud:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Volumes
2. Select the volume and click the edit button

If the volume is attached to a deployed VM, you can also edit its size in Azure, AWS, and GCP, and its tier in Azure and AWS. To make changes to volumes in Azure, the VM must be in the "deallocated" state.

Modify a storage volume from the Volumes tab

AWS

Azure

For more details see GUI Edit volume Storage Public

 $ umount /dev/xxx (/dev/xxx is the partition of the resized volume, inside the VM)
 $ parted /dev/xxx
 # resize Y start end (Y is the partition number, and start/end of the partition varies in each case)
 $ resize2fs /dev/sdx

You can move volumes between virtual datacenters if they are not attached to a VM.

The source and destination virtual datacenters must belong to the same public cloud region and cloud tenant.

To change the virtual datacenter of a volume:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Volumes
2. Drag the volume into the new virtual datacenter in the virtual datacenters list. 
3. Click Confirm to complete the move.

You can move volumes to the public cloud region if they are not attached to a VM. This means that they will be available to move to all virtual datacenters in the public cloud region in the same tenant.

To move a volume to the public cloud region:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Volumes
2. Drag the volume into All in the virtual datacenters list. 
3. Click Confirm on the popup to complete the move.

You can delete or remove volumes that are NOT attached to a VM. 

To delete a volume:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Volumes
2. Select the volume and click the trash delete button

When you delete a storage volume in public cloud, it will be deleted in the public cloud region and all the data on the volume will be destroyed.

To display the networks available to a virtual datacenter:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select virtual datacenter → Network.

• The default network is highlighted with a star symbol
• A network with an internet gateway is highlighted with a globe symbol
• In public cloud, to synchronize networks and IP addresses, click the round arrows synchronize button
• In AWS, you can filter the list of private networks by Availability Zone

Screenshot: Private networks in private cloud

Screenshot: Private networks in public cloud (AWS)

In the Networks list, to view the pool and allocation of IPs:

• To display all the IPs in the virtual datacenter, click the All button at the top of the list
• To display the IPs in a network, click the Network name

You can then:

• Use the slider at the bottom of the list to move through the pages 
• Filter the list by entering text in the Search box. The filter works with all the columns of the table including:

• • IP Address
  • MAC address
  • Network name
  • Virtual appliance using the IP
  • VM using the IP
  • Provider ID of the entity using the IP (for example, a load balancer)

Private networks are only available within a virtual datacenter. However, your cloud provider may configure an external gateway for your virtual datacenter.

To create a private network:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select virtual datacenter → Network → Private
2. Click the + add button  and complete the dialog

Create private network

Create private network Amazon

For more details see GUI Create network Private

You can configure static routes when you create or edit a network. However, you should check with your systems administrator about when your VM will receive changes to static routes.

For more details see GUI Create network Static routes

To create new IP addresses in a private network do these steps.

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → optionally select a virtual datacenter
2. Go to Networks → Private → select a private network
3. On the Private IPs page, click the add + button and enter details

Or you can add an IP directly to a VM. To do this:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Edit VM → Network
2. Click the add + button and enter details (or drag the Auto-generated IP label into the Network pane)
   
   For more details see GUI Create IP addresses

To edit a private network

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select a virtual datacenter → Network
2. Select the network
3. Click the pencil edit button below the Networks list
4. You can change the network Name, Gateway, DNS settings, and optionally make the network the new default for this virtual datacenter.
5. Click Save

The new settings will apply to all VMs deployed after you save the network.

You can delete a private network if no VMs are using its IPs and it is not the default network for the virtual datacenter.

To delete a private network:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select a virtual datacenter → Network → Private
2. Select the network and click the delete button below the networks list. 

The platform automatically onboards external networks when you onboard virtual datacenters from vCloud Director.

To display onboarded external networks

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Network → Select vCloud VDC → External

If an onboarded network has been deleted in the provider, its name will display in light gray text. If a VM is using an IP from this network, then you cannot deploy the VM.

If there are no VMs using the IPs of an external network that was already deleted in the provider, to delete the network in the platform, select it and click the delete button.

Each virtual datacenter requires a default network. If you deploy a VM without assigning a NIC, the platform will add one from the default network. You cannot unselect the default network, instead you must assign a new default network to replace it.

To set a network as the default, you will require privileges to access this network in the virtual infrastructure.

To assign a network as the default for a virtual datacenter do these steps:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select virtual datacenter → Network → network type, e.g. Private
2. Create or edit a network
3. Select the Default network checkbox 
   
   • This default will override the platform default network and any network set for the enterprise in the datacenter
   • The new default network will apply to all VMs deployed after you set it
   • For a public network that is the virtual datacenter default, obtain IP addresses for your VMs before you deploy

In public networks you can reserve or purchase public IP addresses for your VMs. Reserved IPs may be charged while they are reserved, even if they are not used in VMs. 

