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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ornn.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Bare Metal access connects you directly to the physical GPU host — no hypervisor, no managed VM, no image selection. Your SSH public key is configured on the host automatically, and connection details appear in your portfolio once the host is ready. Use Bare Metal when your workload needs the absolute maximum GPU throughput or requires direct access to NVIDIA drivers without a virtualization layer in between.

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When to use Bare Metal

  • Your workload is sensitive to virtualization overhead
  • You need direct control over driver versions or kernel modules
  • You are running performance benchmarks or MPI-based distributed training that requires bare physical networking
  • You want to manage the full software stack yourself
For most ML training and inference workloads, VM access is the simpler choice. Bare Metal is best for advanced users who need full hardware control.

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Prerequisites

  • An accepted reservation in your portfolio
  • At least one SSH public key registered with your account
  • Access mode set to Bare Metal at /portfolio/access

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Set up Bare Metal access

1

Go to /portfolio/access

Navigate to /portfolio/access. Use the Portfolio reservation dropdown to select the reservation you want to configure.
2

Select Bare Metal

Click the Bare Metal card. Your selection is saved immediately and the page confirms the saved mode.
3

SSH key configuration

No image selection is required for Bare Metal. Ornn automatically configures your registered SSH public key on the host. You do not need to take any additional action to authorize access.
4

Connect via SSH

Navigate to your reservation detail page at /portfolio/[reservationId]. Once the host is ready, the SSH endpoint and your tenant username appear on the page. Connect directly to the host:
ssh <tenant-username>@<ssh-endpoint>
Bare Metal is direct physical host access. There is no snapshot capability, no image rollback, and no managed image selection. You are responsible for the software environment on the machine.
Bare Metal and VM cannot be active on the same reservation at the same time. Switching from VM to Bare Metal (or back) replaces the current access configuration. To switch modes, return to /portfolio/access, select the new mode, and save.

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What’s next

Access overview

Compare VM and Bare Metal side by side and understand when to use each mode.

VM access

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