Abiquo v4.0 introduces hardware profiles in private cloud to simplify the configuration of virtual machines and create an abstraction of performance levels from CPU and RAM specifications, facilitating upgrades.
Infrastructure view
There is a new tab in Infrastructure view called Hardware Profiles. This tab is available in private cloud datacenters and public cloud regions.
To create a hardware profile for a datacenter, you must supply a unique name, and a unique combination of CPU and RAM.
You can create each hardware profile as active or inactive. Inactive profiles will not display in templates or virtual machines. Administrators can recommend active profiles for templates. Users can work with active profiles to create virtual machines.
You can edit all attributes of a hardware profile. The administrator cannot delete a hardware profile if it is in use in a deployed virtual machine. However, the administrator can make the hardware profile inactive. Administrators can activate or deactivate a profile at any time.
Public Cloud
Create a public cloud region and add credentials for an enterprise. Abiquo will automatically retrieve hardware profiles for the public cloud region and enable them by default.
Public cloud hardware profiles can have the same combinations of CPU and RAM, they do not have to be unique.
Enterprise
When editing a tenant, for each allowed datacenter, the administrator enables hardware profile mode, and selects the active hardware profiles that will be available to the tenant.
For public cloud providers that use hardware profiles, by default Abiquo enables hardware profiles mode and selects all hardware profiles to make them available. You cannot disable hardware profiles mode if the public cloud provider does not support CPU and RAM settings. The Abiquo administrator can select if hardware profiles will be available to the enterprise or not.
Working with hardware profiles
Abiquo only displays active hardware profiles that are available to the enterprise in the location.
Editing templates
On the Advanced tab, from the list of active and available hardware profiles, the administrator can select recommended hardware profiles for a template. The following screenshot shows how the administrator recommends two profiles.
Note that in hardware profiles mode, the CPU and RAM values are not displayed on the General information tab. The administrator can set minimum and maximum CPU and RAM for the template. However, if there are recommended hardware profiles outside these limits, the platform will display an error and the administrator will not be able to save the template.
After the administrator saves the template with CPU and RAM limit values, Abiquo filters the display of hardware profiles to only show values in this range.
If the administrator further restricts minimum or maximum CPU and RAM, then a conflict may arise with hardware profile(s) that the administrator must resolve.
Virtual machines
The user can create a virtual machine and select the hardware profile (as in Abiquo public cloud).
If there are Abiquo instance templates, then the user can select specific instance templates and their hardware profiles.
If there are no hardware profiles, you cannot create a virtual machine.
If there are no valid hardware profiles for a virtual machine template, then you cannot deploy a virtual machine created from this template.
Edit virtual machine
When you edit a virtual machine, Abiquo will display the hardware profile, 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 for CPU and RAM, shut down the virtual machine before making changes.
When the hardware profile is used in a deployed virtual machine, then the administrator cannot modify the hardware profile. However, the administrator can deactivate it.
After a hardware profile has been deactivated, the user can continue to work with it until they delete the virtual machine.
Enabling hardware profiles
When you enable hardware profile mode, Abiquo automatically creates one hardware profile for each combination of CPU and RAM. And assigns the hardware profiles to the virtual machines.
If a virtual machine matches a disabled profile, Abiquo will enable that profile instead of adding a new one.
VApp Specs
When you create a 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 virtual machine with a hardware profile, either reusing an existing one or creating a new one. Because Abiquo cannot create a new
Capture
When you capture a virtual machine, Abiquo will resuse an existing hardware profile or create a new one.