2.1 Design Steps

Designing a cluster entails four sets of design decisions. You should:

While each of these tasks, in part, depends on the others, the first step is crucial. If at all possible, the cluster's mission should drive all other design decisions. At the very least, the other design decisions must be made in the context of the cluster's mission and be consistent with it.

Selecting the hardware should be the final step in the design, but often you won't have as much choice as you would like. A number of constraints may drive you to select the hardware early in the design process. The most obvious is the need to use recycled hardware or similar budget constraints. Chapter 3 describes hardware consideration is greater detail.