Hardware profiles are a convenient way of displaying CPU and RAM values that enable you to simplify the configuration of VMs for your users. They also enable you to control available hardware configurations and to recommend suitable hardware configurations for VM templates. And you can restrict users to a set of recommended configurations for a template.
- For public clouds with provider hardware profiles, you can synchronize and manage the provider's profiles in Abiquo.
- For private cloud datacenters and public clouds without native hardware profiles, you can create and fully manage hardware profiles in Abiquo.
- Some cloud providers may offer both hardware profiles and CPU and RAM.
For a cloud and tenant with hardware profiles enabled, when a user is creating a VM, the user must select a hardware profile.
In private cloud, the hardware profile can be dynamic for CPU and/or RAM, which means that the user can enter these values. Users can also enter cores per socket.
To display hardware profiles for private cloud:
- Go to Infrastructure → Private → select Datacenter → servers View → Hardware profiles
Manage hardware profiles with the API
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, which means that you cannot edit them
- In public cloud regions with provider hardware profiles that also support CPU and RAM, you can deactivate hardware profiles mode.
By default, for each enterprise with credentials, the hardware profiles mode is enabled. By default, all hardware profiles are available to all enterprises.
Privilege: View datacenter details, Manage enterprises
Create a hardware profile
You can create Abiquo hardware profiles in private cloud datacenters and for public clouds that do not have provider hardware profiles.
Privilege: Manage infrastructure elements
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.
Set prices for hardware profiles
You can set prices for hardware profiles using cost codes or for each individual hardware profile.
- For dynamic hardware profiles, the platform will also use the prices for CPU and RAM.
- For details of how to create cost codes pricing, see Pricing View#Manage cost codes to create the cost codes. Then see Pricing View#Create a new pricing model, to set cost code prices.
- For details of how to set prices for individual hardware profiles, see Pricing View#Create a new pricing model, to set hardware profile prices for each datacenter or public cloud region.
Enable users to work with hardware profiles
After you have prepared hardware profiles, enable users work with them, as follows:
- Enable hardware profiles for your tenants and select allowed hardware profiles. Configure an Enterprise in a Cloud Location#Allowtenantstousehardwareprofiles.
- This section also describes how to disable hardware profiles for a tenant
- Configure hardware profiles for VM templates. See Modify a VM template
Automatic management of hardware profiles
The platform will automatically manage hardware profiles as follows:
- Provider hardware profiles
- If you synchronize a public cloud region and a VM has a hardware profile that is not allowed for the enterprise, the platform will automatically allow the hardware profile
- For AWS, Abiquo recommends hardware profiles based on information supplied by AWS in the following table, which was loaded into the platform at the time this feature was developed: http://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-ami/instance-type-matrix/
- If the provider does not support CPU and RAM as well as hardware profiles, and if there is no hardware profile that matches the CPU and RAM values, the platform cannot create a hardware profile, so the user will have to select another one
- Abiquo hardware profiles
- If a tenant enterprise already has VMs deployed when you enable hardware profiles, the platform will try to assign existing hardware profiles. If an existing profile is inactive, the platform will activate this profile and assign it. Otherwise, the platform will create a new hardware profile named ABQ_HP_{cpu}_{ram}_ID.
- If you capture a VM, the platform will behave as for VMs that were already deployed when you enabled hardware profiles.
- VApp specs
- When you create a VApp spec, the platform records the CPU and RAM, but not a specific hardware profile. When you create a virtual appliance from a spec, The platform creates a VM and assigns an appropriate hardware profile.
Prevent users from working with a hardware profile
Related pages
- Control access to hardware profiles at a tenant level: Configure an Enterprise in a Cloud Location#Allowtenantstousehardwareprofiles.
- Configure hardware profiles for VM templates: See Modify a VM Template
- Configure pricing for hardware profiles: Pricing View#Hardware profiles
- Configure VMs using hardware profiles: VM general information