Manage enterprises

Owned by MS (Unlicensed)
Jan 17, 2023
9 min read



This page describes how to create and manage cloud tenants, which Abiquo calls Enterprises.
For details of how to control resource usage, send notifications, and restrict access for a tenant, see Manage enterprise policies
For details of how to configure a tenant for public cloud and tenant metadata, see Manage enterprise credentials and properties
For details of how to set enterprise policies for allowed datacenters and public cloud regions, see Configure an enterprise in a cloud location

Prepare to create an enterprise

In the platform, enterprises are cloud tenants, meaning they are groups of cloud users with their own logical resources. For each tenant, you can assign access to infrastructure and resources.

Privileges: Manage enterprises, Manage users of all enterprises

Before you begin managing enterprises, we recommend that you do these steps:

  1. Add infrastructure to the platform in Infrastructure view. For example: create datacenters and public cloud regions; configure networks; in private cloud, configure hypervisors and storage; and configure the platform in Configuration view, and also see Configure two factor authentication

  2. Prepare pricing. See Pricing view

  3. Prepare enterprise themes for white-labelling following the Abiquo branding guide

  4. Prepare user roles for cloud users and administrators

  5. Create a scope for the enterprise. See Manage scopes

 

Create an enterprise

To create a cloud tenant enterprise, do these steps:

  1. Go to Users → Enterprise list

  2. Click the + add button

  3. Enter tenant details and options as described below

    • To enable the tenant's users to deploy, allow the tenant to access at least one datacenter or public cloud region

  4. Define the resources the enterprise can use in each datacenter, provider, and region as described below

  5. Click Accept to save

Abiquo will create the enterprise and filter to display only this enterprise. To display other enterprises, click the X beside the enterprise name in the filter box at the top of the Enterprises list. 

After you have created the enterprise:

  1. Abiquo will add this enterprise to the scope of the administrator who created the enterprise

  2. Abiquo will add this enterprise to its Default scope

  3. Optionally, move this enterprise to a scope with related enterprises and assign the scope to the appropriate cloud and/or tenant administrators

  4. Optionally, edit the tenant to set the default scope for users created in this tenant

  5. Create enterprise users with appropriate roles and scopes, for example a tenant administrator and users. Note that the tenant administrator can be allowed to create their own users

 

 

Enterprise general information

Enter the general information:

  1. For the Default scope, select a scope to assign to future users in this tenant. This scope will also define the enterprise hierarchy.

Field

Description

Name

The name of the enterprise

Default scope

Abiquo uses the default scope as follows:

  1. to assign to future users in this tenant. When creating users, an administrator can assign the enterprise’s default scope, even if it is above their scope in a hierarchy.

  2. to define the enterprise hierarchy. For example, a keynode enterprise scope would usually have a reseller enterprise scope as a parent scope. See Abiquo cloud reseller guide

Require two factor authentication

To make two-factor authentication mandatory for all users of this enterprise, select this checkbox. Note that an administrator must configure it in the platform first. See Configure two factor authentication

Enable workflow

To enable workflow for this enterprise, mark this checkbox. Note that an administrator must configure it in the platform first. See Abiquo workflow feature

Reseller

Select this flag to mark the enterprise as a reseller. See also Configure reseller mail accounts

Key node

Select this flag to mark the enterprise as the key node of its default scope, for example, as the headquarters of an organization

Enterprise logo

A logo file for the enterprise in web format (PNG, JPEG, GIF). The size of the default logo is 150 x 37 pixels. This will override the default logo, which is set in Configuration view.

Default theme

A branding theme created for the enterprise. See Abiquo branding guide

 

Set allocation limits for a tenant

To control the use of resources, you can create allocation limits for

  • an enterprise

  • an enterprise in a cloud provider

  • an enterprise in a datacenter or public cloud region

  • virtual datacenters

Screenshot: Allocation limits for an enterprise

To set allocation limits for a tenant:

  1. Create or edit the enterprise

  2. Enter hard and soft limit for each resource

    1. To allow unlimited resources at this level, set the limits to 0

    2. If you set a hard limit, you must also set a soft limit. The hard limit must be greater than the soft limit

    3. You must set the hard limit above the level of resources that are already in use

Allocation limits table

Limit

Checked at

Description

Memory

Deployment

Total amount of RAM that may be used by VMs including hardware profiles assigned to VMs

Virtual CPUs

Deployment

Total number of virtual CPU cores that may be used by VMs including hardware profiles assigned to VMs

Local hard disk

Deployment

Total size of hard disk that may be used by VMs on hypervisor datastores and in public cloud providers

External storage

Configuration

Total size of external storage that may be assigned to VMs

VLANs

Configuration

Total number of private VLANs that may be defined. Note that a private VLAN is automatically created for every VDC, so this limit may restrict the number of VDCs that users can create

Public /floating/NAT IPs

Configuration

Total number of public IPs, floating IPs (in public cloud), and NAT IPs that may be used

Repository

Operations

Total size of NFS Repository space that may be used for the Apps Library including templates and instances (but not conversions). See Manage the datacenter catalogue#HowmuchspacecanatenantuseintheAppsLibrary?

