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Introduction to hardware profiles

Hardware profiles are a convenient way of displaying CPU and RAM values that enable you to simplify the configuration of virtual machines as service levels. Hardware profiles can make it easier for your users to configure their VMs. They also enable you to control available which hardware configurations are available and to recommend suitable hardware configurations for virtual machine VM templates. In Abiquo 4.0.2+, And you can restrict users to a set of recommended hardware configurations for a template.For public clouds with provider hardware profiles, you can synchronize and manage the provider's profiles in Abiquo. For public clouds without hardware profiles and private cloud, you can create and fully manage hardware profiles in Abiquo. Some cloud providers may offer both hardware profiles  

Optionally, in private cloud you can create and fully manage hardware profiles and their families and types in the platform. In public cloud, you can onboard and synchronize the provider's profiles in the platform. Some cloud providers, such as VCD, may support both hardware profiles, and CPU and RAM.

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Create a virtual machine with hardware profiles

For a cloud and tenant with hardware profiles enabled, when a user is creating a virtual machine, the user must select a hardware profile. 

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If there are Abiquo instance templates, then the user can select specific instance templates and their hardware profiles. 

If a user’s enterprise does not have access to any active hardware profiles, the user cannot create virtual machines. If there are no valid active hardware profiles available for a virtual machine template, then users cannot deploy a virtual machine created from this template. 

If the template is restricted to recommended hardware profiles, then only recommended profiles will display; otherwise, all profiles will display.

if the user has the privilege to Override virtual machine constraints, they can modify virtual machine CPU and RAM to values outside the maximum and minimum values defined in the template. This means that the user with the Override virtual machine constraints privilege can select a displayed hardware profile that is outside of the minimum and maximum values.

Edit a virtual machine to change the hardware profile

When you edit a virtual machine, Abiquo will display the hardware profile, as well as the CPU and RAM. If the virtual machine is not deployed, you can change the hardware profile at any time. If the virtual machine is deployed and you are not using hot-add of CPU and RAM, shut down the virtual machine before making changes.

Create a VApp spec with hardware profiles

When you create a VApp spec, Abiquo records the CPU and RAM, but not a specific hardware profile. When you create a virtual appliance from a spec, Abiquo creates a VM and assigns an appropriate hardware profile. In public clouds with native hardware profiles, if there is no hardware profile that matches the CPU and RAM values, Abiquo cannot create a hardware profile, so the user will have to select another one.

Hardware profiles in infrastructure

To manage Hardware profiles, go to Infrastructure, select a cloud location and check you are in Details view, then open the Hardware profiles tab. 

In cloud providers with hardware profiles, you can synchronize existing profiles. In private cloud datacenters and in cloud providers that do not have native hardware profiles, you can create, edit and delete hardware profiles. 

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Synchronize hardware profiles with a provider

In public cloud providers with hardware profiles, when you create a public cloud region and add credentials for an enterprise, Abiquo will automatically retrieve the hardware profiles for the public cloud region.

You can synchronize hardware profiles but you cannot edit them or make them inactive. In public cloud hardware profiles, the combinations of CPU and RAM do not have to be unique. Some cloud providers may use CPU and RAM instead of hardware profiles, for example, vCloud Director, and some providers may use both. 

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You can deactivate hardware profiles mode in public cloud regions with native hardware profiles that also support CPU and RAM.

By default, for each enterprise with credentials, the hardware profiles mode is enabled. You cannot disable hardware profiles mode if the public cloud provider does not support CPU and RAM setting. By default, all hardware profiles are available to all enterprises. The Abiquo administrator can edit the list of profiles that is available to an enterprise in a public cloud region, and they can make recommendations for templates, if this is not done automatically as, for example, in AWS.

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If you synchronize a public cloud region and a virtual machine has a hardware profile that is not allowed for the enterprise, the platform will automatically allow the hardware profile.

For AWS, Abiquo has defined some suggested profiles based on information supplied by AWS in the following table, which was loaded into Abiquo at the time this feature was developed: http://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-ami/instance-type-matrix/

For each template, the administrator can select or edit the hardware profiles to display as recommended. From Abiquo 4.0.2, as in private cloud, the administrator can optionally force the user to only work with recommended hardware profiles.

When a user creates a virtual machine they can select from the pulldown list of hardware profiles. Abiquo will highlight recommended profiles with “(recommended)”.

Create a hardware profile

To create a hardware profile, open the datacenter or public cloud region to the Hardware profiles page, and click the + add button, and enter the details of the hardware profile.

