Abiquo v4.0 introduces hardware profiles in private cloud. Hardware profiles are a convenient way of displaying CPU and RAM values that enable you to simplify the configuration of virtual machines for your users. They also enable you to control available hardware configurations and to recommend suitable hardware configurations for virtual machine templates.
Hardware profiles in infrastructure
There is a new tab in Infrastructure view called Hardware Profiles. This tab is displayed in both private cloud datacenters and public cloud regions (but with different functionality).
To create a hardware profile for a datacenter, you must supply a unique name, and a unique combination of CPU and RAM.
User perspective
When creating a virtual machine, the user must select a hardware profile.
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.
The hardware profiles that Abiquo will display may vary depending on whether the user has the privilege to Override virtual machine constraints or not. If the user has this privilege, it allows them to modify virtual machine CPU and RAM to values outside the maximum and minimum values defined in the virtual machine template. This means that the user with the Override virtual machine constraints privilege can select any hardware profile available to the enterprise.
When can I change the hardware profile assigned to my virtual machine?
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.
How do hardware profiles work with VApp specs?
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 cloud, 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.
How do hardware profiles work when I capture a virtual machine?
When you capture a virtual machine, Abiquo will create a hardware profile for it, or reuse an existing hardware profile, treating the virtual machine similarly to one that was already deployed when hardware profiles were enabled, as described above.
Enabling hardware profiles
You can enable hardware profile mode for each enterprise in each allowed datacenter and at the same time, you can select the hardware profiles that will be available to the enterprise. If you don’t make any hardware profiles available to a tenant, then the tenant’s users will not be able to deploy virtual machines.
What if the tenant already has virtual machines deployed when I enable hardware profiles?
Abiquo will try to assign existing hardware profiles to virtual machines that are deployed when you enable hardware profiles mode. If the profile for a certain 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.
Recommending 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. Abiquo will display “(recommended)” after these profile names when users create a virtual machine from a template.
How do hardware profiles interact with template CPU and RAM limits?
The administrator can still set the 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 mark the out-of-range values in red.
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 hardware profiles.
Disabling hardware profile mode and profiles
If you disable hardware profile mode 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.
What happens if I enable hardware profile mode again?
Abiquo assigns hardware profiles again, as for the first time you enabled hardware profiles. After re-enabling hardware profile mode, you should check templates and recommended hardware profiles.
How can I restrict enterprise access to a hardware profile?
If the enterprise does not have any deployed virtual machines using the hardware profile, you can edit the enterprise’s allowed datacenter and unselecting the hardware profile in the available list.
How can I stop all users from working with a hardware profile?
You can make a 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.
If a user already is already using a hardware profile on a virtual machine when you deactivate it, they can continue to use it until they delete their virtual machine. And 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.
Can I activate a hardware profile again?
Yes, you can activate a hardware profile again at any time. Also, Abiquo will automatically activate an existing hardware profile in preference to creating a new one when switching to hardware profile mode, capturing a virtual machine, or creating a virtual appliance from a spec.
Changes to hardware profiles in public cloud
In public cloud, 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.
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, and they can make recommendations for templates, if this is not done automatically, e.g. in AWS.
How does Abiquo manage synchronization?
If you synchronize a public cloud region and a hardware profiles assigned to a virtual machine is not allowed for the enterprise, the platform will automatically allow the hardware profile.
How does Abiquo manage the upgrade with hardware profiles?
In previous versions, the administrator could use Abiquo properties to define a whitelist of hardware profiles, and only whitelisted profiles were created in the Abiquo database. Abiquo 4.0 will ignore the whitelist properties, but during the upgrade, Abiquo will obtain the whitelisted hardware profiles from the Abiquo database and create them in infrastructure. Abiquo will then make them available to all enterprises with credentials for the public cloud region.
When the Administrator synchronizes hardware profiles in Infrastructure view, all hardware profiles will be obtained from the cloud provider and created as active profiles in Abiquo, including profiles that were not previously whitelisted. The administrator can then control the profiles that are available to each enterprise.
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/
The predefined profiles to be shown as recommended can be selected (or for AWS, edited) by the administrator.
When a user deploys a virtual machine they can select from the pulldown list of hardware profiles which will highlight recommended profiles with “(Recommended)”.
Related pages:
- Hardware profiles in Infrastructure
- Manage VM Templates
- Manage Virtual Machines
Pricing of hardware profiles in Abiquo 4.0.2
Abiquo 4.0.2 introduces pricing of hardware profiles in both private and public cloud. The Resource prices tab has a new Hardware profiles page where you can enter prices.
The following screenshots show private and public cloud hardware profile pricing.
Private cloud
Public cloud