A service provider can maintain one or more host computing devices which may be utilized as bare metal instances by one or more customers of the service provider. Illustratively, each host computing device includes hardware components that are configured in a manner to allow the service provider to implement one or more processes upon a power cycle of the host computing device and prior to access of the host computing device resources by customers. In one aspect, a hosting platform includes components arranged in a manner to limit modifications to software or firmware on hardware components. In another aspect, the hosting platform can implement management functions for establishing control plane functions between the host computing device and the service provider that is independent of the customer. Additionally, the management functions can also be utilized to present different hardware or software attributes of the host computing device.