Choose how to access your Ornn compute

Ornn offers two access modes for GPU reservations today: VM for a managed image-based environment, and Bare Metal for direct host access. Configure the mode from the reservation detail page. When you have a confirmed reservation, Ornn lets you choose how your GPU hardware is materialized and made accessible. You set this choice per reservation from the reservation detail page (/portfolio/[reservationId]).

Available access modes

Two access modes are implemented today:

Confirmed reservationset per reservation on the detail page

VM

Managed virtual machine on your reserved hardware. Ornn base image (Ubuntu, CUDA, PyTorch) or an approved custom image. SSH into the VM.

Bare Metal

Direct SSH to the physical host. No virtualization layer; you manage the software environment yourself.

	VM	Bare Metal
Use case	Most ML training and inference workloads	Workloads that need direct hardware control or maximum throughput
Performance profile	Near-bare-metal; slight virtualization overhead	No virtualization, direct physical host
Image options	Ornn base image (Ubuntu + CUDA + PyTorch) or an approved custom image	No image; you manage the software environment directly
Recommended for	Most Ornn customers	Advanced users who need full hardware control

Need a cluster instead of a single machine? You can also launch a managed Kubernetes or Slurm cluster across your reserved GPU nodes from the Orchestration page.

Prerequisites

Before you can configure an access mode for a reservation, the following must be true:

The bid has been promoted to a confirmed reservation, and the reservation is visible in My GPUs.
Checkout and payment for the reservation are complete. Access cannot be launched or changed on a reservation with outstanding payment.
Your account has at least one active SSH public key registered. Add keys from the SSH keys tab on the Account page or with ornn ssh-keys add. See Manage SSH keys.

Configure the access mode

Open the reservation detail page

From My GPUs (/portfolio), click View on the reservation you want to configure. The detail page opens at /portfolio/[reservationId]. The legacy /portfolio/access URL redirects here.

Choose VM or Bare Metal

Pick the access mode you want from the access section. VM and Bare Metal cannot run simultaneously on the same reservation.

Add an SSH key and launch

In the SSH Keys section, click Add Key to add a key to the reservation, or confirm one is already there. Then launch. Ornn authorizes the reservation’s active keys on the host.

Wait for the host to be ready

Provisioning takes a few minutes. The SSH Host and User fields (plus a ready-to-run Quick Connect command) appear in the Connect section of the reservation detail page once the host is ready.

You can also launch and connect from the CLI: ornn nodes launch <reservation-id> --key <path|id|label> --mode vm|bare-metal --wait, then ornn ssh <node-id>. The older ornn access activate command remains a reservation-oriented alias.

Connecting over SSH

Once the host is ready, connect with your preferred SSH client:

ssh <tenant-username>@<ssh-endpoint>

The values for these placeholders come from the SSH Host and User fields in the Connect section of the reservation detail page. From the CLI you can also fetch them on demand:

ornn access show <reservation-id>
ornn access show <reservation-id> --json
ornn nodes ssh-command <node-or-reservation-id>

Save the connection in `~/.ssh/config`

For repeated access, add a Host entry to your local SSH config:

Host ornn-h100
  HostName <ssh-endpoint>
  User <tenant-username>
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
  IdentitiesOnly yes
  ServerAliveInterval 60

Then connect with ssh ornn-h100.

Port forwarding

Forward a local port to a service running on the host (for example, a Jupyter server on port 8888):

ssh -L 8888:localhost:8888 <tenant-username>@<ssh-endpoint>

Copying files

Move data on and off the host with scp or rsync:

scp ./dataset.tar.gz <tenant-username>@<ssh-endpoint>:/data/
rsync -avh ./project/ <tenant-username>@<ssh-endpoint>:/home/<tenant-username>/project/

After you connect

Verify the GPUs are visible to the host:

nvidia-smi

You should see your allocated GPUs listed with driver and CUDA versions. If you’re on the Ornn base image, PyTorch is already available:

python -c "import torch; print(torch.cuda.is_available(), torch.cuda.device_count())"