To add new public IP addresses to your virtual datacenter:

1. Click the + Add button on the Public IPs page to display the list of available public IPs
   
   1. To move between pages, use pagination controls such as arrows and page numbers
   2. To filter your search, enter an IP address or Network name in the Search filter box
2. Select IP addresses to add them to your virtual datacenter 
3. Click Add to reserve the IPs

The platform will add the IPs to your VDC

You can also reserve public IPs directly from the Edit VM dialog.

During onboarding from public cloud, the platform will onboard existing public IP addresses in providers that support them, such as AWS and Azure. You can obtain them from the provider and assign them to your virtual datacenters and VMs.

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

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Select a public cloud 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, click Purchase public IPs.

To onboard any public IP addresses that were already created in your cloud provider, or update changes made directly in the provider:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select a public cloud virtual datacenter → Network → Public
2. Click the double arrow synchronize public IPs button (beside the + add button)

You can release a public IP if it is not assigned to a VM.

In private cloud, to release a public IP that belongs to a public network, select the IP in the IP list and click the delete button.

In public cloud, click the link to Remove from VDC and then click the delete button.

The platform provides a unified interface to firewalls in varied cloud environments. 

This section describes firewall policies, which are similar to security groups. The platform supports firewall policies in private cloud with network managers (NSX, NSX-T) and in public cloud.

Abiquo firewall policies represent.

• AWS security groups
• Azure firewall policies
• GCP firewall rules
• OCI network security groups

For more details, please see the public cloud features table for each provider.

In vCloud Director, the platform also supports classic firewalls, which are Edge firewalls at level of the public cloud region (orgVDC). See Manage classic firewalls. 

The synchronization process will onboard firewalls and it will update the platform's information about firewalls that already exist in the cloud provider. The platform synchronizes automatically when you onboard virtual resources from public cloud. Depending on the provider, the platform may support synchronization at the level of the location (public cloud region) or virtual datacenter.

To synchronize firewalls do these steps:

1. In the myCloud view go to Virtual datacenters, or Locations, or for Google Cloud Platform select the Global view
2. Go to Network → Firewalls
3. Click the double-arrow synchronize button 

To synchronize a firewall in AWS before you add new firewall rules:

1. Select the firewall and click the double-arrow synchronize button

The platform can create firewall policies in virtual datacenters in the provider, or in the platform only, for later use in providers, depending on provider support.

To create a new firewall, do these steps:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Network → Firewalls
2. Click the Add button
3. Enter the firewall details
   
   For more details see GUI Create firewall policy
   
   
4. Click Save to create the firewall
5. Add Firewall rules as described below

If you entered a virtual datacenter, the platform created your firewall in the provider. The platform will display a Provider-ID and a Virtual datacenter ID for the firewall. 

If you selected No virtual datacenter, the firewall will be created in the platform in the public cloud region for your enterprise. The synchronize process will not update this firewall. The platform will not create it in the provider until you select a virtual datacenter.

You can define firewall rules for inbound and outbound traffic in your firewall policy.

To add a new firewall rule:

1. Select the virtual datacenter or location
2. Select the firewall
3. On the Firewall rules panel, click the pencil Edit button
4. Select the Inbound or Outbound tab for the traffic direction you wish to control
5. Enter the details of a rule
   1. Protocol
   • • Select from Common protocols, OR
     • Select and enter a Custom protocol
   1. Port range with the Start port and End port that this rule will apply to. To enter one port, enter the same value twice, or optionally apply the rule to a number of ports at the same time
   2. Sources or Targets as a network address and netmask
6. Click Add. The firewall rule will be added to the Firewall rules list
7. Enter more rules as required, then click Save

In GCP, the platform can create firewall policies in virtual datacenters or in global networks, to later attach to VMs.

To create a new firewall, do these steps:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Network → Firewalls
   or go to myCloud → Global → select the GCP provider → Network → Firewalls
2. Click the Add button
3. Enter the firewall details and select the direction
   
   For more details see GUI Create firewall policy GCP General information
   
   
4. Go to Inbound or Outbound and add firewall rules
   
   For more details see GUI Create firewall policy GCP rules inbound outbound
   
   
5. After you finish adding rules, click Save

The platform will create your firewall in the provider.

You can set a default firewall policy for each virtual datacenter. 

To set or unset a default firewall for a virtual datacenter:

1. Select the firewall
2. Click the star default firewall button

When the user creates a VM, the platform will assign the default firewall. The firewall rules apply to VMs, not individual NICs on the VMs. Changes to the firewall ruleset will apply to every VM in the virtual datacenter with the default firewall. If you do not set a default firewall but the provider requires one, for example, AWS, the platform will set the provider's default firewall. In AWS the default firewall is not marked. 

If your provider allows it, you may edit a firewall policy in the platform. 

To edit a firewall policy:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select virtual datacenter or select a region → Network → Firewalls
2. Select the firewall policy and click the pencil edit button.
3. Make your changes and click Save

For more details see GUI Edit firewall policy

When you edit a firewall, you can add tags to group resources and manage them in Control view

To manage tags for a firewall, edit the firewall and add tags as described here.

