AbiCloud quickstart guide

Document ABICLOUD QUICK START

DATE 28/04/2009

ABICLOUD QUICK START

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1 Copyright Notice

© 2009 Soluciones Grid S.L. Copyright in this documentation belongs to Soluciones Gird

Sociedad Limitada. All rights are reserved. This documentation may not be reproduced in

whole or in part in any manner or form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by

electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this

documentation) other than in accordance with any applicable license agreement or with the

prior written consent of Soluciones Grid S.L. Any copies of this documentation must incorporate

this notice.

Abiquo, the Abiquo logo and Abicloud are trademarks of Soluciones Grid S.L.. Other

trademarks used may be owned by third parties.


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2 Index

1 COPYRIGHT NOTICE .......................................................................................................................................2

2 INDEX .................................................................................................................................................................3

3 OVERVIEW .........................................................................................................................................................4

3.1 INTRODUCING ABICLOUD.............................................................................................................................4

3.2 ABICLOUD PRODUCT VERSIONS.....................................................................................................................5

3.3 WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH ABICLOUD? .........................................................................................................6

3.4 INTRODUCING THIS MANUAL.........................................................................................................................6

3.5 GLOSSARY ....................................................................................................................................................7

4 ABICLOUD INSTALLER .....................................................................................................................................9

4.1 REQUIREMENTS..............................................................................................................................................9

4.2 TIPS ...............................................................................................................................................................9

4.3 INSTRUCTIONS................................................................................................................................................9

5 ABICLOUD TECHNICAL FEATURES ..............................................................................................................14

5.1 INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................................14

5.2 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER MANAGEMENT .......................................................................................................21

5.3 VIRTUAL IMAGE MANAGEMENT ..................................................................................................................24

5.4 CREATE/MODIFY VIRTUAL IMAGES..............................................................................................................26

5.5 USER MANAGEMENT ...................................................................................................................................28

6 OTHER RESOURCES ........................................................................................................................................33

6.1 COMMUNITY PORTAL..................................................................................................................................33

6.2 INFORMATION ONLINE .................................................................................................................................33

6.3 CONTACT ...................................................................................................................................................33


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3 Overview

3.1 Introducing AbiCloud

Abicloud is an open source infrastructure software for the creation and integral management

of Public & Private Clouds based on heterogeneous environments. The main aim of the project

is to offer users a tool with the capacity for scaling, management, automatic and immediate

provision of servers, storage, networks, virtual network devices as well as applications.

Nowadays companies have needs for different system architectures specific to a department

or work group.

Besides, there are companies with products which need to be scaled seasonally. Not being

able to attend to these requirements on demand in an adequate manner makes users feel

defrauded by a bad quality service and hence no longer use the product.

With AbiCloud, it is possible to provision the needs of these work groups for their environments

(development, tests, pre-production, production) immediately and instant de-provisioning

when no longer necessary. The infrastructure does not deplete but instead takes advantage of

its full capacity and reduces the value chain (provision problems), saves costs in space in the

data center, enhances electricity, number of persons dedicated to maintenance, etc.

With AbiCloud, small companies and start-ups can mount their own Private Cloud and obtain

all the benefits that they will attain with AbiCloud in a big company or in a Host Provider.


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3.2 Abicloud product versions

Abicloud comes in three different versions targeting different business needs:

The community version of AbiCloud is distributed under a free software license; hence it is

possible to adjust to specific needs, for example Universities, ISVs, SaaS providers, etc. AbiCloud

community is a collection of online resources for all those that wish to take advantage of open

version. Registration is free and does not require any compromise for its ownership.

The enterprise version of AbiCloud is a set of premium modules on top of the community

version of AbiCloud that let companies to access to advanced features not targeted to small

companies or startups.

The ISP/hosters version of AbiCloud is an extended version of the enterprise version of AbiCloud

that let companies to resell the AbiCloud platform to their customers.

The premium modules are licensed by number of CPUs in the Cloud Cluster. Please contact

with Abiquo representatives to get more details about the premium modules catalogue and

pricing options.

