In this recipe, we will discuss the hardware and software option to take account of while considering the Hadoop cluster.
There are many vendors for hardware and software and the options can be overwhelming. But some important things which must be taken into account are as follows:
Run benchmark tests on different hardware examples from HP, IBM, or Dell and compare them for the throughput per unit cost.
What is the roadmap for the hardware you choose? How long will the vendor support it?
Every year, the new hardware will be a better value for compute per unit. What will be the buyback strategy for the old hardware? Will the vendor take back the old hardware and give the new hardware at discounted rates?
Does the hardware have tightly coupled components, which could be difficult to replace in isolation?
What software options does the user have in terms of vendors? Should we go for HDP, Cloudera, or Mapr distribution or use the Apache Hadoop distribution.
Total cost...