Processors

The first decision for server planning is often the choice of Central Processor Unit ( CPU) model. In the past, you often had only a handful or even one choice, but today's x64 servers offer dozens of options, including core count and clock rate. In this section, we'll explore these options and help you make the right choices for your Ceph deployment. This is an area where overkill is all too possible, but as we'll see it is not necessarily the best place to blow your budget.

CPU socket count

Most servers used for Ceph today are either single-socket or dual-socket designs. Large four-socket servers are usually overkill for Ceph, and present increased cost and operational complexity. MON and RGW servers often can get away with only a single socket filled with at least a four-core CPU, though this will limit memory capacity as well.

CPU model

It is natural to feel that more, faster CPU cores are better, but with Ceph this is usually the least effective place to spend extra money. The...