Automation Profiles Explained

An Automation Profile defines which workloads are eligible for automated changes, and the profile's guardrails limit each change. Profiles let you tailor automation to each kind of workload. For example, a production service might need small changes outside business hours, while a development environment can accept larger changes at any time.

Automation is opt-in. Automation is disabled by default and enabled by you. When you enable automation, RealTheory can make configuration changes within the scope and parameters of your automation profiles, including any default values that you have not changed. See Automation Opt-In Requirements Explained.

What a Profile Contains

A profile contains guardrails and profile settings.

Guardrails: Each guardrail limits one aspect of automation, for example which workloads are eligible, how large a change can be, or how often automation can change a workload. Every profile has the required Workload scope guardrail. Several other guardrails have default values that apply to every profile, even if you do not add those guardrails. To change the defaults, add the guardrail and change the guardrail's settings. See Automation Profile Guardrails.
Profile settings: Settings that apply to the whole profile, such as the maintenance window. By default, automation can apply changes at any time, and the maintenance window lets you limit when. You define intervals, each with days of the week, a start time, and an end time, in a time zone that you choose. You can also exclude specific dates. On an excluded date, automation never applies changes, even during an interval.

Planning Your Profiles

Automation has no built-in profile types. You build each profile from guardrails, so plan one profile for each kind of workload that needs different limits. The following examples show common starting points.

Profile purpose	Guardrails to consider	Example use case
Cautious	A small Resize delta, a long Resize frequency, strict Workload stability conditions, and a maintenance window outside business hours	A customer-facing production service, where any disruption is costly
Reliability first	Recommendation category limited to Reliability, with Resize boundary values that cap CPU and memory	A service where you want automation to fix under-provisioning, and you review cost savings manually
Cost-focused	Recommendation category limited to Cost, a larger Resize delta, and no maintenance window limits	A development or staging environment, where efficiency matters more than stability

How a Profile Applies to Clusters

A profile applies to a cluster in one of the following ways.

Method	How it works
Policy	An Automation Policy applies the profile to the clusters whose labels match the policy's conditions. See Automation Policies Explained.
Direct assignment	You select the clusters that use the profile. Use a direct assignment when you want to guarantee that a cluster uses a specific profile. See Creating an Automation Profile.
Default profile	The profile applies to clusters that no policy or direct assignment covers, within the cluster access of the profile's owner.

A direct assignment always takes precedence over an assignment by any policy, including the default policy.

Which Workloads a Profile Affects

Automation changes a workload only when all of the following are true:

The workload is within the profile's Workload scope, and the profile does not exclude the workload.
The profile applies to the workload's cluster, and the cluster is automation-ready.
The cluster is within the profile owner's cluster access.
If a policy applies the profile, the cluster is also within the policy owner's cluster access.

See Scope and Parameters.

The user who creates a profile becomes the profile's first owner. The owner's cluster access limits which clusters the profile can affect. Another user can take ownership, and the new owner's cluster access then applies instead, so the affected clusters might change. See Automation Owners Explained.

The Default Profile

Setting a default profile is optional, and only one profile can be the default. Setting a default profile creates a default policy that applies the profile, and makes you the owner of the profile. See Setting the Default Automation Profile.

Checking Which Profile Applies to a Cluster

Automation Profile Assignments shows which profile applies to each cluster, which method applied the profile, and the policy conditions that matched. To open the view, navigate to Settings > Automation > Workloads > Automation Profile Assignments. To find a cluster, type text in the search field and click FIND.
The Assigned by column shows one of the following.

Value	What it means
Direct assignment	A user assigned the profile to the cluster directly.
Policy - policy name	The named policy applied the profile.
Policy (Default) - policy name	The default policy applied the profile.