Cloud accounts

This section describes how to manage your cloud accounts in Performance Center.

In this topic:

Cloud Accounts Overview

After establishing a cloud provider account, you must also establish a cloud account in Performance Center. When defining a cloud account in Performance Center, you enter your cloud provider credentials, associate projects to the account, and define the total number of cloud credits allowed for consumption by your provisioned hosts.

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Cloud Credits

When setting up cloud accounts in Performance Center, to ensure efficiency and reduce cost, you can regulate cloud provisioning usage by assigning virtual cloud credits to your projects. For each project, you can define the total number of cloud credits allowed for consumption by your provisioned hosts. Note that credits used and consumed are not representative of the actual cost to your cloud provider.

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Adding a cloud account

1. Prerequisites

   • To add a cloud account to Performance Center, you must have an existing cloud account with a supported cloud provider.

     Note: Performance Center currently integrates with Amazon EC2 only.

   • After you have your cloud account ready, you need to record the following information from your cloud provider's website:

     Account Access Key	Allows Performance Center to connect to your cloud account.
     Account Secret Key	Serves as the password for the access key used to connect to your cloud account.
     Account Number	The Amazon EC2 account number. This number is used to access custom images from the cloud account. Adding an incorrect account number will result in the inability to access custom images related to this account.

2. Add a cloud account to Performance Center

   1. In Performance Center Administration, select Configuration > Cloud.

   2. In the Accounts tab, click Add Cloud Account, and enter a name for the cloud account.

   3. Select Amazon EC2 as the cloud provider.

   4. Enter the account access key, secret key, and account number for your Amazon EC2 account.

   5. Click Save to add the cloud account to Performance Center. The cloud account is added to the grid.

      Note: The account creation process may take several minutes to complete.

   You can now create templates and provision hosts from this cloud account.

3. Continue with Link projects to your cloud account.

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Link projects to your cloud account

Every project that needs to provision hosts from a cloud account created in Performance Center must be linked to that account.

To link projects to a cloud account created in Performance Center:

1. In Performance Center Administration, select Configuration > Cloud.

2. In the Accounts grid, select the cloud account you want to link to open the cloud details.

3. Click Assign Projects, and select the projects you want to link to the cloud account from the grid.

4. Click Assign. This links the selected projects to the cloud account.

All linked projects may now provision cloud hosts from the selected cloud account.

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Define the total number of credits for your cloud account

When defining credits in Performance Center, you allocate credits for each project listed in your cloud account. In Performance Center, you define credits for a single project.

• Lab Management: In the Linked Projects tab, under Credit Balance, define the number of credits for each project listed in the account.

• ALM: Go to Cloud Settings > Cloud Accounts. In the Accounts grid, select the cloud account. In the Credits tab, define the number of credits for the account.

1. In Performance Center Administration, select Configuration > Cloud.

2. In the Accounts grid, select the cloud account.

3. In the Assigned Projects section, under Credit Balance, define the number of credits for the account.

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View or edit account details

This section describes how to view or edit a cloud account.

1. In Performance Center Administration, select Configuration > Cloud.

2. In the Accounts grid, click the name link of the cloud account you want to view or edit.

3. The Edit Cloud Account page opens, and displays the following:

   UI Element	Description
   Account Name	The name you choose for the cloud account.
   Description	A description of the cloud account.
   Account ID	The ID of the account. Generated automatically by ALM at the time the account is added.
   Main Details Tab
   Provider	The cloud provider for a specific account. Note:Performance Center currently only integrates with Amazon EC2 only.
   Secret Key	Serves as the password for the access key used to connect to your cloud account. Given to you by your cloud provider.
   Active Hosts	The number of currently provisioned hosts from this account. Hosts can be viewed in Performance Center Administration from Maintenance > Hosts.
   Created in Project	The project in which the cloud account was created.
   Access Key	Allows Performance Center to connect to your cloud account. Given to you by your cloud account provider.
   Account Number	The Amazon EC2 account number. This number is used to access custom images from the cloud account. Note: Adding an incorrect account number will result in the inability to access custom images related to this account. Available for: Amazon EC2 accounts only.
   Created By	The user who created the account.
   Assigned Projects	The projects that have been assigned to the cloud account. Assign projects to cloud account. Opens the Assign Projects to Cloud Account dialog box, enabling you to select projects that can provision from this cloud account. Unassign Project From Cloud Account. Prevents the selected projects from provisioning from this cloud account. Project Name. Displays projects linked to the cloud account. Credit Balance. Displays the remaining credit balance
   Event Logs Tab
   The Event Log displays the events that occur in a creating the cloud account, reporting the source and severity of each event.
   ID	The event ID.
   Action	The category of action where the event occurred. For example, Create Server.
   Category	The event category.
   Context	The specific entity (CloudAccount ID) where the event occurred.
   Created on Date	The date and time the event was logged.
   Description	A description of the event.
   Event Type	An indication of the event's severity. From most to least severe: error, warning, or info.
   Flow Context ID	A GUID that indicates a unique action which relates to several events. For example, running a test.
   Module	The module where the event occurred.
   Name	The name of the process.
   Owner	The user, or automated system process responsible for the event.
   Project	The project in which the event occurred.
   Source	The system element where the event originated.
   Sub Module	The sub module where the event occurred.

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Cloud network settings

If you need to configure cloud network settings for communicating from Performance Center to you cloud provider and for communicating with your cloud-based load generators, click Cloud Network Settings, and follow the instructions in Configure cloud network settings.

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Deleting a cloud account

To delete a cloud account:

1. Terminate all cloud hosts provisioned from the cloud account you want to delete. See Provision cloud load generators.

2. Log into the project that created the cloud account you want to delete.

3. In Performance Center Administration, select Configuration > Cloud.

4. Select a cloud account in the grid, and click Delete. The cloud account and all host templates using the cloud account are deleted.

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See also:

• Host templates