Provisioning
------------

.. index:: cluster;cluster provision

The system is installed as a loosely bundled set of applications.  In order 
for the applications to be coupled, a process called 'provision' 
must take place. 

Standalone systems are single-node ("cluster-of-one") clusters and 
are provisioned automatically since there is only one node in the system.
This can be performed manually afterward with **cluster provision**. 

When the topology of the cluster changes, e.g. additional nodes or 
applications are added; or to reprovision the system to bypass a faulty 
node, the cluster must be reprovisioned using **cluster provision**.

Note that for multi-node clusters, the cluster provisioning needs to reconfigure and restart services 
across the cluster in a complex arrangement and the provisioning duration is 
dependent on the number of nodes - it can take a number of hours for large 
installations.

Provision the cluster from the primary node with **cluster provision**
For backwards compatibility, this command is the same as for example
**cluster provision fast**.

Use the **cluster provision serial** command if the VMware host is under load.

The provisioning step may take some time, because all applications
must be cross-configured to work with one another and the database is also
provisioned. If the system discovers that no primary database server exists
(or multiple database servers exist), the **cluster provision** command prompts the
user to select a primary server manually.

See also: :ref:`screen-command`.