# Hardware Requirements ## Hosting GBDS can be hosted as a software solution *on-premises* using a specific physical infrastructure, or in a virtualized environment, locally or remotely (cloud). GBDS requires a cluster with at least three nodes to operate correctly and provide proper redundancy for fault tolerance, according to its replication factor. {% hint style="info" %} GBDS nodes must share information within the cluster. Therefore, the network infrastructure is an extremely important item for the correct operation of the application, especially in virtualized environments, and a dedicated switch should be provided for internal communication between cluster nodes. {% endhint %} The hardware requirements for the application must be measured according to project particularities, such as the biometric modalities to be used, response time, transaction volume, etc. Since GBDS is an application that makes heavy use of CPU and memory resources, it is mandatory that, in virtualized environments, each virtual CPU represents a non-shared physical CPU, in order to avoid malfunction due to resource sharing. ## Specific Hardware Requirements GBDS is based on the open-source Hadoop framework and does not require any specific hardware to operate, such as GPUs, etc. The use of Solid State Drives (SSDs) is highly recommended for storing the system and biometric information, in order to speed up the startup process and prevent any read or write malfunction. CPUs that support Hyper-Threading are also recommended to improve processing capabilities. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.griaule.com/gbs/en/gbds-installation/hardwarerequirements.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.