Adjust the resources of your virtual machines on the fly. RAM, CPUs, and disk space can all be adjusted to suit the requirements of a specific VM to help improve performance.
Resource Allocation
From the main Environment page, go to Edit Hardware. You will then have the main editing tools available to you, including a graph of the current resource usage.
Adjusting RAM
To adjust the amount of RAM assigned to a specific machine, click the pencil icon and move the slider to your desired setting. Clicking Save will assign the RAM and reboot the machine.
Do not forget to take a snapshot to save the settings.
Adjusting CPUs
To adjust the number of CPUs on a VM, click the pencil icon to bring up the Edit dialog. Here you can assign a single, dual, or quad processor. Note that the limits for this are 4 cores, 500 GB disk, and 32 GB RAM.
Clicking Save will assign the CPUs and reboot the machine. Be sure to take a snapshot to save the settings.
Adjusting Disk Space
Adjusting the disk space of a VM is a two-step process:
- Assign the disk space in the CloudShare user interface.
- Repartition the hard drive from the VM’s OS itself.
For more, see the Increasing VM Disk Size article.
Enabling Virtualization Technology (VT)
CloudShare enables you to run virtualization software on a CloudShare VM. All you have to do is enable virtualization on the VM and then you can run the virtualization software of your choice.
- From your environment's details page, click Edit Hardware.
- Under VMs List, find the VM you want to run virtualization on and select the VT checkbox.
You might have some VM templates that do not support virtualization due to an old virtual hardware version. In the case of a VM based on such a template, the VT box is not selectable and you will see a message when you try to select it. If you run into this problem, replace it with a VM based on a newer template.
- Click Save changes and wait for your environment to update. When your environment is finished updating, you will be able to connect to the rebooted VM and then run any virtualization software you choose.
Note that it is possible to virtualize an ESXi host within CloudShare, which in itself can run virtualized guests. This enables building complex virtual environments when there is a need for direct control of virtual hosts.
Generating a BIOS UUID for a VM
When a CloudShare environment is generated from a snapshot - whether for a class, demo, or single environment creation - the new environment is an exact replica of the environment the snapshot was taken from. Even the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) of each VM's hardware is identical on the equivalent VM in all environments generated from the same snapshot. In most cases, this is exactly as it should be.
In the event that your solution requires unique endpoint identification via UUID, CloudShare offers an easy way to configure a snapshot so that it generates a new UUID for a VM each time a new environment is created.
You can configure a snapshot with unique UUID generation by changing a hardware setting in the environment before taking the snapshot. The configuration takes effect in all environments created from the snapshot.
To generate unique BIOS UUIDs per environment:
- Before you take a snapshot, go to the Environment Details page.
- Click Edit Hardware.
- Select the Generate BIOS UUID checkbox for any VMs you want unique UUIDs to be generated for.
- Click Save Changes. A notification appears explaining that the Generate BIOS UUID setting does not take effect in the current environment, and that to complete the configuration, you will need to take a snapshot.
- When ready, take a snapshot of the environment. A unique BIOS UUID will be generated for the VM in all environments that are created from the snapshot you just took. The Generate BIOS UUID setting will also be initially selected in all such environments.
You can display the BIOS UUID of a VM by running the following command from the command line:
- Windows: wmic bios get serialnumber
- Linux: sudo dmidecode -t system | grep Serial
[Beta] Machine Shutdown/Power Off
Note: Machine Shutdown/Power Off is currently in Beta.
With Machine Shutdown/Power Off, Virtual Machines (VMs) can be run, suspended, shut down, reset, and powered off in an active environment. This is designed to provide VMs with comprehensive management capabilities that are similar to physical machines.
To shut down a VM:
From the VM List tab, click Shut Down to power off selected machines.
For additional information, see Machine Shutdown/Power Off.