Manage Virtual Datacenters

In the Virtual datacenters view you can manage your compute, network and storage resources. Each virtual datacenter (VDC) is a separate cloud environment in a single datacenter or public cloud region. To access Virtual datacenters view, click the cloud virtual datacenters button.

To display all the virtual datacenters in specific providers, click the funnel filter button at the top of the list and select one or more providers.

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

When you edit a virtual datacenter, it is similar to creating a virtual datacenter, but you can also set a default firewall and edit tags.

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.