Bare Metal Dedicated Servers & Bare Metal Cloud

All HostColor's (HC) Bare Metal Servers are delivered under a Semi Managed Service Level Agreement (SLA). "Semi-managed" means that HC's administrators do the following:

• Install the bare metal server according to the customer's requested configurations
• Reinstall the operating system (OS) upon request
• Configure the network settings on the bare-metal server
• Help the server owner troubleshoot in case of any operating system, network, or software configuration issues

HostColor.com delivers bare-metal server hosting services from over 100 data centers worldwide. In the U.S. alone, we use 50+ edge data centers. Some of the most used US data centers by our clients are:

• CoreSite VA1: 12100 Sunrise Valley Dr, Reston, VA 20191, USA)
• Cyber WURX: 55 Marietta Street 16th Floor, Atlanta, GA, 30303
• 365 Data Centers: 427 S La Salle Street, Chicago, IL, 60605
• CoreSite CH2: 1432 S Clinton St, Chicago, IL 60607
• DataBank: 400 S Akard St, Dallas, TX 75202
• Flexential: 1500 Champa St, Denver, CO, 80202
• Digital Realty: 12061 North Fwy, Houston, TX 77090
• DataBank: 624 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90017
• CoreSite LA 2: 900 N Alameda St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
• DataBank: 36 NE 2nd St, Miami, FL, 33132
• Verizon: 250 S Marquette Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55401
• Telehouse: 7 Teleport Dr, Staten Island, NY 10311
• DataBank: 165 Halsey St, Newark, NJ, 07102
• Telehouse: 25 Broadway, New York, NY 10004
• Coresite NY2: 2 Emerson LnSecaucus, NJ 07094
• CoreSite SV7: 3020 Coronado, Santa Clara, CA, 95054
• All Equinix facilities

HostColor also has infrastructure capacity and provides bare-metal servers virtually in every US state.

HostColor (HC) provides bare metal servers from Tier 3 and Tier 4 data center facilities that meet the highest possible standards set by the IT telecommunications industry. The data centers we use have different certifications depending on the country in which they are located. In general, most of our U.S. data centers are ISO 27001, ISO 50001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, and SSAE16 SOC I, SOC II, or SOC III certified. All are HIPAA and PCI-DSS compliant. Our data centers in the European Union are also EN 50600 certified.

Below is an example of HostColor's procedures for the Bare Metal Server installation and provisioning process:

Hardware Inspection
1. Perform a visual and physical check to inspect for dust, damage, bent pins, and ensure the proper seating of the random-access memory (RAM), central processing unit (CPU), solid-state drives (SSD), non-volatile memory express (NVMe), hard disk drive (HDD), graphics processing units (GPU), network interface cards (NIC), and cables is ensured.
2. Update the firmware and BIOS/UEFI to ensure the motherboard, RAID controller, and BMC/IPMI use the latest stable firmware versions.
3. Label the server and document the exact hardware configuration, including the CPU model, RAM capacity and type, disk models, NIC speed, GPU, RAID, and PSU rating.
4. Conduct burn-in and stress testing. This includes a RAM test for at least one to two full passes to detect faulty DIMMs and a CPU stress test for several hours to confirm thermal and voltage stability.
5. Perform a disk I/O test to verify the bare metal server's health and performance.
6. Run a network interface test to verify the NIC's throughput and stability at 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, or a higher speed, depending on the plan.
7. Perform thermal monitoring and observe CPU/GPU temperatures and fan curves under load to ensure proper cooling.

Storage & RAID Configuration
1. Verify RAID 1, 5, or 10 arrays, or NVMe passthrough, depending on the requested storage configuration and customer specifications.
2. Check the partitions and alignment to ensure proper alignment for SSD performance.
3. Perform SMART health verification to confirm that there are no pre-existing reallocated sectors or pending errors.
4. Perform a benchmark baseline to record IOPS and read/write latency for future reference.

Operating System (OS) Deployment

Linux OS-based Dedicated Servers:
1. Secure partitioning (LVM or separate /home, /var, and /tmp partitions, if required).
2. Set SSH keys and disable password authentication following industry best practices.
3. Set the time zone, hostname, and locale.
4. Swap configurations based on RAM capacity.
5. Install monitoring agents or baseline packages according to the custom requirements of the bare metal Server server user.

