Best bare-metal hosting provider for a cloud-based lab setup?

          
          

          
          

          
          

          My VMware skills a few other technical certifications are getting a little dated.  I want to set up my own cloud-based virtual lab so I can do some self study.  Running a hypervisor on AWS or Azure won't work because bare metal severs are required.  

I've looked at a couple hosted server providers, but dedicated servers are costly.  Some have hourly offerings, but the data is not persistent.  Some have monthly, but $800 or so.

Is anyone running a cost-effective hypervisor in the cloud and, if so, who is your provider?  I just want to be able to shut it down and start it up on an as-needed basis but have persistent data, all at a reasonable cost for a student-friendly budget.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
What's your actual budget?


If I were in your situation, I'd buy a pair of low-cost HP ProLiant servers from the G6 or G7 generations

I've had good success buying [HP ProLiant DL360 G7 systems](httpwww.ebay.com/itm/301887247818?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) for this purpose (or for test servers/failover/etc). They're usually under $300, well-equipped.