Third party

Soft/Hard

Core

Virtual LayerVirtual LayerVirtual Layer

Premium

EnterpriseEnterpriseEnterprise

ISP / HostingISP / HostingISP / Hosting

CommunityCommunityCommunity


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3.3 What can you do with AbiCloud?

Manage your physical infrastructure:

• Manage datacenters

• Manage Racks

• Manage Physicals Machines

• Manage Hypervisors

• Manage the state of your physical Machines vs. virtual infrastructure

Manage enterprises/users:

• Manage enterprises

• Manage users

• Control logged users

• Manage user profiles

Manage Virtual Images:

• Manage local repository

• Mange virtual images

• Define virtual images requirements.

Manage Virtual Infrastructure:

• Each enterprise has its virtual infrastructure

• Manage virtual data Centers

• Manage virtual Appliances

3.4 Introducing This Manual

This manual introduces the basic concepts to help you to manage a simple Cloud effectively. It

highlights the key features and provides a guided introduction to the product.

Note: You can find more information about the AbiCloud Architecture in the document

‘AbiCloud Technical Overview’.

You can find more information about the product in the community portal:

http://community.abiquo.com


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3.5 Glossary

Please read this list before continuing with the document, no matter if you are a newbie or an

expert it will help to clarify some “nebulous” terms:

Cloud User

An enterprise user with privileges to create virtual Appliances and manage them

Data center

A data center is the physical infrastructure of a cloud provider. A cloud provider can be private

(a datacenter of a big company) or public (a hosting company)

Enterprise

The entity that agglutinates the virtual cloud infrastructure of a company. An enterprise can

create virtual datacenters, virtual Appliance, etc. This enterprise virtual infrastructure can be

isolated from other enterprise clouds.

Enterprise Cloud Admin

The enterprise user with the most privileges who manages the private cloud of the enterprise

and adds new Cloud users to its cloud infrastructure

Hypervisor

The virtualization technology installed on each Physical Machine that permits the creation of

virtual Machines

Node

The node is one of the components of the appliance (One virtual Image). For example 1

apache server is a node of the myWebSite Appliance

Physical Machine

A server on the data center

Rack

The physical box that contains physical machines

SysAdmin


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It's the user role that will be able to manage the virtual and physical infrastructure of the data

center and customize it to offer the cloud functionalities to enterprises

Virtual Appliance

The main object of AbiCloud. A virtual appliance is based on the OVF standard and it's the

component that defines a complex system (Virtual Images, network, storage, etc.). For

example, myWebSite can be an appliance composed of 1 load balancer, 2 apache servers

and 1 MySQL server.

Virtual Data Center

An abstract object to define a logical group of virtual appliances.

OVF

Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is an open standard for packaging and distributing virtual

appliances or more generally software to be run in virtual machines. Abicloud is based in OVF

in order to benefit the interoperability between cloud providers and facilitate the integration

between different virtualization technologies.


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4 AbiCloud Installer

4.1 Requirements

JRE 1.6

VirtualBox (2.1.0, 2.1.2 or 2.1.4, latest versions are not tested) installed on each cloud node.

Remember that AbiCloud is prepared to support many virtualization technologies using a plug-

in infrastructure. Abiquo has decided to start offering the VirtualBox plug-in in the first release,

because it has an easy installation process and the user doesn't needs special hardware

infraestructure. In a few weeks we will offer other virtualization plug-ins.

4.2 Tips

The installer downloads MySQL (if you choose to install it) and Tomcat. If you have the installers,

you can create a directory named /opt/external (in GNU/Linux) or c:/external (in

Windows), save the files mysql.tgz and tomcat.tgz (in GNU/Linux) or mysql.zip and tomcat.zip (in

Windows) in this directory. For MySql download the version without the installer. The name of the

files matter.

4.3 Instructions

The installer works in graphic and command line mode.

4.3.1 Step 1

Information screen. Press "next".


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4.3.2 Step 2

License agreement. AbiCloud have a MPL license for AbiCloud_server and AbiCloud_WS

components and CPAL for Flex interface

4.3.3 Step 3

Installation path. The directory where AbiCloud will be installed. Tomcat and MySQL (if you

choose it) will be installed in this directory.

On windows we suggest to install in the $_USER_HOME folder.


