Importing Templates into the Appliance Library

Template Import Methods

You can import templates into the Apps library using GUI upload, API download, manual upload of disk and OVF files, and template-repository.

GUI Upload

The easiest way to upload templates is with an OVA upload. The OVA should have a single virtual system but can contain multiple disks in a compatible format (see Template Compatibility Table). Abiquo supports OVAs such as the ones exported from VMware.

If you don't have an OVA file, you can upload a single template disk (preferably the system disk) and then edit the template and add other disks. Abiquo will automatically generate the OVF descriptor for the disk file.

Abiquo will upload large files but a manual upload may be more convenient for these files. The browser performs a multi-part upload, but the HTTP protocol is still used, so there is no recovery of partially uploaded files. 

See Add VM Templates to the Apps Library in the User's Guide.

Manual Upload

If your template files are very large, then you should use a manual upload to the VM repository filesystem. This method requires access to the NFS file system, so a system administrator should manage it. Note that Abiquo VM templates are OVF packages and they consist of disk files and OVF descriptors. You can use external tools to generate an OVF package to be imported into Abiquo as a VM template. These tools include recent versions of VMware vShpere. (Note: If using VirtualBox export from the command line, check that there is a ''size'' attribute for all the File elements in the References section). An OVF package should have a single virtual system but can contain multiple disks in a compatible format (see Template Compatibility Table). Abiquo recommends that you use an automatically generated OVF descriptor, but it is also possible to create one, as described here.

To upload VM templates to the Abiquo Platform, do these steps:

1. Copy the file(s) to the Abiquo NFS repository

   1. Create a separate directory for each OVF Package on the repository file system under the directory for your enterprise ID.
      The folders in the main repository folder match the Enterprise IDs from the Abiquo API. See EnterprisesResource#Listenterpriseidentifiersandnames
      We recommend that you use the same base name for the system disk and the OVF file.

      /opt/vm_repository/{idEnterprise}/{myFolder}/myVMTemplate.vmdk
      /opt/vm_repository/{idEnterprise}/{myFolder}/myVMTemplate_HardDisk.vhd
      /opt/vm_repository/{idEnterprise}/{myFolder}/myVMTemplate.ovf  

   2. Copy the disk files (e.g. .vmdk, .vdi ...) and the OVF descriptor document (.ovf)

2. Refresh the Appliance Library view of the repository

    Click here to show/hide the screenshot

   In Apps library view, click the refresh button next to the name of your repository in the repository list.

   

   When you refresh the Apps library, the platform will detect the vm_repository contents (and match them with the OVF description). The platform will convert valid disks to compatible formats for all the installed hypervisors. If there are no hypervisors installed, they will be converted to all formats. The templates will appear in the Apps library view and as soon the conversion files are ready, they will be ready to deploy.

Manual upload example

In this example we will upload images to the default enterprise repository. The Abiquo default enterprise ID is 1, so the working directory will be: /opt/vm_repository/1.
Create a separate directory for each template to be uploaded and copy it in (using SCP, for example). Here we copy the system disk file and an extra disk.

$ cd /opt/vm_repository/1/
$ mkdir ubuntu-server
$ cd ubuntu-server
$ scp username@10.10.10.10:/home/username/ubuntu_vxxx.vmdk /opt/vm_repository/1/ubuntu-server/
$ scp username@10.10.10.10:/home/username/ubuntu_vxxx_extra_disk.vmdk /opt/vm_repository/1/ubuntu-server/

Copy the OVF descriptor too.

$ scp username@10.10.10.10:/home/username/ubuntu_vxxx.ovf /opt/vm_repository/1/ubuntu-server/

Manually upload an extra disk to an existing template

You can manually upload a new disk to add to an existing template, but you must also add the disk to the OVF file for that template. When the appliance manager checks the file system, it will detect the new disk, but it will only add the disk to the Abiquo template if the disk is defined in the OVF file.

Create an OVF descriptor if necessary

Abiquo recommends that you always use an automatically generated OVF descriptor, but if you do not have one, you can create one following these instructions.

1. Copy a sample Abiquo OVF file (e.g. OVF Reference#ExampleOVFDescriptor). Save the OVF file with the image file name and .ovf extension.
2. Edit the OVF file according to the guidelines in OVF Reference#OVF for Abiquo.
   1. Remember that you need to enter the disk size. See Determine the size of a VM disk file

See Appliance Manager Template API Upload and Download