Virtual machines

Deployment

Total number of VMs that users can deploy in the location using their allowed resources

DR protected virtual machines

Operations

Total number of VMs that users can protect with disaster recovery protection.

In public cloud regions, the platform does not use Repository (Catalogue storage) features or limits.



Allow a tenant to access datacenters and cloud providers

When you first create a datacenter or public cloud region, by default only the users of the enterprise that created it will be allowed to use it. To enable other users to deploy and work with VMs, administrators allow enterprises to access datacenters or public cloud regions.

To set the datacenters and public cloud regions that an enterprise can access:

  1. Go to Enterprise → Datacenters

  2. Drag datacenters and public cloud regions (or providers) to the Allowed datacenters

  3. To set default Allocation limits and VDC roles for regions in a provider, edit the provider

 

To display the enterprises with access to a public cloud region, go to Infrastructure → Public → select region → Servers view → Virtual machines → Accounts.



Assign a pricing model to a tenant

To display charge-forward messages to your customers assign a pricing model to the enterprise. The platform can display a message with pricing information when the users deploy VMs and on-demand through the UI and API.

Before you begin:

  1. Go to Pricing view and configure pricing and create a pricing model.  

To set a pricing model for an enterprise:

  1. Go to Users → edit enterprise → Pricing

  2. Select a Pricing model from the list. The details of the pricing model will be displayed. 

  3. Continue editing or to finish editing, click Save 

You can also assign pricing models to multiple enterprises in Pricing view.

Display and filter enterprises

To search for an enterprise by name and filter the list of enterprises to display only the matching enterprises

  1. Go to Users

  2. In the search box at the top of the Enterprises list, enter text and wildcards 

After you create an enterprise, Abiquo will filter the enterprise display by the name of the new enterprise and select this enterprise.

To remove the new enterprise filter:

  1. Click the x beside the search box 

Abiquo will display the enterprise list in alphabetical order. If the new enterprise is on the first page, it will remain selected. Otherwise Abiquo will select All and display the first page.

Switch to another tenant

All Abiquo users belong to a tenant, which in Abiquo is called an enterprise. You can work with virtual resources in one tenant at a time only.
To change to administer a different tenant, you do not need to log out and log in again.

To switch to another tenant:

  1. Go to Home view or Users view

  2. In the Enterprises list select the tenant

  3. Click the building Switch enterprises button beside the tenant name

  • The platform will display the name of the enterprise that you are currently in the top right-hand corner of the screen. It will also display a green tick on the Switch enterprises button beside this tenant

  • All your actions with virtual datacenters, virtual appliances, VMs and VM templates will apply to the current enterprise until you switch to another enterprise

  • By default, when you log out and log in again, the platform will not reset the enterprise to your user's default enterprise. In an SSO environment, the platform will reset the enterprise at login

  • In Home view, the platform will automatically switch enterprises if you select another enterprise and double-click on a VDC, VApp, or VM to jump directly to it



Edit an enterprise

Before you edit an enterprise, check if the users have created virtual datacenters and deployed VMs and the general resource usage of tenant.

Privileges: Manage enterprises, Manage users of all enterprises

To edit an enterprise:

  1. Go to Home view

  2. Select the enterprise in the Enterprises list 

  3. Click the pencil edit button

  4. Move through the tabs and edit as required

    • Editing an enterprise is very similar creating an enterprise, as described in the section Manage enterprises#Create an Enterprise on creating an enterprise

    • Remember you may not be able to change some settings, especially for Allowed datacenters, after users have created virtual datacenters and deployed VMs

    • Some changes will not be retroactive, for example, if you change the default VLAN, this change will apply to all new virtual datacenters the enterprise creates

When you create an enterprise, Abiquo automatically assigns your user scope as the default for users created in this tenant.

When you edit a tenant, you can change the default scope for future users created in the tenant. 



 

Create an enterprise using the API

To create an enterprise in the Abiquo API, create the enterprise using the EnterprisesResource.

Then to allow the users of the enterprise to work with VMs, assign an allowed datacenter or public cloud region. To do this, create an Enterprise-Datacenter Limit. See EnterpriseLimitsByDatacentersResource.

The platform will then create a cloud location, which defines this relationship, so you can then manage cloud elements for the location. See AllowedLocationsResource

For more details, see How to create a tenant via API.

 



Delete an enterprise

Before you remove an enterprise from the platform:

  • Delete the enterprise's virtual resources

    • For each virtual datacenter, you may be able to choose to delete 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. The firewalls will remain in the enterprise

To delete an enterprise:

  1. Select the enterprise and click the Delete button. The platform will automatically delete all of the enterprise's users

 

Pages related to enterprise tenants

Copyright © 2006-2024, Abiquo Holdings SL. All rights reserved