Before you begin:

1. Check if your provider allows you to move firewalls. For example, Azure ARM allows you to move firewalls to other VDCs in the same resource group

To move a firewall to another virtual datacenter

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Locations or Global
2. Select the public cloud region, or Azure provider and resource group
3. Edit the firewall policy and select the new Virtual datacenter
   
   

You can display and manage firewalls in the platforms at the level of the virtual datacenter or the location (public cloud region or datacenter).

To display firewalls in a virtual datacenter in a provider:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select a virtual datacenter → Network → Firewalls
   

To display all firewalls in Google Cloud Platform

1. Go to myCloud → Global view → select the GCP provider → Networks → Firewalls

To display all firewalls in a location (public cloud region or datacenter):

1. Go to Cloud virtual datacenters view → Locations
2. Select a location
3. Go to Network → Firewalls
   
   Firewalls that do not exist in the provider are grayed out, and you should delete these firewalls.

To display firewalls in an Azure Resource Group:

1. Go to Cloud virtual datacenters view
2. Go to Global → Azure → Resource Groups → select a resource group
3. To display the details of the firewall, edit the firewall

To delete firewall rules, do these steps.

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select a virtual datacenter or select All → Network → Firewalls
2. Edit the firewall
3. Select the Inbound or Outbound tab
4. On the left-hand side of each rule you wish to delete, click the trash bin Delete button
5. Click Save

To delete a firewall policy:

1. Edit each VM that is using the firewall policy to remove the firewall policy
2. Select the firewall policy
3. Click the Delete button

The load balancer feature aims to simplify the creation of load balancers across all providers in the multi-cloud platform, providing a unified interface.

In AWS, Abiquo supports Application load balancers (see Manage Application Load Balancers) and Classic load balancers (described on this page). 

Please refer to cloud provider documentation as the definitive guide to the load balancing features.  And remember to check your cloud provider's pricing before you begin.

In vCloud Director, load balancers belong to a public cloud region, not a virtual datacenter. This means that in vCloud Director, you can attach VMs from more than one virtual datacenter to the same load balancer, and these load balancers do not work with private networks, which belong to only one virtual datacenter.

You can display and manage load balancers in the platform at the level of the virtual datacenter or the location (public cloud region or datacenter).

To display load balancers in virtual datacenters:

1. Go to Cloud virtual datacenters view

2. Select a virtual datacenter

3. Go to Network → Load balancers.

To display load balancers in a region, including those that do not exist in the provider.

1. Go to Cloud virtual datacenters view
2. Click the Locations button and select a location
3. Go to Network → Load balancers
   
   
   Load balancers that do not exist in the provider are displayed in light gray text and you should delete these load balancers.

To display load balancers in an Azure Resource Group:

1. Go to Cloud virtual datacenters view
2. Go to Global → Azure → Resource Groups → select a resource group
3. To display the details of the load balancer, edit the load balancer

Before you begin:

• Synchronize your virtual datacenters (including VMs, networks, firewalls, firewall rules, and load balancers)
• If required by your provider, create firewalls for your VMs to allow your load balancers to access the VMs
• In Azure make sure that your VMs belong to availability sets

To create a load balancer:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select a virtual datacenter → Network → Load balancers 
   1. For vCloud, select All virtual datacenters → Network → Load balancers → Region

2. Click the + add button and complete the following dialogs according to your cloud provider's documentation

Load balancer general information

The following screenshots are from AWS or Azure

For more details see GUI Create load balancer General info

Load balancer routing rules

For more details see GUI Create load balancer Routing rules

Load balancer SSL certificate

For more details see GUI Add a new certificate

Load balancer health check

For more details see GUI Create load balancer Health check

Load balancer firewalls

For more details see GUI Create load balancer Firewalls

Assign load balancer nodes

For more details see GUI Create load balancer Nodes

To manage tags for a load balancer, edit the load balancer and add tags as described here.

To assign a virtual machine to a load balancer, select the load balancer from the list.

When you onboard a VDC from a public cloud provider, the load balancers associated with the VDC and its VMs will be onboarded into the platform.

To access vCloud load balancers, and provider-only load balancers

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → All virtual datacenters
2. Go to Network → Load balancers → select region

To synchronize all load balancers in a VDC or region:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters
2. Select the VDC or region
3. Click the arrow synchronize button.

Load balancers that have been deleted directly in the provider are displayed in light gray text. You can edit these load balancers to recreate them in the provider, or delete them.

To delete a load balancer:

1. Select the load balancer
2. Click the delete button.

If your enterprise does not have credentials in the provider, then the load balancer will be released (it will be deleted in the platform but it will remain in cloud provider).

