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in this article, i outline a step-by-step process for incrementally scaling your deployment, from a simple single-node drupal install running all components of the system, all the way to a load balanced, multi node system with database level optimization and clustering. since you almost certainly don't want to jump straight from your single node system to the mother of all redundant clustered systems in one step, i've broken this down into 5 incremental steps, each one building on the last. each step along the way is a perfectly viable deployment.