Bare Metal on Targon

Some workloads need the whole box, not a slice of it.

Bare Metal on Targon is an entire physical machine dedicated to your organization. No hypervisor, no container runtime, no noisy neighbors. You choose a region and hardware class, Targon images the server with a managed OS, injects your SSH keys, and gives you direct SSH access to the host.

That means full control: kernel, drivers, firmware-level GPU settings, and performance that is not shared with anyone else. Bare Metal fits long-running training, custom stacks, and capacity you want anchored in a specific region, including machines you reserve under contract.

For confidential GPU compute with attestation on a managed VM, use Targon Virtual Machines. For fast, disposable environments, use Sandboxes. Bare Metal is for when you want the physical server and direct control over it.

Step-by-step setup, from inventory to your first SSH session, is in the Bare Metal guide.

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When Bare Metal is the right fit

Choose Bare Metal when you need:

• Maximum performance: uncontended GPU and CPU on dedicated hardware
• Full host control: install what you need, tune the stack, no platform abstractions in the way
• Predictable placement: capacity tied to a region you select, with optional reservations for guaranteed machines over a contracted window

If you only need a quick dev environment or a attested VM, other Targon products will get you there faster. Bare Metal is for production-grade, host-level work.

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How you get started

Bare Metal is built around region-scoped inventory. Each region lists hardware classes, hourly pricing for that region, and how many machines are available.

1. Open the Inventory page on targon.com and filter for Bare Metal (or browse GPU bare-metal tiers).
2. Note the region and hardware class you want. Both are required when you create a server.
3. Add at least one SSH key under your account or organization settings. Creation will not proceed without a key.

From there, open Bare Metal in your organization dashboard, click Create, and walk through region, hardware class, OS image, SSH keys, and an optional name or hostname. Confirm deploy; Targon claims a physical server in that region and images it for you.

Provisioning takes longer than spinning up a container or VM. Plan on several minutes while the machine is prepared. Track progress on the server detail page: Registered → Provisioning → Running (or Error, with details under Events).

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Connect and operate

When status is Running, copy the SSH command from the server detail page and run it from your terminal. Targon assigns a non-default SSH port and a public IP; the login user depends on the OS image you chose (often ubuntu on Ubuntu images).

From the same page you can follow Events, attach or remove organization SSH keys, and delete the server when you are done. Deleting returns the machine to the pool and does not preserve local disk data. Copy anything you need off first.

Suspend, reboot, in-browser shell, and port editing are not available on Bare Metal; you operate the host directly over SSH, like you would your own rack machine.

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Reserved capacity

If your organization holds an active Bare Metal reservation in a region and hardware class, you can deploy onto that reservation during creation instead of drawing from pooled inventory. Reserved capacity guarantees a specific machine for your org over a contracted window. Contact Targon to set up or extend a reservation. Only one running workload may use a reservation at a time.

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Automate when you are ready

Everything you can do in the dashboard is also available through the Workloads API (type: BM) and the Inventory API for region-scoped availability. The Bare Metal guide links to the full schema, deploy flow, and error handling when you are building pipelines or internal tools.

For tier selection and hardware details, see Compute resources.

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Thanks for building with us,
The Targon Team