I'm installing a small cloud (10 nodes) using the free Cloudera Manager. Should I dedicate a server to Cloudera Manager, or can it be installed on one of the compute nodes? What's the best practice? I have an extra server to install the manager on, if that is a better idea.
Yes, you should include the Cloudera Manager host itself in your cloud.
In the Cloudera Manager installer, it says:
Cloudera recommends including Cloudera Manager server's host because it is often used for the Cloudera Management Service. This will also enable health monitoring for that host.