After you log in, you may need to edit your user account to update your details:

1. Click the User icon in the lower left-hand corner of the screen
   
2. From the menu, select Edit user
   
3. Change your Password
4. To receive VM passwords, login authentication codes, and email notifications, enter your E-mail address and Phone number
   
   
5. Go to Advanced and add your Public key for remote access to VMs
   

If you are using a single sign on, you may need to ask your system administrator to update your details

To create a virtual machine (VM) do these steps.

1. Open the Virtual datacenters view by clicking its icon
   
2. If there are no virtual appliances to hold groups of VMs, click Create a virtual appliance
   Enter a Name and select a Virtual datacenter, and enter optional values and click Save
   
3. Open a virtual appliance to hold a group of VMs by clicking the Open button on its card
   
4. To create a VM, click Create virtual machine and select a VM template. You can also double-click the VM template
   If there is more than one version of the VM template, you can select another version.
   For the Name, enter a user-friendly label for the VM. Abiquo will use this name when creating the VM in the provider. 
   
   • If the provider does not support duplicate names, for example vCenter, Abiquo will add a number in brackets after the name. For example, if you another user already created two VMs from a template named TEMPLATE, then your next two VMs will be named TEMPLATE (2) and TEMPLATE (3). If you later try to rename the VM to a name that already exists in the provider, then Abiquo will return the hypervisor error.

5. If required, select a hardware profile

6. If required, accept the terms of use

7. If required, select a datastore tier, which is the datastore service level, for your VM disk/s

    Click here to show/hide the screenshots

   Select a hardware profile

   

   Select a datastore tier

   

   Accept VM template terms

   

The platform will create your VM. The status bar on the VM icon displays the NOT_ALLOCATED state, which means that the VM has not been launched into the cloud.

The Template tab contains compatible templates only. If you cannot see an expected template, contact your system administrator.

To filter templates:

• Click the filter funnel button and select a Category from the pull-down list
  • To display only ISOs, select the checkbox
• Enter text (including * wildcards) in the Search box and press Enter

To clear the search:

• Click the Clear link on the Category filter popup, which will clear both category and text search box
• Click the grey x button in the Search box

To configure your VM before you launch it, do the following steps:

1. On the VM icon, click on the options menu button
2. From the menu, select Edit 
3. Configure your VM as described below 
   

General configuration

To configure the VM with a basic general configuration, optionally change the following:

1. The Label is a friendly name for the VM. Power-on is in alphanumeric order
2. Guest setup in private cloud. If your template supports it, you can request a Guest initial password that will be sent to your user Phone number by SMS or your Email address
3. Fully qualified domain name that the platform will set at deploy time
4. Hardware profile and/or CPU, RAM and Cores per socket
5. Description
6. Icon URL

To enable remote access to the VM in private cloud:

1. select the Enable remote access check-box
2. Optionally display and change the password for the remote access connection. Note down the password. 
3. Before you deploy, remember that for SSH access, your user account must have a Public key. And you will need the SSH private key to log in to your VM

You can now continue with further configuration or Save and deploy your VM.

If you don't add any IP addresses, the platform will automatically add one on the default network.

To configure IP addresses on your VM, do these steps:

1. Select the Private, External, or Public tab
2. For private or external networks, select the network
3. Create NICs as required:
   • To use an existing IP address, drag it into the NICs list
   • To request an automatically created NIC and IP, drag the Automatically generated IP label into the NICs list
   • For private networks, to create a new IP address and NIC, click the + add button
   • For public networks, to obtain a new IP address, click Purchase public IPs, select the network, and select the IP address
4. Select the Default gateway address
5. Continue configuring your VM or click Save to finish

Firewall policies

Select the Firewall policies to add. You can add as many firewall policies as necessary, up to the cloud provider's limit. If you can't see the expected policies, you may need to synchronize with your provider or wait for the platform to update provider data

Load balancers

Select the Load balancers to use for the VM.

Monitoring

To enable monitoring and metrics do these steps:

1. Select the Fetch metrics checkbox, which will retrieve all metrics from the provider
2. Select from the available options for your provider, for example, for AWS, you can select Basic or Advanced monitoring
3. Select the metrics you would like to display for your VM

To launch a single VM to a virtualization technology, select the VM and click the Deploy VM button

The platform will check your access and schedule or allocate your VM to a hypervisor or public cloud region. Then the platform will configure it in the virtualization technology, then power it on. Of course, you can also deploy the whole group of VMs by clicking Deploy virtual appliance.

To display all VMs of your enterprise, go to Virtual datacenters → All virtual datacenters → Virtual machines tab.

To display all the VMs in a specific virtual datacenter, select the Virtual datacenter.

To move between icon and grid view, click the icon symbol or the grid symbol in the top right hand corner.

Icon view

Grid view

To filter VMs by text in the VM name, enter text in the Search box, with wildcards as required. See Search for VMs and filter the search

Remember that the VM usually has the format ABQ_xxx.

To filter the VMs by other values, such as the VM labels, click the filter button and enter text from the VM details . 

