Abiquo 5.1
This page describes major administration changes between Abiquo versions.
For versions prior to Abiquo 4.0, please see documentation for earlier versions of Abiquo
Base OS
Abiquo is based on Centos 7 instead of CentOS 6 now. CentOS 6 packages will be provided for some time, but we strongly recommend migrating to CentOS 7 as soon as possible.
The update process will create and configure new tomcat and websockify users for the corresponding services. Change the ownership of relevant files manually as part of the upgrade.
Redis delta scripts location has changed from /usr/share/doc/abiquo-server/redis and /usr/share/doc/abiquo-remote-services/redis to /usr/share/doc/abiquo-redis/redis
Accounting
Added Consolidation-time-sensitivity-secs parameter in accounting to ignore events only active for a short period of time
Branding
There are changes to branding in Abiquo 4.0. See Abiquo Branding Guide for details of how to upgrade branding.
KVM
KVM cloud nodes must run CentOS 7
Abiquo AIM agent fully supports Openstack Neutron integration
Backup
Backup integrations are now part of the Abiquo core product and backup plugins are provided for each backup system. Backup data is no longer stored in VM metadata. A backup archteype will be released to enable customers to create backup plugins
Azure ARM
You must run an additional upgrade process near the end of the upgrade. Before you begin your upgrade, get in touch with Abiquo Support for more information
Vcloud
Initial Vcloud support
ESXi
abiquo.dvs.vcenter.password and abiquo.dvs.vcenter.user properties are deprecated. Remove these properties from all Remote Services appliances.
ESXi hypervisors are now configured as vCenter managed hypervisors. After the upgrade, edit each hypervisor to enter its vCenter credentials.
Backup
Support for Veeam 9.5
ESXi
VMWare clusters are detected and reported in the UI
Cluster load rules are available in the Infrastructure Allocation Rules section
RabbitMQ
RabbitMQ clustering support has been introduced. RabbitMQ configuration must be recreated and the clients must be reconfigured accordingly.
Properties
Abiquo M is now clusterizable. All M instances require the configuration of an unique value for the abiquo.m.instanceid property.
DB changes
VMs VNC passwords are encrypted in the DB. You must run a tool to encrypt this entries after the DB upgrade process.
Monitoring
emmett and delorean services require two additional configuration files for using RabbitMQ with SSL support.
Created SOSreport plugin for Monitoring profile.
Remote access
noVNC has been replaced by Apache Guacamole. The guacd runs on the Remote Services server. There is a new remote service for remote access, which can be reused in more than one location. Go to Remote services, add the new remote service, and then add it to existing datacenters and public cloud regions. HAProxy and Websockify are no longer used
Authentication
Cookie based authentication has been replaced by the X-Abiquo-Token header with an authentication token. Some API Request examples are not yet updated
Branding
Stylesheet for branding the Guacamole client was added
Guest password SMS notification
You can now add an SMS gateway address and the platform will send users a message with their guest passwords.
Billing
Billing version 4.0.1 for Abiquo 4.x. Property to set "bill_day_of_month" to define the periods of billing aggregation on a monthly level. See Abiquo Billing Integration User Guide#Configure General Billing Settings
NSX-NAT
Introduction of new blueprint for NSX to support NAT in virtual datacenters.
Improvements to NSX-NAT
Improvements to new blueprint for NSX to support NAT in virtual datacenters. See Configure the NSX integration, Manage NAT, and Manage NAT for virtual datacenters.
vCloud Director
Changes to mapping between objects in Abiquo and vCloud Director. See VMware vCloud Director for details of the structure. For configuration see vCloud Director.
Hyper-V
Support for SMB2 has been added. Users can now disable SMB1.
Discovery of unmapped Samba shares to be used as datastores. See Hyper-V for configuration details.
Remove the configuration of abiquo.virtualfactory.openSession property to use system default value because the platform now supports multiple connections
Billing widgets on Hybrid dashboard tab
Obtain provider billing data and display it on the Hybrid tab of the Home view dashboard, with associated privileges.
