The Cloud tenant admin guide describes the main administrative tasks of the enterprise administrator.
- Manage your users
- Manage templates
- Manage virtual datacenters
- Manage VM workflows
- Manage VM backups
- Administer VMs
For details of how to work with virtual appliances and VMs, see the Cloud tenant user guide.
For details of how to work with networks, firewalls, and load balancers, see the Cloud tenant network guide.
1.1. Edit your user account details
After you log in, you may need to edit your user account to update your details:
- Click the User icon in the lower left-hand corner of the screen

- From the menu, select Edit user
- Change your Password
- To receive VM passwords, login authentication codes, and email notifications, enter your E-mail address and Phone number

- Go to Advanced and add your Public key for remote access to VMs

If you are using a single sign on, you may need to ask your system administrator to update your details
1.2. Enable two-factor authentication
Your platform may offer or require two-factor authentication (2fa) to improve user login security with an additional authentication code. For platform configuration instructions, see
Configure two factor authentication.Before you begin:
- To use Google Authenticator to obtain the codes, install the Google Authenticator app on your cell phone.
- To use email authentication to obtain the codes, check that you have a valid email address in your user account on the platform.
To enable two-factor authentication for your user account, do these steps:
- Click on the user initials or user icon in the lower left corner of the screen, and from the menu, select Two-factor authentication.
- Select the authentication method and click Enable
Copy the Backup codes from the configuration window to a secure place. You can use these codes to log in to the platform if the authentication cycle fails
- Authenticate according to your selected method
- For Google Authenticator, use the Google Authenticator app on your cell phone to scan the QR code. Google will supply a verification code in the app. During login, the platform will request the Authentication code from the app.
- For email, during login, every time you enter your user name and password to log in, a code will be sent to the E-mail address registered in your user account. Enter the Authentication code in the Login dialog
Click here to show/hide the screenshots
Enabling two factor authentication

Two factor authentication with Google Authenticator with backup codes and QR code

Login with two-factor authentication

2. Manage templates
You can use VM templates to create VMs in your cloud environments.
To display VM templates
- Select Private or Public
- Select a Datacenter or Public cloud region from the list
- If you do not see the expected templates, you may need to click the double round-arrow Refresh button beside the Datacenter name or contact your system administrator
- Optionally select a template Category
- Optionally select icon or list view
On the right, the platform will display all the templates available for the selected datacenter or public cloud region
Privilege: Manage VM templates from Apps library
Icon view

In Icon view, to activate the VM template operations menu, select a VM template. This menu will vary, depending on the context.
Screenshot: Options menu of VM template
Screenshot: Options menu of a VM instance template, created from VM disks

In list view, to display the VM Template operations buttons, select a VM template.

2.1. Upload templates from the local filesystem
To make new VM templates available in the platform, add them to your Catalogue.
In private cloud datacenters you can upload VM templates from a local filesystem in different formats:
This document describes how to upload an OVA file from a local file system to create a VM template.
Before you begin, check these requirements:
- The platform reads OVA files such as those created with VMware.
- The file name must end in the extension ".ova".
- You can upload a multi-disk template for a single VM (virtual system)
- The OVA file must contain an OVF description file for the template.
- The platform uses the Name tag in the VirtualSystem as the template name. If the Name is not set, the platform falls back to the ID. See OVF reference.
To add a new template from an OVA file
- Go to Apps library
In the Private cloud section, select the datacenter
On the Virtual machine templates tab, at the bottom of the templates panel, click the + add button
- Select Create from OVA file

- Click Select file and browse for the file.

Abiquo will display the File name. - Click Save. Abiquo will upload the file and create the template.
When the template has been uploaded, Abiquo will open the Edit template dialog. - Check the template details.
For more details of how to edit a template, see Modify a VM Template
To add OVA parameters to all VMs, add them as Variables. See Deploy a VM from an OVA with parameters. - Click Save
2.2. Create from remote template repository
In private cloud, to create VM templates from a remote repository, do these steps:
Privilege: Download template from remote repository
- Go to Catalogue
In the Private cloud section, select the datacenter
On the Virtual machine templates tab, at the bottom of the templates panel, click the + add button
- Select Create from remote template repository

- 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 - Optionally, click on Show disks
- For each VM template to download, select the checkbox next to the template definition
- To start the download, click the Download button
- The platform will check that this template download will not exceed the repository limits for your enterprise or your enterprise in the datacenter.
- A status bar will appear next to the selected packages showing the download state.