To move a VM to another VApp in the same virtual datacenter:

1. Select the VM

2. On the VM control panel, click the VM move button
   

3. Select the virtual appliance or create a new one, and click Accept

If you have the privilege to restrict VMs, you may also be able to move the VM to a restricted VApp in the same virtual datacenter. 

When you move a VM to a restricted virtual appliance, your administrator or platform provider will control the VM. Your provider may offer this as an option to Outsource a VM.

To move a VM to a restricted virtual appliance:

1. Click the VM move button on the VM control panel

2. Select the option to Move the VM to a restricted VApp OR select a restricted VApp from the list, or create a new Vapp
   
   

    Click here to show/hide the screenshot

   

   
   

An Abiquo instance is a new template that you create from VM disks.

Note:

• In Azure the Abiquo instance functionality has been disabled in Abiquo 4.7.0 pending further development.

To create an Abiquo instance, do these steps:

1. Select and shut down each VM that you want to copy, then click Create instance
   
2. Select a VM from the dialog
   
3. Enter a Name that will enable you to identify the new template
4. Optionally select the VM disks to save to a new template in the template library. If no disks are selected, the instance will copy all disks
5. To create more instances, select Keep window open
6. Click Create instance. The platform will lock the VM to create the instance
   
7. If you kept the dialog open, click Back to list and create more instances as required, then close the dialog

The platform will store your new templates in the Apps library.

• In vCloud Director, when you create an instance template from a multi-disk VM, the template will be correctly created in vCloud with all of the disks. The platform will display only one disk with the sum of the sizes of all the disks. It will also display only one disk when you create a VM from the template. When you deploy the VM, the Broker will correctly detect the disks and display them on the VM details Storage panel.
• In Amazon, when you create a VM from an instance template, the platform will display one disk only, with the total size of all disks. After you deploy the VM, the platform will update the additional disks.

To delete a VM, move the mouse over the VM and from the VM options menu, select Delete.

If the virtual appliance or VM is deployed, you do not need to undeploy it. You can directly delete a VM that is deployed, even if it is powered on.

An alarm activates when a metric passes a certain threshold. If you imagine a dashboard for your metrics, alarms are like red lights that light up when conditions change, for example, when there is a problem. 

If you would like the platform to notify you when an alarm activates, create an Alert for it in Control view.

• Alerts are a group of one or more alarms. They are like a worker monitoring a group of alarms; when all the lights for the group are lit up, then the worker takes action and activates the alert. Alerts can also trigger action plans to perform automated actions when their alarms activate. After you create an alert, create an action plan in Control view with the alert as a trigger.

You can create alarms for built-in VM metrics or scaling group metrics, as well as custom metrics created using the API for VMs, scaling groups, virtual appliances, and virtual datacenters. 

• You cannot create alarms for cloned VMs that are part of a scaling group. This is because scaling groups have aggregate alarms that are associated with the base VM. 

To display alarms in virtual datacenters:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters 
2. Select a virtual datacenter or All virtual datacenters
3. Go to Alarms

Before you begin:

1. Configure the metrics you will use in the alarm. See VM monitoring and metrics and Custom Metrics Resources.

To create an alarm:

1. Go to Virtual datacenter → Alarms
2. Select virtual datacenter, virtual appliance, scaling group, or VM
3. Click the + add button
4. Enter the alarm details
   
   
   
   For more details see GUI Create alarm
   
   
5. Click Save

The platform will create the alarm for the metric. If you would like the platform to notify you when an alarm is triggered, create an Alert.

For API documentation about alarms on an entity, see the API documentation for the entity's resource. For example, for VMs, see VirtualMachinesResource.

When you edit an alarm, you cannot modify the metric or the entity.

When you edit an alarm, there is an extra field, "Active", that shows if the alarm is activated or not.

After you save the alarm, the platform will start to evaluate it again with new data when it receives the next set of metrics datapoints.

You can delete any alarm at any time, even if it is part of one or more alerts. The platform will not warn you that the alarm is used in an alert. However, you can check this in Control view. After you delete an alarm, you cannot recover it.

You can also remove an alarm from an alert.

To delete an alarm:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters or Infrastructure →  Alarms
2. Select the alarm and delete it by clicking on the trash bin delete button

To remove an alarm from an alert:

1. Go to Control → Alerts → edit alert

2. Select the alarm, click the trash bin delete button, and confirm
   The platform will remove it from this alert, but it will remain in all other alerts that it is associated with

Alerts are a group of one or more alarms. An alert can notify the user when it activates and it can also trigger action plans. An alert activates when all its alarms are activated. An alarm activates when a metric passes a certain threshold. 

If you imagine a dashboard for your metrics, alarms are like red lights that light up when conditions change, for example, when there is a problem. Alerts are like a worker monitoring a group of alarms; when all the lights for the group are lit up, then the worker takes action and activates the alert. 

To display and manage alerts:

1. Go to Control → Alerts

An alert will trigger when all its alarms are activated. You can use the alert to trigger actions. See Manage Action Plans.

