A staging system that models the production environment is strongly advised. It is critical if customizations have been applied to CloudStack.

Allow adequate time for installation, a beta, and learning the system. Installs with basic networking can be done in hours. Installs with advanced networking usually take several days for the first attempt, with complicated installations taking longer. For a full production system, allow at least 4-8 weeks for a beta to work through all of the integration issues. You can get help from fellow users on the cloudstack-users mailing list.