Configure SATA for VMware hypervisors

Use SATA controllers for cloud-init ISO drives

The multi-cloud platform uses a configuration drive to present the cloud-init configuration to a guest VM. By default, the platform uses an IDE controller to attach the ISO drive.

To specify the use of SATA controllers with cloud-init:

1. Edit the abiquo.properties file on the Remote Services server

2. Set the following cloudinit.sata property

   abiquo.esxi.cloudinit.sata=true

3. Restart the Tomcat server

Use SATA controllers for ISO drives by default

The default controller list for ESXi plugins is "SCSI, IDE, SATA" but you cannot use SCSI for CD or DVD drives.

So by default, the platform will use an IDE controller for attaching an ISO disk.

To use SATA controllers for ISO drives by default:

1. Edit the abiquo.properties file on the API server

2. Set the pluginmetadata disk controller properties for VMware and add SATA before IDE.

   abiquo.pluginmetadata.{HYPERVISOR_TYPE}.diskControllers=SATA,SCSI,IDE

   For each hypervisor type to configure, replace {HYPERVISOR_TYPE} in the property key with an appropriate code as follows, and set the property value.

   1. vmx_04 for vCenter

   2. vcenter_cluster for vCenter clusters

3. Restart the Tomcat server

Disable SATA

To disable SATA, do these steps to remove SATA support:

1. Edit the abiquo.properties file on the API server

2. Set the pluginmetadata disk controller properties for VMware and remove SATA

   abiquo.pluginmetadata.{HYPERVISOR_TYPE}.diskControllers=IDE,SCSI

   For each hypervisor type to configure, set the property value, replacing {HYPERVISOR_TYPE} in the property key with one of the following codes:

   1. vmx_04 for vCenter

   2. vcenter_cluster for vCenter clusters

3. Restart the Tomcat server

Limitations and notes about SATA support

SATA support on guest operating systems is as follows.

• Abiquo always supports two SATA controllers with unit numbers from 0 to 19, even when the guest operating system may support more. 

• Abiquo uses the controller selected by the API, based on the user selection or the platform defaults. It does not use the recommendation of SATA controller for the Guest OS selected for the template.

• This feature also fixes some incorrect mappings of 32 bit operating systems for version 5.5: rhel7Guest, other3xLinuxGuest, debian7Guest, sles12Guest.

Use cases for controller changes 

Here are some notes about changing VM disk controllers:

• You can move a drive from IDE to SATA or from SATA to IDE but you must power off the VM first

• If you have a VM deployed with an ISO disk on an IDE controller, you can now change the controller to SATA. If the VM is not using any SATA disks, the platform will create the SATA controller.

• If you have a primary IDE disk at 0:0 plus an ISO disk at 0:1, then if you change the primary disk controller to SATA, then the CD-ROM will move to IDE 0:0