Virtual datacenters

This document is part of the Abiquo walkthrough and it descrbes virtual datacenters.
The previous page in the walkthrough is Infrastructure and the next page is Catalogue

Abiquo users will consume their cloud resources and provision new virtual environments in the virtual datacenters (VDCs) that belong to their tenant.
Each VDC is a separate cloud environment in a datacenter or public cloud region.

VDCs provide an abstraction layer so the cloud user is removed as far as possible from the physical infrastructure.
So the cloud user does not need to be concerned about the underlying technology and can simply receive the service that is defined in their Service Level Agreement.

For each tenant, you can create multiple VDCs, but each VDC uses only one hypervisor or provider, to ensure consistency in the VDC.

To create different tiers of service or different SLAs for private cloud users, you can create VDCs with different hypervisors and cloud providers.
For example, you may run a development environment on less expensive hardware with a free hypervisor such as KVM, whereas you may run a production application on VMware.

In public cloud, Abiquo works with "VDC-like" entities such as Amazon VPCs, Azure Virtual Networks, and vCloud Director vApps.
In clouds that do not have a "VDC-like" entity, such as Google Cloud, Abiquo creates logical VDCs. For example, see AWS integration#HowAbiquoCreatesaVirtualPrivateCloud

To create a virtual datacenter:

Login as the Cloud Admin.
In the main menu, click the myCloud icon to open myCloud view at Virtual datacenters
Click on the + add icon in the V. Datacenters list
Enter the Name of the virtual datacenter, select the Location (cloud provider, or the datacenter, and if required the Hypervisor type).
Click Save.

A virtual datacenter for the enterprise will be available for virtual appliances to be created and deployed within.

Note: To create a virtual datacenter for another cloud tenant, you will need to switch to that tenant first in Home view or Users view.

Admins can define allocation limits to restrict resources available to cloud users in the VDC.
These allocation limits complement the limits set by cloud operators for the tenant. When users reach the soft limit, the platform can display a warning message.
When users reach the hard limit, the platform will block their action.

To define allocation limits for a VDC

Select the virtual datacenter and edit.
Select the Allocation Rules tab
To allow your users unlimited resources, set the limits to 0.
Note that you cannot have a hard limit only, and that soft limits must always be less than or equal to hard limits.

Within the VDC, cloud users can take advantage of self service. With the appropriate privileges, for example, they can create their own networking configuration and storage.
Users create their applications within Virtual Appliances (VApps). VApps are like folders where cloud users can create groups of VMs using the templates from the Apps Library.

To create a virtual appliance:

Click the Cloud icon to open "Virtual datacenters" view
Go to Virtual appliances and click on the + icon
Fill in necessary info
Click "Save".

The platform will create a virtual appliance for the enterprise and users can create and deploy VMs within it.

To create new VMs, the cloud user simply clicks the Create virtual machine button and selects the required templates.

The cloud user then configures that VM to meet their needs. For example, configuring CPU and memory, and adding additional network interfaces or storage.
If the tenant has a Chef server configured, the user can also select Chef recipes to automatically configure the VMs at deployment time.

When the configuration is complete, the cloud user deploys, which launches the VMs to the hypervisor.
The platform copies the VM disks and configuration from the Apps Library (NFS storage within the datacenter) to a hypervisor datastore.

Once deployed, the cloud user is able to Start/Stop/Reset individual VMs through the Abiquo UI.
They can also launch a console onto the VM and perform any other configuration or administration tasks that may be required for their application.

In public cloud, you can onboard virtual datacenters and their virtual resources.

Go to Virtual datacenters view. Click the + add button and select synchronize from public cloud from the dropdown menu.
Select the public cloud region
Select the virtual datacenter to synchronize from the list.
Abiquo will import this virtual infrastructure from the provider. Note that Abiquo will detect network configuration but it will not enforce a standard configuration.

Imported virtual infrastructure is now managed by Abiquo and is available to virtual datacenter users.
If you make changes directly in the provider, you can update them in Abiquo by clicking the synchronize button beside the virtual datacenter name in the VDC list.

Abiquo users can create firewalls (security groups) or classic firewalls in public cloud providers that support them, such as AWS, Azure, and vCloud Director, as well as in private cloud with VMware and NSX.

Go to Virtual datacenters → select a virtual datacenter → Network → Firewalls
Select the location or the virtual datacenter and click the double-arrow synchronize button in the top right-hand corner of the page
Click the + button and enter firewall general information
Click the synchronize button to synchronize firewall rules. You will probably see a default rule to allow all outbound traffic.
Click the pencil edit button to edit firewall rules. Enter firewall rules, for example, to allow SSH

Firewall policies are created for the virtual datacenter. As always, check your provider documentation for specific information about security group functionality. See Manage firewalls.

Note: cloud users will require appropriate privileges to use firewalls

Abiquo users can create load balancers in public cloud providers that support them, such as AWS, ARM, vCloud, and VMware with NSX. Abiquo has a consistent interface for load balancers that incorporates different provider functionality.

A virtual datacenter provides an abstraction of the same resources as a physical datacenter (such as compute, network infrastructure, storage, backup, security, etc) with the added advantages of cloud computing:

Virtualization
Pay-as-you-go billing
Quick scalability
Technology and hardware abstraction.

A VDC offers the classical data center infrastructure as a service, so users can run their applications more economically and with greater flexibility.