Add VM templates to the catalogue

Upload OVA templates from the local filesystem

See Upload OVA templates from the local filesystem

Download templates from a remote template repository

In private cloud, to create VM templates from a remote repository, do these steps:

1. Go to Catalogue

2. In the Private cloud section, select the datacenter

3. On the Virtual machine templates tab, at the bottom of the templates panel, click the + add button

4. Select Create from remote template repository

   Open

   

   Create a VM template from a remote template repository

5. Select a Repository, then select a Category or All categories. 
   The Packages pane will display the available template definitions with an icon, title and brief description

6. Optionally, click on Show disks

7. For each VM template to download, select the checkbox next to the template definition

8. To start the download, click the Download button

   1. The platform will check that this template download will not exceed the repository limits for your enterprise or your enterprise in the datacenter.

   2. You cannot download a template if it does not have any disks

   3. A status bar will appear next to the selected packages showing the download state.

      Open

      

      Download a VM template from a remote template repository

If a template belongs to a Category in the remote template repository but the Category does not exist in the Catalogue, the platform will create it for the download.

You can now work with the new VM template.

Add public cloud templates to the catalogue

This section describes how to import a template from a public cloud region into the catalogue (which for public cloud is a cache of VM template definitions and links to the public cloud templates)

To import a template from public cloud, do the following steps.

1. Go to Catalogue → Public

2. Select the public cloud region

3. Click the + add button at the bottom of the screen

4. The Import template popup will open

5. Enter the search criteria for your template

   1. In the ID field, you can enter an ID, such as an AMI ID

      1. In Google Cloud Platform, you can enter a full path ID, for example, ubuntu-os-cloud/global/images/ubuntu-2004-focal-v20220308

   2. In the Name field, you can enter text to search for in the name 

   3. Select Private templates to display images that are only available to your user account in the public cloud provider. 

      1. In vCloud Director this option displays templates in the same organization as your user

      2. In OCI, to search for private templates, you must search by the template ID only.

   Then click Search to perform the search. The search can take some time and return several pages of templates

6. To import a template, click the import symbol in the top right-hand corner of the template

   1. If your Azure template has terms of use, then you will need to accept these now or when you first create a VM from the template. 

      1. Accepting the terms of use requires the privilege to Manage virtual machine template terms of use and it enables programmatic deployment of the template for your Azure subscription. If you then disable programmatic deployment in the portal but you would like to deploy the template, you will need to delete it from the platform and import it again.

      2. If you share the template with another enterprise, then a user of that enterprise will need to accept the terms of use before they can create a VM

   When a template has been imported, the color of the import symbol will change to gray

7. When you have finished importing templates click Close

You can now edit your template to customize it for your users, which includes:

• Add custom icon

• Add variables for startup scripts

• Share template with users in a tenant hierarchy

• Recommend and restrict hardware profiles

• Set default template credentials and configure initial password

• Add tags

For more details, see Modify a VM template in public cloud

Pages related to VM templates 

• Other ways to add VM templates through the Abiquo UI: 

  • Upload a template disk from the local filesystem

  • Upload an ISO disk from the local filesystem

• Main Catalogue page with links to related pages: Catalogue view

  • Modify a VM template

  • Manage VM templates

  • Template Compatibility Table for datacenters

  • Create instance templates: Manage VMs#SaveVMdiskstocreateaninstancetemplate

  • Manage instance templates: Manage VM Templates#Manageinstancetemplates

• VM automation with cloud-init templates: Guest setup

• Configuration pages

  • VM repository folder

  • In Modify a VM template, see Extended OVF Support and Template Definition, Guest operating system definition for VMware, and OVF Reference.