Service Add-ons

This chapter provides an overview on what service add-ons in OnApp are, the management tips, the information on creating your own service add-ons and providing them as a paid resource for your customers.

Service Add-ons functionality allows you to present to your customers additional services on top of your current IaaS Virtual Server offering.  You can offer features such as Managed Services, Software Installations and components currently not integrated in OnApp.

System service add-ons

In OnApp, there are two types of service add-ons: user and system. User service add-on can be optionally assigned or removed by users upon their desire to use or not the specific extra resources you offer. A system service add-on provides the ability for you to add obligatory services to a virtual server, template, or OVA, which cannot be removed by an end user. 

Below you can find more details on each step of the workflow. 

Create service add-on

On this page:

See also:


To create a service add-on:

  1. Go to your Control Panel > Cloud > Service Add-ons menu in the left navigation pane. 
  2. Click the "+" button.
  3. On the screen that follows:
    • Label – give your service add-on a name 
    • Description – add the service add-on description

    • Icon – upload the service add-on icon (click Choose file to select a necessary image)

    • Available on VS provisioning - move the slider to the right to be able to choose this service add-on when creating a VS (providing that the Replace recipes permission is enabled and the billing settings allow). 
    • System service add-on - move the slider to the right to make the add-on obligatory for a user and impossible to remove. 

    • Compatible with – choose if the service add-on can be assigned to Unix-based, Windows-based, or both types Virtual servers upon creation.

  4. Click Save. The service add-on will be created and you will be redirected to the Edit page, where you can manage On Add and On Remove events. 

For details on service add-on creation refer to the Manage Service Add-ons section of this guide.

Add events to service add-on


Service add-on events let you configure which actions will be run on the VS, to which the service add-on is assigned. The transactions for running the On Add events will be scheduled at the  moment when the service add-on is assigned to a VS. The transactions for running the On Remove events will be scheduled at the moment when the service add-on is re-assigned from a VS. The transactions for running the On VS Destroy events will be executed before 'Destroy VS' transaction. The transactions for running the On VS Rebuild events will be executed after VS rebuild. 

Currently the following events are available:

1) Run Recipe actions are available for service add-on configuration, in particular the recipes that run on Virtual Servers. 

Prerequisite

The recipes should be created beforehand, properly configured and tested.

The list of recipes that can be assigned to a service add-on depends on the user plan settings - it is possible to choose only from those recipe groups which are added to the bucket. Also it is required to have the View recipes permission to be able to attach a recipe event to a service add-on. Make sure that the recipe Compatible with parameter and the service add-on Compatible With parameter are consistent. Otherwise running the event will fail for a VS.

2) Raise Event actions become available starting with OnApp 5.5 version. This is an action type that sends notification to all subscribed recipients. The subscriptions and the messages are configured at Notifications Setup.

For more information on how to manage On add events and On remove events for service add-on, refer to the Manage Service Add-ons section of this guide.


Service add-on store


After you have created the service add-ons and properly configured events for them, proceed to arranging the service add-ons into a groups of services. A Service add-on store enables you to organize individual service add-ons into groups that can be further added to a plan to control user access. Only those groups which are added to a bucket will be available to a user. You can arrange the service add-ons into groups depending on their type, price, or whatever other attribute.

The prices for the individual service add-ons are also set in the Service add-ons store per service add-on per hour. This is the additional price that will be calculated for the VS besides the resources cost.

For detailed instructions, refer to Manage Service Add-on Store section of this guide.


Pricing and Access control


To make service add-on available to users, go to the bucket's Access Control section and add the required service add-on groups. The users under the bucket will have access only to the service add-on groups which were added to their Access Control.

To set the pricing for the individual service add-ons, go to the bucket's Rate Card section menu and indicate the price for required service add-ons per service add-on per hour as well as the additional cost for VS CPU, RAM and disk size. These prices will be charged additionally to the VS price.

For more info, refer to Manage Service Add-on Store and Configure Resource Allocation And Prices sections of this guide.


Permissions


The following permissions regulate service add-on functionality:

Service Add-ons

  • Any actions on Service Add-ons - the user can perform any operations on Service Add-ons - view, create, edit and delete service add-ons
  • Create new Service Add-ons - the user can create new Service Add-ons (Control Panel's Service Add-ons menu > the "+" button)
  • Delete Service Add-ons and Delete own Service Add-ons - the user can delete Service Add-ons  (Control Panel's Service Add-ons menu > the "Actions" icon > Delete)
  • Edit any Service Add-on and Edit own Service Add-ons - the user can update Service Add-ons (Control Panel's Service Add-ons menu > the "Actions" icon > Edit)
  • Read all Service Add-ons and Read own Service Add-ons - the user can view Service Add-ons (Control Panel's Service Add-ons menu)

Service Add-on Groups

  • Any action on Service Add-on Groups - the user can take any action on Service Add-on Groups -  view, create, edit and delete service add-on groups
  • Create a new Service Add-on group - the user can create a new Service Add-on group and add child service add-on groups (Control Panel's Service Add-ons menu > Store > the "+" button and Add Child button)
  • Destroy any Service Add-on group and Destroy own Service Add-on group  - the user can delete Service Add-on groups (Control Panel's Service Add-ons menu > Store > the "Delete" button next to the service add-on group you want to delete)
  • See all Service Add-on groups - the user can see all Service Add-on groups (Control Panel's Service Add-ons menu > Store)
  • Manage any Service Add-on group - the user can manage a Service Add-on group (the user can edit a service add-on group, assign a particular service add-on to a service add-on group, remove service add-on from the service add-on group, edit service add-on price).

