Running CrateDB on a single server

Question

Is one node related to one VM or PC ? Is a server the same as a node.
Can CrateDB run on only one node/server. If "yes" does it makes sens to run CreateDB in production on one node/server (eg small server with a raid).

Answer 1

node is related to resources. if you want to get the best out of a CrateDB node it is good to have dedicated cpus, memory and storage. if you have several nodes sharing eg the same spinning disc you won't get the benefits.

so it works best with dedicated machines, but it is also possible to run it in virtualized environment.

it could make sense to run CrateDB as a single node in some cases like using it's search capability, dynamic objects or being ready to scale out at one point. performance wise it shows is strength when it is run distributed.