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4.3.4 Step 4

Database type. If you choose "MySQL" the database server will be installed. If you already have

a MySQL server, choose "none".

4.3.5 Step 5 ( only applicable "none" was chosen in step 4)

Database configuration: You must create a database named kinton. One database user has

to be able to write to this kinton database.


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4.3.6 Step 6

Tomcat port. This port will be used in the URI. In this example the URI will be

http://localhost:5050/abicloud/AbiCloud.html.

4.3.7 Step 7

Tomcat admin user. The user used to administer tomcat.


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4.3.8 Step 8

4.3.9 Final Step

Press next to start the installation.

If all is OK you are ready to go to $ABICLOUD_HOME defined on Step3 and start the application

with the run.sh or Run.bat file. You must run this commands from $ABICLOUD_HOME folder.

In the example, the application will be accessible from a browser via the URL:

http://localhost:5050/abicloud/AbiCloud.html


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5 AbiCloud Technical Features

5.1 Infrastructure Management

5.1.1 Overview

The idea of this feature is to allow cloud administrators to manage their IT infrastructure and

prepare it for use by third party users and run their distributed applications.

5.1.2 Concepts

Cloud: the name identifying the group of data centers that offer scalability and other cloud

features to final users.

Data center: group of physical machines in the same LAN (Local Area Network). These

machines share place, network and resources (for instance, power light).

Rack: In each data center, you can group physical machines in racks (like in a real

datacenter).

Physical Machine: physical resource (server) that has the Hypervisor (virtualization

infrastructure).

Hypervisor: virtualization platform allowing the creation of different virtual machines in the same

physical machine. With the Abiquo application one can connect to different virtualization

technologies (ESX, XEN, SUN xVM VirtualBox, etc.). In this first beta version users can "play" with

SUN xVM VirtualBox in order to facilitate installation of the virtualization technology.

Virtual Machine: virtual instance of an operative system. One Physical Machine with a

Hypervisor installed can create various virtual machines.


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5.1.3 Data center list

One can organize their cloud into different data centers (1) (a data center being a group of

physical machines in the same LAN).

From this page one can create (2), delete(3) and modify (4) data centers and organize them

in a map (4).

The Search (5) input text field can be used to filter a list of data centers and search for a

desired object.

Full screen (6) button for enlarging the map and navigation between the map.

Note: In this beta community version the user can manage as many data centers as desired

but this can only be done from the data center called "myDataCenter".


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5.1.4 Data center management

The page for managing all the resources in the data center selected and permitting non

restricted users to choose where the virtual applications are deployed.

The main content is divided into three sections:

Physical components:

Physical Machines list (1): list of machines in the data center. They are grouped by racks

(logical aggregation) and the following actions can be carried out:

Move physical machines between racks.

Clone a physical machine, choosing a physical machine and moving it by pressing the ALT

button

At the bottom of the list appears a list of physical machines not assigned (2) to a rack. This is

not an important feature in this beta version but in future releases a list of non assigned

machines that have been detected will automatically be displayed.

At the bottom of this section are three buttons via which a user can create, delete and modify

physical machines (3).

Virtual machines (4): It is possible to show the virtual machines created in different physical

machines (or grouped by rack). The virtual machines can be viewed as a list of names or icons

(5) with each entry representing a virtual machine object. In each virtual machine object the

following can be done:

Move the virtual machine between physical machines.

Stop/Start (6) the virtual machine

Pause (7) the virtual machine

Restart (8) the virtual machine

Access the server via VDRP (9)

With the button find (16) you can filter the virtual machine list.

More information (10): this section appears when the user selects a virtual machine or a

physical machine. It contains the information on the selected object. The user can edit (11)

the information of a physical/virtual machine. On a virtual machine, a user can access via

VRDP (12), start/stop (13), pause (14) and reset (15) the machine.

Using the return (17) button, the user can go to the previous page.


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5.1.5 Create/Modify Physical Machine

This popup permits a user to create or modify the following physical machine information:

Name (1)

Description (2)

Total RAM (6) (In Megabytes).

Total CPU (7) (In cores

Hard Disc (8) (In Gigabytes)

Rack (3): the rack to which the machine will be assigned.

Operative System (4): to define what operative system should be installed on the machine.


