Instances›AWS EC2›i3en›i3en.metal
Compute
vCPUs96
Memory768 GiB
Mem / vCPU8.00 GiB
ProcessorXeon Platinum 8175
Clock speed3.1 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
Type8 × 7,500 GB NVMe SSD
Bandwidth19,000 Mbps
Throughput2375 MB/s
IOPS80,000
Networking
Performance100 Gigabit
Max ENIs15
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
i3en.large2 vCPU · 16 GiB
i3en.xlarge4 vCPU · 32 GiB
i3en.2xlarge8 vCPU · 64 GiB
i3en.3xlarge12 vCPU · 96 GiB
i3en.6xlarge24 vCPU · 192 GiB
i3en.12xlarge48 vCPU · 384 GiB
i3en.24xlarge96 vCPU · 768 GiB
i3en.metal96 vCPU · 768 GiB
i3en.metal

The i3en.metal pairs 96 vCPU with 768 GiB of RAM, the 8.00 GiB-per-vCPU ratio that marks a storage-optimized instance. In the name, "i" is I/O, meaning local storage, "3" is the generation, "en" marks extended capacity and enhanced networking and "metal" is the size within the i3en family. It runs on Intel Xeon Platinum 8175 at 3.1 GHz, and AWS introduced it in August 2019. AWS has since shipped i4i, i7i and i8g; i4i.metal is the direct replacement at this size. Spot's node ladder tops out below this size, so i3en.metal becomes 6 × mh.vs1.2xlarge (96 vCPU, 768 GiB combined), $10.85/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.126/hr on Rackspace Spot. Spot delivers compute as managed Kubernetes, so a node pool of that size is the native shape of the answer rather than a workaround — provided the workload scales horizontally.

Match qualityVirtualised, not bare metal

i3en.metal is a full physical server — no virtualisation layer in the way, direct access to the hardware, and a socket count that licensing can verify.

Rackspace Spot no longer sells bare metal; everything in the catalog is a virtual machine. You get the same cores and memory (6 × mh.vs1.2xlarge, 96 vCPU, 768 GiB), but not the dedicated hardware. If you picked i3en.metal because you needed the real machine — nested virtualisation, per-socket licensing, low-level profiling — this is not a replacement at any price. If you picked it because it is the biggest i3en, it is the same compute for a lot less.

Runs as a fleetNo single Spot node has 96 vCPU; the largest comparable one has 16. So this runs as 6 nodes. That works if your workload already spreads across machines, and doesn't if one process needs all the cores together.
No local diski3en.metal comes with 8 × 7,500 GB NVMe SSD attached to the machine. Spot nodes use network storage only, so that disk doesn't come with it. If you were using it as fast scratch space, you'd move to a persistent volume or object storage, which are slower to read.
Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$10.848$2.470$7.388$4.720$0.126
$10.722 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.126
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.786
Hong Kong$14.319$9.792$6.233$0.126
$14.193 savings
Sydney, Australia$13.008$2.385$8.895$5.662$0.126
$12.882 savings
London, UK$12.624$1.286$8.630$5.486$0.786
$11.838 savings
US West, San Jose$12.000$1.200$8.196$5.215$0.012
$11.988 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$1.452
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Data warehousing and log processing
  • ●Distributed file systems and search indexes
  • ●Transactional databases with heavy random I/O
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 768 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 8 × 7,500 GB of local NVMe scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 100 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 6 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. i4i.metal is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 768 GiB of RAM
  • ●You need dedicated hardware. Rackspace Spot sells virtualised compute only.
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●Workloads that never touch local disk. The instance-store premium is wasted.
  • ●More than 8.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
Stop overpaying AWS. This compute costs $7,919/mo on AWS vs $92/mo on Rackspace Spot.
  • Spot sells spare capacity at market prices. It is the cheapest compute on the internet.
  • Prices are set by supply and demand. You pay what the market decides.
  • Compute is delivered as fully managed Kubernetes. All infrastructure is taken care of.
  • Egress costs $0.01/GB after the free allowance. AWS charges $0.09/GB.
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