--- title: "Real hardware: the machines Frazer runs on, and what it needs from them · Frazer" description: "Frazer runs on physical servers with local NVMe and a private network between them, inspected and burned in before they take work. What a server needs, what Frazer checks, and what it uses each part for." url: https://frazer.ai/hardware index: https://frazer.ai/llms.txt tokens: 1793 --- > For agents: every page on frazer.ai is indexed at https://frazer.ai/llms.txt. # Real hardware: the machines Frazer runs on, and what it needs from them · Frazer **Servers** frazer.ai # Real servers, not virtual ones. Every part inspected and on record. Frazer runs your clusters, VMs and devboxes on physical machines with local NVMe and a private network between them. Each server is inventoried down to its disks, TPM and firmware, tested before it takes work, and watched every 30 seconds after. [Add a server](https://frazer.ai/start?product=servers) [Read the docs](https://frazer.ai/docs) *The Hardware tab of server Atlas (vin1-a-01) in the Frazer console: 7 devices with model, use, size, health, wear and temperature, two NVMe drives, an onboard NIC, a bonded 2 × 25 GbE NIC on the vRack, a TPM 2.0, no GPU and no InfiniBand; and the system panel with model, CPU, ECC memory, virtualization with the IOMMU on, Secure Boot, firmware at the baseline, remote access and serial number.* The hardware of one server, as Frazer inventoried it product UI, demo organization 01 · Inside a server Fig. 1 ## Every part has a job. Here is what Frazer uses it for. **Fig. 1** A server that hosts VMs, seen from above 02 · Requirements ## What a server needs. By the role it plays. A dedicated node is a whole server for one cluster. A host runs the VMs of many clusters and devboxes in your organization. The agent checks each line and fills in the site’s checklist. Minimum requirements by role | Requirement | Dedicated node | Host for VMs | GPU server | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | CPU | x86-64-v2, 8 cores | x86-64-v3, VT-x or AMD-V and an IOMMU, 32 cores or more | As a host, plus Above-4G decoding | | Memory | 32 GB (16 GB for a trial) | 128 GB or more | At least twice the total GPU memory | | Disks | 240 GB or more SSD to boot; NVMe for data | Two mirrored boot disks, plus NVMe for VM disks | NVMe scratch | | Network | 1 GbE; 10 or 25 GbE recommended | Two 10 or 25 GbE ports, bonded, with VLAN tagging | InfiniBand or RoCE for multi-node training | | BMC | Optional | Strongly recommended | Strongly recommended | | TPM 2.0 and UEFI Secure Boot | Recommended | Recommended; required on Frazer servers | Recommended | | Egress | TCP 443 and UDP 51820 (or 443 only), NTP, DNS | The same, plus L2 between hosts | The same | 03 · Checks Fig. 2 ## Tested before work. Watched while it works. **Fig. 2** From accepted to available, and what happens when a check fails 04 · What you get ## Machines you can name. Sizes you can trust. - ### Physical cores, counted honestly Fees and capacity count physical cores. Hyperthreads never count. - ### Memory never overcommitted VMs get the memory they ask for. CPU overcommit is stated on each size, never hidden. - ### Local NVMe VM disks and local volumes on the server’s own NVMe, encrypted with a per-server key. - ### A private network Servers in a site talk over private L2: vRack, vSwitch or your own switches. - ### Identity in the TPM The machine key is made on the server and sealed in TPM 2.0 when there is one. It never leaves. - ### Firmware on a baseline Firmware is read at inspection and compared with a baseline; an update is a typed operation. - ### Ubuntu 26.04 and Kubernetes The host OS Frazer installs on servers you bring, updated in your maintenance window. - ### Frazer OS Immutable, A/B updates and measured boot, on servers from Frazer and servers with a BMC. One build as ISO, USB image, iPXE and qcow2. 05 · Controls ## Your server, your window. No shell unless you open one. ### Who may do what Servers admin Adds servers and sets pools, labels and the maintenance window. Org admin Confirms a wipe, a reinstall, a firmware update or a BMC action. Org admin, per server Turns on a remote shell for a set time, recorded, with you notified. It is off by default. Frazer Reads inventory, health and metrics; installs and upgrades in your window; never reads workload data. ### What is logged - Inventory at inspection, then read again every day - Burn-in results, kept on the server’s page - Every condition change and every repair step - Every typed operation, with its approval and its result ### At the cap - **Critical condition:** the server leaves the schedulable set until it recovers - **Silent agent:** lost after 5 minutes, failed after 24 hours - **Repairs:** one server, or 10 %, per pool at a time - **Reboots:** in your maintenance window, rate-limited per pool 06 · Pricing ## Per physical core. Hyperthreads never count. A server you bring pays a management fee per physical core while it is accepted, with a floor and a ceiling per server. GPUs pay per GPU. Inspection, burn-in and health checks are included. [See every price](https://frazer.ai/pricing#lines) CPU $1.50 per physical core / month · min $15, max $150 per server · first server ≤ 16 cores free GPUs $49 per data-center GPU / month · $19 workstation GPU Included Inspection, burn-in, health checks, wipe certificates Questions ## Real hardware, answered. Which CPUs work? x86-64. A dedicated node needs x86-64-v2 with 8 cores. A server that hosts VMs needs x86-64-v3 with VT-x or AMD-V, an IOMMU and 32 cores or more. Do I need a BMC? No. It is optional for a dedicated node and strongly recommended for a server that hosts VMs. With a BMC, a Site Gateway in your site lets Frazer install the server, set its firmware and power-cycle it with nobody on site. Why real hardware and not cloud VMs? Because you know what you get: local NVMe instead of a virtual disk of unknown speed, a private network between servers, memory that is never overcommitted, and a fee per physical core of a machine you can name. What does burn-in test? CPU, memory, disk and network under stress, with a benchmark score. GPU servers add GPU diagnostics, a GPU stress test, NCCL and InfiniBand bandwidth tests. It is mandatory on Frazer servers and optional on yours. Are my disks encrypted? Every data disk Frazer formats uses LUKS2, with a per-server key sealed to the TPM and kept in your infrastructure project’s Frazer Secrets namespace. A wipe destroys the key first. Can I use my GPUs? Yes. Frazer detects them at inspection (model, NVLink, PCIe topology, IOMMU groups, ECC, MIG support) and passes them whole into VMs. MIG and time-slicing stay inside one project’s VM. ## More in Servers - [**Bring your own** Install command, boot image or provider account](https://frazer.ai/servers) - [**Provider accounts** Servers you rent, joined through the API](https://frazer.ai/providers) - [**Your cloud accounts** Instances join, clusters attach](https://frazer.ai/cloud) - [**Buy from Frazer** Dedicated servers by the month](https://frazer.ai/servers/buy) - [**How it works** From a join token to a running cluster](https://frazer.ai/how-it-works) - [**Regions and sites** Where Frazer runs, where servers are](https://frazer.ai/regions) ## Bring real servers. We check every part. [Add a server](https://frazer.ai/start?product=servers) [Read the docs](https://frazer.ai/docs)