The Storage Medium v4 is a Ceph-optimized storage server that shares the same chassis as the Storage Large v4 but ships with a half-populated drive configuration: six 20 TB SATA HDDs and two 6.4 TB Micron 7500 MAX NVMe cache drives. It uses dual Xeon Silver 4510 processors tuned for I/O throughput rather than per-core compute, with enough processing power to saturate the storage backplane without bottlenecking Ceph rebalancing. The Medium storage tier is the entry point for organizations building Ceph clusters that need dedicated storage nodes without the full 240 TB capacity of the Storage Large v4.
Key Takeaways
- Three-tier storage architecture: Dedicated boot SSDs (RAID 1) + NVMe cache tier (Micron 7500 MAX) + HDD bulk tier (20 TB SATA). Each tier serves a distinct I/O role, eliminating contention between OS operations, hot data, and cold storage.
- 120 TB raw HDD capacity: Six 20 TB SATA HDDs provide bulk storage for Ceph OSD nodes, S3-compatible object storage (RADOSGW), backup targets, and data archival at a lower entry point than the 240 TB Storage Large v4.
- 12.8 TB NVMe cache: Two 6.4 TB Micron 7500 MAX drives serve as Ceph journal/WAL/DB or fast-tier cache, accelerating random I/O against the HDD pool. 1.1M random read IOPS per drive.
- Expandable to Storage Large v4 capacity: The same chassis supports up to 12 HDDs and 4 NVMe drives. Expand from 120 TB to 240 TB HDD and from 12.8 TB to 25.6 TB NVMe cache by populating open bays.
- Pair with compute nodes: Deploy 3 Medium v4 compute nodes + 2 Storage Medium v4 nodes for a Ceph cluster with 240 TB raw HDD + 25.6 TB NVMe cache, all on the same 20 Gbps private mesh.
- 95th-percentile egress billing: Same predictable billing model as compute servers. No per-GB object storage transfer charges like AWS S3.
Server Configuration at a Glance
| Component | Specification |
|---|---|
| Processor | 2x Intel Xeon Silver 4510 (5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable, Sapphire Rapids, Intel 7) |
| Total Cores / Threads | 24 cores / 48 threads |
| Base / Max Turbo Frequency | 2.4 GHz / 4.1 GHz |
| Memory | 256 GB DDR5-4400 ECC (16 DIMM slots) |
| Boot Storage | 2x 960 GB SSD in RAID 1 (dedicated OS drives) |
| NVMe Cache Tier | 2x 6.4 TB Micron 7500 MAX NVMe (12.8 TB) |
| HDD Bulk Tier | 6x 20 TB SATA HDD (120 TB raw) |
| Max Drive Bays | 12 drives (HDD) + 4 (NVMe) + 2 (boot) |
| Open Bays | 6 HDD + 2 NVMe (expandable to Storage Large v4 config) |
| Private Bandwidth | 20 Gbps (2x 10 Gbps LACP bonded) |
| Public Bandwidth | 2 Gbps |
| Network SLA | 99.96% base (actual >99.99% since 2022) |
| DDoS Protection | Included, up to 10 Gbps per IP |
| Remote Management | Full IPMI access |
| Pricing | Fixed monthly — see openmetal.io/bare-metal-pricing |
Storage Medium v4 three-tier storage architecture
Processor: Intel Xeon Silver 4510
The Storage Medium v4 uses the same dual Xeon Silver 4510 processors as the compute Medium v4 and the Storage Large v4. The Silver 4510 provides 24 cores / 48 threads at 2.4 GHz base / 4.1 GHz turbo , adequate for saturating the storage backplane: handling Ceph OSD operations, managing drive I/O scheduling, and processing RADOSGW S3 API requests. Storage servers do not need the higher per-core clocks of Gold-class processors because the bottleneck is drive I/O throughput, not CPU compute. The Silver 4510 keeps power and cost proportional to the storage role.
Memory: 256 GB DDR5-4400
The Storage Medium v4 ships with 256 GB DDR5-4400 ECC memory across 16 DIMM slots. The 256 GB is sufficient for Ceph OSD metadata, BlueStore caches, and OS operations across 8 active OSD and cache devices. For clusters requiring more memory per storage node (large Ceph metadata footprints or co-located services), upgrades are available up to 4 TB.
Storage Architecture (Three-Tier)
Tier 1: Boot drives
Two 960 GB SSDs in RAID 1 serve as dedicated OS drives. System I/O (logging, package management, Ceph monitor processes) stays on the boot tier, fully isolated from data operations. This is the same boot/data isolation design used across all OpenMetal current-generation servers.
