Supported Operating Systems
Equinix Metal™ provides a range of officially supported operated systems including Linux, BSD, Windows, and VMware distributions. All supported operating systems are available for automatic installation when provisioning Equinix Metal servers via the customer portal, Equinix Metal API, or integration (e.g. Terraform). Images for many of the supported operating systems are built specifically for each Equinix Metal server type and stored in a public Github repository.
When you provision a server through the Equinix Metal console, the available operating systems are filtered by the server you choose.
To get a list of available operating systems from the Equinix Metal API, send a GET request to the /operating-systems endpoint.
curl -X GET -H 'X-Auth-Token: <API_TOKEN>' "https://api.equinix.com/metal/v1/operating-systems"
The response will contain the OS name, ID, and slug, which is useful if you are provisioning servers through the API or CLI. It will also contain "provisionable_on", which is an array of servers that operating system is provisionable on.
Note: Not all users or organizations have access to 2nd Generation hardware, and not all 2nd Generation hardware is available in all locations. If you have questions about 2nd Generation hardware, please reach out to support.
Open Source Operating Systems
Supported open source operating systems are available on Equinix Metal servers at no extra charge.
CentOS
| Operating System | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation |
|---|---|---|
| CentOS 8 | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge, m3.large | c2.medium, g2.large, c2.large.arm, m2.xlarge, x2.xlarge, n2.xlarge |
| CentOS 7 | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge, m3.large | c2.medium, g2.large, c2.large.arm, m2.xlarge, x2.xlarge, n2.xlarge |
Container Linux
| Operating System | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation |
|---|---|---|
| Container Linux - Alpha | Not available | c2.medium, m2.xlarge |
| Container Linux - Beta | Not available | c2.medium, m2.xlarge |
| Container Linux - Stable | Not available | c2.medium, m2.xlarge |
Debian
| Operating System | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation |
|---|---|---|
| Debian 10 | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge, m3.large | c2.large.arm, n2.xlarge |
| Debian 9 | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge, m3.large | c2.large.arm, c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge, g2.large |
| Debian 8 | Not available | c2.medium, m2.xlarge |
Flatcar Linux
| Operating System | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation |
|---|---|---|
| Flatcar Linux - Alpha | c3.small, c3.medium | c2.medium, n2.xlarge |
| Flatcar Linux - Beta | c3.small, c3.medium | c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge |
| Flatcar Linux - Edge | c3.small, c3.medium | c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge |
| Flatcar Linux - Stable | c3.small, c3.medium | c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge |
FreeBSD
| Operating System | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation |
|---|---|---|
| FreeBSD 12.1 | c3.medium, s3.xlarge | c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge, x2.xlarge, g2.large |
| FreeBSD 11.2 | Not available | m2.xlarge |
NixOS
| Operating System | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation |
|---|---|---|
| NixOS 19.03 | c3.small | c2.medium, m2.xlarge |
| NixOS 18.03 | Not available | c2.medium, g2.large, c2.large.arm, m2.xlarge, x2.xlarge, n2.xlarge |
OpenSUSE
OpenSUSE 42.3 is available on m3.large and c2.large.arm servers.
RancherOS
RancherOS is only available on m2.xlarge servers.
Scientific Linux 6
Scientific Linux 6 is available on c2.medium and n2.xlarge servers.
Ubuntu
| Operating System | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation |
|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 20.10 | c3.small, c3.medium, m3.large, s3.xlarge | c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge, m3.large | c2.large.arm, c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge, x2.xlarge, g2.large |
| Ubuntu 19.10 | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge | c2.medium, m2.xlarge |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge, m3.large | c2.large.arm, c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge, x2.xlarge, g2.large |
| Ubuntu 17.10 | Not available | c2.medium, m2.xlarge |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | Not available | c2.large.arm, c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge, x2.xlarge, g2.large |
| Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | Not available | c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge |
Licensed Operating Systems
Users can deploy the following licensed Operating Systems on various on-demand or reserved configurations on Equinix Metal. Complete pricing and compatibility information is on the Licensed Operating Systems page.
VMware
| Operating System | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation |
|---|---|---|
| VMware ESXi 7.0 | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge | c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge |
| VMware ESXi 6.7 | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge | m2.xlarge |
| VMware ESXi 6.5 | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge | c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge, x2.xlarge, g2.large |
Red Hat Enterprise
| Operating System | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge, m3.large | Not available |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge, m3.large | c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge, x2.xlarge, g2.large |
Windows Server
| Operating System | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 2019 Standard | c3.small, c3.medium, s3.xlarge, m3.large | c2.medium, n2.xlarge, x2.xlarge, g2.large |
| Windows 2016 Standard | c3.small, s3.xlarge | c2.medium, m2.xlarge, n2.xlarge |
Custom Images
Equinix Metal operating system images are designed for speed and efficiency, but that means they include a minimum number of packages. If you want to reduce the time manually configuring fresh operating system installs, you can tailor the supported operating system images to your needs with Custom Images.
Custom iPXE
If the operating system that you need is not supported, you can use Custom iPXE to bring your own operating system image. When initially provisioning a server, you'll be able to supply a URL to PXE installation tools like netboot.xyz, or your own iPXE script.