How to Save a Hardware Profile While Creating a Virtual Machine or Template

Use the following procedure to save a hardware profile based on the hardware settings that you configure while creating a new virtual machine or a virtual machine template. (Alternatively, you can use the New Hardware Profile Wizard in Library view to create a hardware profile.)

A hardware profile is a collection of hardware settings that can be imported into a new virtual machine or a new virtual machine template. By using hardware profiles, you can ensure consistent hardware settings in virtual machines. The hardware profile specifies memory and CPU requirements. The profile can attach virtual hard disks, a virtual floppy disk, and a DVD drive. And it can configure SCSI adapters and network adapters.

To save a hardware profile while you create a virtual machine or a template

1. On the Hardware Settings page of the New Virtual Machine Wizard or the New Template Wizard, click Save Profile to open the New Hardware Profile dialog box.

2. On the General tab, enter a name and description of the hardware profile and specify the owner. The owner must have an Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) account.

3. On the Hardware Settings tab, you can edit the settings that were imported from the virtual machine or template. Any changes that you make to the hardware profile do not update the virtual machine or template.

   What do you want to do?

   To view procedures for configuring other hardware components, click one of the following links:

   • Set the CPU requirement
   • Set the memory requirement
   • Attach a physical floppy drive or virtual floppy disk to the virtual floppy drive
   • Add a virtual DVD drive or virtual hard disk to an IDE device
   • Add a SCSI adapter and attach virtual hard disks
   • Configure virtual network adapters
   • Set virtual machine priority for host CPU resources

4. When you finish configuring hardware settings, click OK to save the new profile and return to the Hardware Settings wizard page.

5. If you changed settings in the hardware profile that you just saved, and want to import those changes into the virtual machine or template that you are creating, select the profile from the Hardware Profile list.

Related Resources

About Hardware Profiles (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=103583)

How to Create a Hardware Profile (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=104137)