Bare Metal Servers | Networks in System Design

In today’s rapidly evolving world of technology, the unending desire for Optimal Performance, Reliability, and Scalability in System Design is constant. One of the most important choices the developers had to make was the underlying infrastructure of those systems.

1. What is a Bare Metal Server?

Bare metal servers are a form of cloud services in which the user rents a physical machine from a provider that is not shared with any other tenants.

Example:

Bare metal is like having your own house; you can customize it any way you want. You don’t have to deal with noisy neighbors. 

• In contrast, a public cloud multi-tenant virtualized environment is like renting an apartment.
• The neighbors’ kids drive you crazy with their yelling, and there’s not much you can do about that strange smell in the hallway.

2. Advantages of Bare Metal Servers

• Raw Performance:
  • It provides direct access to the physical hardware, which results in a huge boost in performance as there is no overhead from the Virtualization process. This advantage makes it a first choice for intensive computing environments.
• Predictable Resource Allocation:
  • As bare metal servers have their dedicated resources allocated to them, systems that require stable and reliable processing power and resources, bare metal servers become their first choice.
• Customization and Control:
  • In the case of Bare Metal Servers, users have full control over their configuration. They can make changes according to their needs without any issues. This independent nature is beneficial when the system requires some unique kind of resources and configuration to work properly.
• Security:
  • Bare Metal servers provide a high degree of security as it doesn’t share it resources with others like Virtualization. So all the hardware and resources stays in the same place and used by people of particular organization. This reduces the risk of security breaches or any vulnerabilities which can be seen in shared infrastructures.
• Licensing Cost Optimization:
  • Bare Metal servers can be more cost-effective than that of Virtualized systems. As the organizations will only pay for the resources they want to install, without renting or thinking about other tenants.

3. Disadvantages of Bare Metal Servers

• Limited Scalability:
  • As the bare metal servers use physical servers or resources, scalability is one of the main drawbacks of Bare Metal Servers. Unlike cloud based servers or virtualized servers, bare metal server can’t scale instantly or in less cost. Physical resources must be brought and installed to scale it.
• Higher Upfront Costs:
  • Installation of the bare metal server from scratch can be costlier than that of virtualized resources, as in that there is no need to by any physical equipments. Also it is costlier to mantain the physical resources and keep them running all the time.
• Resource Underutilization:
  • As bare metal servers are specifically allocated for single user or application. Sometimes, the resources of that server remains underutilized, because of the different workload at different time.
• Longer Deployment Times:
  • Provisioning and allocating the resources and then deploying them takes a lot more time as compared to virtual machines. This can be a drawback when rapid scalability is needed or quick deployment is required for certain applications.
• Complex Managemen:
  • Managing bare metal servers is alos a hectic task, as it require hardware maintenance, updates, troubleshooting etc. This complexity can increase the time and skill requirements of the system administrators, which can eventually impact the efficiency of operation.

4. Use Cases of Bare Metal Servers

• High Performance Computing (HPC):
  • Bare Metal servers promotes high performance computing scenarios, such as scientific simulations, data analysis, financial modeling etc.
  • The direct access to the hardware resources unlocks the maximum computational power without any overhead caused by Virtualization.
• Content Delivery Networks (CDN):
  • Bare Metal Servers are used in CDN environments due to their dedicated hardware which ensures consistent performance in case of distributing and caching contents across various different locations.
• Machine Learning and AI Workloads:
  • Applications which involves tasks related to Machine Learning and AI needs heavy and stable processing power all the times.
  • Due to the raw processing power and efficient resource allocation Bare Metal server provides, it is the first choice for them.
  • Tasks like training and deploying complex models can be accelerated when a dedicated hardware has been used.
• Resource-Intensive Web Applications:
  • Web Applications which deal with a lot of traffic can utilise the dedicated hardware or resources bare metal server provides.
  • One of that type of Web Application can be an E-commerce website, which deals with a lot of traffic every day.
• Security-Sensitive Applications:
  • Bare Metal servers are preffered when the security of the application is taken into consideration.
  • As there is only one user using those physical resources, the chances of any vulnerability arising is much more less as compared to the virtualized or cloud based servers.
  • It is preffered by people who work in the field of Financial Services or Health Services.
• Network Infrastructure and Virtual Network Functions (VNFs):
  • Bare Metal server provide the necessary performance and isolation for network related tasks such as routing, load balancing, use of firewall etc.