Adding more keys to a running reservation

If a teammate needs to connect to the same host, or if you want to rotate keys, open the reservation’s SSH Keys section and use Add Key. Ornn associates the key with each active VM or Bare Metal node shown in the grouped reservation. It queues the access update without a relaunch. From the CLI, add the new key directly to the reservation:

ornn access keys add <reservation-id> --public-key-file ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub --label laptop

Active machines for that reservation automatically receive the updated key set. To re-sync a key that is already attached, run:

ornn access keys push <reservation-id> --ssh-key-id <key-id>

Switching access modes

You can switch between VM and Bare Metal on the same reservation, but it tears down the current environment.

Switching access modes after launch tears down the existing environment. Anything stored on the previous mode that has not been persisted off the host will be lost. Copy out any data you need first.

To switch: open the reservation detail page, pick the other mode, make sure the reservation has an active SSH key, and launch.

Data persistence

Ornn does not snapshot or back up data stored on the host. Treat the host as ephemeral within the reservation term:

Persist datasets and checkpoints to your own object storage (S3, GCS, R2, etc.) regularly.
Save before switching access modes; switching tears the environment down.
At the end of the reservation term, the host is released and any data on it is no longer accessible.

Troubleshooting

Permission denied (publickey)

The SSH key you’re connecting with isn’t authorized on the host. Confirm the key you attached to the reservation matches the private key your SSH client is using:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -v <tenant-username>@<ssh-endpoint>

To push a different registered key onto the host, run ornn access push-keys <reservation-id> --ssh-key-id <key-id>.

Connection refused or timed out

The host may still be provisioning. Check the reservation detail page. If the SSH Host field isn’t visible yet, wait a few minutes and retry. If the host is shown but unreachable, verify your local network allows outbound SSH on the listed port.

Host key changed warning

If you reconnect after switching access modes or relaunching, the host key may change. Remove the old entry from ~/.ssh/known_hosts and reconnect:

ssh-keygen -R <ssh-endpoint>

`nvidia-smi` shows no GPUs

On the Ornn base image this should never happen; file a support ticket. On a custom image or Bare Metal, confirm NVIDIA drivers are installed and loaded (lsmod | grep nvidia) and that the kernel matches the driver build.

The access section is grayed out

Access setup is gated on completed checkout/payment and at least one registered SSH key. Confirm both: check Account → Billing for outstanding invoices, and the SSH keys tab for at least one active key.

Learn more

VM access

Launch a managed VM with the Ornn base image or an approved custom image.

Bare Metal access

SSH directly into the GPU host for maximum performance with no virtualization overhead.

Manage SSH keys

Completing checkout

Finish payment so access mode changes are unlocked for your reservation.

Get Started

Reservations

Accessing Compute

Storage

My GPUs

Account

Choose how to access your Ornn compute

Available access modes

VM

Bare Metal

Prerequisites

Configure the access mode

Connecting over SSH

Save the connection in `~/.ssh/config`

Port forwarding

Copying files

After you connect

Adding more keys to a running reservation

Switching access modes

Data persistence

Troubleshooting

Learn more

VM access

Bare Metal access

Manage SSH keys

Completing checkout

​Available access modes

​VM

​Bare Metal

​Prerequisites

​Configure the access mode

​Connecting over SSH

​Save the connection in ~/.ssh/config

​Port forwarding

​Copying files

​After you connect

​Adding more keys to a running reservation

​Switching access modes

​Data persistence

​Troubleshooting

​Learn more

VM access

Bare Metal access

Manage SSH keys

Completing checkout

Available access modes

VM

Bare Metal

Prerequisites

Configure the access mode

Connecting over SSH

Save the connection in `~/.ssh/config`

Port forwarding

Copying files

After you connect

Adding more keys to a running reservation

Switching access modes

Data persistence

Troubleshooting

Learn more