Before you begin:

1. Retrieve VM built-in metrics, by editing VMs and enabling monitoring (see VM monitoring and metrics) or create custom metrics
2. Create one or more metric alarms (see Manage cloud alarms and Infrastructure Alarms). You cannot save an alert without an alarm

To create an alert:

1. Go to Control → Alerts
2. Click the + add button

3. Enter the alert details and assign alarms as described below

4. Click Save

You can delete any alarm at any time, even if it is part of one or more alerts. The platform will not warn you that the alarm is used in an alert. However, you can check this in Control view. After you delete an alarm, you cannot recover it.

You can also remove an alarm from an alert.

To delete an alarm:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters or Infrastructure →  Alarms
2. Select the alarm and delete it by clicking on the trash bin delete button

To remove an alarm from an alert:

1. Go to Control → Alerts → edit alert

2. Select the alarm, click the trash bin delete button, and confirm
   The platform will remove it from this alert, but it will remain in all other alerts that it is associated with

To configure an automatic response to changing demands for resources, you can scale out VMs or scale them in, which is also called horizontal autoscaling. To scale out, the platform clones the base VM and deploys the clones. To scale in, the platform will delete clone VMs and undeploy the base VM. Scaling operations are subject to all standard platform constraints, such as privileges and allocation limits.

Screenshot: A scaling group with VMs deployed automatically.

• Limitations:
  • Autoscaling does not clone captured VMs, so to use scaling groups with a captured VM, create an instance and recreate the VM. Create instances to save VM disks to templates
  • VApp specs do not support scaling groups. See What do specs save and create

  • Scaling groups have aggregate alarms that are associated with the base VM. This means that you can push custom metrics for clone VMs but you cannot create alarms for cloned VMs that are part of a scaling group. 

• State of base VM: A scaling group with a deployed base VM would be destroyed if the base VM were deleted directly on the hypervisor. In contrast, a scaling group with an undeployed base VM is not vulnerable to interference at the hypervisor level

The platform enables you to automatically scale out (add more VMs) or scale up (add more resources to existing VMs).

To use autoscaling do these steps:

1. Create a base VM, which can be deployed or undeployed
2. Configure the VM and enable metrics
3. Define a scaling group with rules for scaling the VM.
   The checkbox to automatically create a scaling action, will create the following automatically:
   1. Standard alarms and alerts for the selected metrics
   2. Action plans with scaling actions for the VM and triggers for the action plans, which are monitoring alerts
   You can customize the elements the platform creates, or you can create your own configuration.

Related pages:

• Manage Scaling Groups
  
  

Before you begin:

1. Configure the base VM that will be scaled
2. Ensure that you have enough resources in your virtual datacenter to deploy up to the maximum number of cloned VMs, especially IP addresses

To create a scaling group:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Virtual appliances
2. On the VM icon, from the options menu, select Define scaling group
3. Enter the scaling parameters and rules
4. Click Save

For more details see GUI Define scaling group

When you save the scaling group, Abiquo will mark the VM icon with the scaling group symbol and display the scaling group name.

• When the scaling group leaves maintenance mode, Abiquo will create clones of the base VM and deploy them to reach the minimum size. 
• The number in the bottom right-hand corner of the icon is the number of running VMs in the scaling group, including the base VM.

To open the scaling group and check its parameters, click the scaling group symbol at the top of the VM icon.

To configure automatic scaling actions:

1. When you define a scaling group, select Create autoscaling action and Save the scaling group
2. In the dialog, select a Metric to control an autoscaling action
   
3. To configure more options, including the thresholds for scaling in and scaling out, click Show more
   
4. To add this action, click Add
5. Add more actions as required 

The platform will automatically create the alarms, alerts, and action plan to automatically scale in or out according to your thresholds.

Before you begin:

1. Create a VM and a scaling group for the VM. See Define a scaling group
   1. If you create an automatic scaling action, then the VM metrics will trigger autoscaling when they cross the thresholds set for the actions

To enable autoscaling operations to run:

1. Create an action plan with a scaling action for the VM with the scaling group. See Create an action plan to automate VM actions
2. Create triggers to run the action plan. See Create a trigger for an action plan

When scaling, the platform will search for a scaling rule that is valid for the specific time range, or for a default rule. It will create or delete/undeploy the number of VMs in the rule, then wait for the cooldown period before accepting another scaling request.

To scale out, the platform does not deploy VMs that are undeployed in the scaling group. To clone the base VM, the platform will do the following:

1. Create disks using the following:
   
   1. Copies of content of disks from the VM template
   2. Empty disks or volumes for each additional disk used in the VM
   3. Disk controllers used in the VM
2. Apply ALL configuration used in the VM, for example:
   
   1. CPU and RAM
   2. Network connections of the same type (e.g. private network)
   3. Assignment of firewall policies and attachment to load balancers
   4. Chef recipes, backups, cloud-init, variables, and so on
   5. Metrics. The group of metrics from clone VMs and the base VM (if it is deployed) can activate alarms in the base VM, even if it is not deployed
   6. Exception – Alarms: the scaling group has only one set of alarms in the base VM

To scale in,  Abiquo currently selects the VMs to delete or undeploy using first in, first out (FIFO). The platform deletes and undeploys VMs without requesting user confirmation when there are disks that are not stored in the Apps library (ISO configuration drive or additional hard disk). 

