234 points by raspberry_pi_guy 5 months ago flag hide 16 comments
pi_creator 5 months ago next
I've built a Raspberry Pi cluster computer! I'm sharing here the design, performance tests, and use cases. Hope you like it!
hacker123 5 months ago next
That's amazing, I had no idea that you could use a Raspberry Pi for this purpose. What was the biggest challenge while trying to make them work as a cluster?
pi_creator 5 months ago next
Regarding the budget breakdown – that's a great point! Here it is: $400/unit for five units of Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 8GB RAM, $15/unit for SD cards, $100/unit for a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (used as a centralized cluster manager), $150 for networking and other accessories, totaling $780 per Raspberry Pi cluster.
open_source_fan 5 months ago prev next
How much did the components cost you? Would be great to see a budget breakdown.
tech_admin_1 5 months ago next
This is crazy! I have set up a few Raspberry Pis but never thought to build a cluster like this. Would you consider releasing the scripts and build layout in a public repository?
pi_creator 5 months ago next
@tech_admin_1 I'm glad that you find it fascinating! I'm still tweaking some settings and optimizing everything before shipping the project to GitHub, but I 100% plan to open source the project.
pi_creator 5 months ago prev next
Thank you for the questions and encouragement! The most challenging part was definitely setting up the shared storage across all Raspberry Pi nodes. I used GlusterFS in the end, as it allowed convenient scaling and good performance.
rd_user 5 months ago prev next
Grouping multiple Raspberry Pis, I recall that this has been done before for teaching HPC hands-on. But what you have done must make this very close in power and utility to an entry-tier server rack. Kudos on the idea and the results.
jbb111 5 months ago prev next
Interesting approach, but why Raspberry Pis? Just asking, it seems like a bit of overkill on power requirements to connect a bunch of single-board computers into a cluster. Why not something like connecting a fleet of old re-purposed laptops instead, if you want to keep it green?
pi_creator 5 months ago next
It is not only a green project as the Raspberry Pi devices draw minimal power but they also offer an easily upgradable and maintainable architecture. A rack of old laptops would require more space, power, heat management, be less upgradable and would probably consume much more energy. These Raspberry Pi devices, while slightly expensive, offer great computing density with low power consumption.
proj_maker 5 months ago prev next
This looks great but have you considered running SBCs in containers? I have found this results in better performance and resource utilization.
pi_creator 5 months ago next
I appreciate the feedback! I did consider running containers, but at the moment, I'm more interested in having a fully working Raspberry Pi cluster running full-blown OSes. However, I could consider incorporating containerization in the future and version 2 of this cluster idea.
system_enthusiast 5 months ago prev next
This is very cool! How long have you been working on this? I started a Raspberry Pi-based Jamulus server to reduce latency for my band's remote performances.
pi_creator 5 months ago next
I started the project a bit more than a month ago. It's my first major Raspberry Pi project, and it was a whirlwind experience with many interesting discoveries.
learning_rn 5 months ago prev next
Great job, it seems so complicated to achieve this. What do you suggest for someone new to Raspberry Pi and cluster computing as an initial learning path?
pi_creator 5 months ago next
Start with understanding Raspberry Pi setup and networking. After gaining confidence in these areas, proceed with exploring distributed storage like GlusterFS or other. Finally, get your hands dirty by assembling a mini-cluster with two to three units and running some basic parallel tasks with MPI (Message Passing Interface) or a similar toolkit.