Microsoft Windows OS-based Bare Metal Servers
1. Install the requested Windows OS from verified ISO or template.
2. Apply all critical Windows updates and drivers.
3. Set an administrator password and enable RDP.
4. Disable any unused services and then enable Windows Defender and the firewall.
5. Configure remote access, IP setup, hostname, and time zone.

Network Configuration & Testing
1. Assign and test the primary and additional IP addresses to ensure they respond to ping and that the reverse DNS records resolve correctly.
2. Verify gateway and routing functionality.
3. Configure VLANs or trunking if part of a multi-tenant environment.
4. Test the bandwidth performance using either an appropriate speed test tool and the provider’s internal test network.
5. Check MAC address registration with the switches in place.
6. Confirm IPv6 functionality, if advertised.

Security & Access Controls
1. Securely generate and store root/administrator credentials in encrypted vaults until delivery.
2. Set firewall rules to the minimum requested level. For example, allow SSH/RDP and block specific protocols.
3. Conduct an SSH/RDP test from an external network to verify accessibility.
4. Disable the default or vendor backdoor accounts.
5. Secure IPMI/BMC access by using a unique password, a non-default port, and a restricted IP whitelist.
5. Apply network and data center-side DDoS or intrusion monitoring wherever requested by the server user.

Quality Assurance & Infrastructure Documentation
1. Run final health diagnostics
2. Log all system details, such as hardware serial numbers, firmware versions, IP assignments, credentials, burn-in test logs, and OS version/build, in the account/product checklist.
3. Verify the functionality of the remote console (IPMI/iDRAC/iLO) and BIOS password protection.

Dedicated Server Delivery Details
1. OS login credentials (root/administrator).
2. IP information - IPv4 & IPv6.
3. Access to the BMC/IPMI or remote KVM console.
4. RAID and storage description.
5. Test results summary or benchmark report

On Demand
1. OS image snapshot or recovery ISO.
2. Reinstallation instructions or self-service dashboard access.
3. Support contact details and server Level Agreement (SLA) documentation
4. Enable 24/7 hardware monitoring through IPMI sensors or external probes.
5. Record baseline CPU, RAM, and disk utilization.
6. Monitor NIC throughput and log temperature thresholds.

This depends on the edge data center location you request and the specific bare metal server configuration you require. For most of our data center locations, it takes up to 1 hour to install your bare metal server and send the login credentials as a welcome email in your account and to the email address registered in your account. More specifically:

• During business hours (9:00 am - 5:00 pm local time) 30 minutes - 2 hours server delivery time
• Outside the business hours (5:00 pm - 9:00 am local time): 2 hours - 9 hours server delivery time (with an average delivery time of 4 hours)
• Weekends: 1 hour - 24 hours server delivery time (with an average delivery time of 8 hours)

The lowest average delivery time applies to bare metal servers that use a standard Linux operating system (OS) such as Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, or virtualization platforms such as ProxMox or VMware, and the CPU, RAM, and storage disks listed in the server plan, as well as the default IPv4 and IPv4 IP address settings.

Most HC's Dedicated Servers can use any Linux OS distribution or a Windows OS. You can also install Proxmox VE, VMware ESXi, Linux Containers, or any other virtualization platform.
If you decide to use a Bare Metal Server with Unrestricted Data Transfer, hosted in any of our Edge data centers, you can choose between our "officially supported operating systems". They are CentOS 7.9, Ubuntu 22.4, Ubuntu 20.4, Ubuntu 18.4, and RockyLinux 8.6. You can also use virtualization like Kernel-based Virtual Machine (Proxmox VE), VMware ESXi, VirtualBox, OpenVZ, Linux Containers, Kubernetes, and Docker.

Clients with bare-metal servers that are not hosted in our Edge Data centers are assigned 1 usable IP address and can add more IPs at any time.
Each bare-metal server, hosted in our Edge locations is assigned its own IPv4 subnet that varies from /29 (8 IP addresses) to /24 (256 IPs). The first three IP addresses are used for the networking service of your server as follows: 1st IP address is for the router default gateway; 2nd IP address is reserved for router1; 3rd IP is reserved for router2. The 4th IP address is the main IP of your Bare Metal Server. Any additional IP addresses can be ordered from Accounts.HostColor.com and can be used for various services on your server.

