Choose how to access your Ornn compute

Ornn access modes are VM, Bare Metal, Kubernetes, and Slurm. Set VM or Bare Metal on the reservation detail page. Launch Kubernetes or Slurm from Orchestration (/controllers). Use the reservation detail page for VM or Bare Metal. Use Orchestration to select reserved nodes for Kubernetes or Slurm. A confirmed reservation is a booking; wait for its term to start and launch your environment before connecting.

Available access modes

VM and Bare Metal are configured on the reservation detail page:

Confirmed reservationset per reservation on the detail page

VM

Managed virtual machine on your reserved hardware, booted from an Ornn disk, a disk you created with your packages, or a qcow2 you uploaded. 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
Disk options	Ornn disk, created disk with packages, or uploaded qcow2	No disk selection; 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.

On Orchestration, Search clusters matches cluster names, GPU information, cluster type, status, network mode, region, and hourly rate. To find a numbered cluster by name, enter its label, such as Cluster 4.

Prerequisites

For VM or Bare Metal setup, check the following:

You hold a Confirmed or Active reservation from an accepted offer or a Market purchase, visible in Nodes. Spot VMs start on their own and are always VM access.
Your account has at least one active SSH public key registered for VM, Bare Metal, or Slurm. Kubernetes API access uses its cluster credentials instead. Add keys from SSH Keys in the sidebar or with ornn ssh-keys add. See Manage SSH keys.

Resources for your workloads

While a resource list first loads, its breadcrumb stays visible and screen readers receive a loading status. The page waits for your results before showing a heading, controls, or rows. During a refresh, your current list or empty state stays visible. If you have no resources, the page shows an explanation and actions to get started without a separate page heading above it. Your saved Storage and Orchestration views apply before the list appears.

Disks are what your VMs boot: an operating system plus your packages. Click Create disk to start from a base image and add software, or Upload disk to bring your own qcow2.
Network lets your reserved GPUs communicate over private connections. Click Create network, then attach your reservations.
Storage holds datasets, model files, and other workload files in buckets. Click Create bucket for an Ornn bucket or Connect existing bucket to use your cloud storage.

Configure the access mode

Open the reservation detail page

From Nodes (/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 launch <reservation-id> --key <path|id|label> --mode vm|bare-metal --wait, then ornn connect <node-id>. ornn check <node-id> reports lifecycle, health, metrics, and logs. See the CLI reference for command options.

Use the API

You can automate VM and Bare Metal access over HTTPS with an organization API key. The REST flow matches the console:

For a VM, optionally choose an image before activation.
Ornn activates the reservation when its window starts. Activate it yourself to start sooner within the window or to retry.
Launch access with access_mode and ssh_key_ids. The response confirms acceptance, not readiness.
Poll the reservation’s VMs or each Bare Metal node until SSH is ready.
Connect with the returned address, user, and port: ip, tenant_username, and port for a VM, or ssh_endpoint and port for Bare Metal.

To change mode or network later, switch access. To end the reservation and release its machines, stop it. Follow the step-by-step walkthroughs with CLI, curl, and Python examples for VM and Bare Metal.

Connecting over SSH

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

ssh -p <ssh-port> <user>@<ssh-host>

Copy Quick Connect to use the correct SSH Host, User, and Port for your machine. Do not assume the port is 22. From the CLI you can also fetch them on demand:

ornn machines show <node-id>
ornn machines show <node-id> --format json
ornn connect <node-id> --print

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

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

Host ornn-h100
  HostName <ssh-host>
  Port <ssh-port>
  User <user>
  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 -p <ssh-port> -L 8888:localhost:8888 <user>@<ssh-host>

Copying files

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

scp -P <ssh-port> ./dataset.tar.gz <user>@<ssh-host>:~/
rsync -avh -e "ssh -p <ssh-port>" ./project/ <user>@<ssh-host>:~/project/

After you connect

Verify the GPUs are visible to the host. NVIDIA reservations use nvidia-smi; AMD Instinct reservations use amd-smi:

nvidia-smi          # NVIDIA
amd-smi list        # AMD Instinct

You should see your allocated GPUs listed. If your disk includes PyTorch, it is available as soon as the VM is ready:

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

On AMD Instinct the same PyTorch check uses the HIP backend. Driver packages and amd-smi are documented at amd.com/gpu.

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, register the new key, then assign it to the reservation:

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

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

ornn ssh-keys assignments sync <reservation-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 -p <ssh-port> -v <user>@<ssh-host>

To attach a different registered key, run ornn ssh-keys assignments assign <reservation-id> --key <key-id-or-label>. To retry delivery of the already assigned keys, run ornn ssh-keys assignments sync <reservation-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. A new VM applies security updates before its SSH port opens, so first boot can take a few extra minutes. If the host is shown but unreachable, verify your local network allows outbound SSH on the listed port. A VM’s SSH port resets connections from one address that opens too many connections at once or in quick succession; wait a minute and retry.

UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE

SSH refuses a private key that other users on your computer can read. Restrict it with chmod 600 <path-to-key>, or see Generate a key in the web app for Windows.

Host key changed warning

A relaunch can change the host key. Verify the replacement against current connection details or with support before removing the old entry:

ssh-keygen -R '[<ssh-host>]:<ssh-port>'

nvidia-smi or amd-smi shows no GPUs

On an Ornn disk, wait for GPU setup to finish; contact support if the GPU check still fails. On an uploaded disk or Bare Metal, confirm the vendor driver is installed and loaded (lsmod | grep nvidia or lsmod | grep amdgpu) and that the kernel matches the driver build. AMD Instinct hosts use amd-smi, not nvidia-smi.

The access section is grayed out

Access setup needs the reserved window to have started and at least one registered SSH key. Confirm both: the reservation is Active, and SSH Keys has at least one active key.

Learn more

VM access

Launch a managed VM from an Ornn, created, or uploaded disk.

Bare Metal access

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

Manage SSH keys

Billing and payment

How Spot hours and reservations are paid.

Get Started

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Accessing Compute

Storage

Nodes

Account

Choose how to access your Ornn compute

Available access modes

VM

Bare Metal

Prerequisites

Resources for your workloads

Configure the access mode

Use the API

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

Billing and payment

​Available access modes

​VM

​Bare Metal

​Prerequisites

​Resources for your workloads

​Configure the access mode

​Use the API

​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

Billing and payment

Available access modes

VM

Bare Metal

Prerequisites

Resources for your workloads

Configure the access mode

Use the API

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