5. Operating System Options for Bare Metal Servers

Bare Metal servers allow the users to choose any of the renowned operating systems they want to work with. The choice of the OS relies on some factors like performance, compatibility and most importantly how well versed is the system administrator with that OS. Below are some of the most common OS options for Bare Metal Servers –

Linux Distributions

• Ubuntu Server.
• CentOS/RHEL
• Debian
• Fedora Server.

Windows Servers

• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022

Unix-Based Operating Systems

• FreeBSD
• OpenBSD

Hypervisors for Virtualization

• VMware ESXi
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server
• XenServer

Container Orchestration Platforms

• Container Linux by CoreOS
• RancherOS
• Custom and Specialized Operating Systems
• Unikernels

RTOS (Real-Time Operating Systems)

• Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Operating Systems
• Red Hat OpenShift
• SUSE Rancher

6. The Process of Procuring and Deploying a Bare Metal Server

The process of procuring and deploying a bare metal server consists of various important steps. They are given below:

Step 1: Define the Requirements

The first step is to define the requirements clearly. Identify the performance, storage and network related requirements. Also identify the hardware requirements like CPU, RAM, Storage type etc.

Step 2: Choose a Provider

The next step is to choose a Bare Metal Service provider based on the cost or the services they are providing, and also keeping in mind about the requirements of the organization.

Step 3: Select Hardware and Operating System Configuration

The next step is to select the proper hardware configuration based on the requirements of the organization. Hardware elements like RAM, Storage, Processor Speed, Network Configuration etc. should be considered. After selecting the hardware, now its time to select the operating system which would be beneficial for the application which will use the server. The organization should keep in mind about any other peripherals or extra plug-ins they might need to add to make the application better and they are also supported by that operating system.

Step 4: Setup and Provisioning of the Physical Resources

After selecting all the necessary hardware and physical resources, it’s time to aseemble them together to make the Server running. The following step we follow are:

• In this step the physical server is being prepared with the hardwares such as RAM, Storage etc. selected in the previous step.
• After configuring the physical resources, it’s time to install the operating system which will be used by the application, and even after installation of the OS, the user or organization might do some changes keeping in mind about the requirements of the application they are planning to run.
• After finishing the setup, the organization might provide unique credentials such as login credentials to use and access devices associated with the bare metal servers.

Step 5: Using the Server

After getting the credentials, users can use the devices to access the bare metal servers and create and deploy applications using the resources. But, they should also implement a backup and recovery strategy to recover the important data, if anything unexpected thing happens with the server and the data get lost.

They should also maintain the server well by updating the running applications, using proper security measures, applying patches, updating the OS etc.

7. Security advantages of Bare Metal Servers

• Isolated from other servers:
  • Bare metal servers are mostly used by a certain individual or a certain organization. There is no concept of using shared resources which is used by multiple user of different organizations.
  • This isolation feature of bare metal servers is useful for security purposes, as only a certain individual or individuals of a certain organization can access the server.
• Enhanced Control Over Security Measures:
  • The users have the full control over the bare metal servers, and the security measures used in them. Users can manipulate those security measures and customize the firewall if necessary according to their need and the need of the application.
• Reduced Attack Surface:
  • As compared to the Virtualized servers, Bare Metal servers have a less amount of attack surface associated with them, attack surface means the number of ways the hacker can gain access to the applications running on the server.
• Physical Security:
  • As bare metal servers are physically isolated from other servers, unlike the virtualized servers, it is much more secure as only certain authorized individuals or organizations can only access and manipulate that server. No other tenant or individual can get access to it as it is not being shared with anyone else.
• Secure Boot and Hardware-Level Security Features:
  • Most of the times, Bare Metal servers are equipped with some hardware-level securitty features like TPM and Secure Boot Processes support. These added layer of security enhances the integrity of the server’s boot process and safeguards from any unauthrorized access.