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After you have created your hardware profiles, enable users work with them, as follows:

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Display hardware profiles

To display hardware profiles, go to one of these two sections of the UI.

• Infrastructure → Public → select provider region → Hardware profiles

• Infrastructure → Private → select datacenter → Servers view → Hardware profiles

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Before you create hardware profiles in private cloud, the platform will display the default hardware profile families and types.

Classify hardware profiles in private cloud

To help users to easily select the right hardware profile for their VMs, providers usually classify hardware profiles by family and type.

The platform contains one set of default families that are available in both public and private cloud.

In private cloud and in public cloud regions without native hardware profiles, you can also create your own hardware profile families and types that will be available in all of these locations.

To classify hardware profiles, first create families, then create types.

To create a hardware profile family or type:

1. Go to Infrastructure → Private andselect a datacenter
   OR Go to Infrastructure → Public → select a region without native hardware profiles

2. Go to Hardware profiles 

3. At the bottom of the Types list, click the + add button and select Family or Type

4. Complete the dialog as shown below and click Save

Create a hardware profile family

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Create a hardware profile type

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Create a hardware profile

You can create Abiquo hardware profiles in private cloud datacenters and for public cloud providers that do not have provider hardware profiles, such as vCloud Director clouds.

To create a hardware profile:

1. Go to Infrastructure → Private or Public

2. Select a location and go to Hardware profiles

3. Click the + add button

4. Enter the details of the hardware profile

5. Click Save

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Set prices for hardware profiles

To set prices for hardware profiles using extra charges with cost codes:

1. Create extra charges with cost codes. See “Create a new extra charge” in Pricing view

   1. For the Type select Hardware profiles or All

2. Set values for cost codes for extra charge values. See Create a new pricing model

3. When you create or edit a hardware profile:

   1. Go to Extra charges for cost codes

   2. Click + add and select a cost code for extra charges

   3. Click Add

   4. Add more cost codes for extra charges as required and Save

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Activate hardware profiles for users and templates

After you have prepared hardware profiles, do the following steps:

1. Activate hardware profiles for your tenants and select allowed hardware profiles.

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1. See Configure an enterprise in a cloud location

2. By default, users can select from all custom hardware profiles for all templates. See Modify

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1. a VM template.
   You can edit a VM template to:

   1. Recommend a set of hardware profiles OR

   2. Activate a set of selected hardware profiles for each template. 

For details of how Abiquo will manage hardware profiles, see Automatic management of hardware profiles

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Prevent users from working with

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hardware

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You can make an Abiquo hardware profile inactive at any time. This is useful because you cannot delete a hardware profile if it is in use in a deployed virtual machine. Users cannot work with inactive hardware profiles and Abiquo will not display them to select as recommended profiles in templates or for use in virtual machines.

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profiles

For custom hardware profiles, you can deactivate a hardware profile at any time in Infrastructure view for the selected datacenter on the Hardware profiles page. The platform will not display inactive hardware profiles to select as recommended profiles in templates or for use in VMs.

For a tenant, you can deactivate hardware profiles mode or disable a specific hardware profile that is not in use in deployed VMs, by editing the enterprise in an allowed datacenter on the Hardware profiles tab.

If you only activate a set of recommended hardware profiles for each VM template, then users will not be able to work with the other hardware profiles.

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Deactivating custom hardware profiles

 If a user already is already using a hardware profile on a virtual machine VM when you deactivate it, they can continue to use it until they delete their virtual machineVM. And in In this case, the administrator can save the enterprise’s allowed datacenter with the inactive hardware profile selected. If the administrator deletes a hardware profile, it will be automatically removed from all enterprises. This means that an undeployed virtual machine could have no hardware profile and the user will need to select a new one before they deploy.

Activate a hardware profile again

You can activate a hardware profile again at any time. Also, Abiquo the platform will automatically activate an existing hardware profile in preference to creating a new one when switching to hardware profile mode, capturing a virtual machineVM, or creating a virtual appliance from a spec.

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Delete custom hardware profiles

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To deploy with Abiquo hardware profiles, the tenant must have hardware profiles enabled in the datacenter. And they must have some allowed hardware profiles selected. See Manage Enterprises#Allowtenantstousehardwareprofiles

If a tenant enterprise already has virtual machines deployed when you enable hardware profiles, Abiquo will try to assign existing hardware profiles. If an existing profile is inactive, Abiquo will activate this profile and assign it. Otherwise, Abiquo will create a new hardware profile named ABQ_HP_{cpu}_{ram}_ID

Disable hardware profile mode

You can disable hardware profiles mode if the provider also supports CPU and RAM. When you disable it for an enterprise in a datacenter, the hardware profile details will simply “disappear” from virtual machines, and users will work with CPU and RAM values again. When editing the enterprise, however, the profiles that you made available are still marked, in case you decide to enable hardware profiles again.