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.
2.3. Add public cloud templates to the apps library
Import VM templates from public cloud providers such as Amazon AWS and Azure ARM and Google Cloud Platform and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and use them in the multi-cloud platform.
To import the details of a template from a public cloud region into the platform's Catalogue, do the following steps:
- Go to Catalogue → Public → select the public cloud region
- Then click the + add button at the bottom of the screen

The Import template popup will open
Enter the search criteria for your template

- In the ID field, you can enter an ID, such as an AMI ID
- In the Name field, you can enter text to search for in the name
- Select Private templates to display images that are only available to your user account in the public cloud provider.
- In vCloud Director this option displays templates in the same organization as your user
- 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
To import a template, click the import symbol in the top right-hand corner of the template
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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
2.4. Create and deploy a VM from a template shortcut
To quickly create and/or deploy a VM from a VM template:
- Go to Catalogue → Virtual machine templates
- Select a VM template and from the options menu, select Create VM

- Enter a Name, which will be the VM Label
- Select a virtual datacenter or create a new one
- Select a virtual appliance or create a new one

You can now deploy directly, or go to the virtual appliance, in order to edit the VM.
It is also possible to open the advanced configuration before you deploy.
2.5. Modify VM templates
Before you begin:
- Log in or switch enterprises to the tenant that owns the template
To modify a VM template:
- Select the template and click on the control menu button in the top-right corner and select Edit
Privilege: Manage VM templates from Apps library

In private cloud datacenters, standard templates have disks that will deploy to the hypervisor datastore, in contrast to persistent templates that have disks on external storage volumes. This documentation describes standard templates.

For more details see GUI Edit template General information
2.6.1. Modify VM template disks

- In private cloud, when the datastore tier is mandatory for template disks, the platform marks the disks with a star symbol
- To download a template disk, click the down arrow download button beside the disk
2.6.2. Share VM templates
To share a template with the enterprises in one or more scopes, select
template scopes.

To remove enterprise access to a template, remove the scope containing the enterprise.
- You cannot remove a scope from the template if an enterprise in the scope is using the template, for example, if it has deployed VMs or instances of VMs.
To make a template private to the owner enterprise, unselect all scopes.
2.6.3. Recommend VM template configurations

Hardware profiles
Field | Value |
---|
Hardware profiles - recommended | To recommend a hardware profile for this template, mark the checkbox beside the hardware profile name. The platform will display these profiles in the selection list with "(Recommended)" beside them. Remember that the administrator must allow the user's tenant to access the hardware profiles. |
Enable only recommended HPs | Select this checkbox to allow the user to select from recommended hardware profiles only. |
Datastore tiers
Field | Value |
---|
Datastore tiers - recommended | To recommend a datastore tier for this template, select the checkbox beside the datastore tier name. The platform will display the these tiers in the selection list with "(Recommended)" beside them. Remember that the administrator must allow the user's tenant to access the datastore tiers. |
Enable only recommended DS Tiers | In private cloud, select this checkbox to allow the user to select from recommended datastore tiers only. |
2.6.4. Advanced VM template configuration

Field | Value |
---|
Guest setup | Cloud-init or Hypervisor tools (private cloud only, requires installation of guest tools). All public cloud templates will work with cloud-init, even if this option is not marked. See Abiquo Chef integration guide |
Guest initial password | Create a root or administrator password and send it by email or SMS |
Cost code | Pricing cost code for this template. Requires the privilege to Add a cost code when editing a VM template. |
Operating system | Sets the VMware guest operating system type. Select from the pull-down list. See Guest operating system definition for VMware and Extended OVF support and template definition for further details. |
OS Version | OS version is used to:- add operating systems not included in the list of codes
- provide details of operating systems
- set the VMware guest operating system type
See Guest operating system definition for VMware and Extended OVF support and template definition for further details. |
User | Default user for a VM created from this template for SSH access. Enter a valid user name for this template. Users should change their password immediately after first login. |
Password | Default password for the default User of a VM created from this template. Enter a valid user password. Users should change their password immediately after first login. |
NIC driver | Private cloud only |
Enable hot/add reconfigure in VM | Requires hypervisor or provider support. On ESXi, with remote access hot reconfigure you cannot reset the guest password |
Creation user | In AWS this is the user identifier. Read only value |
Creation date | Read only value |
3. Manage virtual datacenters
3.1. Introduction to virtual datacenters
In the Virtual datacenters view you can manage your compute, network and storage resources. Each virtual datacenter (VDC) is a separate cloud environment in a single datacenter or public cloud region. To access
Virtual datacenters view, click the cloud
virtual datacenters button.

To display all the virtual datacenters in specific providers, click the funnel filter button at the top of the list and select one or more providers.
3.2. Display virtual resources in cloud locations
The
Cloud locations section contains virtual resources that belong to a datacenter or public cloud region.
To access the Cloud locations section, the user must be able to access All virtual datacenters, which means that they have the privilege "No VDC restriction" or the administrator did not limit their access to any specific virtual datacenters.
To display and manage the virtual resources in the Cloud locations section:
- Go to Cloud view
- Click the pinpoint Locations button
- Select a location
3.3. Create virtual datacenters
Before you begin:
To create a new virtual datacenter:
- Go to myCloud Virtual datacenters view
- Above the V. datacenters list, click the + add button
- Select Create a new virtual datacenter from the pull-down menu
- Complete the dialog as described below
- Click Save
This section describes the basic details to enter when creating a virtual datacenter. The following sections describe further configuration.