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An important point is the network modules configuration (5). In order to manage the

Hypervisors, the application has to know how to access the Hypervisor via the network (9). By

using the buttons*+ / - / *, users can *create, delete or modify network modules.

In this popup window the user has to:

Decide whether or not the machine will use DHCP (1)

if the response is NO, then the following has to be entered:

IP (v4 or v6)(2)

Sub mask (3)

Gateway (4)

Bandwidth (5)

The DNS list (6)

With ok/cancel button (7) a user can confirm the information or return to the previous page.

Finally, a user can assign a Hypervisor type to a network module through the following steps:

Select the Hypervisor type (1) (In this version only the VirtualBox can be selected)

Select the IP (2) of the network module. The user will be alerted if he/she moves the network

module later on.

The port (3) to which the Hypervisor is to listen, there will be a default port value which can be

changed by the user.

Click the ok/cancel button (4) to confirm the information or return to the previous page.


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5.1.6 Detailed Virtual Machine information

This section contains detailed information about the virtual machine selected on the list. On

selecting a machine the user will be able to do the following:

Power Off/On (10) the virtual machine

Pause (11) the virtual machine

Reset (12) the virtual machine

Access the Operative System via VRDP (8).

User can view the virtual machine UUID (1). It is the unique identifier in the cloud.

User can view the virtual image (2) assigned to the virtual machine.

User can edit (7) the virtual machine information.

Change the RAM (3) assigned to the virtual machine.

Change the number of CPUs assigned (4) to the virtual machine

Change the Hard disk assigned (5) to the virtual machine

Change the description (9) of the virtual machine

Show the VRDP IP and Port (6) to use it in an external tool (for example, rdesktop)

5.1.7 Detailed Physical Machine information

This area displays detailed information of the physical machine selected on the list on the left

from which the user can edit (3):


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Change machine name (1).

Change the Operative System (4)

Change the machine description (2)

Update RAM information (5)

Update CPU information (6)

Update HD information (7)

Update Network information (8).

Update the Hypervisor information assigned to the physical machine (9)

Show the state of the RAM, CPU, HD (for instance provisioned RAM / Total RAM) (10)


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5.2 Virtual Data Center Management

5.2.1 Overview

This is the main functionality in AbiCloud for the cloud users or enterprise cloud administrators.

This section allows the user to create virtual Data Centers (Maybe distributed in different cloud

providers), and generate virtual applications.

There are two pages:

Virtual Data Center Dashboard: Where users can see the summary of all their virtual

infrastructure

Virtual Application modelling: Where users can generate and modify application layout that

runs over the cloud infrastructure.

It's important to know that this section is defined at the enterprise level meaning that users in

the same enterprise can show the same content

5.2.2 Concepts

Basic concepts to understand:

Virtual Data Center: an isolated cloud infrastructure in a physical Datacenter where a company

deploys its cloud applications.

Virtual application: a simple or complex system developed inside the virtual Datacenter.

Log information: For each virtual application a user can view the log information to see if any

errors have occurred.


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5.2.3 Virtual Data Center Dashboard

The components in this screen are the following:

Virtual Data Center List (1): The list of virtual data Centers. By selecting a virtualDatacenter you

can filter the virtual applications shown.

Virtual application list (2): The list of virtual applications of the enterprise showing the

application name and the state.

Virtual application more information (3): Allows viewing of log information and the application

state.

Create virtual application (4): This button allows the creation of a new virtual application.

Delete virtual application (5): This button allows the deletion of the selected virtual application.

Modify virtual application (6): This button facilitates modification of the information of the

selected virtual application.

Create virtual datacenter (7): This button is used for the creation of a new datacenter.

Delete virtual datacenter (8): This button is used for the deletion of the selected datacenter.

Modify virtual datacenter (9): This button allows the modification the information of the selected

datacenter.

5.2.4 Create/Modify virtual [Datacenter]

Popup window via which a datacenter can be created or modified.


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Name (1): Virtual dataCenter name.

Ok / Cancel (2): If all mandatory fields are filled the OK button will be enabled. The Cancel

button returns to the previous page without any changes being applied.