Tier 2: NVMe cache (Micron 7500 MAX)
Two 6.4 TB Micron 7500 MAX NVMe drives (12.8 TB total) serve as the fast-tier cache layer. In a Ceph deployment, these drives typically host:
- Ceph BlueStore WAL (Write-Ahead Log): Absorbs random writes before flushing to HDD, converting random I/O into sequential writes.
- Ceph BlueStore DB: Metadata and key-value store for OSD operations.
- Fast-tier cache: Hot data promotion from HDD to NVMe for read-intensive workloads.
| Metric | Micron 7500 MAX (6400 GB) |
|---|---|
| Sequential Read | 7,000 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 5,900 MB/s |
| Random Read IOPS | 1,100,000 |
| Random Write IOPS | 400,000 |
| Mixed 70/30 IOPS | 650,000 |
| Read Latency (typical) | 70 us |
| Write Latency (typical) | 15 us |
| Endurance (TBW) | 35,040 TB |
| DWPD | 3 |
| QoS | Sub-1ms at 99.9999% (6-nines) for 4KB random read up to QD128 |
Two open NVMe bays allow expanding the cache tier to 25.6 TB (matching the Storage Large v4 configuration).
Tier 3: HDD bulk storage
Six 20 TB SATA HDDs (120 TB raw) provide high-capacity bulk storage for cold and warm data. These drives handle sequential reads, archival writes, and Ceph recovery operations. With 3x Ceph replication across a 3-node storage cluster, usable capacity is approximately 120 TB per node / 3 = 40 TB usable per node (or 120 TB usable across a 3-node cluster with 360 TB raw). [VERIFY HDD manufacturer and model; exact specs not in Micron drive spec file]
Six open HDD bays allow expanding to the full 12-drive, 240 TB configuration matching the Storage Large v4.
Networking
Dual 10 Gbps NICs (LACP bonded, 20 Gbps aggregate) connect each Storage Medium v4 to the private mesh. This is the data path for Ceph OSD replication, recovery backfill, and client I/O from compute nodes. The 20 Gbps link handles Ceph rebalancing operations (which can saturate bandwidth during recovery events) without starving client I/O. Public bandwidth is 2 Gbps because storage nodes typically serve data over the private mesh to compute nodes, not directly to the public internet.
Egress pricing: 95th-percentile billing, not per-GB transfer
For S3-compatible object storage served externally, public egress is billed on 95th-percentile measurement, not per-GB transfer. No per-GB object storage transfer charges like AWS S3.
Pair with Compute Nodes
Storage Medium v4 servers complement compute-focused Medium v4, Large v4, and XL v4 nodes in Ceph cluster deployments. Example configurations:
| Cluster Configuration | Compute Capacity | Storage Capacity (Raw) | NVMe Cache |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3x Medium v4 compute + 2x Storage Medium v4 | 72C/144T, 768 GB RAM | 240 TB HDD | 25.6 TB |
| 3x Medium v4 compute + 3x Storage Medium v4 | 72C/144T, 768 GB RAM | 360 TB HDD | 38.4 TB |
| 3x Large v4 compute + 2x Storage Medium v4 | 96C/192T, 1.5 TB RAM | 240 TB HDD | 25.6 TB |
| Mixed: 3x Large v4 compute + 1x Storage Medium v4 + 1x Storage Large v4 | 96C/192T, 1.5 TB RAM | 360 TB HDD | 38.4 TB |
All nodes connect over the same 20 Gbps LACP-bonded private mesh. Compute nodes run VMs and applications; storage nodes provide the Ceph OSD backing. OpenMetal’s onboarding team helps design cluster topology for your capacity and performance requirements.
Cost per TB: OpenMetal vs Cloud Storage
The Storage Medium v4 provides 120 TB raw HDD per node on fixed monthly pricing, with room to grow to 240 TB in the same chassis. Compare the structural cost model against cloud storage services:
| Dimension | OpenMetal Storage Medium v4 | AWS S3 Standard | AWS EBS gp3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Fixed monthly per server | Per-GB/month ($0.023/GB) | Per-GB/month ($0.08/GB) |
| Egress | 95th-percentile billing | Per-GB ($0.09/GB first 10 TB) | Via EC2 egress pricing |
| Tenancy | Dedicated hardware | Shared | Shared |
| IOPS (NVMe cache tier) | 1.1M per drive (2 drives) | N/A (S3 is object) | 3,000 baseline |
| Expandability | Add drives to same chassis | Unlimited (per-GB pricing) | Volume resize |
| Replication | Ceph 3x (configurable) | 3x (built-in) | EBS snapshots |
When OpenMetal wins: Sustained multi-hundred-TB workloads where per-GB storage and egress charges would exceed the fixed monthly server cost. The expandable chassis means you can start at 120 TB and grow to 240 TB without migrating data to a different server.
