Getting started with your NiceRack hardware
What happens between paying for your order and your first login as root over Tailscale, what we install on your machine, and where to find its access details.
NiceRack racks the hardware you own and gives you full root on it. Each machine is exclusive bare metal: nobody else uses it. This guide covers the steps from a paid invoice to your first SSH login.
From paid order to first login
- You pay the invoice. Pre-ordering is free and nothing is charged online. Once we confirm availability we send an invoice in USD, which you pay by bank transfer.
- We receive and burn in the machine. We record its serial number and condition, then test it under load. Each step goes in the machine's custody log.
- We rack it. The machine goes into a NiceRack data center in Asia or the US with power, cooling and a network. Management is $99 per machine per month, prepaid for 6 or 12 months on the same invoice as the hardware, and the term starts the day it's racked.
- We set it up. The OS image you chose is installed, with our monitoring agents and crash-prevention software. The SSH public keys on your account are installed for root, along with any keys you entered in your pre-order's rack configuration.
- We share it with you over Tailscale. The machine joins NiceRack's private network, and we share it with your Tailscale account through an invite link.
- We email you. We'll send your connection details by email when the machine is ready for you to log in.
Get ready before we rack
Add at least one SSH public key to your account and create a free Tailscale account, so you can log in the moment the machine is ready. The SSH access guide walks through both.
How you reach your machine
Your machine has no public IP address. It's on NiceRack's private Tailscale network (a tailnet), which we also use to monitor it, and we share it with your own Tailscale account. Tailscale is free for personal use. Once you accept the share and run Tailscale on your computer, you connect over an encrypted, private link that nobody on the internet can reach.
If you need a dedicated public IP address, ask us.
Find your access details
Every machine you own is listed in My hardware. Open a machine to see how to reach it:
| Detail | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Tailscale invite | The link that shares the machine with your Tailscale account. Open it once and accept. | https://login.tailscale.com/… |
| Tailscale name | The machine's MagicDNS name. Use the full name, ending in .ts.net. | spark-1.example.ts.net |
| SSH user | Always root. You have full root on your own machine. | root |
Once you've accepted the share and Tailscale is running on your computer, connect from a terminal:
ssh root@<tailscale-name>The SSH access guide covers creating a Tailscale account, accepting the share, an ~/.ssh/config entry and copying files.
What we install on your machine
Every machine ships with NiceRack's monitoring agents and pre-configured software that helps prevent crashes:
- Tailscale, which connects the machine to our private network and lets us share it with you.
- Health monitoring, which watches temperature, disks and reachability so we can act when something looks wrong.
- Crash prevention, such as a watchdog that recovers a hung machine and thermal protection.
This software reports the machine's health, not its contents: it doesn't read your data. Please don't remove, disable or reconfigure it. Without it we can't monitor the machine or reach it, and the management guarantees no longer apply. More in Security responsibilities.
Which operating system you get
You chose the OS image in your pre-order's rack configuration:
- Default: DGX OS on a DGX Spark, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on a Ryzen 9 9950X machine.
- Ubuntu or DGX OS, if you picked one explicitly.
- Your own image, from the https URL you gave us.
From the first login the OS is yours to run: updates, users, firewall and backups are your responsibility. See Security responsibilities.
Next steps
- Set up SSH access: keys, Tailscale, connecting and removing access.
- First steps on DGX Spark: check the GPU and run a model.
- First steps on a Ryzen 9 9950X CI machine: register it as a CI runner.
- Support and remote hands: reboots, reimages, delivery and buyback.
Didn’t find your answer?
Write to us with your machine’s hostname and what you need. Our response target is four business hours.