For more details see GUI Create virtual datacenter General information
3.4. Create a virtual datacenter with custom networks
When you create a virtual datacenter, the platform always creates a private network and it counts as part of your VLAN allocation limits, even if the default network is another type of network.
The private network can be the "Automatically-created private VLAN", which is called "default_private_network", or a custom private network, which will be set as the default network.
To create a Custom private network, complete the Network section of this dialog.
Click here to show/hide the screen reference
To manage the VLANs or other networks of your virtual datacenter, go to Virtual datacenters → Network. See Manage Networks.
- For information about changing the default network of the VDC, see Manage Networks
3.5. Manage resource allocation limits for a virtual datacenter
- A Hard limit is the maximum amount of a virtual resource (e.g. RAM) that an entity will be allowed to consume.
- A Soft limit warns users and administrators that the entity is running out of a resource.
The rules for creating allocation limits are as follows:

For more details see GUI Create virtual datacenter Allocation limits
Click here to show/hide allocation limit message details
Consider a virtual datacenter with a soft limit of 1 virtual CPU and a hard limit of 4 virtual CPUs.
- The user will exceed the soft limit if they deploy a virtual appliance with more than 1 CPU in the virtual datacenter.
- The user will exceed the hard limit if they attempt to deploy a virtual appliance with more than 4 CPUs in the virtual datacenter.
3.5.1. Soft limits message
A soft-limits message popup will allow the user to to acknowledge the message and continue with the operation.
By default, the message will provide details of the limits, used, and requested resources.
For example, the limits are 5 CPUs, the users have 2 CPUs in deployed VMs, and they have requested 3 more CPUs.

The platform will also display this type of message when the users exceed soft limits at another level, for example, enterprise, enterprise in provider, or enterprise in location.
3.5.2. Hard limits message
A hard-limits message pop-up will allow the user to acknowledge the message and terminate the operation.
By default, the message will provide details of the limits, used, and requested resources.
For example, the limits are 5 CPUs, the users have 5 CPUs in deployed VMs, and they have requested 1 more CPU. Because the user will exceed the hard limit, the platform will not allow the user to obtain 1 CPU.

The platform will also display this type of message when the users exceed soft limits at another level, for example, enterprise, enterprise in provider, or enterprise in location.
3.6. Set virtual datacenter defaults
When you create a virtual datacenter, you can set some defaults according to your platform configuration.

For more details see GUI Create virtual datacenter Defaults
After you create the virtual datacenter, you can edit it the default values.
3.7. Set a virtual datacenter role to limit user access
If you are able to manage user roles, you can limit user access to a virtual datacenter for users that can have their virtual datacenters restricted (usually ordinary cloud users).
For example, you can give users read-only access.
To limit access to a VDC for cloud users:
- Go to myCloud → Virtual datacenters
- Create, edit, or onboard a virtual datacenter
- Go to Roles

- For the Role, select a more restrictive role to replace user roles within this VDC.
For example, to give users read-only access, select the ENTERPRISE_VIEWER role - To create exceptions to the VDC role:
- Select a Username and an exception Role for the user
- Click Add
- When you finish creating or editing the virtual datacenter, click Save
The exception will enable all privileges that are included in both the user's role and the exception role. It is not possible to grant additional privileges using a VDC role.
After you have entered Allocation limits, Defaults, and Role, click Save.
The platform will create the virtual datacenter and the default private VLAN and display it in the Virtual datacenters view.
3.8. Create a virtual datacenter using the API
3.9. Create availability sets
You can use availability sets to ensure high availability for your VMs in Azure. Each VM in the availability set will deploy on separate, isolated hardware, in a cluster. This is similar to the platform's concept of anti-affinity layers in private cloud. To attach Azure VMs to a load balancer, you must add them to the same Availability set. All of the VMs in an Availability set must be in the same Azure Virtual Network, which means they must be in the same virtual datacenter but they can belong to different Resource groups.
To create an availability set:
- Go to Virtual datacenters
- Go to Locations → select a location OR
select an Azure virtual datacenter - Go to Network → Availability sets
- Click the + add button
- Complete the dialog and click Save

For more details see GUI Create availability set
4. Manage users
4.1. Create a user
Before you begin:
- If you are a Cloud administrator or Reseller administrator:
- To optionally limit the user to a list of resources, create a scope for the user
- Choose a role with the appropriate privileges or create a role
To create a user:
- Go to Users view
- Optionally, select another enterprise if you manage users in multiple enterprises, and you want to create the user in an enterprise that you are not logged into
- Select Users
- Click the + add button and complete the dialog
- Enter General information.
- The E-mail is required

- If your user has "No VDC restriction" privilege, you can restrict the user to a set of virtual datacenters

- Enter the Advanced details
- The platform will add the Public key to your VMs to use with your private key for SSH access

