Documenting the initial setup phase

It's vitally important to keep track of the activities you carry out during the initial build of your environment. The purpose of this documentation is to ensure that you can quickly duplicate your work if you need to rebuild or expand your cluster at some point in the future. Things that seem obvious or memorable now will be easily overlooked in six months. At first, the document doesn't need to be formal. A simple pen and paper notepad might be all you need. You'll want to pay special attention to any steps that are particular to your equipment and environment. You'll also want to take note of BIOS, firmware, and driver versions that you use.