How to Create a Hardware Profile

In Virtual Machine Manager, you can create a hardware profile that enables you to specify the hardware configuration for various components of virtual machines that are created on the basis of this hardware profile. You can use a hardware profile to customize a new virtual machine or to customize a new template that is used to create virtual machines.

You can use either of the following procedures to create a hardware profile:

  • Create a stand-alone hardware profile. Create and configure a new stand-alone hardware profile based on defaults or by customizing one or more of the default settings. If you specify no values for any hardware components, Virtual Machine Manager creates a default hardware profile.
  • Create a hardware profile by using a wizard. Create and configure a hardware profile by running either the New Virtual Machine Wizard or New Template Wizard and then navigating to the Configure Hardware wizard page. You can either configure hardware profile settings on the Configure Wizard page or import an existing stand-alone hardware profile into the virtual machine or template created by each wizard.

To create a stand-alone hardware profile

  1. In Library view in the VMM Administrator Console, in the Actions pane, click New hardware profile to open the New Hardware Profile dialog box.

    1. On the General tab, provide the following information:
      Name. Type a name for the hardware profile.
      Description. Type a description of the hardware profile (optional).
      Owner. Either accept the pre-populated value for Owner (DomainName\Username, which is the account of the person creating the hardware profile) or specify a different owner.
    2. On the Hardware Settings tab, choose one of the following options:
      Accept the default settings. If you accept the default settings for all virtual hardware components, Virtual Machine Manager creates a default hardware profile, which you can modify later as appropriate.
      Configure settings for one or more components. Use the appropriate procedure to configure each component, as described in step 2 of this procedure.
  2. Configure the hardware components. For information about how to configure one or more components on the hardware profile you just created, see the following topics:

    How to Configure CPU Requirements for a Virtual Machine

    How to Configure the Amount of Memory for a Virtual Machine

    How to Configure the Floppy Drive for a Virtual Machine

    How to Configure IDE Devices for a Virtual Machine

    How to Add and Configure SCSI Adapters for a Virtual Machine

    How to Add and Configure Network Adapters for a Virtual Machine

    How to Configure Virtual Machine Priority for Host CPU Resources

To create a hardware profile by running a wizard

  1. Start one of the following wizards:

    Option 1: New Virtual Machine Wizard. On the Actions pane in any view, click New virtual machine. When the wizard starts, configure the information for each page as appropriate, and then click Next until you reach the Configure Hardware page. For information about how to complete each page of the New Virtual Machine wizard, see the following topics:

    How to Create a Virtual Machine

    How to Clone a Virtual Machine

    Option 2: New Template Wizard. On the Actions pane in Library view, click New template. When the wizard starts, configure the information for each page as appropriate, and then click Next until you reach the Configure Hardware page. For information about how to complete each page of the New Template Wizard, see the following topics:

    How to Create a Virtual Machine Template

  2. On the Configure Hardware page, choose one of the following options:

    Option 1: If you want to import an existing stand-alone hardware profile, select the name of the existing hardware profile that you want to import from the Hardware Profile drop-down list box. Click Next to continue to the next page and complete the wizard as usual.

    Option 2: If you want to accept the default settings on the Configure Hardware page for all virtual hardware components, click Next to continue to the next page and complete the wizard as usual.

    Option 3: If you want to configure one or more hardware profile settings directly on the Configure Hardware page:

    1. Use the appropriate procedure to configure one or more of the following components:
      How to Configure CPU Requirements for a Virtual Machine
      How to Configure the Amount of Memory for a Virtual Machine
      How to Configure the Floppy Drive for a Virtual Machine
      How to Configure IDE Devices for a Virtual Machine
      How to Add and Configure SCSI Adapters for a Virtual Machine
      How to Add and Configure Network Adapters for a Virtual Machine
      How to Configure Virtual Machine Priority for Host CPU Resources
    2. Save the wizard-based hardware profile settings by using one of the following methods:
      Option 1: Click Next to save your settings and continue to the next wizard page and complete the wizard as usual.
      Option 2: To save your settings not only in this wizard but also as a stand-alone profile, click Save Profile to open the Hardware Profile Properties dialog box (which is identical to a stand-alone hardware profile dialog box). On the General tab, configure the following fields:
      Name. Type a name for the guest operating system profile.
      Description (optional). Type a description for this profile.
      Owner. Accept the pre-populated value, DomainName\Username if you want yourself to be the owner, or click Select to specify a different owner.
      Click Apply and then click OK to return to the Configure Hardware page, click Next to continue to the next page, and complete the wizard as usual.

See Also

Concepts

About Hardware Profiles
How to Modify the Properties of a Hardware Profile
How to Remove a Stand-Alone Hardware Profile