Hyper-V
Support for SMB2 has been added. Users can now disable SMB1.
Discovery of unmapped Samba shares to be used as datastores. See Hyper-V for configuration details.
Remove the configuration of abiquo.virtualfactory.openSession property to use system default value because the platform now supports multiple connections
VMware
To enable the platform to deploy directly to VMware clusters, you can now add VMware clusters as physical machines instead of adding ESXi hosts directly. Migration is required.
Virtual datacenter names in public cloud
The platform can now identify virtual datacenters in public cloud using the VDC name in the VPC name in AWS, subnet name in Azure, vApp name in VCD, Edge field in NSX, and so on.
Dnsmasq
Added support for Dnsmasq, which can replace the current DHCP servers that use the OMAPI protocol. Migration via tool is required.
Base OS
Abiquo is now based on Centos 7. CentOS 6 packages are not provided.
Concurrency control
New openSession properties per provider, and to optionally apply the openSession limits per virtual datacenter. Additional properties to concurrently allow fast state changes.
Watchtower database migration of action plans
Run a migration tool to upgrade action plans created prior to Abiquo 4.4.0.
New REST API documentation
See https://wiki.abiquo.com/api/latest
vCloud Director
vCenter
Create DRS rules to group VMs by OS type for license affinity
UI features
Changes to UI language files
From Abiquo 4.6 onwards, you must have an "__EOF" label at the end of each language file, otherwise the UI will not load correctly and the login form will not display
Consolidated discovery manager remote service
There is a new version of the Discovery Manager remote service that now performs all resource discovery tasks in private and public cloud. It replaces the previous version of the Discovery Manager and the Cloud Provider Proxy, which the platform will no longer use. The name of the Discovery Manager web application has changed from "nodecollector" to "nars", and the type has also changed to "NARS". The platform's api-java-client now supports asynchronous tasks. The platform logs this remote service in the nars logs, which replaces the nodecollector and cpp logs. As part of the upgrade process, administrators can remove the old remote service webapps: nodecollector and cpp.
Monitoring and metrics
Azure
Accounting
User interface
OpenID
vCloud
NSX-ECMP Plugin
Azure
vCenter hosts and clusters
vCloud
Virtual networks
Dashboard
Veeam
Billing dashboard
Changes to the Outbound API for event streaming
Public cloud storage and private cloud external storage
Remote access to vCenter
Events
Capture
vCloud hard disks
Application level gateway in NSX distributed firewalls
Reporting
Backup
Upgrade requires credentials
Changes to the Outbound API for event streaming
Changes to vCloud Director plugin
SAML integration
Reporting
API Java client
Changes to vCenter and ESXi
New version of Abiquo Reports
SSO integrations
Allowed connections
Recommended datastore tiers
No significant changes to the platform
New user interface
Improvement of install process
vCloud tagging of Organization and Provider VDCs
Resellers
vCloud Director changes
NSX NAT changes
Action plans
Azure
Veeam
Azure
No significant changes to the platform
vCenter cluster migration tool should ignore protected VMs
Azure Allow Azure credentials without App ID to enable Azure billing only. Add credentials of reseller customers for billing only. Add credentials of reseller customers for billing only
No significant changes to the platform
New Veeam hypervisor property to specify a list of vCenters used in Abiquo. See Configure Abiquo Veeam Backup Plugin for more details.
Veeam 9.5
Veeam-Snapshot
VMware snapshot
VM and template variables
Hardware profiles and families
Shortcut to create a VM
VMware
Virtual datacenters
Address ranges in Amazon and Azure
Pricing
General
Enable WebMKS by disabling remote access (VNC) when you reconfigure the VM
Private cloud ISO and disks
Backup
Added Veeam hypervisor property to list hypervisors to use with Veeam in Abiquo. This prevents issues with Veeam backup results for duplicate VMs on other hypervisors that are not managed by Abiquo.
Added Veeam 10 and Veeam 10 Snapshot plugins
ESXi vSphere
Authentication