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 Configuring a Storage Cluster
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Ceph can run with a cluster containing thousands of Object Storage Devices 
(OSDs). A minimal system will have at least two OSDs for data replication. To 
configure OSD clusters, you must provide settings in the configuration file. 
Ceph provides default values for many settings, which you can override in the 
configuration file. Additionally, you can make runtime modification to the 
configuration using command-line utilities.

When Ceph starts, it activates three daemons: 

- ``ceph-osd`` (mandatory)
- ``ceph-mon`` (mandatory)
- ``ceph-mds`` (mandatory for cephfs only)

Each process, daemon or utility loads the host's configuration file. A process 
may have information about more than one daemon instance (*i.e.,* multiple 
contexts). A daemon or utility only has information about a single daemon 
instance (a single context).

.. note:: Ceph can run on a single host for evaluation purposes.

.. toctree::

   file_system_recommendations
   Configuration <ceph_conf>
   Deploy Config <deploying_ceph_conf>
   deploying_ceph_with_mkcephfs