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Who this is for

Operators who want full control over hardware—self-build, custom integrator builds, or dedicated servers in colocation—before following a role-specific deploy guide. The bare metal formula below covers CPU, RAM, storage, motherboard, networking, and cost tradeoffs. The rest of this page covers how to turn that hardware into a production-ready host.

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Bare metal formula

Guidance for bare-metal sizing when you are not using cloud instances. AMD is the default recommendation across roles for fleet consistency and for strong core count and I/O at scale.
RoleCPU recommendationRAMStorageNotes / why AMD
ValidatorEPYC 9454P / 9554 / Turin 32–64 cores (or higher)128–256 GB ECC DDR51–2 TB enterprise NVMe Gen4/5 (RAID-1 preferred)Highest priority. Needs max cores and high clock for CLOB + consensus. AMD wins here decisively.
SentryEPYC 32–48 cores (or Ryzen 9 7950X/9950X for lighter builds)64–128 GB ECC0.5–1 TB NVMeHigh network and I/O. AMD’s I/O advantages shine for public RPC and rate-limiting.
FullSame as Sentry (32+ cores)64–128 GB ECC1 TB NVMe (pruned)Internal indexing and bots—benefits from parallelism.
AgentPortal16–32 cores (Ryzen 9 or entry EPYC)32–64 GB0.5 TB NVMe + AI cacheLower spec; AMD still preferred for consistency across the fleet.

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Motherboard / platform

Use server-grade boards with EPYC support (for example Supermicro, ASUS, Gigabyte)—enough PCIe lanes for multiple NVMe drives plus 10 / 25 / 100 Gbps NICs.

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Networking

Target 10 Gbps+ symmetric bandwidth. Validators should use private peering where possible. If you operate in Asia Pacific or North America, prefer providers with strong regional routing and peering.

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Power & cooling

EPYC is efficient relative to its throughput, but still plan for airflow and PSU headroom—whether in colocation or a home rack.

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Cost efficiency: DIY / bare-metal vs cloud

  • DIY or colocation (self-build or a custom order): Often 40–60% cheaper over the long run than cloud on a 3+ year horizon, and you control hardware exactly.
  • Hetzner AX series (widely used for blockchain): AX162-R/S (EPYC 9454P, 128–256 GB RAM, dual NVMe) is often quoted around €199–282 / month after Hetzner’s April 2026 price adjustment—strong value and a common validator choice.
  • Other providers in Asia Pacific or North America (OVH, Singapore / Tokyo / US regions): AMD EPYC dedicated servers often land roughly $150–500 / month depending on cores, RAM, and storage.
  • Self-build in worldwide colocation: Viable, but budget for power, import duties, and on-site support overhead.

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Paths: build, order, or colocate

PathBest when
Parts + self-assemblyYou want exact SKU control and can handle RMA and burn-in yourself.
Integrator / white-box serverYou need a single invoice, warranty, and rack-ready chassis without sourcing every component.
Colocation + your hardwareYou own the box and pay for power, cross-connects, and remote hands in a facility.
Dedicated rental (Hetzner AX, OVH, etc.)You want bare-metal economics without owning metal—still “DIY” at the software and topology layer.
Pick one primary network role per machine (validator, sentry, full, archive, agent portal) and size from the bare metal formula table above; do not overload one host with unrelated public services.

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Physical and power

  • Chassis airflow: Front-to-back in racks; no blocked intakes. EPYC systems need predictable cooling headroom under sustained load.
  • PSU: Prefer redundant supplies for production; size for peak CPU + all NVMe + NIC draw, not idle.
  • Storage layout: Mirror or RAID-appropriate layouts for validator state per your risk model; keep OS and chain data on separate volumes when possible for cleaner upgrades and snapshots.

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Network stack

  • Throughput: Aim for 10 Gbps+ symmetric on the paths that matter (often sentry and full nodes). Validators rely on stable, low-jitter private links more than public bandwidth.
  • Segmentation: Separate management (SSH, IPMI) from P2P / RPC traffic with VLANs or physical interfaces where feasible.
  • Firewalls: Default-deny inbound; allow only what each role requires. Validators stay off public RPC—see Deploy a validator.
If you operate in Asia Pacific or North America, validate latency and routing to your peers and sentries before cutover.

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OS and host baseline

Use a supported, long-term Linux distribution your team can patch quickly. Typical baseline:
  • Kernel new enough for your NIC and NVMe drivers; enable I/O scheduler and mount options appropriate for SSD/NVMe (noatime where safe, etc.).
  • Time sync: Chrony or NTP to stable stratum sources—consensus and log correlation depend on correct time.
  • SSH: Key-based auth, no root password login, optional fail2ban or equivalent on management interfaces.
  • Updates: Unattended security updates or a disciplined manual cadence; test on a non-validator host first.
Install the Morpheum CLI and dependencies per release notes before initializing the node for the chosen role.

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Observability and operations

  • Metrics: CPU, RAM, disk latency, network drops, and process health for the node binary.
  • Logs: Centralize or rotate locally; keep disk from filling on long runs.
  • Backups: Validator keys and config off-host per policy; practice restore on a test machine.