If you enable hardware profile mode again, Abiquo enables hardware profiles like the first time you enabled hardware profiles. After re-enabling hardware profile mode, you should check templates and recommended hardware profiles.

Disable individual hardware profiles

To restrict enterprise access to a specific hardware profile, if the enterprise does not have any deployed virtual machines using it, you can edit the enterprise’s allowed datacenter and unselect the hardware profile in the available list.

You can also make Abiquo hardware profiles inactive in Infrastructure view, at any time and even if they are used in deployed virtual machines. See Stop users from working with a hardware profile

Capture VM when using hardware profiles

In private cloud, when you capture a virtual machine, Abiquo will try to assign an existing hardware profile to it. If the profile for the combination of CPU and RAM is inactive, Abiquo will activate this profile and assign it. Otherwise, Abiquo will create a new hardware profile named ABQ_HP_{cpu}_{ram}_ID.

Recommend hardware profiles for templates

For each virtual machine template, the administrator can recommend a set of hardware profiles, selecting from the active profiles that are available to the enterprise. See Modify a Template for Hypervisor and Modify a Template for Public Cloud

Restrict users to recommended hardware profiles

In Abiquo 4.0.2+ the administrator can select the option to Enable only recommended hardware profiles. This means that the platform will only display the recommended profiles and if there are no recommended profiles available, the user cannot deploy. When a user creates a virtual appliance from a spec, if the required hardware profile is not recommended, then none will be assigned and a deploy will fail. When synchronizing from public cloud, if the hardware profile is not recommended, then a deploy will fail.

Hardware profiles with template CPU and RAM limits

When using platform hardware profiles, the administrator can still set the minimum and maximum CPU and RAM for the template. 

After the administrator saves the template with appropriate CPU and RAM limit values, Abiquo filters the display of hardware profiles to only show values in this range, unless the user has the privilege to Override virtual machine constraints. In this case, Abiquo will display all available profiles, or all recommended profiles.

Set prices for hardware profiles

From Abiquo 4.0.2, you can set prices for hardware profiles in private and public cloud. In Pricing view, the Resource prices tab has a new Hardware profiles page where you can enter prices. 

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After you deactivate a hardware profile, you may wish to delete it.

• You cannot delete a hardware profile if it is used in a deployed VM

• If the administrator deletes a hardware profile, it will be automatically removed from all enterprises. This means that an undeployed VM could have no hardware profile and the user will need to select a new one before they deploy.

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Synchronize hardware profiles with a provider

In public cloud providers with hardware profiles, when you create a public cloud region and add credentials for an enterprise, Abiquo will automatically retrieve the hardware profiles for the public cloud region.

• Provider hardware profiles are locked and you cannot edit them

• In public cloud regions with provider hardware profiles that also support CPU and RAM, you can deactivate hardware profiles mode

• The platform also registers if a hardware profile is Active and if it belongs to the Current generation.

To synchronize hardware profiles: 

1. Go to Infrastructure → Public

2. Select Public cloud region

3. Go to Servers view → Hardware profiles

4. At the top right of the Hardware profiles section, select an enterprise with a public cloud account

5. Click the round arrows refresh button

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By default, for each enterprise with credentials, the hardware profiles mode is enabled. By default, all hardware profiles are available to all enterprises. 

Abiquo onboards and synchronizes all hardware profiles for each region. Some of these hardware profiles are not valid in some zones or for some VM templates, if they are not from the same generation. Users can still work with an older hardware profile, but the provider a warning or error because it will later be removed.

After you recommend the hardware profiles for a template, the platform will filter the hardware profiles by generation compatibility, subscription, and region.

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Manage hardware profiles with the API

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New Hardware profiles screens

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Now in Edit VM screen it’s possible to see selected Hardware profile and press on “select” button to open an advanced Hardware profiles selection screen

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The “show only recommended” checkbox is disabled by default.

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Related pages

• Control access to hardware profiles at a tenant level:  Configure an enterprise in a cloud location

• Configure hardware profiles for VM templates:  See Modify a VM template

• Configure pricing for hardware profiles: Pricing view

• Configure VMs using hardware profiles: VM general information

• Automatic management of hardware profiles