# Cluster Setup Best Practices

Follow these recommendations before and during cluster creation to avoid
common operational issues and ensure your ScyllaDB Cloud cluster is set up
for long-term reliability.

## Enable VPC Peering at Creation Time

When creating your cluster, enable the **VPC Peering** option under Network
Type. VPC peering routes traffic over a private network instead of the public
internet, which improves security and reduces network costs.

#### NOTE
You must enable VPC peering when creating your cluster. It cannot be
enabled on an existing cluster.

Enabling VPC peering also unlocks additional features that require a private
network connection. See [AWS VPC Peering](https://cloud.docs.scylladb.com/stable/cluster-connections/aws-vpc-peering.md)
or [GCP VPC Peering](https://cloud.docs.scylladb.com/stable/cluster-connections/gcp-vpc-peering.md) for setup
instructions.

Read more: [ScyllaDB Cloud Onboarding](https://www.scylladb.com/2019/04/11/scylla-cloud-onboarding/)

## Set Account Limits Before Using BYOA

When deploying ScyllaDB Cloud in your own cloud account (BYOA), verify that
your account has the required resource quotas and limits before creating a
cluster. ScyllaDB Cloud will fail to provision if the necessary allocations
are not in place.

See [BYOA for AWS](https://cloud.docs.scylladb.com/stable/cloud-setup/byoa-aws.md) and
[BYOA for GCP](https://cloud.docs.scylladb.com/stable/cloud-setup/byoa-gcp.md) for the full list of required
resources and limits.

## Plan for Node IP Changes

Over the lifetime of a cluster, server IP addresses may change — for example,
when a node is replaced. As long as your application uses a ScyllaDB driver
with live topology discovery, the driver will detect the new topology and
reconnect automatically. No application changes are required.

## Do Not Modify ScyllaDB-Managed Resources in BYOA

In BYOA deployments, ScyllaDB Cloud creates and exclusively manages specific
resources in your account, including security groups, IAM roles, and
permissions associated with the ScyllaDB role. Modifying these resources
can break ScyllaDB Cloud’s ability to manage your cluster and may affect
service commitments.

Before making any changes to ScyllaDB-managed infrastructure, contact
ScyllaDB Support.