Create hardware profiles

This page describes how to create hardware profiles for private cloud providers.

For other topics, such as pricing hardware profiles and managing public cloud hardware profiles, see Hardware profiles

Introduction to private cloud hardware profiles

Hardware profiles are a convenient way of displaying CPU and RAM values. Hardware profiles can make it easier for your users to configure their VMs. They also enable you to control which hardware configurations are available and to recommend suitable hardware configurations for VM templates. And you can restrict users to a set of recommended hardware configurations for a template.

In private cloud you can create and fully manage hardware profiles and their types in the platform. Abiquo supports dynamic hardware profiles for CPU and RAM, so the user can enter these values. For dynamic hardware profiles, the platform uses CPU and RAM prices, and it also applies cost codes. The user can also enter cores per socket.

In public cloud, you can synchronize the provider's profiles in the platform. And you can onboard and synchronize price lists of hardware profiles and incorporate them into your pricing models. Note that the Azure API returns a value for cores per socket but the platform does not use this value.

Some cloud providers may support both hardware profiles, and CPU and RAM, for example, VCD.

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

Hardware profiles in infrastructure view

Display hardware profiles

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:

Go to Infrastructure → Private and select a datacenter
OR Go to Infrastructure → Public → select a region without native hardware profiles
Go to Hardware profiles
At the bottom of the Types list, click the + add button and select Family or Type
Complete the dialog as shown below and click Save

Create a hardware profile family

Create a hardware profile type

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.

Abiquo supports dynamic hardware profiles for CPU and RAM, so the user can enter these values when they create a VM. For dynamic hardware profiles, the platform uses CPU and RAM prices, and it also applies cost codes.

Privileges: Access infrastructure view and private DCs, View datacenter details, Manage datacenter infrastructure elements

To create a hardware profile:

Go to Infrastructure → Private or Public
Select a location and go to Hardware profiles
Click the + add button
Enter the details of the hardware profile
Click Save

Field	Value

Field	Value
Family	Select a family to classify the hardware profile. The family can help users understand the main purpose of the hardware profile
Type	Select a type to classify the hardware profile. The type can help users understand the performance specifications of the hardware profile
Name	Enter a unique name for the hardware profile. Identify it to users who will select it for their VMs.
CPU	The number of virtual CPUs to assign to VMs using this hardware profile. The combination of CPU and RAM must be unique in the datacenter. For dynamic hardware profiles this is the default value.
Cores per socket	The number of cores per socket to use for supported hypervisors such as VMware. The number of CPUs must be divisible by this value. For dynamic hardware profiles this is the default value.
RAM	The amount of virtual RAM to assign to VMs using this hardware profile. The combination of CPU and RAM must be unique in the datacenter. Select RAM units of MB, GB or TB. For dynamic hardware profiles, this is the default value.
Dynamic	To allow the user to enter CPU and/or RAM values, select the Dynamic option/s. Pricing and billing of dynamic hardware profiles will include cost codes, and CPU and RAM usage pricing.
Extra charges	For pricing and billing, select extra charges for the hardware profile. See Create a new cost code for an extra charge in Pricing view.
Active	Select this checkbox to activate or deactivate the hardware profile. The platform will only display active hardware profiles to make available to an enterprise but inactive hardware profiles may be shown if they were previously selected when active. The platform will only display active hardware profiles for selecting the recommended profiles for a template. Users can only work with active hardware profiles.
Current generation	Select this checkbox to mark that the hardware profile is compatible with current VM templates