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I am looking to invest on up to four Raspberry Pi 4B, to play and experiment on various uses. I am looking to have them in a stack, similar to this, SSD and all. The question is, does anyone knows of a solution to power them all, without having to use individual power bricks? I want something that is as much compact as possible, and having dangling power cables in addition to their ethernet cable is something I am looking to avoid.
Pinging @jlj and @eldersnake as they are the Pi cowboys around here, but if anyone else knows, please chime in!
I am finding it to be an impossible task to find the Raspberry Pis I want. I am after four 4B, on 8GB version Pis. Board only. If anyone knows of a place to buy them, please let me know.
@david I can really recommend the following:
BitScope Cluster Blade
I have one myself here, and plan to put a couple of these 1RU babies (_don't have to be rack mounted_) into my Rack Cabinet / Server Room 😅
@david I can really recommend the following:
BitScope Cluster Blade
I have one myself here, and plan to put a couple of these 1RU babies (_don't have to be rack mounted_) into my Rack Cabinet / Server Room 😅
@prologic good, but I will still the Pis, which are no where to be found, sadly. Well, scalpers have them, at exorbitant prices. I have no choice but to wait.
@david I'm also having trouble finding and sourcing "hardware" (_read boards_).
@david I'm also having trouble finding and sourcing "hardware" (_read boards_).
I'm not too sure admittedly on a neat and tidy all-in-one solution for powering multiple Pis, however I do know and have experience with the fact that these little beauties certainly don't _need_ a power brick and be powered by other means such as being powered off USB. The RPi 4 seems to have a requirement of 3 amps, although it can get away with around 2.5a if it's own USB ports aren't being used for anything.
I believe you can also get PoE (Power Over Ethernet) adaptors for the Pi which could also work for this application? Like this: https://www.amazon.com/UCTRONICS-PoE-Splitter-USB-C-Compliant/dp/B087F4QCTR
Oh nevermind, just saw what @prologic recommended 😁
@eldersnake thank you. I was thinking on simply buying the PoE caps, and using a PoE switch. That way, there is only one cable out, which can be organised very tidy. The issue now is finding the boards. None is available. If any of you can get a hold one one (or more, I am trying to get four) 4B, 8GB, under $100, grab it for me. I will pay shipping to the US! 😊
@david Ahh, didn't realise they had the PoE caps now too, that's neat.
I will for sure keep a look out, sadly for us Aussies they are going for about $134.99 at the moment 😵
@eldersnake where do you see them for $135? I will order four right now at that price. Give me a link, please.
@david Unfortunately they are actually listed Out of Stock, I was looking at the 4G version initially which is in stock and didn't see the OoS banner on the 8GB model when I said that (sorry). So I guess the shortage is everywhere except for the 4GB model.
@eldersnake ah, no biggies. I am looking everywhere. I wonder—other than the chip shortage—what is causing these boards to be unavailable. I would go for 4GB, but I figure, if I am already investing on four toys, I rather get the "fully loaded" one.
Was finally able to reserve (not purchase yet, but reserve with credit card authorised, etc.) the four Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB boards I have been after. They are not to ship until mid-March but I am, at least, in some sort of queue to get them. I think it is safe to buy the PoE hats, and the PoE switch for them now. Yoo-hoo!
@david Congratulations! March which year are you referring to?
And I ordered the PoE hats. So far my little future experiment is tallying $407.26:
1. $313.96 (including taxes and shipping) for four Raspberry Pi Model 4B, 8GB.
2. $93.30 (including taxes and shipping) for four PoE Hats for the Raspberry Pi Model 4B.
I still need the enclosure, but I will wait on that one, as the size of the Pis will increase with the hat. I also want to make sure I conduct a nice research about the best one to get that will keep everything cool, **and** allow to hold an extra 6.35cm SSD drive.
I wonder if the best way to add additional storage to each Pi on the cluster will be sharing it as an NFS, or if there is an alternate recommended way. Only thing making me think about this is having to rely in a single point of failure, as I will have to pick a single Pi to physically attach the storage, and run the NFS server from it. Is there a better way? Any tips?
@prologic how will you set it up? One node GlusterFS? It would still be a single point of failure. If making it more than a node, the storage blocks will need to be present on each node, defeating what I want to do, which is sharing one storage across all Pis. In my ideal world, the attached storage will have FC, and so all Pis, and I will have a FC switch, so I can attach each Pi with fibre to the same storage. LOL. But I am not enterprise. That said, within humble means, what's next?
@prologic one will you set it up? One node GlusterFS? It will still be a single point of failure. If making it more than a node, the storage blocks will need to be present on each node, defeating what I want to do, which is sharing one storage across all Pis. In my ideal world, the attached storage will have FC, and so all Pis, and I will have a FC switch, so I can attach each Pi with fibre to the same storage. LOL. But I am not enterprise. That said, within humble means, what's next?
@david Sorry I misunderstood what you are doing then 🤦♂️ I thought you have 4x Raspberry Pis rash with storage.
@david Sorry I misunderstood what you are doing then 🤦♂️ I thought you have 4x Raspberry Pis rash with storage.