The text outlines considerations for sizing and configuring a Couchbase Server cluster, emphasizing flexibility due to varied customer environments. It discusses hardware recommendations, noting the difficulty of prescribing specific requirements due to differing use cases, such as physical datacenter setups versus cloud environments like AWS. Couchbase is designed to run on "commodity hardware," which varies widely in definition. Key factors for sizing include data distribution, network capabilities, CPU cores, disk performance, and RAM allocation, with specific guidance on each. The importance of horizontal scalability, optimal node configurations, and the benefits of more nodes with lower capacities over fewer high-powered nodes are highlighted. Additionally, it advises against co-locating Couchbase with applications on the same servers due to resource allocation complexities and suggests VM and cloud deployment considerations. The upcoming entry in the series will cover metrics and monitoring for proper cluster sizing.