VM storage

Display VM storage

To display VM storage, including the details of the primary disk and attached storage:

1. Go to myCloud → Virtual datacenters

2. Select a VM

3. Go to the VM details panel and select Storage

Open

Storage tab on the VM details panel

To display and configure VM storage:

1. Go to myCloud → Virtual datacenters

2. Select the VM

3. To configure storage, if you are not using hot-reconfigure of disks, power off the VM

4. Edit the VM

5. Go to Storage

Open

VM Storage tab with volumes and hard disks

Create hard disks on hypervisor datastores

You can add secondary hard disks to your VMs and the platform will create them on the hypervisor datastores.

• The administrator can force the use of the same controller type and controller as for the primary template disk using an Abiquo Configuration property.

To add a VM hard disk:

1. Go to myCloud → Virtual datacenters 

2. Edit a VM and go to Storage

3. Click the + add button

4. Select Assign virtual disk and complete the dialog. Some of the options may only be available to users with the required privileges

   1. Enter the Size and select the size unit

   2. The Datastore tier is the storage service level

   3. Optionally, on supported hypervisors (ESXi) and for SCSI controller types

      1. For the Controller, if you already have this controller on the VM, to force the creation of a new controller of the same type, assign a new bus value.
         Access ESXi to confirm bus values.

      2. For the Bus, select an existing bus number or to create a new controller, specify a new bus number. The user requests a bus number but the platform will use the bus number assigned by ESXi. When there is more than one controller, to identify the controller and bus number, the platform displays the bus number as a suffix to the controller.
         Access ESXi to confirm bus numbers that are not displayed

   4. Enter a Name for your hard disk

5. Click Save to create the disk, then finish editing the VM

6. To save the VM, click Save 

Add an ISO disk to install software

To add an ISO disk from the Catalogue:

1. Go to myCloud → Virtual datacenters 

2. Edit a VM and go to Storage

3. Click the + add button

4. Choose Select an ISO disk

5. From the Catalogue browser, select an ISO disk 

6. Click Save

Abiquo will create a DVD hard disk on the hypervisor datastore to contain the ISO disk. You cannot resize an ISO hard disk.

ISO or DVD drives must always be last in the boot sequence, so you may need to detach these drives to complete other storage configuration

Delete hard disks and detach volumes

When you detach a volume, it will be available in the virtual datacenter again.

To delete a hard disk or to detach a volume of virtual storage:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → edit VM → Storage

2. Select the hard disk or volume

3. Click the detach/delete button

4. Confirm the delete or detach operation

5. Click Cancel to discard changes or Save to reconfigure the VM in the hypervisor

A volume that has been detached will now be available again in the virtual datacenter.

Change VM storage boot order

Abiquo recommends that you change the boot order only, without making any other disk configuration changes at the same time.

On ESXi, disk hot-reconfigure supports changes to the boot order as part of disk add or disk remove operations only. If you make other changes in Abiquo, the platform will not implement them until you power off and reconfigure the VM. Note that the platform will ignore Cloud-init ISO disks in the boot order.

ISO or DVD drives must always be last in the boot sequence, so you may need to detach these drives to complete other storage configuration.

To change the boot order:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters

2. Edit a VM and go to Storage

3. Click the pencil edit button beside the Boot order number

4. Enter the new number in the Boot order where you want the disk to go and click ok.

5. Repeat for other disks, as required 

6. The platform will ensure that each disk has a unique number in the boot order and the boot order is contiguous (without gaps between disk numbers).

7. Click Save to reconfigure the VM with the new order

 The platform will change the boot order.

Modify VM hard disks

You can edit hard disks, for example, to change the name and resize them, including in an existing deployed VM on demand.

To edit a hard disk

1. Go to myCloud → Virtual datacenters 

2. Edit a VM and go to Storage

3. Select the hard disk and click the pencil edit button

   Edit a virtual disk in private cloud

    

   Edit a system disk in AWS

    

4. For ESXi, you can modify disks as permitted by ESXi functionality. See VMware knowledge base article. 

   1. You can modify iSCSI disks on SCSI controllers or SATA disks on SATA controllers:

      1. with thin provisioning only; and

      2. if the VM does not have VMware snapshots.

   2. In private cloud, for SCSI and SATA disks, you cannot modify disk size and position at the same time.
      You can increase the size of a hard disk.
      Expanding a disk can damage the data or operating system installed on the disk. You may need to apply additional operating system tools or processes before you can use an expanded disk.
      If you cannot modify a hard drive as expected, please contact your System Administrator.

5. If the VM is deployed, you cannot modify the Allocation type. This attribute is for ESXi only

6. The Controller type attribute is for private cloud and OCI only

7. The Controller is optional and used on ESXi only. To force the creation of a new SCSI controller of the same type as an existing one, assign a new bus value. Access ESXi to confirm bus values.

8. The Bus is optional and used on ESXi only. Select an existing bus number or to create a new controller, specify a new bus number. The user requests a bus number but the platform will use the bus number assigned by ESXi. When there is more than one controller, to identify the controller and bus number, the platform displays the bus number as a suffix to the controller. Access ESXi to confirm bus numbers that are not displayed

9. Enter a Name for the disk

10. Click Save on the Edit virtual disk size popup

11. Continue editing the VM or click Save to reconfigure the VM