5.2.5 Create/Modify virtual application

This popup creates or modifies the virtual application information

Name (1): Virtual application name

Datacenter (2): User has to select the virtual [Datacenter] where the application runs.

Ok / Cancel (3): If all mandatory fields are filled the OK button will be enabled. The Cancel

button returns to the previous page without any changes being applied.

5.2.6 Virtual Application Layout

This screen permits the user to define his/her virtual application (What pre-configured

applications the user wants executed).

This sections is a drag 'n' drop interface where the user decides what is to be executed.

Two kinds of views exist:

Easy layout: The images are organized by categories and justified in the screen.

Advanced layout: The images are disposed free over the panel. And the user can define

firewall and storage communications between elements.

Images list: List of pre-configured images to be dropped over the main panel.

*Main panel: *The user can drag images and drop them over the main panel.

Tool bar: User can:

Create a new virtual application.

Open an existing virtual application

Save a current virtual application


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Edit in selection mode

Edit in line mode

Undo change

Redo change

Change to an easy layout

Change to an advanced layout

Delete an application

Start/Stop a virtual application

When the user clicks on the start button to run the virtual application the main panel is blocked

but user can continue working.

While the application is running, the virtual machine information can be view by simply clicking

on a virtual application node.

5.3 Virtual Image Management

5.3.1 Overview

This area allows the organization of image repositories and virtual images used in the cloud in

order to facilitate the interaction of the final user with different virtual applications. It is designed

to assist Internal IT in the management of preconfigured images.

5.3.2 Concepts

The concepts to understand in this area are the following:


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Repository: the virtual images container, this can be one or more repositories in a cloud

infrastructure. Furthermore, they can be external repositories (On an Amazon S3 infrastructure

for example).

Virtual image: A preconfigured virtual machine with the operating system and desired

applications (for example, a Debian distribution with Apache installed).

Category: A logical aggregation of virtual images facilitating the organization of these

images. There is a default category which cannot be deleted.

Icon: Each virtual image is assigned an icon image for easy identification; a default icon is

assigned if the application is not explicitly given one.

5.3.3 Virtual Images management

Repository list (1): Shows the list of accessible repositories in the cloud infrastructure.

Add repository (2): addition of new repositories.

Delete repository (3): deletion of the selected repository.

Modify repository (4): modification the selected repository.

User can move between different categories (7)

User can add categories or virtual images (5)

User can delete the displayed category (6)

User can modify or delete the selected icon (8)


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5.3.4 Create/Modify Repositories

There is only one repository (my Repository) in this community edition and only the modification

of the repository path is allowed. In future versions, in creation mode the user will be able to:

Specify a repository name (1)

Choose a repository path (2).The path must contain the final slash "/", for example, in the

picture "/opt/myRepository/"

With the ok/cancel buttons (3), the user can confirm the information entered or return to the

previous page.

5.3.5 Create/Modify Categories

In this popup user can:

Specify the category name (1)

With the ok/cancel buttons (2), confirm the information supplied or return to the previous page.

5.4 Create/Modify Virtual Images

Here the user has to complete the following information:

Image name (1)

Image description (2)

File name (3) or relative path from the repository

Category assigned (4)

Repository assigned (5)


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Operating System of the image (6)

Ram assigned (7)

CPU assigned (8)

Hard Disk assigned (9)

Icon assigned (If user wants, he can upload a new file) (10)

With the ok/cancel buttons (11) the user can confirm the information entered or return to the

previous page.

Note: In this community version, the user can manually copy the virtual image file to the

repository path, future versions will allow uploading of files.

5.4.1 Create Icons

This popup allows the introduction of new icons to the system:

The name of the icon (1)


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URL (2) where the icon is stored. You can add icons in a folder called "icons" inside the web

server or any image stored in internet. We suggest icons of 96x96 pixels. The validate button

assures that the icon to be updated is ok.

With the ok/cancel buttons (3) the user can confirm the information entered or return to the

previous page.

5.5 User Management

5.5.1 Overview

This functionality is for the management of everyone that has access to the application.

The application is designed to work with central security systems but this manual only explains

how to work with the basic user management system where the user information is stored in the

application database.

5.5.2 Concepts

Enterprise: Is the entity that decides to use the cloud to cover their IT needs. An enterprise has

different users that manage its cloud infrastructure.


