A list of considerations when buying a new cluster, or adding to an existing cluster. Also applies to other high performance computing (HPC) systems.

General

Deployed, or simply iIdeas or options which would required further study

Notes

Software

CheIT: OS, the cluster "stack", and core applications.
Researchers: Their applications, configurations, scripts, sharing, etc.
Maintenance and updates, including scheduling.

 

Backup

EZ-Backup service
Local, on head node: Copies and/ or sync'ed
Local, off head node: : Copies and/ or sync'ed

Not mutually exclusive.
If you pull unique data off quickly, investing in backup diminishes.