Import and capture virtual machines

Introduction to import and capture VMs

In a private cloud datacenter, when you a hypervisor or cluster to Abiquo, it may already have VMs running on it, and you can import (retrieve) and capture these VMs.

When you import (also called "retrieve") VMs, they are registered in Abiquo but not managed by Abiquo. The platform will take into account the resources they use when scheduling and allocating resources, and track their state as part of the virtual infrastructure check. The platform will also include them to improve the accuracy of resource usage statistics.

You can then capture (also called "onboard") imported VMs so they will be managed by the platform. When you capture a VM it is almost identical to a VM created in Abiquo. The main difference is that when you capture a VM, Abiquo does not have a copy of the template disks in the Catalogue. This means that you cannot automatically create a fresh copy of the VM with the same configuration and the template disks, by undeploying the VM and deploying it again to copy the template from the Catalogue. When you capture a VM, to store the disks in the Catalogue, you can create an Abiquo instance template, which you can then use to create a fresh copy of the VM.

Importing, capturing, releasing and removing VMs from the platform does not change them in the infrastructure; these operations only determine which operations the platform can perform on them.

This diagram shows steps to import and capture VMs that were created outside of Abiquo.

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Import and capture of individual VMs is only available in private cloud. To capture resources from public cloud regions, onboard them as part of regions or virtual datacenters. See Manage virtual datacenters#Onboardfrompubliccloud

What does Abiquo import?

To import VMs (also called retrieve VMs), the physical machine must be in an Abiquo private cloud datacenter, or in the process of being added to one. You do not need to enable a datastore to import VMs that are running on the datastore.

• You can import VMs with disks that are located on external volumes with the configuration described below

What does Abiquo capture?

Abiquo captures the following VM configuration:

• CPU and RAM including hardware profiles

• Remote access configuration for VNC, including the password. But if there is no password, the platform disables remote access

  • If a user later releases a VM, the changes made in the platform will remain in the VM

• MAC addresses of compatible NICs and their VLAN tags and network details. Abiquo recommends that your VMs should have at least one NIC

  • Exception: Abiquo does not capture NICs on IPv6 networks

  • You can configure Abiquo to capture the DHCP configuration, see Abiquo configuration properties#capturedhcp

• Hard disks in compatible formats on the hypervisor datastores. See Template compatibility table

  • For ESXI, the platform will capture DVDs without a defined position in the boot order as ISO disks in the last position in the VM's boot sequence

When you capture a VM from NSX-T, you must add the VM to a VDC with the same network as the VM network. The platform will match the network by provider ID, not by VLAN tag as in the NSX-V integration.

During capture the platform will skip incompatible VMs and incompatible virtual hardware components.

• The platform does not add the virtual datacenter's default firewall policy to a VM as part of the capture process

• You can capture VMs with disks that are located on external storage volumes with the configuration described below

  • The platform does not capture VMs with external storage volumes in position 0 in the disk sequence. The boot disk must always be a "hard disk" on the hypervisor datastore

Configure Abiquo to import and capture VMs with volumes

• For ESXi, to import VMs with disks that are located on external volumes, set the "abiquo.experimental.capturewithvolumes.bypass" property on the Abiquo Server

• For ESXi, to capture VMs with volumes (except in position 0 in the disk sequence), set the "abiquo.experimental.capturewithvolumes.bypass" property on the Abiquo Server

  • The platform can capture the VMs but it does not register the external storage volumes as VM resources

  • After you capture the VMs, you can add the volumes to the platform as Generic iSCSI volumes

  • If you do not add the volumes as Generic iSCSI volumes and you wish to add more external volumes, in order to prevent issues with the unregistered volumes, add volumes to a new SCSI controller of a different type

Prepare to capture VMs

Before you capture a VM

1. Obtain the details of the networks that the VM belongs to (VLAN tag, network address, netmask), and the IP address(es) of the VM

2. Identify or create these networks and IPs in Abiquo, unless the VM is only in a default private network that Abiquo will manage

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3. You will need to add the captured VM to a virtual datacenter (VDC), so if necessary, create a VDC. In order to do this, you will need to have already added a hypervisor of the same type as the one you are capturing from.