To make changes to your VMs in a scaling group (manually deploy, undeploy, delete, etc.) and edit the scaling group, put it into maintenance mode, which will disable autoscaling. 

When you leave maintenance mode, the platform will apply your modifications to the scaling group, e.g. adding new rules. Then the platform will adjust the number of VMs in the group to within the minimum and maximum size range.

To put the scaling group in maintenance mode:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Virtual appliances → select VM
2. At the bottom of the VM icon, click the cog maintenance symbol at the bottom of the VM icon
   
   OR if the scaling group is open, click the spanner maintenance symbol in the top right corner
   

To leave maintenance mode

1. Click a maintenance button

To automatically manage maintenance mode

1. Trigger action plans with the action "Scaling group: start maintenance mode" or "Scaling group: end maintenance mode".

To delete the base VM, you must delete the scaling group first. 

To display scaling actions of a scaling group:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Virtual appliances → open virtual appliance
2. If the scaling group is not in maintenance mode, click the cog maintenance symbol 
3. Edit the scaling group and go to Autoscaling actions
4. To show or hide more details of a scaling action, click Show more or Show less

You can also display all the elements created for the automatic scaling action in the relevant sections of the UI, such as the Alarms tab, and the Control view. 

Abiquo can display custom metrics for your scaling groups and built-in metrics for the VMs in the scaling group.

Scaling groups also have built-in metrics that are a composite of the VM metrics, and which have the same names as the VM metrics. The Abiquo UI does not display the built-in scaling group metrics but you can access them through the Abiquo API. 

To display metrics for a scaling group:

1. On the Scaling group icon, click the Monitoring symbol in the top right-hand corner
   
   OR Open a Scaling group and click the Monitoring symbol 
2. Select the Scaling group or Virtual machines page

You can configure the display of metrics at this level.

• To filter metric statistics, click on the Filter button and select the granularity, statistic, time frame, and dimension, as required.

To manage tags for a scaling group: 

1. Go to Virtual appliances → Virtual machines
2. Select a scaling group and put it into maintenance mode
3. Open and edit the scaling group → Tags
4. Add tags 
   
   For more details see GUI Edit template Tags

To move a scaling group to another virtual appliance in the same virtual datacenter:

1. Put the scaling group in maintenance mode
2. Click the Move button
   
3. Select the new virtual appliance

To move a scaling group to a restricted virtual appliance, do these steps:

1. Click the cog or wrench maintenance symbol to put the scaling group into maintenance mode
2. Click the cross arrows move button
3. Select the checkbox to Move to a restricted virtual appliance, or 
   Select a restricted virtual appliance, or 
   Create a new VApp and select the Restrict virtual appliance checkbox

When you delete a scaling group, the platform will place all the VMs in the virtual appliance as regular VMs and the scaling group constraints will no longer exist. 

To delete a scaling group:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Virtual appliances
2. Open the scaling group
3. Click the wrench maintenance button to put the scaling group into maintenance mode
4. Click the trash can delete button

To enable more control over cloud operations, users can create action plans that will automatically run tasks on VMs and scaling groups, and to run general tasks. 

Action plans are an important automation functionality of the platform. They can combine general tasks with tasks that run on VMs and scaling groups in different providers and have multiple triggers including alerts from custom metrics or built-in metrics and schedules. Each VM or scaling group can have multiple action plans.

To display action plans:

1. Go to Control → Action plans

Before you create an action plan, consider the elements that you wish to automate with the action plan. Create VMs or scaling groups, fetch metrics, and create alarms and alerts.

To create an action plan:

1. Go to Control → Action plans, and click the + add button 
2. Enter the action plan details
   
3. Go to Actions to add actions: 
   
   
   1. Click the + add button
   2. Enter action details
      1. Type: Select a general action or select a VM or scaling group
      2. Decrease CPU/RAM: you cannot use this with hot-reconfigure and you must check that the OS is compatible

      3. Instance: Name for Instance (clone) template. The platform will append the date to the name supplied

      4. Webhook action - Expected HTTP status code: If this status code is returned, continue running the action plan. Default: 204 No Content

      5. Email action - To, CC: Enter email addresses as a comma separated list

   For more details, see UI reference: GUI Create action plan
4. Put the actions in run order using the arrow buttons

To run the action plan automatically, go to the Triggers tab and create an alert or schedule trigger. 

To run an action plan immediately to test it, do these steps:

1. Go to Control → Action plans
2. Select the action plan 
3. On the Actions panel, click the Run action plan button  

Abiquo recommends that you run an action plan manually to test it before you create a trigger to run it automatically

The platform supports two types of triggers to run action plans: Alerts and Schedules.

