Public cloud libraries can have many thousands of VM templates (e.g. AWS has 19,000 AMIs) that are difficult to find and manage. In addition, administrators cannot control the content of public cloud templates. In the Apps library, you can define a cache of details of your approved or certified public cloud templates. And you can customize the templates' representation to make it even easier for cloud users to find the right template. 

5.1. Filter local public cloud templates

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select virtual datacenter → Network.

• The default network is highlighted with a star symbol
• A network with an internet gateway is highlighted with a globe symbol
• In public cloud, to synchronize networks and IP addresses, click the round arrows synchronize button 

Screenshot: Private networks in private cloud

Screenshot: Private networks in public cloud (AWS)

In the Networks list, to view the pool and allocation of IPs:

• To display all the IPs in the virtual datacenter, click the All button at the top of the list
• To display the IPs in a network, click the Network name

You can then:

• Use the slider at the bottom of the list to move through the pages 
• Filter the list by entering text in the Search box. The filter works with all the columns of the table including:

• • IP Address
  • MAC address
  • Network name
  • Virtual appliance using the IP
  • VM using the IP
  • Provider ID of the entity using the IP (for example, a load balancer)

When you add IPv6 addresses on strict networks, you don't need to set the starting address. On non-strict IPv6 networks, Abiquo recommends that you create an automatic IP address, or you can enter a From IP address manually.

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select a virtual datacenter → Network
2. Select the network
3. Click the pencil edit button below the Networks list
4. You can change the network Name, Gateway, DNS settings, and optionally make the network the new default for this virtual datacenter.
5. Click Save

The new settings will apply to all VMs deployed after you save the network.

To delete a private network:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select a virtual datacenter → Network → Private
2. Select the network and click the delete button below the networks list. 

To display onboarded external networks

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Network → Select vCloud VDC → External

To set a new or existing network as the default:

1. When you create or edit the network, select the Default network checkbox. The new default network will apply to all VMs deployed after you set it.  

In private cloud, if you set a public network as the default, remember to obtain IP addresses for your VMs before you deploy!

To add new public IP addresses to your virtual datacenter:

1. Click the + Add button on the Public IPs page to display the list of available public IPs
   
   1. To move between pages, use pagination controls such as arrows and page numbers
   2. To filter your search, enter an IP address or Network name in the Search filter box
2. Select IP addresses to add them to your virtual datacenter 
3. Click Add to reserve the IPs

The platform will add the IPs to your VDC

You can also reserve public IPs directly from the Edit VM dialog.

8.10. Obtain public IP addresses in public cloud

During onboarding from public cloud, the platform will onboard existing public IP addresses in providers that support them, such as AWS and Azure. You can obtain them from the provider and assign them to your virtual datacenters and VMs.

To add public IP addresses to your virtual datacenter, so that you can later assign them to your VMs:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Select a public cloud virtual datacenter → Network → Public
2. Click the + add button on the Public IPs page
3. To add the public IP to a virtual datacenter, click the Add to VDC link near the IP address

Now when you edit a VM in the VDC and go to Network → Public, the platform will display the public IP address and you can add it to your VM.

8.11. Synchronize public IP addresses with the cloud provider

To onboard any public IP addresses that were already created in your cloud provider, or update changes made directly in the provider:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select a public cloud virtual datacenter → Network → Public
2. Click the double arrow synchronize public IPs button (beside the + add button)

8.12. Release a reserved public IP address

You can release a public IP if it is not assigned to a VM.

To release a public IP that belongs to a public network, select the IP in the IP list and click the delete button.

In public cloud, click the link to Remove from VDC and then click the delete button.

This section describes firewall policies, which are similar to security groups. The platform supports firewall policies in private cloud with network managers (NSX, Neutron) and in public cloud (AWS, Azure). In Oracle Cloud, the platform enables users to onboard classic firewalls and assign them to VMs.

In vCloud Director, the platform supports classic firewalls, which are Edge firewalls at level of the public cloud region (orgVDC). The platform does not support security groups for VMs in vCloud Director. See Manage Classic Firewalls

To synchronize firewalls do these steps:

1. Select All virtual datacenters and the location, or a single virtual datacenter
2. Click the double-arrow synchronize button 

To synchronize a firewall before you add new firewall rules:

1. Select the firewall and click the double-arrow synchronize button

To set or unset a default firewall for a virtual datacenter:

1. Select the firewall
2. Click the star button

When the user creates a VM, the platform will assign the default firewall. The firewall rules apply to VMs, not individual NICs on the VMs. Changes to the firewall ruleset will apply to every VM in the virtual datacenter with the default firewall. If you do not set a default firewall but the provider requires one, for example, AWS, the platform will set the provider's default firewall. In AWS the default firewall is not marked. 