   1. If the VM uses a public IP, purchase the appropriate public IP. Go to Virtual datacenters → select virtual datacenter → Network → Public and click the + Add button

4. If you wish to add a new extra charge to the VM, create the extra charge in Pricing view before you capture the VM

Retrieve VMs from a physical machine

To retrieve or import VMs from a physical machine:

1. Go to Infrastructure → Private → Servers

2. For a new physical machine, add the physical machine and to automatically import VMs, select the Retrieve existing virtual machines checkbox

3. For an existing physical machine, select the physical machine, and click the Retrieve virtual machines button

The imported VMs will appear in the list with the imported symbol . If duplicate VMs display, you may have clicked the retrieve button while an import process was already running. To remove duplicates, click the Remove unmanaged virtual machines button and then retrieve the VMs again.

Capture a VM

To onboard a VM that you already imported into the platform:

1. Go to Infrastructure → Private → select a datacenter → Servers → select a physical machine

2. Select the VM and on the VM details panel, click the Capture VM button 

3. The Capture virtual machine dialog will open, listing all the compatible virtual appliances

   Select the virtual appliance in the VDC with the network address, or create a new virtual appliance by clicking the + Add button.

4. Click Accept to capture the VM

5. Review the General Information of the captured VM

   • Optionally select an Extra charge for the VM

   • After capture, you can reconfigure the VM to enable remote access. On vCenter, configure WebMKS access to enable hot reconfigure of remote access on captured VMs

6. Configure and assign the corresponding network and IP configuration to each NIC. Select a default gateway.

7. Review hard disks that Abiquo will capture

8. After reviewing the VM configuration, click Accept to continue. The platform will now capture the VM

The captured VM will have the Release VM button on its VM details panel. The platform will now fully manage captured VM.

If the virtual appliance was deployed before the capture, the new VM will be added to the virtual appliance but no other changes will be made. If the virtual appliance was undeployed (and contained VMs) before the capture, afterwards it will be deployed and in the Partially deployed state.

Remove unmanaged VMs

You can remove the unmanaged VMs on a physical machine from the platform.

To remove unmanaged VMs:

1. Go to Infrastructure → Private → select a datacenter → Servers → select a physical machine

2. Click the Remove unmanaged virtual machines button. 

The imported VMs will no longer be displayed on the screen and the platform will no longer include them in physical machine data. Remember you can retrieve them again at any time.

Release captured VMs

You can release captured VMs so that Abiquo does not manage them. The platform does not make any changes to VMs when it releases them. It is only possible to release a captured VM that is deployed.

To release a captured VM:

1. Go to Infrastructure → Private → select a datacenter → Servers → select a physical machine → select the VM

2. Or go to Infrastructure → Virtual machines → select the VM 

3. On the VM control panel, click the Release button. 

Any changes made to the VM in Abiquo will remain. For example, users may have reconfigured the VM to enable VNC and they will still be able to connect using a VNC client.

When you release a captured VM in private cloud and a network virtualization system is in use:

• The platform will remove the association with the VM from the firewalls and load balancers in the platform

• Firewalls and load balancers will remain in the platform

• In the network virtualization system, the firewalls and loadbalancers will still be associated with the VM

• If you decide to capture the VM again, you should add it to the same virtual datacenter

Recovery of captured VMs

When you delete a physical machine, the platform will put all VMs in the “Not allocated” state, without changing the VMs on the hypervisor. You cannot deploy the captured VMs again in the platform unless you recreate them from an instance template.

If you later add the physical machine again or upgrade to cluster as physical machine, the platform will automatically update all VMs from the hypervisor, returning captured VMs to a deployed state. In the API these recovered VMs will have the same ID and URL as before.