8. Networking and Connectivity for Bare Metal Servers

Network and Connectivity is one of the key feature of the bare metal servers which differentiate it with the virtualized servers and plays a crucial role ensuring the optimization , reliability and security for the applications running over it. Below are some of the Network and connectivity feature supported by Bare Metal servers –

• Network Interface Cards (NICs):
  • Bare Metal Servers comes with single or multiple NIC cards for the networking and connectivity purpose. Based on the applications that would be using that server, the user or the organization can modify and configure the NICs according to their need.
• Bandwidth and Throughput:
  • Bare Metal server support high speed connectivity. It is much required for the applications which requires a faster and seamless connectivity to exchange large files and any other data transfer related tasks.
• Public and Private Networking:
  • Bare Metal servers often provide the options for both Public and Private Networking. Public networks are used to connect with the devices which are not related to the same bare metal server, whereas private network is used to interchange data among the devices connected to the same bare metal server.
• Firewall and Security Policies:
  • Bare Metal Server let the user or organization to implement Firewall or other Security Policies as they want or according to the need of the Application. This can include identifying and deciding which port to keep open, implementing IDS or IPS, configuring security groups etc.
• Load Balancing:
  • Load Balancing are done when the resources of the Bare Metal servers need to be distributed evenly amongst the applications running in them, or in some situations where the heavy network traffic needs to be distributed evenly accross multiple applications.

9. How to manage the Bare Metal Servers

There are following ways to manage the Bare Metal Servers:

1. Remote Management Tools:
   • Remote Management tools like Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) or Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) enable off-limits management. This allows the user to access the hardware of the bare metal server even if the OS is offline.
2. Configuration Management:
   • Configuration Management Systems such as Ansible, Chef or Puppet can be implemented to automate the server configurations.
   • This ensures efficient scaling and maintains consistency across multiple servers. These tools also help in deploying and managing the software, update configurations and implement security policies.
3. Monitoring and Logging:
   • Setting up monitoring tools is also helpful to monitor and track the server’s performance, proper utilization of resources and any potential issues.
   • Nagios and Prometheus etc are the tools used for this purpose, they can provide real-time information of the server’s health, while on the other hand logging can be used to capture system logs, application logs, and other security related events for troubleshooting.
4. Backup and Recovery:
   • Setting up a Backup and Recovery strategy is a must to ensure that no data gets lost even if there is an unexpected error or scenario happened. Sechedule regular backup to ensure the data safety and integrity.
5. Network Management:
   • Management of network configurations such as IP addresses, subnets, firewalls, firewall rules along with the monitoring the network traffic is a must for performance and security.
   • Implementing load balancing strategies is also a must to ensure the even distribution of the incoming network traffic and put less load on single server.
6. Resource Scaling and updating:
   • Thoroughly monitor the application’s resource utilization and scale the resources if need to ensure seamless working of the application.
   • Scaling may involve adding more RAM, Storage Space, upgrading the CPU, adding a GPU etc. Also it is needed to keep the OS updated, so whenever there is an update of the operating system, it is recommended to do that to avoid any kind of vulnerability.

10. Difference Between Bare Metal Servers and Virtualization

Feature	Bare Metal Servers	Virtualization
Need of Hypervisor	There is no need for hypervisor, runs directly on physical hardware	There is a need of hypervisor with abstracts the hardware part and manages
Performance	Higher performance as the resources are physical and mostly used by a single user or a single organization. No sharing or tenant.	Slightly low performance as compared to Bare Metal Servers, as there is a hypervisor involved and mostly the resources are being shared with many people which causes lower performance,
Isolation	It is isolated from other servers as they are physical in nature and mostly one user or organization use one server. No tenant or sharing is possible	Resources are being shared between various different users / tenants. No isolation at all
Resource Utilization	Resources are being used by a single user or single organization. So sometimes there is a chance that all resources might not get utilized entirely as it varies based on different applications running on the server.	As the resources are being shared amongst various different users, the chances are very low that the resources will be left unused.
Scalability	Scalibaility is little bit costly as compared to virtualization as physical elements should be bought and installed in the server manually.	Scalability is much more easier as there is no need to install physical elements in the server manually. Users can simply rent more resources which will cost them lesser than bare metal servers.
Cost Efficiency	Bare Metal server is costly to setup for first use, but is cost effective in long term, when the applications that are being deployed required the same configuration.	It is much more cost effective as there is no need to buy the physical elements entirely, users can just easily rent them and use them.
Deployment Time	Longer deployment time due to physical installation and setup.	Much more faster deployment time as virtual machines can be rapidly setup.
Security Isolation	Higher security isolation as the servers are not being shared publicly.	Lower security isolation as anyone can rent the servers as they are available publicly.