To edit a firewall policy:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select virtual datacenter or select a region → Network → Firewalls
2. Select the firewall and click the pencil edit button.
3. Make your changes and click Save

If the provider does not allow you to edit the policy, you may be able to delete the firewall in the provider, then reuse the configuration.

9.5.1. Edit firewall rules in AWS

Amazon allows you to edit firewall rules and you can do this through the platform. First synchronize the firewall to update the rules because AWS will not allow you to create a rule that already exists in the security group. Remember that it may take some time for firewall rules to propagate throughout AWS. Until the rules have propagated, the platform will not be able to detect them. See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/query-api-troubleshooting.html#eventual-consistency

9.5.2. Edit firewalls in AWS

To edit an AWS firewall in Abiquo, you can delete the firewall directly in the provider, then synchronize so the provider ID will be removed from the firewall in the platform. You can now edit the firewall and the firewall rules, and you can even assign the firewall to another virtual datacenter. The following screenshot shows the default firewall for several different VDCs. The "webDB" firewall currently exists in AWS. The other firewalls have been created in the platform but are not assigned to a virtual datacenter and do not currently exist in AWS.

To add a new firewall rule:

1. Select the virtual datacenter or location
2. Select the firewall
3. On the Firewall rules panel, click the pencil Edit button
4. Select the Inbound or Outbound tab for the traffic direction you wish to control
5. Enter the details of a rule
   1. Protocol
   • • Select from Common protocols, OR
     • Select and enter a Custom protocol
   1. Port range with the Start port and End port that this rule will apply to. To enter one port, enter the same value twice, or optionally apply the rule to a number of ports at the same time
   2. Sources or Targets as a network address and netmask
6. Click Add. The firewall rule will be added to the Firewall rules list
7. Enter more rules as required, then click Save

To display firewalls that exist in a virtual datacenter in the provider:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select a virtual datacenter → Network → Firewalls

To display all firewalls in a location (public cloud region or datacenter), including those that only exist in the platform and not in the provider:

1. In the Virtual datacenters list, select All
2. On the Firewalls tab, select the location (public cloud region or datacenter)
   

To filter firewalls, enter text in the Search box to search by the Name, Description, and Provider ID in the Firewalls list.

To assign a firewall with no virtual datacenter to a virtual datacenter, do these steps

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Network → Firewalls

2. Go to V. Datacenters All → Firewalls location

    Click here to expand...

   

3. Select and edit the firewall
4. Select the virtual datacenter to assign it to
5. Click Save

A: In the Abiquo API, the firewall object contains a link to the virtual datacenter it belongs to.

• In AWS or Azure ARM, if a firewall has a provider ID, then it exists in the cloud provider. The provider ID is the AWS security group ID or the Azure firewall name.
• Neutron assigns a provider ID to the firewall and it remains the same. In Neutron, the provider ID does not indicate if the firewall is assigned to a VDC or not. This means that the firewall can have a provider ID even when it does not exist in the provider.

Please refer to cloud provider documentation as the definitive guide to the load balancing features.  And remember to check your cloud provider pricing before you begin.

In vCloud Director, load balancers belong to a public cloud region, not a virtual datacenter. This means that in vCloud Director, you can attach VMs from more than one virtual datacenter to the same load balancer, and these load balancers do not work with private networks, which belong to only one virtual datacenter.

To display load balancers in a region, including those that are not assigned to a virtual datacenter in a provider

1. Go to Virtual datacenters
2. In the Virtual datacenters list, select All
3. Go to Network → Load balancers
4. In the Regions pull-down list, select the Region name

To display load balancers in virtual datacenters:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters

2. Select a virtual datacenter

3. Go to Network → Load balancers.

• Synchronize your virtual datacenters (including VMs, networks, firewalls, firewall rules, and load balancers)
• If required by your provider, create firewalls for your VMs to allow your load balancers to access the VMs
• In Azure make sure that your VMs belong to availability sets

To create a load balancer:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → select a virtual datacenter → Network → Load balancers 
   1. For vCloud, select All virtual datacenters → Network → Load balancers → Region

2. Click the + add button and complete the following dialogs according to your cloud provider's documentation

10.3.1. Load balancer general information

The following screenshots are from AWS.