- Click Save
The platform will create the user in the current or selected enterprise. If you need to change this, drag and drop the user to the new enterprise.
For more details see GUI Create user
4.2. Suspend or enable a user account
If you need to stop a user from working with or logging in to the platform on a temporary basis, you can suspend the user account.
To suspend a user account:
- Go to Users → Select user
- Click the pencil edit button. The user dialog will open
- Go to Advanced, and unselect the Activated checkbox
The platform will suspend the account. When a user account is suspended, the platform will log the user out immediately. Be careful not to disable your own account! Fortunately, the main cloud administrator account cannot be disabled.
To enable the user account again, select the Activated checkbox.
If the user makes too many failed login attempts, the platform will automatically suspend their account for the account lock duration or until it is enabled by an administrator.
4.3. Manually reset a user password
If a user cannot automatically reset their password or if the user account is locked for too many password attempts, you can manually reset the password and unlock the account.
To manually reset a user password:
- Open the Users view and select the user
- Click the Edit button at the top-right of the Users page. The user form will open.
- Enter the new password
- Recommended: go to Advanced and select the checkbox to Reset password on next login
- If the user account is locked and you wish to unlock it, go to Advanced, and select the Activated option
- Click Save. If the user is currently logged in, they will be automatically logged out when you save a new password,
The user password will be reset. Notify the user of their new password.
4.4. Manage users with the API
4.5. Display users
To display the users in card view, select the card view tab from the view selectors in the top right-hand corner.
Click here to show/hide the screenshot
Users in card view

To display groups of users, click on the pages to display the following:
- All users on the All page
- Active users on the Activated page
- Suspended users on the Suspended page
4.6. Filter users
To filter users and display only those with a certain text in the user details:
- Go to Users view → Users
- In the filter box on the right-hand side, enter a text string to search for which can include wildcards.
For more details about how the platform's search works, see Search for VMs and filter the search
4.7. User status
The user status is displayed either by a colored dot in the
Activated column or in the
colored tag on the user card:
- Green for active accounts
- Red for suspended accounts
- Red with padlock symbol for accounts suspended automatically after too many failed login attempts
4.8. Delete a user
To delete a user:
- Select the user account and click the Delete button
- Confirm the delete
Abiquo will delete the user account but the user's VMs and other resources will remain on the cloud platform and users in the same enterprise with the appropriate permissions can work with them.
5. Onboard virtual datacenters
5.1. Onboard virtual datacenters from public cloud
5.2. View classic VMs
To display classic VMs in public cloud:
- Go to Virtual datacenters
- Click the + Add button and select Synchronize public cloud
- Select the public cloud region
Click the See classic link
5.3. Synchronize VDCs and resources
To update a virtual datacenter and onboard any changes made in the provider, synchronize the virtual datacenter:
- Go to Virtual datacenters → V. Datacenters list
- Beside the virtual datacenter Name, click the round arrow Synchronize button

To synchronize specific resources such as networks, public IPs, and so on:
- Go to Virtual datacenters → select the resource tab
- Click the round arrow Synchronize button for the resource.
For more information, see the resource documentation.
Click here to show/hide the screenshot
Screenshot: Synchronize networks

5.4. Manage resources that were deleted directly in the cloud provider
When administrators delete resources in the provider, the platform will display the resource name in light gray to indicate that the user cannot work with the resource. The resource types include:
- External networks
- Firewalls
- Classic firewalls
- Load balancers
- NAT network
- NAT IPs
To delete these resources (if they are not in use), select the resource and click the delete button.
5.5. Delete or release virtual resources in public cloud
The virtual resources that you onboarded or created in public cloud will be grouped with their associated virtual datacenters.
Before you begin:
- If you recently created virtual resources, such as load balancers, synchronize the virtual datacenter to ensure that the platform can find all the dependencies of the virtual datacenter.
To delete onboarded resources in public cloud:
- Delete each virtual datacenter
- You can choose to delete each virtual datacenter 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 from the virtual datacenter. It will not delete the firewalls
- When you delete a virtual datacenter, public IPs that are not attached to VMs will remain in the provider and the synchronization process will delete them
- Remember to check which is the default VDC in your provider, e.g. AWS default VPC, because it may be inconvenient to delete this VPC
5.6. Onboard from public cloud using the API
5.7. Onboard from public cloud regions without virtual datacenters
The platform onboards and synchronizes virtual resources in public cloud regions for providers that do not use virtual datacenters or similar entities, for example, Google Cloud Platform. You can only synchronize these providers at the public cloud region level. You cannot synchronize a VDC or an individual resource, for example, a load balancer.
If your public cloud provider does not support virtual datacenter entities, to onboard virtual resources do the following steps:
- Go to Virtual datacenters
- At the bottom of the V. Datacenters list, click the + add button
- Select Synchronize public cloud
- Select a public cloud region
The platform will place all VMs and network resources that are not related to existing virtual resources into a generic virtual datacenter. The platform names this virtual datacenter with the same name as the public cloud region, but the user can rename it. The platform will use this virtual datacenter for future synchronizations, adding or removing resources to match the cloud provider.
If there are already virtual resources in the platform for this provider, then these entities will already be part of a virtual datacenter. The platform will check if any new entities in the provider are related to the existing ones in the platform and place them in the existing virtual datacenter.
If the integration with the provider supports entities that are not in a virtual datacenter, such as firewalls, load balancers, or floating IPs, the platform may load these as separate entities.
If conflicts occur during synchronization, the platform will cancel the synchronization. This could occur if two VMs already exist in different VDCs but are related by a firewall or load balancer. Or if two firewall policies or load balancers exist in different virtual datacenters but are related by a VM.
6. Save configurations as blueprint specs
6.1. Introduction to virtual appliance specifications
The virtual appliance specifications (VApp specs) feature enables administrators to save complex configurations and present them to users for simple, self-service deployment across their virtual datacenters. Specs are similar to blueprints because the platform uses them to define the configurations to recreate. Administrators select the locations where users can work with each spec, including datacenters and public cloud regions, such as AWS and Azure ARM.
With specs, you can save the configuration of virtual appliances including VMs, storage, networks, monitoring, Chef, firewalls, and load balancers. When users create a new virtual appliance based on a spec (also referred to as to "materialize" a spec), the platform will automatically use existing virtual resources or create new ones for this virtual appliance.
The limitations of specs are as follows:
- Specs do not store data from VM disks; they use template disks only
- Specs do not support external networks and NICs or unmanaged networks and NICs
- In vCloud, specs have basic support for external networks
- Specs do not support scaling groups
Users should also be aware of differences in features between private and public cloud environments.
6.2. Save a VApp configuration as a blueprint spec
To save a configuration as a blueprint (virtual appliance spec):
- Go to myCloud → Virtual datacenters → Virtual appliances
- Open the virtual appliance
- Go to the virtual appliance options menu → select Create new spec
- Enter spec details
- The Description should identify the spec and the current version for the user
- For the Icon, enter a URL
- This URL must have a public IP address, not localhost or 127.0.0.1. It may contain the IP address of the API server. Use the same protocol as the server to avoid mixed content errors
- Square icon images with a size of 128x128 pixels and a transparent background look best. The compatible image formats are PNG, JPG, and GIF.
- Click Validate to check the display of the Icon
- Optionally, go to Scopes and select scopes to share the spec with the tenants in those scopes
- Optionally, go to Locations and select datacenters and public cloud regions where the user can work with the spec
- Click Save
The platform will create the new spec for your tenant. This spec will be the default, but an administrator can change or remove the default.