Yes, you can. We allow our customers to use up to one /24 IPv4 block (256 public IP addresses) on each bare metal server, for compliant use only. Please note that the sending of bulk, unsolicited mail of any kind is not allowed on any of HostColor's networks.

While most bare-metal server hosting providers offer 'Unmanaged' or 'Managed' hosting services, HostColor does 'Semi-Managed' and 'Managed' Bare Metal Servers.
'Unmanaged' means that the client is solely responsible for the management of the bare-metal dedicated server they have. The provider's responsibility is to make sure that the server network connection works properly and in case of a hardware failure, to fix the failed components, or to replace the whole physical server.
'Managed' means that the provider is responsible for managing the network, the physical server, the installed operating system, and the software environment. The provider does operating system updates, software updates, and other management and configuration tasks on the physical server. In other words 'Unmanaged Bare Metal Servers' does not feature server-side support and therefore the clients pay for the base infrastructure service. The 'Managed Dedicated Servers' feature full server-side infrastructure, OS, and software environment support and therefore are more expensive, as the provider's experts commit time and work hours to deliver technical and system administration.
HostColor fills the gap by offering 'Semi-Managed' Bare Metal Servers. 'Semi-Managed' means that our administrators install your preferred OS on the physical server or your preferred virtualization platform to transform the bare-metal server into a Cloud infrastructure. We create a custom technology environment per your requirements and keep on record a description with the 'base desired state' of your Bare Metal server. As a part of the 'Semi-Managed' support contract, HostColor reinstalls the server OS per the request and helps the client fix issues and troubleshoot in case of any operating system, networking, or software configuration issues. All 'Semi-Managed' bare-metal servers feature up to 30 minutes per month of technical and system administration. Any time spent by HC experts on managing the server OS, software environments, or troubleshooting is charged per standard HostColor's managed service provider (MSP) rates.

Once payment is made, the billing month for your Semi-Managed Bare Metal Server starts from the moment we send you the login credentials. By default, all bare-metal dedicated hosting services are set up on month-to-month contracts for maximum flexibility.
You can choose between month-to-month, 3-month, 6-month, and annual contracts. If you opt for an annual contract, you will receive a lower monthly service fee. However, you will need to prepay the full contract (all 12 service fees). Please note that your bare-metal server on a month-to-month contract must be canceled properly and terminated before we stop billing you. All bare- metal hosting services require a 30-day cancellation notice. In some cases, we may allow early cancellations. To qualify for an early cancellation, you must submit a cancellation request from your Account 5 business days before the beginning of the new billing cycle.

HostColor's core team has been managing servers and IT infrastructures since 2000. As an organization, Host Color LLC has over 20 years of experience in the hosting industry. To illustrate HostColor's experience, consider these two facts: HostColor started hosting content management systems three years before WordPress was launched, and had already been providing virtual server hosting services for seven years when Amazon launched its AWS with the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). HostColor's team members have extensive experience with major operating systems, virtualization technologies, Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and hundreds of open-source applications at any stage of their development and business lifecycles. You can rely on HostColor to install and maintain a secure, productive, and cost-effective technology environment on your dedicated server.

HostColor is considered one of the best bare metal server providers for several important reasons, all of which are supported by facts and consistent metrics. Additionally, HostColor has an excellent business record spanning 25 years. HC is among the best bare metal server providers because of:

- The reliability of its physical server infrastructure
- The wide choice of service locations
- Free Technical support for the bare metal infrastructure
- Delivery of Semi-Managed bare metal servers by default (unlike most other providers who mostly provide automated bare metal server hosting service without any form of managed service or extended SLA).

The Semi-Managed Bare Metal Server service level agreement (SLA) offers important benefits to users of bare metal servers. HostColor administrators provide the following services at no extra cost:

• Install bare metal servers according to customers' custom configurations
• Reinstall operating systems (OS) upon request
• Configure network settings on the servers
• Help users troubleshoot operating system, networking, and software configuration issues at no extra cost