To run your action plan based on metrics, select an existing alert with these steps:

1. Go to Control → Action plans
2. Select an action plan
3. Below the Alerts panel, click the + add button
4. Select an alert. For details about creating an alert, see Manage Alerts

To run your action plan automatically at selected dates and times, create a schedule trigger with these steps:

1. Go to Control → Action plans
2. Select an action plan
3. Below the Schedules panel, click the + add button
4. Enter the details of the schedule using the calendar or time and repeat interval.
   
   For more details see GUI Edit action plan Schedules

Before you deploy a VM, you can set guest variables to pass user data to your VM. This functionality uses cloud-init and requires appropriate templates. In private cloud, the templates must have the guest setup flag set to cloud init. The administrator can add default variables for the VM template.

To add VM variables:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → edit a VM that is not deployed → Variables

2. Enter each Key and Value

   1. The length of these can be up to 255 characters each 

3. Click Add

   
   

4. To delete a variable click the trash can symbol beside the Key. To edit the Value of a variable, click the pencil edit button beside the Value

5. To apply changes to variables, and other changes to the VM, click Save

Configure Chef Attributes

On the default Home view dashboard, the Hybrid tab provides an overview of your resources in public cloud providers and private cloud. 

This panel lists the enterprise's VMs that are deployed in public cloud providers or private cloud. You can filter the list by public cloud provider or private cloud. 

Screenshot: Virtual machines count in private cloud

This panel shows a graph of the enterprise's VMs deployed in public cloud providers or private cloud. The virtual machines are counted by location (public cloud region or datacenter). To display a more detailed list with a count of VMs in each location, hover over the graph

On the Hybrid tab, there is an optional Billing details section.

If billing information is available, the platform can display the billing details for public cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google on the Hybrid tab. The platform will display the Latest bills and Estimated bill.

Latest bills:

Estimated bill:

For the current period, the platform calculates the estimated bill using a linear regression of daily costs for the current period, and the change in spend from the last bill for the selected provider.

To view more details of the latest bills, click the link to Show more bills. To display more details, mouse over the chart.

To display the chart in stacked format, click the Stacked button. To display the bill chart in grouped format, click the Grouped button.

To display a bill for a single provider, split by the service categories in the bills, select the provider from the pull down menu.

Administrators can create budgets to control spending for one or more enterprises and providers. The platform evaluates budgets using the daily cost and usage data that it also displays on the Hybrid cloud billing dashboards. 

Budgets can trigger action plans when costs pass a certain threshold. A use case for this feature might be “When an enterprise has consumed 50 % of its budget amount in AWS, send an email to the System Administrator.”

To display budgets:

1. Go to Control → Budgets
2. Select the enterprise that the budget was created in OR select All

Before you begin:

1. Check that you have Hybrid cloud billing dashboards that obtain cost and usage data from the cloud provider. The platform will use this data to evaluate the consumption of the budget 
   • See Dashboard hybrid billing details and for configuration instructions, see Display cloud provider billing data and Configure dashboard display 
   • The standard billing dashboards support Amazon, Azure, and Google, but administrators can push custom billing data for other providers.
2. Create action plans for your budget to run. See Manage Action Plans

To create a budget:

1. Go to Control → Budgets
2. Click the + add button
3. Enter general information as described here
   
   For more details see GUI Create a budget general information
   
   
4. Go to Apply budget and click the + add button to add enterprises and providers that the budget will apply to.
   
   The following table describes how to add enterprises and providers.
   
   
   For more details see GUI Create a budget apply budget

5. Go to Action plans and click the + add button to add action plans.
   Enter the Trigger percentage and the Action plan name.

   

   For more details see GUI Create a budget action plans.

6. After you add the action plans, to turn off budget actions, select the Mute checkbox

Currency conversions

This feature uses the conversion_factor enterprise property to convert between currencies. You should assign this property to any customer of a reseller that is using a different currency, to enable the conversion to be carried out. If the platform cannot find the conversion factor property, it will use the default value of 1. The platform always uses the latest value of the conversion factor, and it does not store previous values. If you change the conversion factor, then the platform will use the latest value to calculate the consumption.

When you edit a budget, you can change the name, and the amount and currency. You can also change the entities that the budget applies to and the action plans that it will trigger.

Change the elements that a budget applies to

If you add or delete an enterprise, the platform will recalculate the amounts consumed by each enterprise. If you remove an enterprise, the platform will consider the amount already consumed by the enterprise. The platform will exclude the enterprise from the next billing cycle.

Edit action plans and mute notifications

When you make changes to the trigger amount or the action plans, the changes will not take effect until the next time the platform evaluates the amount consumed by the budget.

To stop a budget from sending notifications after you reach a consumption threshold, select the Muted checkbox.

To delete a budget:

1. Go to Control → Budgets
2. Select the budget
3. Click the trash delete button