For more details see GUI Create new spec
When designing a virtual appliance for use in more than one location, please consider the following differences between private and public cloud:
- Private cloud datacenters allow multiple disk templates and additional disks. In public cloud, the platform may support only a single disk or use all disks
- Public networks in private cloud will be translated to floating IPs in public cloud and vice versa
- A range of IP addresses may be reserved by an SDN system or the cloud provider
- The number of NICs allowed or required per VM may vary
- Firewall and load balancer configurations may differ
To save VM disks as templates, see Create instances to save VM disks to templates.
6.3. What do virtual appliance specs save and create
When creating the new virtual appliance based on the spec, the platform will:
- Try to use the same VM template or offer a selection of VM templates with similar names
- Create:
- VMs in layers
- storage in appropriate matching tiers
- template disks
- empty volumes in the available storage device
- empty hard disks
- networks allowing the user to select from existing or replace:
- private network
- private IPs
- public IPs (either tenant's pre-purchased or automatically purchased)
- external IPs (basic support)
- firewalls with available integration
- load balancers with available integration
Click here to show/hide table of what specs save and create
The following VM configuration elements are saved and created by virtual appliance specs. Support for elements is marked for datacenters (DC) and public cloud regions (PCR). When creating a virtual appliance from a spec, the platform will assign the spec icon to the virtual appliance.
Element | Save in Spec | Create in VApp from saved configuration |
---|
VMs | General information: hardware profiles, CPU, RAM, remote access and description | Same. If a matching hardware profile is not found, the platform will activate or create one, or the user can select another available hardware profile |
Anti-affinity layers | VMs in layers | Same |
Scaling groups | Scaling groups are not supported |
|
VM templates | Template name is saved | The system matches the spec template name against the Apps library template name. The user selects from a list of templates with names that contain the spec template name. The match is done with an SQL %LIKE% command from the spec to the template, so spec template "m0n0" will match with "m0n0" and "m0n0wall" in the Apps library. But spec template "m0n0wall" will not match with "m0n0" in the Apps library |
Template auxiliary hard disks | Template system disks and other datastore hard disks and their tiers are saved | The platform will create template disks in order as in the template with no gaps in the sequence. Then empty additional hard drives and volumes will be added in the same order as in the base virtual appliance. The platform will search for datastore tiers by name, as for templates |
Persistent VMs | Persistent VMs are not supported. To create a spec from a persistent VM, first create an instance, which is a non-persistent template | |
Private network, Private IPs | Save private network characteristics: network address and mask only. Save private IPs | The materialize process will present the addresses of the spec private networks. Abiquo will display matching networks in the virtual datacenter in green text, and ones that are not present in red text. Abiquo will display the number of private IPs to use in each network. The user can choose to change any private network, even if it matches the spec network. The user can choose to create a new network (specifying the IP address, mask and gateway), or replace the network with an existing VDC network. |
Network gateways | Abiquo will determine if a NIC has a gateway IP address and save this information in the spec | - If a NIC has a gateway IP address, when using an existing network, the materialize process will attempt to assign the network's gateway address to the NIC
- Abiquo will not assign the gateway IP address to a NIC that did not have this address in the original configuration
- If the materialize process is creating a new network, it will attempt to assign the same gateway address from the spec to the gateway NIC in the new network
|
Public network | Number of public IPs is saved | The materialize process will try to use public IPs that were already purchased by the enterprise. These public IPs will be momentarily quarantined during the materialization process. If not, the materialize process will purchase new public IPs. The public networks will be used in the order returned by the API. In public cloud, the platform will use floating IPs |
External IPs | Not supported, except for basic support in vCloud | If you create a spec containing an external IP, the materialize process will fail because the external IP is unsupported. In vCloud, specs have basic support for external networks. The validation process will list the network, and you can select it and then continue with the process. The platform will create the VApp correctly. Remember to ensure that there are enough external IP addresses available for the new virtual appliance |
