What is a dedicated host?

IBM Cloud® dedicated hosts are physical servers that are committed to a group of users. Dedicated hosts offer virtual server provisioning capacity and maximum placement control.

What are the benefits of using dedicated hosts over dedicated instances?

Both offerings are guaranteed single tenancy. Dedicated hosts provide the flexibility to specify on which host to provision dedicated host instances, and these other benefits:

• Control over which IBM Cloud data center the server is placed
• Ability to manage your servers as workload requirements change; for example, migrate virtual servers between your dedicated hosts on the same POD

Can I keep my existing dedicated instances or do I need to set up a dedicated host and dedicated host instances?

Yes, you can keep your existing dedicated instances.

Can I interchange the provisioning of dedicated instances (auto–assigned) and dedicated host instances?

No. Existing auto-assigned dedicated instances cannot be reprovisioned on dedicated hosts. If you require virtual server placement, you need to provision them on dedicated hosts as dedicated host instances.

What type of server, virtual or bare metal, supports the dedicated host offering?

The offering is supported on virtual servers; IBM Cloud does have a bare metal offering. The differences between virtual hosts and bare metal servers are the time to provision and virtualization management.

What is the provisioning lifecycle of a dedicated host?

Dedicated hosts are allocated to users when provisioned. They persist to the account until it is reclaimed. Dedicated hosts are offered in only on-demand pricing, hourly or monthly, so when reclaimed, billing models charge as either hourly or monthly IBM Cloud offerings.

How is the dedicated host offering billed?

You can purchase dedicated hosts on-demand with hourly or monthly billing. Hourly only hosts allow only hourly instances to be provisioned; monthly only hosts allow provisioning of monthly and hourly instances. Pricing for dedicated hosts includes core, RAM, local SSD storage, and network port speeds. Premium operating systems, storage area network (SAN) storage, and software add-on prices and licensing are charged based on the instance deployed—hourly or monthly—on the dedicated host. The same pricing model as IBM Cloud public and dedicated instances is followed for these items.

I’m running an on-demand dedicated host; how am I billed?

You are billed at the hourly or monthly on-demand rate for dedicated hosts. Dedicated host instances that are provisioned on dedicated hosts might incur instances charges as noted in the answer to How is a dedicated host offering billed.

How is tenancy specified when you provision dedicated hosts and dedicated host instances?

The default tenancy for dedicated instances is a single tenant. You can provision dedicated instances on either a dedicated host (dedicated host instances) or an auto-assigned host (dedicated instances). Dedicated instances on auto-assigned hosts do not offer the same management level as those hosts that are on a dedicated host.

Can I mix and match different dedicated host instance configurations on my dedicated host?

Yes. You can provision different virtual server sizes on dedicated hosts within its capacity allotments.

How do I know how many dedicated host instances I can run on each dedicated host?

Each dedicated host has a specific allotment of core, RAM, and local SSD storage. You are able to view resource allocations on the host Allocations tab to know how many dedicated host instances are provisioned, current host capacity that is used, and what is available.

What images can be provisioned on dedicated hosts?

You can provision IBM Cloud virtual server stock images or import your own images as indicated in the third-party agreement.

Is there a limit as to how many dedicated hosts can be allocated to a single account?

Yes, resource limitations are per account as defined for all IBM Cloud as a Service resources. You can have multiple orders per account but only two dedicated hosts per provisioning order.

Can dedicated host deployments be oversubscribed?

No; you can provision only the listed capacity on dedicated hosts.

What happens if my dedicated host fails?

When a dedicated host failure occurs, we automatically detect this failure and move your instances onto a new dedicated host. This failure detection typically occurs within 1 minute. Your virtual servers are rescheduled to the new dedicated host within 5 minutes, and are up and running within 7 minutes. To opt out of auto-recovery, a support case must be opened with the request.