Getting started with FlexMetal

The FlexMetal API is in BETA active development.

Please get in touch with the i3D.net sales team to learn more about the product state and roadmap or if you wish to be part of the closed Beta program for FlexMetal.

Prerequisites

In order to create a new FlexMetal server you will need to follow 4 prerequisite steps:

1. API Token

2. Location

3. Instance Type

4. Operating System

Note : API URL prefix is https://api.i3d.net

1. API Token

The procedure is documented in API v3 Authentication

Create an API Key and please remember to add IP whitelisting to access the API.

API Key is to be used in HTTP Header as Key = PRIVATE-TOKEN and Value = your_api_key

2. Location

Locations are name for the i3D.net Datacenter where FlexMetal instance are available. Below is a small extract of available locations:

Region	Location Name
Europe	EU: Rotterdam
Europe	EU: Montreuil 1
USA	US: Ashburn - VA
USA	US: Dallas - TX
USA	US: Los Angeles - CA
Asia	JP: Tokyo
Asia	HK: Hong Kong
Latam	BR: Sao Paulo
Middle East	AE: Dubai

The full list of worldwide locations can be found using the location endpoint : GET /v3/flexMetal/location/

3. Instance Type

The Instance Type defines the hardware configuration of the bare metal server. Here is an extract of available instance types:

Instance	CPU Model	Generation	CPU Specifications	RAM	Storage	Uplinks
bm7.std.8	Intel Xeon E-2278G	Coffee Lake (14nm)	8 Cores / 16 Threads @ 3.40 GHz	32 GB DDR4	1x 960 GB SSD	2x1G
bm8.std.32	AMD EPYC 7502P	Rome Zen3 (7nm)	32 Cores / 64 Threads @ 2.50 GHz	128 GB DDR4	2x 960 GB SSD	2x25G
bm9.hmm.32	AMD EPYC 9354P	Genoa Zen4 (5nm)	32 Cores / 64 Threads @ 3.25 GHz	256 GB DDR5	1x 1.92 TB NVME	2x25G

The full list of Instance Types can be found on the Catalog page.

• Instance Type availability can differ per location. Not all Instance Types are available in all locations.

  You can obtain a list of available Instance Types for a location using the API endpoint GET /v3/flexMetal/location/{locationId}/instanceTypes.

4. Operating System

Many Operating Systems are supported by FlexMetal. Below is a small extract of available OS's:

OS	slug
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS	ubuntu-2204-lts
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS	ubuntu-2404-lts
Talos Omni 1.8.4	talos-omni-184
Debian 12	debian-12

The full list of supported OS's can be found using the API endpoint : GET /v3/operatingsystem.

Creating a Server (POST)

POST /v3/flexMetal/servers

This endpoint allows you to create a new bare-metal server by specifying key details such as the server (host) name, location, instance type, operating system and additional configurations like SSH keys and post-installation scripts.

Server request body properties

Property	Value type	Required	Description	Example Value
name	string	Required	Human-readable (host) name for the server instance	server1.example.com
location	string	Required	The data center or region where the server will be deployed	EU: Rotterdam
instanceType	string	Required	The type of instance to be provisioned (defines hardware resources)	bm7.std.8
os	object	Required	Specifies the operating system and optional kernel parameters	See table below.
sshKey	array	Required	List of public SSH keys, can also be sshkey UUIDs	"ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc..."
postInstallScript	string	Optional	A script that runs automatically after the server is installed	"#!/bin/bash echo Hello"
tags	array	Optional	List of Tags. Each tag must be in the format [A-Za-z0-9_:-]{1,64}	["my-tag1", "set:value"]

Table 1: FlexMetal Server Request element structure

OS Parameter

The os parameter allows you to define the operating system for the server, an optional partitioning scheme and optional kernel parameters.

Field	Type	Description	Example Value
slug	string	The slug identifying the operating system to install (e.g., Linux distro)	ubuntu-2404-lts
kernelParams	array	(Optional) A list of kernel parameters to customize the OS installation, currently only used for Talos installations	See OS Customization
partitions	array	(Optional) A list of custom disk partitions	See OS Customization

SSH Keys

The sshKey parameter allows you to provide your public keys for your root logins.

For Windows OS, there is no SSH key. You will need to know your root password. The root password is accessible here. Note that we support Windows 2022. It's important that you fetch the root password within the first 24 hours after installation.