Unmanaged IPs | Not supported | If you create a spec containing an unmanaged IP, the materialize process will fail because the unmanaged IP is unsupported. |
Volume (data) | Data on external storage volumes is not included. To use data on a volume, create an instance to save it to a template disk
| - Empty volumes with the same specifications as the attached volumes are created. Empty volumes are named vappName-UUID
|
Volume (specifications) | The specifications, disk controller types, and tiers of the volumes are saved in private cloud
| - Empty volumes with the same specifications as the attached volumes are created. Empty volumes are named vappName-UUID
- Volumes are attached to the same disk controller type as in the original VM. If this controller type is not compatible with the target hypervisor, then the platform will use the hypervisor default
- Matches tier names as for VM templates. If no storage tier is found, then the validate will fail. If the storage tier does not contain pools, then the volume create will fail.
|
Hard disk (data) | Data on hard disks attached to the VM is not included. To use data on a hard disk, create an instance to save it to the template
| Empty hard disks with the same specifications as the attached hard disks are created. Empty disks are named Empty disk-UUID |
Hard disk (specifications) | The specifications, disk controller types and tiers of the hard disks are saved in private cloud
| - Empty hard disks with the same specifications as the attached hard disks are created. Empty disks are named Empty disk-UUID
- Hard disks are attached to the same disk controller type as in the original VM. If this controller type is not compatible with the target hypervisor, then the platform will use the hypervisor default
- Matches tier names as for VM templates. If no datastore tier is found, then the validate will fail. If the datastore tier does not contain datastores, then the deploy will fail.
|
Backup configuration | Configured backups are stored in private cloud | Backups are configured |
Firewalls | Firewalls attached to VMs or load balancers are saved | - Access to a firewall integration is required to create firewalls in the new virtual appliance
- Users can edit firewall rules during virtual appliance creation
- Users should be aware of compatibility issues between providers
- If a VM has no firewall in the spec, and the virtual datacenter has a default firewall, then the platform will assign the default firewall to the VM
|
Load balancers | Load balancers attached to VMs are saved, including health checks and so on | - Access to a load balancer integration is required to create load balancers in the new virtual appliance
- Users should be aware of compatibility issues between providers
|
Monitoring (status) | - Monitoring status of fetch metrics is saved
- The selected metrics are saved
| - Access to a monitoring server is required to retrieve metrics
- The materialize process creates built-in metrics of the exact same name ONLY and creates all custom metrics
|
Alarms and Alerts | Alarms and alerts are saved | The materialize process creates all existing alarms and alerts, regardless of the existence of their corresponding metrics |
VM variables | VM variables are saved | - The materialize process creates VMs with VM variables
- During the materialize process, users can edit the VM variables
|
Chef | Chef status, runlist and attributes are stored | - The materialize process sets the status and recipes
- During the materialize process, users can edit the runlist and the attributes
|
VM bootstrap script | The VM startup script is saved | - The startup script is added to the new VM at the end of the materialize process
- After the materialize process, the user can edit the VM to modify the startup script
|
6.4. Manage VApp specs in the user interface
Users work with spec blueprints in different parts of the UI.
- To create VApp specs, go to Virtual datacenters → Virtual appliances, open a VApp and save it as a spec
- To create a version of a spec, log in to the owner enterprise (that created the spec). Then go to Virtual datacenters and open a virtual appliance created from the spec and save changes as a new version
To create a virtual appliance based on a spec, go to Virtual datacenters → V. Appliances list → select Create virtual appliance based on spec.
To manage specs and spec versions, go to the owner enterprise → Catalogue→ Virtual appliance specs.
6.5. Create a new version of a virtual appliance spec
To create a version of a spec:
- Log in to the owner enterprise (that created the spec)
- Go to Virtual datacenters
- Open a virtual appliance created from the spec
- Make changes as required
From the Virtual appliance options menu select Create new spec version
Screenshot: create a spec or spec version