10.3.2. Load balancer routing rules

10.3.3. Load balancer SSL certificate

10.3.4. Load balancer health check

10.3.5. Load balancer firewalls

10.3.6. Assign load balancer nodes

To assign a virtual machine to a load balancer, select the load balancer from the list.

To access vCloud load balancers, and provider-only load balancers

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → All virtual datacenters
2. Go to Network → Load balancers → select region

To synchronize all load balancers in a VDC or region:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters
2. Select the VDC or region
3. Click the arrow synchronize button.

Load balancers that have been deleted directly in the provider are displayed in light gray text. You can edit these load balancers to recreate them in the provider, or delete them.

1. Select the load balancer
2. Click the delete button.

If your enterprise does not have credentials in the provider, then the load balancer will be released (it will be deleted in the platform but it will remain in cloud provider).

If you would like the platform to notify you when an alarm activates, create an Alert for it in Control view.

• Alerts are a group of one or more alarms. They are like a worker monitoring a group of alarms; when all the lights for the group are lit up, then the worker takes action and activates the alert. Alerts can also trigger action plans to perform automated actions when their alarms activate. After you create an alert, create an action plan in Control view with the alert as a trigger.

You can create alarms for built-in VM metrics or scaling group metrics, as well as custom metrics created using the API for VMs, scaling groups, virtual appliances, and virtual datacenters. 

• You cannot create alarms for cloned VMs that are part of a scaling group. This is because scaling groups have aggregate alarms that are associated with the base VM. 

1. Go to Virtual datacenters 
2. Select a virtual datacenter or All virtual datacenters
3. Go to Alarms

1. Configure the metrics you will use in the alarm. See VM monitoring and metrics and Custom Metrics Resources.

To create an alarm:

1. Go to Virtual datacenter → Alarms
2. Select virtual datacenter, virtual appliance, scaling group, or VM
3. Click the Add + button in the top right hand corner
4. Enter the alarm details
   

   

   

   Field	Description
   Entity type	Select an entity with metrics from the list on the left.
   Entity name	The name of the entity
   Entity label	The label of the entity, which for VMs is shown in the list on the left
   Entity icon	The icon that the platform displays in the UI for VMs and virtual appliances
   Name	Name of the alarm with up to 128 characters. Alarm names must be unique for each metric
   Description	Description of the alarm. Used together with the alarm name and VM name to identify the alarm, for example, when creating an alert
   Metric	Select one of the metrics available for the VM
   Metric unit	The unit of the metric. Read only
   Metric description	The description of the metric. Read only
   Dimension	When the metric has multiple dimensions, optionally select one or more dimensions. For example, if a VM has multiple hard disks, then the disk read bytes metric may have a dimension for each disk
   Last datapoints in period	The number of datapoints that the platform will evaluate the metric during the elapsed time. If you request the evaluation of an alarm more frequently than metric data is collected by the platform or sent by the provider, then the alarm will not activate. We recommend that you create alarms with longer evaluation periods, for example, an average of 10 points over the last hour, so the transmission and collection intervals will not affect the activation of the alarm.
   Statistic	Statistic that the platform will use for evaluating the alarm, which can be: average, maximum, minimum, sum, count, dev
   Formula	Operator that the platform will use for evaluation of the alarm, for example, greater than. Values can be: notequal, greaterthan, greaterthanorequalto, lessthan, lessthanorequalto, trendup, trenddown
   Threshold	Value that the platform will evaluate the alarm against, if appropriate

5. Click Save

The platform will create the alarm for the metric. If you would like the platform to notify you when an alarm is triggered, create an Alert.

For API documentation about alarms on an entity, see the API documentation for the entity's resource. For example, for VMs, see VirtualMachinesResource.

When you edit an alarm, there is an extra field, "Active", that shows if the alarm is activated or not.

After you save the alarm, the platform will start to evaluate it again with new data when it receives the next set of metrics datapoints.

You can also remove an alarm from an alert.

To delete an alarm:

1. Go to Virtual datacenters or Infrastructure →  Alarms
2. Select the alarm and delete it

To remove an alarm from an alert:

1. Go to Control → Alerts → edit alert

2. Select the alarm, click the delete button, and confirm
   The platform will remove it from this alert, but it will remain in all other alerts that it is associated with