When cloud storage wins: Sub-10 TB workloads, deep integration with cloud-native services, and scenarios where fully managed operations outweigh the cost premium.
Recommended Workloads
Ceph OSD nodes
The primary use case. Each Storage Medium v4 contributes 6 HDD OSDs and 2 NVMe cache devices to a Ceph cluster. NVMe drives handle WAL/DB and hot-tier caching, while HDDs provide bulk capacity. The 20 Gbps private mesh handles replication and recovery traffic. For clusters that outgrow the 120 TB per node, expand in place by populating open bays or add Storage Large v4 nodes.
Bulk object storage (S3-compatible)
Run Ceph RADOSGW on Storage Medium v4 nodes to provide S3-compatible object storage for applications. 120 TB raw per node supports mid-scale media libraries, log aggregation, and dataset hosting. No per-GB storage charges, no per-request API charges.
Backup and archival targets
Use Storage Medium v4 nodes as Proxmox Backup Server targets, Veeam repositories, or custom backup endpoints. The HDD tier provides cost-effective capacity for retention-heavy backup policies, while NVMe cache accelerates restore operations. Boot/data isolation protects backup operations from OS-level I/O.
Media streaming and content delivery
Store and serve video, audio, and image assets from HDD bulk storage with NVMe cache acceleration for frequently accessed content. The 20 Gbps private mesh delivers high throughput to frontend compute nodes running transcoding or CDN edge services.
Data lake storage
Aggregate raw datasets from multiple sources for analytics pipelines. The 120 TB per node (expandable to 240 TB) supports data lakes for Spark, Presto, or Hive workloads running on companion compute nodes. NVMe cache accelerates metadata operations and hot partition access.
Compliance archival
Store regulated data (healthcare records, financial transaction logs, legal documents) on dedicated hardware with HIPAA-eligible infrastructure. Fixed retention costs on dedicated servers, no per-GB archival charges. OpenMetal is HIPAA compliant at the organizational level and offers BAAs. Medium v4 storage servers deployed in Ashburn and Los Angeles are hosted in HIPAA-compliant facilities operated by the facility provider.
Ready to Deploy a Storage Medium v4?
Tell us about your workload and we’ll help you configure the right deployment.
Deployment Options
Standalone Storage Server
Deploy a Storage Medium v4 as a standalone Ceph OSD node, backup target, or archival server. 120 TB raw HDD with 12.8 TB NVMe cache, expandable to 240 TB + 25.6 TB NVMe in the same chassis.
Compute + Storage Clusters
Pair Storage Medium v4 nodes with Medium v4 or Large v4 compute nodes. OpenMetal’s onboarding team helps design cluster topology for your capacity and performance requirements.
Where to deploy
Deploy Storage Medium v4 servers in Ashburn, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, or Singapore. All locations offer the same fixed monthly pricing.
| Location | Region | Facility Certifications | Location Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ashburn, Virginia | US-East | SOC1/2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, NIST 800-53, HIPAA | Ashburn |
| Los Angeles, California | US-West | SOC1/2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA | Los Angeles |
| Amsterdam, Netherlands | EU-West | SOC Type 1/2, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, ISO 50001, ISO 22301 | Amsterdam |
| Singapore | Asia | BCA Green Mark Platinum | Singapore |
Facility certifications are held by the facility operator. OpenMetal is HIPAA compliant at the organizational level and offers BAAs. Proof of Concept clusters are available for testing before committing.
Get a Storage Medium v4 Quote
Tell us about your infrastructure needs and we’ll provide a custom quote.
- Bare metal: Single-server or multi-server deployments with full root access and IPMI
- Hosted Private Cloud: Three-node OpenStack + Ceph clusters with Day 2 operations included
- Custom configurations: RAM upgrades, additional NVMe drives
Ramp pricing available for migrations. All deployments include fixed monthly pricing, 99.96%+ network SLA, and DDoS protection.
Product specifications, pricing, and availability may change due to market conditions and other factors. For the most current information, please contact the OpenMetal team directly.