6.6. Display virtual appliance specs in the catalogue
Virtual appliance specifications (VApp specs) are saved configurations (like blueprints) to help users easily create new virtual appliances.
To display Vapp specs
- Go to Catalogue → Virtual appliance specs
The platform will display all the specs available in the platform.
To display details of a VApp spec, hover over its icon.
To display the details of a VApp spec's Versions, click the options button on the icon and select Versions. The Manage spec versions dialog will open. Click on a Version to display its details.
Screenshot: Virtual appliance specs tab and Details panel

6.7. Share virtual appliance specs with other tenants
To share a VApp spec with multiple tenants, assign scopes to the spec. A scope is a list of enterprises whose users can access the spec.- When creating or editing a spec, open the Scopes tab
- Select scopes to allow access to users of the enterprises included in the scopes
When you have finished working with the spec, click Accept

6.8. Define the locations where users can work with a spec
To define where a spec can be used, select
allowed locations. Users of enterprises that are allowed to access a location can work with the specs allowed in the location.
To manage allowed locations:
- Go to Apps library → Virtual appliance specs
- Select the spec, click the Options button, and select Edit
- Go to Locations → select locations
- If the spec should be available in all current and future locations, select Use all locations.
- To restrict the spec to a group of current locations:
- Clear the Use all locations checkbox
- Select the Locations where the spec will be available for use
When designing a virtual appliance for use in more than one location, please consider the following:
- Support for multiple disks in the provider
- Public networks in private cloud will be translated to floating IPs in public cloud and vice versa
- A range of IP addresses may be reserved by an SDN system or cloud provider
- The number of NICs allowed or required per VM may vary
Click here to show/hide the screenshot
6.9. Define the version of a spec to use
The platform presents users with a single version of a virtual appliance spec. The administrator can configure this to be the default version or the latest version.
When you create a virtual appliance spec, the platform automatically sets this first version as the default version.
When you create another version you can choose to make this version the default.
Click here to show/hide the screenshot
To change the default version of a spec:
- Go to Apps library → Virtual appliance specs
- Select the VApp spec icon, click the options button, and select Versions
- Click on the Version you want users to work with
- On the top, right-hand side of the dialog, click Mark as default version

To unset the default, so that users will always work with the latest version:
- Select the VApp spec version and click the pencil Edit button
- Clear the Default checkbox
To delete a version of a spec, select it and click the Delete button. If you delete the default version, then the platform will return the latest version to users.
6.10. Edit the details of a virtual appliance spec
To modify a VApp spec:
- Go to the Catalogue
- On the VApp spec icon, click on the options menu, and select Edit
- Modify the details as required.
- The Description should identify the spec version for the user
- For the Icon, enter a URL
- This URL must have a public IP address, not localhost or 127.0.0.1. It may contain the IP address of the API server. Use the same protocol as the server to avoid mixed content errors
- Square icon images with a size of 128x128 pixels and a transparent background look best. The compatible image formats are PNG, JPG, and GIF.
- Click Validate to check the display of the Icon
- Click Save

6.11. Delete a virtual appliance spec
You can delete spec versions or the entire spec. When you delete a virtual appliance spec, the platform will also delete all its versions, even shared versions. When you delete an enterprise, the platform will delete all its specs, even shared specs and shared versions.
7. Manage workflow tasks
7.1. Display VM workflow tasks
When workflow is enabled, the user's requests to deploy, reconfigure and undeploy VMs will be held with the status waiting to be reviewed.
This can include actions on scaling groups, unless the administrator selects the option to disable workflow in the scaling group.
To view the list of workflow tasks
- Go to Virtual datacenters → Workflow tasks.
To filter workflow tasks, enter text in the filter box at the top of the tasks list.

7.2. Cancel VM workflow tasks
To cancel workflow tasks:
- Go to Virtual datacenters → Workflow tasks
- If you are an administrator, to refresh the list with all queued tasks for an enterprise, select a Cloud tenant from the Enterprises pull-down list
- To cancel a queued task, click the Reject link next to the task.
Screenshot: A user can cancel their own tasks

7.3. Start queued VM workflow tasks
Queued tasks are waiting for workflow control. If there is a problem with the workflow connector integration or tool, users with the privilege to Manage workflow tasks can manually continue the tasks.
To manually start a task and override the workflow control:
- Go to Virtual datacenters → Workflow tasks.
- If you are an administrator, to refresh the list with all queued tasks for an enterprise, select a cloud tenant from the list of enterprises.
- To start a task, click the Approve link beside the task
Screenshot: A user with the privilege to Manage workflow tasks can start their own tasks

8. Manage VM backups
To configure your VM backup by selecting the backup policy and the disks, do these steps:
Privilege: Manage virtual machine backup configuration, Manage virtual machine backup disks, Manage virtual machine backup schedule
- Edit the virtual machine and go to Backup → Backup policies

- Select from the list of Backup policies
- Click Show details. Depending on your system configuration and user privileges, you may be required to configure different backup options. Examples of backup options

If required, enter backup frequency, or date and/or time
- If required, select disks
- Note: Some backup systems will ignore your disk selection and create a backup of all disks. Check your cloud provider's documentation for more information
8.2. Restore a VM backup
The administrator may allow users to restore their own backups.
To restore a VM backup:
- Go to Virtual datacenters → edit VM → Backups → Backup results
- In the Latest backups section, in the Action column on the right, click the Restore link

To display the details of the restore, click on the backup in the Latest backups list.
After the platform finishes the restore, it will display a status, such as "done" or "failed".
After you restore a backup, the VM disks are under the control of the backup system, not the platform. So when you undeploy after restoring a VM, the platform will display a warning popup and delete and remove the VM's disks.
If your environment permits, you may request more than one restore of the same backup. If the status of the restore request is "success" or "failed", Abiquo will reactivate the Restore link and you can click it to request a new restore of the same backup.
8.3. View backup events
For users the backup feature will produce the events described on the Events table page in the Virtual machine section, under METADATA_MODIFIED and RESTORE_BACKUP.
To display VM backup events:
- Go to Virtual datacenters → edit VM → Backup → Events
This page will display events from backup integrations.

