New in Abiquo 6.0

Abiquo XaaS to offer Anything as a Service

The new Abiquo X as a Service (XaaS) feature allows any kind of service to be easily integrated into Abiquo and offered directly to customers. XaaS capabilities go beyond the traditional Cloud Management Service catalogue to build IT packages comprising hardware, software and professional services for customers and resellers. IT templates/workflows using existing Abiquo capabilities (monitoring, billing, pricing, asynchronous architecture, etc.) can be rapidly created. Service plugins include Amazon RDS, AWX, Microsoft (Azure and Office 365), Kubernetes pod manager, OpenShift Helm and AWS Route 53.

Abiquo multicloud tags in VCD

Abiquo 6.0 introduces provider support for multicloud tags in VMware Cloud Director (VCD). In VCD, tags are metadata and can be added to VDCs, VMs, and VM templates.

Bootstrap scripts at VM template level

In Abiquo 6.0, you can add a bootstrap script to a VM template when you edit the template.

This means you will now now be able to configure a single script at the template level and the platform will copy it to all the VMs that users create from the template.

When you duplicate the VM template, Abiquo will also copy the bootstrap script.

Automate actions on dynamic groups of resources by tags

Abiquo 6.0 enables users to select resources by tag filters to automate cloud actions in action plans. This feature is for automating cloud actions on dynamic groups of VMs and scaling groups.

Abiquo and Google Cloud Platform new features

Abiquo 6.0 introduces substantial enhancements to the Google Cloud Platform integration. These include multicloud tags, default firewalls, and load balancers (described separately).

Abiquo and VM snapshots for VMware

Abiquo 6.0 introduces a VMware Snapshot feature for VMs. This new feature offers the VMware snapshot directly to the VM user, with easy-to-use buttons on the VM control panel. This feature enables users to easily create a single snapshot before they make changes to their VM, and revert, or delete the snapshot afterwards. This feature greatly simplifies the use of VM snapshots and will save time for your System administrators. This feature replaces the VM snapshot functionality that was part of the Abiquo Backup feature.

Abiquo multicloud tag policies

Abiquo 6.0 introduces tag policies to allow or deny the creation of valid resources with (or without) the defined tags. The tag policies apply to both Abiquo local multicloud tags and corresponding tags in supported cloud providers. Tag policies on resources are not enforced, but Abiquo creates a report of invalid resources for the administrator to manage.

Abiquo and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure new features

Abiquo 6.0 introduces new features in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure integration: VM bootstrap scripts, VM variables, load balancers, VM snapshots, and onboarding of OCI Defined tags to complement Abiquo multicloud tags.

Add AWS and Azure credentials only for billing

This document describes how AWS and Azure partners with reseller hierarchies can easily enter customer credentials as "only for billing".
This enables the customers to display public cloud billing data on their Abiquo dashboards.

As an AWS or Azure partner with a reseller hierarchy in Abiquo, you can now enter partner customer credentials as "only for billing".
This enables your customers to display their public cloud billing data on their Abiquo dashboards.
This functionality was previously available in Abiquo for Azure, and it is now available for AWS too.

Improvements to VM metrics and monitoring

In Abiquo 6.0, Abiquo introduces many enhancements to the display of VM metrics and monitoring.

Now when you open VM monitoring, the Monitoring graphs display in a grid format.

The new grid format adapts much more easily to a larger screen.

Improvements to tag search and filters

Abiquo 6.0 enables you to more easily search for resources by tags, tag keys, and values. You can then use these filters to select groups of resources for automation with action plans.

Abiquo and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure load balancers

Abiquo 6.0 introduces support for load balancers in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Abiquo now supports the creation of target groups that belong exclusively to load balancers. Note that OCI accounts may limit the types of load balancers you can create.

Abiquo and Google Cloud Platform load balancers

Abiquo 6.0 adds support for load balancers in the Google Cloud Platform.
Abiquo supports regional and global load balancers, with new sections in the user interface.
Abiquo supports external and internal load balancers on Google's VPC networks.
The supported load balancer backends include unmanaged instance groups and GCE network endpoint groups.

Multiple cost codes

This document describes the multiple cost codes feature for applying extra charges to VMs, VM templates, and hardware profiles

Abiquo 6.0.1 introduces multiple cost codes for extra charges and enables users to add cost codes for extra charges to VMs. You can now add multiple cost codes to VM templates, and to hardware profiles in private cloud. Abiquo will automatically add these cost codes to VMs you create with them, and you can add additional VM cost codes. There are new cost code units for usage per CPU and per user licenses. Abiquo accounting and billing support multiple cost codes.

Changes to external IP management in Abiquo 6.0.x

This page describes the changes to external IP management in Abiquo 6.0.x

In Abiquo 6.0.1+, you must create external IPs in the infrastructure. When you edit a VM, you cannot assign an automatically generated external IP

Abiquo and NSX-T VPNs

Abiquo 6.0.6 introduces IPSEC VPN support to the NSX-T integration. This is very similar to the VPN feature for NSX-V. For example, you can create a VPN between two Abiquo VDCs, or between an Abiquo VDC and another compatible provider.

In this initial version:

Abiquo supports PSK (pre-shared key) password authentication only; it doesn’t support certificate authentication