---
title: "Bare metal"
description: "Whole-host leases in the Metalhost dashboard — VMs vs bare metal, browse inventory, and when to pick a dedicated server."
url: "https://metalhost.net/docs/dashboard/guides/bare-metal"
---

# Bare metal

Bare metal is a **whole physical machine** leased to your project — single-tenant, no hypervisor between you and the hardware. Manage it from the top nav: *bare metal*.

## VMs vs bare metal

|  | VMs | Bare metal |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Unit** | vCPU + RAM slice on shared hosts | Entire server (fixed spec) |
| **Provisioning** | ~90 seconds from a form | Pick a published host; OS install over the network |
| **Billing** | Per-second while running (disk always bills) | Hourly or prepaid monthly *lease* — powered off still bills |
| **Bandwidth** | 10 TiB/mo transfer allowance (metered overage) | **Unlimited** — included with the lease |
| **Best for** | Bursty workloads, dev boxes, elastic sizing | GPU nodes, databases, hypervisors, licenses tied to hardware |

## Your leases

*bare metal* lists every lease in the current project. Columns: name, spec, datacenter, state, billing term, and monthly cost. Click a name for the instance detail page.

Header actions on this page:

- **ISO library** — upload install images (Proxmox, Windows, custom Linux).
- **browse inventory** — full fleet view (available + leased).
- **lease a machine** — start the lease wizard.

The list auto-refreshes while any lease is `provisioning` or `releasing`. Row actions: **renew** (monthly terms) and **release** (return the host to the pool).

> **unlimited bandwidth**
>
> Bare-metal leases include **unlimited bandwidth** — ingress and egress are not metered and do not count against the project transfer allowance that applies to VMs. You pay the lease rate and public IPv4 only.

> **powered off still bills**
>
> Turning a bare-metal host off stops the guest OS — it does *not* stop the lease. You're paying for the hardware until you release it (or the prepaid term ends).

## Browse inventory

*bare metal → browse inventory* shows every published machine on the platform — not just what's free right now. Available hosts can be leased; leased hosts appear greyed with a **leased** badge so you can see the fleet exists even when nothing is free.

Each card shows spec label, CPU model, cores, RAM, storage, GPU (if any), datacenter, and monthly price. Footer CTA: **lease an available machine**.

## States

| State | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `provisioning` | OS installing or host being prepared. Console locked. |
| `active` | Lease is live — SSH, console, power controls available. |
| `releasing` | Returning hardware to the pool. Console locked. |
| `released` | Lease ended (historical). |

## What's next

- [Lease bare metal](https://metalhost.net/docs/dashboard/guides/bare-metal-lease.md) — full wizard walkthrough.
- [Bare metal lifecycle](https://metalhost.net/docs/dashboard/guides/bare-metal-lifecycle.md) — power, console, network, release.
- [Install ISOs](https://metalhost.net/docs/dashboard/guides/bare-metal-isos.md) — ISO library for bring-your-own OS.
- [Create a VM](https://metalhost.net/docs/dashboard/guides/vms-create.md) — the virtual-machine path instead.