> ## 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.

# Direct Bare Metal access to GPU hardware

> Configure Bare Metal access for an Ornn reservation to SSH directly into the GPU host with no virtualization overhead and no managed image.

Bare Metal access connects you directly to the physical GPU host, with no hypervisor, no managed VM, and no image selection. You launch Bare Metal access from the reservation detail page, attach a registered SSH key, and connect over SSH once the host is ready.

## When to use Bare Metal

* Your workload is sensitive to virtualization overhead.
* You need direct control over driver versions or kernel modules.
* You're running performance benchmarks or distributed training that benefits from bare physical networking.
* You want to manage the full software stack yourself.

<Note>
  For most ML training and inference workloads, [VM access](/guides/vm-access) is the simpler choice. Bare Metal is best when you need full hardware control.
</Note>

## Prerequisites

Before you can launch or switch to Bare Metal on a reservation:

* The bid must be promoted to a confirmed reservation, and the reservation must be visible in your portfolio.
* **Checkout and payment** for the reservation must be complete.
* You must have **at least one active SSH public key** registered on your account. Bare Metal does not use a VM image, so the SSH key is the only credential pushed to the host.

If you have not registered a key yet, see [Manage SSH keys for compute access](/guides/ssh-keys).

## Set up Bare Metal access

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the reservation detail page">
    From Portfolio (`/portfolio`), click **View** on the reservation you want to configure. The detail page opens at `/portfolio/[reservationId]`. Access mode and state are managed here. The legacy `/portfolio/access` URL redirects to this page.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select Bare Metal">
    Pick **Bare Metal** as the access mode. Bare Metal does not require an image selection; you manage the OS and software stack directly.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add an SSH key and launch">
    In the **SSH Keys** section, use **Add Key** to add or confirm an SSH key on the reservation, then launch. Ornn pushes the active reservation keys to the host as part of the launch step.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Connect via SSH">
    Once the host is ready, the **SSH Host** and **User** fields (plus a ready-to-run **Quick Connect** command) appear in the Connect section of the reservation detail page. Connect directly:

    ```bash theme={null}
    ssh <tenant-username>@<ssh-endpoint>
    ```
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  Bare Metal is direct physical host access. There is no snapshot, no image rollback, and no managed image. You're responsible for everything on the machine.
</Warning>

<Warning>
  VM and Bare Metal can't run on the same reservation at the same time. Switching modes after launch tears down the existing environment; anything not persisted off the host will be lost.
</Warning>

## Push additional keys

To push another registered key to an already-launched Bare Metal reservation:

```bash theme={null}
ornn access push-keys <reservation-id> --ssh-key-id <key-id>
```

## CLI equivalents

The Ornn Compute CLI can queue Bare Metal access with `ornn access activate`. Use the web reservation detail page for VM image selection and visual access-mode management.

```bash theme={null}
ornn access show <reservation-id>
ornn access activate <reservation-id> --ssh-key-id <key-id>
ornn access push-keys <reservation-id> --ssh-key-id <key-id>
```

Get the `<key-id>` from `ornn ssh-keys list`, which prints each key's id, label, and fingerprint. The label is the CLI equivalent of the web **Name** field.

Because `ornn access activate` queues the launch, poll `ornn access show <reservation-id>` to know when the host is reachable. It reports each machine's state along with a `Ready: yes` line and the `Host`, `Port`, and `Username` once provisioning finishes, plus a ready-to-run `SSH:` command. SSH in after `Ready: yes` appears.

See the [Ornn Compute CLI](/cli) and [Manage SSH keys](/guides/ssh-keys) for details.

## What's next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Access overview" img="https://mintcdn.com/ornn/fNQRwmmR9H-yzza5/images/banners/access.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=fNQRwmmR9H-yzza5&q=85&s=d7f78f5776720abf9eadfbb2519503c6" href="/guides/access-overview" width="1200" height="800" data-path="images/banners/access.jpg">
    Compare VM and Bare Metal and understand the prerequisites for each.
  </Card>

  <Card title="VM access" img="https://mintcdn.com/ornn/fNQRwmmR9H-yzza5/images/banners/vm-access.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=fNQRwmmR9H-yzza5&q=85&s=11440154a7d2f11d5f64d61ac90c23c3" href="/guides/vm-access" width="1200" height="800" data-path="images/banners/vm-access.jpg">
    Use a managed VM with the Ornn base image or an approved custom image.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>