Virtual Servers

  • Manage Service Add-ons for all virtual servers and Manage Service Add-ons for own virtual servers - the user can manage Service Add-ons for virtual servers (Control Panel's Virtual Servers menu > VS label > Overview > Service Add-ons)
  • Manage System Service Add-ons - the user can manage the system service add-ons of all VSs in the cloud
  • Manage own System Service Add-ons - the user can manage system service add-ons assigned to one's own virtual servers

Virtual Machine Statistics

  • See Virtual Machine Statistics - the user can see the system service add-ons usage report

Replace Recipes

  • Replace recipes - the user can replace Recipes with Service Add-ons in VS creation wizard. The Service Add-ons step will appear in wizard if the other conditions are met (such as availability in buckets, etc.). This permission is disabled by default.

OVAs

  • Manage System Service Add-ons - the user can manage the system service add-ons assigned to all OVAs in the cloud
  • Manage own System Service Add-ons - the user can manage system service add-ons assigned to the OVAs uploaded by the user

Templates

  • Manage System Service Add-ons - the user can manage the system service add-ons assigned to all templates in the cloud
  • Manage own System Service Add-ons - the user can manage system service add-ons assigned to the templates uploaded by this user

For more information about permissions, refer to the Permissions List chapter of this guide.

Assign service add-on to VS


Service add-ons can be assigned to the VS during its creation or later.

Service add-ons in VS creation wizard

Ensure that the following requirements are met to be able to assign service add-on to VS during its creation:

  • Replace Recipes with Service Add-ons on VS creation permission is enabled
  • Service add-on groups are available in your bucket
  • The On Provisioning option is enabled for all or some of the service add-ons available to you within the bucket. 

If the requirements are met, you will get Service Add-ons step in VS creation wizard, where you should fulfill the following steps:

  1. Click the service add-on group icon on the left  to expand the list of service add-ons on the right. Every service add-on contains the following info:
    • Label
    • VS's types, with which this service add-on is compatible
    • description of the service add-on
    • Price per hour
  2. Select the service add-on by clicking on it. You can select several add-ons from different service add-on groups. Click View Selected Add-ons to see the list of selected service add-ons. You can remove the selected service add-on from the list by clicking the  button near the add-on.
  3. Click Next to proceed to the next step of the wizard that completes the virtual server creation process.


Service add-on assignment to already created VS

When the events and the prices are configured for service add-ons, you can assign a service add-on to any of their VSs.

To assign service add-on to a VS:

  1. Go to your Control Panel > Cloud > Virtual Servers menu.
  2. Click the label of the server you're interested in.
  3. Click the Overview tab, then choose Service Add-ons.
  4. Click the "+" button at the upper right corner. You will get the list of service add-on groups (availability is configured in the bucket).
  5. Click the label of the necessary user or system service add-on to see its details:
    • Label
    • Type - user or system
    • Description
    • Price
  6. Choose the necessary service add-on and click Assign. The transaction to execute the add-on event(s) will be scheduled for running. If you rebuild VS, the On VS Rebuild event(s) will be scheduled for running and in case of VS deletion - the On VS Destroy event(s) will be scheduled for running.

For more information refer to the Virtual Server Service Add-ons section of this guide. 

Also you can view the list of VSs, assigned to the service add-on. For details, refer to the Manage Service Add-ons section of this guide.


Generate statistics for system service add-ons


For your convenience, the system tracks the system service add-ons' usage and generates statistics on it. It is possible to generate it for a specific period.

To generate the statistics:

  1. Go to your Control Panel > Admin > Users.
  2. Click the Full Name of the cloud admin to get to the User Profile. 
  3. In the Billing Details section, click the System Service Add-ons Report button. 
  4. Select the time period from the drop-down menu and click the Apply button to generate the report. 
  5. On the page that appears you will see the report with the following details:
    • From - the beginning of the specified time period for the statistics generation
    • Till - the end of the specified time period for the statistics generation
    • Virtual server - the VS the system service add-on in question is assigned to
    • Cores (peak usage) -  the number of CPU cores used 
    • Memory (peak usage) - RAM usage, GB
    • Disk size (peak usage) - disk usage, GB

You can save your billing statistics to a file in a CSV format. To download a CSV file with billing statistics for a selected period of time, click the Save as CSV button. The download will start automatically after you click the button.

The CSV file includes the following information:

  • from - the beginning of the specified time period for the statistics generation
  • till - the end of the specified time period for the statistics generation
  • user_id - the ID of the user 
  • virtual_machine_id - the ID of the VS the system service add-on in question is assigned to
  • service_addon_id - the ID of the system service add-on
  • cpus - the number of CPU cores used
  • memory - RAM usage, GB
  • disk_size - disk usage, GB

The generated reports will be stored at the System Service Add-ons Report page. However, if you have statistics archiving enabled for your cloud, the reports will be stored according to the period, specified for the archiving. 

For Windows-based VSs, you may also generate an SPLA report on the system service add-ons usage. For more information, refer to the SPLA Report section of this guide.