What it does
phoenixNAP Bare Metal Cloud provisions single-tenant physical servers with dedicated hardware rather than virtual machines. Its deployment guide walks through choosing a location and billing model, selecting the operating system and server type, adding an SSH key and optional cloud-init data, and configuring public or private networking. The service fits hosting workloads that need dedicated server resources and API-based lifecycle management.
Provision a host, then decide how it is reachable
The portal workflow starts by selecting a data-center location and billing option, then configuring the server and its operating system. For Linux systems, the documented flow can apply cloud-init user data and add a public SSH key; root is disabled by default. Before deployment, decide whether the host needs a public IP or should remain reachable only over private networks. A private-only server will not be directly reachable from the public Internet.
The same product can be managed through phoenixNAP's Bare Metal Cloud API or CLI, including server creation, power actions, network assignment, and deprovisioning. Hourly billing has no contractual commitment, but a partial hour is billed as a full hour. Reservations are also offered, with longer terms subject to their applicable conditions. This is a dedicated bare-metal service, not a VPS, so it belongs with infrastructure hosting but requires choosing physical server configurations rather than virtual-machine sizes.
Strengths
- Servers can be created and managed through the portal, Bare Metal Cloud API, or CLI.
- The provisioning flow supports SSH keys, Linux cloud-init, and public or private network configuration.
- Hourly use and longer reservations are both documented billing choices.
Watch out for
- This is single-tenant physical infrastructure rather than a virtual private server.
- Hourly use is rounded up to a full hour when a server is decommissioned before the hour ends.
Best for
- Hosting workloads that need dedicated physical server resources rather than a virtual machine.
- Automating bare-metal server deployment and lifecycle management with an API or CLI.
Sources
- Bare Metal Cloud Servers | On-Demand Dedicated Infrastructure (Oct 25, 2026)
- How to Deploy a Bare Metal Cloud Server | phoenixNAP (Oct 25, 2026)
- Bare Metal Cloud Pricing - phoenixNAP | Global IT Services (Oct 25, 2026)
- BMC Server Management via API | Knowledge Base by phoenixNAP (Oct 25, 2026)