Abiquo 5.2
This page describes the key platform components and their installation on different appliances in production and test environments.
Abiquo platform servers
Abiquo UI allows cloud consumers to interact with the resource cloud through the Abiquo platform servers. The following components may each be installed on one or more appliances in a production environment or on fewer appliances in a test environment.
| Platform server | Description |
|---|---|
| Server | The server contains the business logic and it manages all the private datacenters and public cloud regions. Also, It handles and stores all of the information and events created in the cloud environment. |
| Remote Services | Each private datacenter and public cloud region has a Remote Services server to perform the operations requested by the Abiquo Server on the infrastructure, including storage, networking and Apps library related tasks. Consider this example of how the storage remote service works: when a cloud user creates a volume in public cloud, Abiquo communicates with the discovery manager, which communicates with the API of the public cloud provider to create the volume. |
| V2V Services | The V2V (Virtual to Virtual conversion) services server is one of the remote services but it is usually installed on a separate server for performance reasons. It is a process that runs when users download VM templates, create VM instances, or when a new template is uploaded to convert it into the default format for each Hypervisor in the platform. If there are no hypervisors present, it will convert templates into the default base formats of all hypervisors . |
| Monitoring Server | The Monitoring Server contains the Abiquo monitoring services (Emmett, Delorean, KairosDB and Cassandra). Standalone and clustered deployments for Cassandra are supported for large installations. |
Appliance library
A key element in private cloud is the Appliance library (or Apps library). In private cloud, cloud and enterprise administrators upload VM templates to the Appliance library, for users to easily create their own VMs. The Appliance library stores disks on NFS shares called NFS repositories. Each private cloud datacenter must have its own private NFS repository. In public cloud regions, Abiquo caches the cloud provider public templates details but it does not store the disks, so you do not require an NFS repository.
Production installations
In production installations, the servers are configured as Distributed environments. This means that there are separate Abiquo components for improved performance and reliability. Distributed environments require at least one Server, one Remote Services and one V2V appliance, and most environments will also have a monitoring appliance or cluster. The following diagram shows a basic distributed environment.
In production environments for public cloud only, the platform does not require the V2V Services or the NFS repository.
For more information, see Distributed environment
Datacenters and public cloud regions
The diagram below shows an Abiquo Server managing several private datacenters in a distributed environment. The main point to note is that each private cloud datacenter has its own NFS repository and Remote Services server.
Test installations
Test installations are usually Monolithic environments with all of the Abiquo components on the same appliance, which is useful for proof of concept and other testing. A standard test environment also includes a monitoring appliance as in a production installation.
For all the requirements to install a monolithic test environment, see Monolithic Environment
High Availability installations
Abiquo components are modular and it is possible to install them on multiple servers according to your requirements. The HA platform installation can consist of multiple load balanced API nodes with separate data nodes for high performance and high availability. It is also possible to install the database and Monitoring node with database cluster configurations.
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