Schedule Automatic Power On and Off for VMs

You can automatically power VMs on and off at specified times using power schedules. Power schedules are especially useful for the public cloud, where you pay more when VMs are running. It's still possible to manually power on and use a VM during the scheduled power-off period.

To set the power schedule for a VM, you add the VM to a power schedule group configured by your administrator.

To assign a VM to a power schedule group:

  1. Go to the Applications page.
  2. Select a service.
  3. From the Actions menu, choose Attributes > Set Power Schedule Group.
  4. In the Set Power Schedule Group dialog, select the appropriate group and click Save.

You can see what power schedule group a VM belongs to on the VM's summary page. If you don't have permission to change a VM's power schedule group, you may have permission to see and apply Power Schedule recommendations.

View power schedule recommendations

Power schedule recommendations are issued for VMs that don't belong to a power schedule group.

You can't ignore a Power Schedule recommendation or exclude a VM from Power Schedule recommendations.

To view all power schedule recommendations:

  1. Go to Recommendations.

    All active recommendations for VMs that you own are displayed.

    Make sure View Active Recommendations is selected.

  2. You may see rightsizing recommendations as well as power schedule recommendations. You can filter the list by typing in the search field, for example, power.

To view power schedule recommendations for a single VM:

  1. Go to a VM's summary page.
  2. Look at the Recommendations drop-down panel.

    If there are current recommendations (either rightsizing or power schedule), the message "This VM has recommendations" is displayed.

  3. Expand the Recommendations drop-down panel to view details.

    Make sure View Active Recommendations is selected.

Apply power schedule recommendations

You can apply recommendations from the Recommendations page and from the VM's summary page.

  1. When viewing a power schedule recommendation, click Apply Immediately.
  2. In the Set Power Schedule Group dialog, select a power schedule group and click Save.

    The recommendation is closed and disappears from the VM's summary page and the Recommendations page.