To view the details of an event, click on the event.
9. Administer VMs
9.1. Protect a VM
An administrator can block actions on a VM in the platform by other users who do not have the
Protect virtual machine privilege.
You can lock or protect a deployed VM when it is powered on, paused, or powered off.
To protect a VM
- Select the VM and click the padlock protect VM button near the Deploy VM button
- In the Protect virtual machine dialog, enter the reason for protecting the VM.

The platform will display a padlock symbol in the top left corner of the VM icon and change the status of the VM to MAINTENANCE. The administrator can customize this status in the UI labels.
The name of the administrator who blocked the VM and the reason display in VM details → General.
To release a protected VM, click the padlock unprotect VM button
9.2. Display VM initial password
You can select the option to generate an initial guest password when you create a VM. Then when you deploy the VM, the platform will generate a random password and send it to you by email or SMS. After you deploy, you should log in as the root or administrator user and change the initial password.
The owner of the VM and administrators with the privilege to Display initial virtual machine password can also retrieve the guest password from the deployed VM.
To display the initial VM password:
- Select the VM
- On the control panel, click the key display initial guest password button

9.3. Reset VM password
To reset the initial password of the root or Administrator user for a VM in vCloud Director :
- Select a deployed VM
- On the control panel, click the key display initial guest password button

- On the popup that opens, click Reset password

The platform will automatically shut down the VM and run the process to reset the password, then it will restart the VM. The platform will send the new password by email or SMS as usual.
10.1. Display events
To open the
Events view, click on the
events icon on the
main menu bar.
To add new events as they arrive, select the Update automatically checkbox. Otherwise, you must refresh the list manually.
To display the event details in the panel below the Event list, double-click on an Event.

Some users may not be allowed to view events. If the events you expected to display do not appear in Events view, check with your system administrator.
10.2. Event attributes
An event in the platform has the following attributes:
Attribute | Description |
---|
Entity | The system object that is the source of the event or error. For example, it could be a VIRTUAL_APPLIANCE for a group of virtual machines. |
Entity name | The name of the system object that is the source of the event or error, for example, myVirtualAppliance. |
Action | The action that generated the event, for example, DELETE. See Events Table |
Performed by | The user who performed the Action, for example, admin. |
Severity | The severity of the event. Can be INFO, WARN or ERROR |
Date/time | The date and time when the event was generated. |
Message | Additional information about the event. See Events Table for more details. Note for administrator: The traces displayed in Events view are also found in the Logs, such as catalina.out, which are documented in the Troubleshooting section of the Abiquo Administrator's Guide. |
Context | The identifier of a group of related events. This attribute is in the event detail but not in the event list. |
10.3. Filter events
To make it easier to find a specific event, use the filter tool.
- Click the filter button
at the top right of Events view. - Enter your filter criteria as described in the table below and click Accept.
To remove the filter, click Clear at the bottom of the popup.
When events are filtered, the text (events filtered) will be displayed next to the filter button.
Event field | Description |
---|
Entity | Pull-down list of entities |
Action | Pull-down list of actions |
Entity name | The name of the entity. The Name field may contain the UUID or the friendly name of the entity. For alarms, the Entity name field contains the UUID of the alarm. To filter alarm events by name, enter the friendly name of the alarm in the Message field of the filter. |
Severity | Pull-down list of event severity. See Events severity table |
User | The name of the user who performed the action |
Enterprise | The tenant that the event occurred in |
Date from | Calendar selection for start date in format YYYY/MM/DD |
Date to | Calendar selection for end date in format YYYY/MM/DD |
Context | The platform assigns the same context ID to a group of related entities |
Message | The message field will contain the details of the event, including the friendly name. See Events table |
Event context
When you view the event detail, the platform will display the
Context of the event. The context is an ID that the platform assigns to each event in a group of related events. For example, if you undeploy a virtual appliance, the platform will create events for the undeploy of each VM, the destruction of the related hard disks, and the release of the NICs. And the platform will assign the context ID to each of these events.
To display all the events related to an event, select the Event from the list, from the details view, copy the Context ID and filter by Context.

10.4. Severity table
Events on the cloud platform are classified into three severity categories: info, warning and error.
Severity | Description |
---|
INFO | General information events for the user as part of the normal use of the platform |
WARNING | Warning about an abnormal situation that does not block normal use of the platform |
ERROR | Error that blocks the normal use of the platform |
10.5. Events table
For a reference of all the actions that you can perform on each entity and the events that they can generate on the platform, see the Events table.
For example, for the Action plan entity, you can perform the Create, Modify and Delete actions, and the platform will also generate events you run an action plan and it performs action on other entities, such as VMs. 10.6. Event streaming