You can provide actual public keys, or you can provide the uuid of already stored SSH keys. The latter can be managed via the SSH CRUD endpoints:

• Creating a SSH Key : POST /v3/sshKey

• Listing SSH Keys : GET /v3/sshKey

• Deleting SSH Keys : DELETE /v3/sshKey

Example request

POST /v3/flexMetal/servers

Request Body

{
  "name": "MyFlexServer",
  "location": "EU: Rotterdam",
  "instanceType": "bm7.std.8",
  "os": {
    "slug": "ubuntu-2404-lts"
  },
  "sshKey": [
    "ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHAyNTYAAABBBIWrzxdeW3hhkejzSfFBFzPzcEBJBGtggOUJpLBCakbqmV/NztCaUoh631Xnk46MFn2snF89tSZZzlp9ySpqW7c= ecdsa-key-example"
  ],
  "postInstallScript": "#!/bin/bash\necho \"Hello flex world\" > /tmp/test.txt",
  "tags": [
    "My-tag1",
    "env:dev"
  ]
}

Response

If the request is successful you will receive a response containing the details of the new server.

The Server UUID will be provided and can be used for getting server specific details and releasing the server.

Server IP address will also be populated once provisioning process has been finished.

Example Response:

[
    {
        "uuid": "019257a3-dxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-84c78b711f6e",
        "name": "MyFlexServer",
        "status": "created",
        "statusMessage": "OK",
        "location": {
            "id": 18,
            "name": "EU: Rotterdam"
        },
        "instanceType": {
            "id": 129,
            "name": "bm7.std.8"
        },
        "os": {
            "slug": "ubuntu-2404-lts"
        },
        "ipAddresses": [
            {
                "ipAddress": "x.x.x.x"
            }
        ],
        "tags": [
            "My-tag1",
            "env:dev"
        ],
        "createdAt": 1728047209,
        "deliveredAt": null,
        "releasedAt": null
    }
]

Server Statuses

You can track the progress of server delivery via the status field which can have the following values:

• created

• discovering

• discovered

• allocating

• allocated

• configuring_network

• network_configured

• provisioning

• provisioned

• delivered

• failed

• releasing

• released

There are 3 end states for all servers:

End state	Meaning
delivered	After creating a server, the requested OS will be installed. When the server status reaches delivered, it will be available for usage. You can then login with the root user and your SSH key.
failed	If a problem arises during the server creation, the status will be set to failed and the specific problem will be described in the statusMessage field of the response.
released	After deleting a server, its status will be set to released, indicating that you can no longer use it. The data on the server will then be securely erased.

• Billing will start at the deliveredAt date and will end when server is released with date shown as releasedAt.

• Billed hours will be rounded up to the full hour used.

List FlexMetal servers (GET)

This endpoint retrieves information about all servers currently provisioned in your FlexMetal account.

The FlexMetal API allows users to retrieve detailed information about all existing servers or specific servers in the FlexMetal environment. This guide provides documentation for the following endpoints:

• GET /v3/flexMetal/servers: Retrieve a list of all servers.

• GET /v3/flexMetal/servers/{uuid}: Retrieve detailed information about a specific server by its unique identifier.

Server can be filtered by statuses by using for example : v3/flexMetal/servers?status=delivered

Filtering on Tags

Tags can be used to filter results for example : v3/flexMetal/servers?tag=My-tag1

You can provide more than one tag to filter on, for example : /v3/flexMetal/servers?tag=My-tag1&tag=env:dev

When searching by multiple tags, only servers with all the provided tags will be returned.

Pagination

The servers entries returned by the API can be paginated using HTTP Header key RANGED-DATA and the value start=xx,results=yy

Where xx is starting index number beginning at 0 and yy is the number of entries to return with a maximum to 50

Default pagination is returning maximum 15 servers entries

Servers that are failed or released will be visible in your GET responses for 24 hours.

Releasing FlexMetal servers (DELETE)

This operation cannot be undone, so ensure that you have backed up any necessary data before deleting the server.

DELETE /v3/flexMetal/servers/{uuid}

This endpoint is used to release or delete a FlexMetal server from your infrastructure. Once a server is released, it is no longer available, and all resources such as storage, network configurations, and data are removed.

Related topics

• What is FlexMetal?

• OS Customization using Linux

• Tag Management