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User: The person who uses the application.

Role: The function or profile of a user which depends on the group to which the user belongs. It

is the group of restrictions defined in the list of application functionalities. An user is assigned a

profile, for example "General Admin"

Functionality: It is a rule in the application. A profile has an action defined for each

functionality. For example the System administrator has FULL ACCESS for the functionality

CREATE DATACENTERS.

5.5.3 Layout


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5.5.4 User list screen

User list (1): The list of users created and managed in the system. The rows of the table are the

following:

User Name: Name and surname of the user.

User: The username the user enters in order to access the application.

Email.

Profile assigned to the user

State.

Create user (2): This button allows the creation of new users in the system. You need to select

an enterprise first (The user's company)

Delete user (3): Button to delete an user from the system.

Modify user (4): This button shows a popup window with detailed information on the user which

can be modified.

Change user state (5): User can select one or more users (the same user logged can't be

selected) and activate or deactivate a certain user.

Paginator object (6): Allows navigation between different pages in the user list.

More user information (7): When a user is selected in the list, general user information appears

at the bottom of the screen.

Find (8): User can filter users by typing in the name, surname, user name or email.

Enterprise list (9): The users are group by enterprises, in the left panel (It can be hide) there is the

list of enterprises active in the cloud. Selecting All user list shows all the users in the system.

Selecting an enterprise appears only the users that belong to the company selected.


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Create enterprise (10): This button allows the creation of a new enterprise in the system.

Delete enterprise (11): Button to delete an enterprise from the system.

Modify enterprise (12): This button shows a popup window with detailed information on the

enterprise that can be modified.

Paginator object (13): Allows navigation between different pages in the user list.

Find (14): User can filter enterprises by typing the name.

Filter logged users (15): Checking this option, system administrator can show logged users and

remove the sessions.

5.5.5 User detailed information

This popup window allows one to create or modify user information. The attributes with asterisks

(*) are mandatory. The form contains the following information:

Enterprise (1): The enterprise which user belongs (Can't be selected - Remember that you first

have to select a company on the enterprise list)

Name (2): The name of the user

Surname (3): User's surname

Profile (4): A drop-down menu from which a profile can be assigned to the user.

User (5): username that will be used by the user to enter the application.


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Password (6): Password associated with the above username in order to access the

application

Re-type password (7): confirmation of password, the value here must be equal to the password

entered above

E-mail (8): User's email address

Description (9): A detailed description can be entered about the user.

Active (11): A checkbox that indicates if the user is being activated (checked) or deactivated

(unchecked).

Ok / Cancel (12): If all mandatory objects are typed, ok button will be enabled. Cancel returns

to the previous page without apply changes.

5.5.6 Enterprise detailed information

This popup windows allows one to create or modify enterprise information. The attributes with

asterisks (*) are mandatory. The form contains the following information:

Name (1): The enterprise's name

Ok / Cancel (12): If all mandatory objects are typed the ok button will be enabled. Cancel

returns to the previous page without applying any changes entered.


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6 Other Resources

6.1 Community Portal

This guide is intended to get you up and running, and to introduce some of the functionality

available in AbiCloud. If you need more information about the product, or modify the

AbiCloud core to adapt it to your needs, you should visit the Community Portal of Abiquo:

http://community.abiquo.com

Bugs, enhancements and change request can be entered through the JIRA Bug tracking

system. Registration is free and open to all users:

http://jira.abiquo.com

If you need to share your thoughts, help request or meet other members of the community, join

the channel #abiquo of the irc.freenode.net IRC network.

There are also two mailing lists available to developers:

http://lists.abiquo.com/mailman/listinfo/abicloud-devel: Mail list for abiCloud developers.

http://lists.abiquo.com/mailman/listinfo/abicloud-commits: Mail list for receive commits

information of abiCloud.

6.2 Information online

Product information can be found at:

http://www.abiquo.com/en/products/abicloud

6.3 Contact

Partnerships: [email protected]

Media and Public Relations: [email protected]

Community: [email protected]

Careers: [email protected]

Others: [email protected]

AbiCloud quickstart guide

Technology

Transcript of AbiCloud quickstart guide