Building your own AWS: a 6-node Raspberry Pi 4 Cluster

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Summary

1. Overview
2. Hardware
3. Preparing SD Card
4. Initial Pi Setup
5. Done: next ideas

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1. Overview

I built this cluster for many reasons:

• Processing power
  • This setup itself has 24 cores in total (each Pi has 4 cores x 6 units) running at 1.5 Ghz (2 Ghz overclocked)
• Studies
  • Lerning Kubernetes, docker swarm, monitoring and managing multiple nodes,
• Research and Benchmarking
  • Comparison between protocols (udp, tcp, http, mqtt), cpu stock vs overclocked, how many clients we can handle, etc.

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2. Hardware

The case itself was 3d printed on a Prusa i3 MK3 using PLA filament, I will leave the links for the printable parts and some footage from the process:

• Files to print (.stl)
  • Stack mount: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2883047?fbclid=IwAR2jm9g8h_Y0gDxOqPw_cflQelIKZe3qx8vo1xCUZ1UaMJIDThuyJ2HnjDc
  • Wall bracket: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3594018?fbclid=IwAR1--Dl6uY-RaW55rIvJzcI6RYXuRX-IVUTYTWWs4xdIhilOPVdKukupomA
  • Stack mount (anker battery): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2758155?fbclid=IwAR2l5pLktHg4jz6l8797r8oWRwOJFtJXxyNyz8wqeyBAGBPAq5kllu0fnkY
• Footage
  • Printer: https://photos.app.goo.gl/FRSSnsJZwtBNswXL8
  • Close up: https://photos.app.goo.gl/4cYvbbwHub425opw7

Plus this list of items purchased (link included):

Qty	Item	Price (CDN$) *
2	Raspberry Pi 4 - 4 GB	$74.25
2	Raspberry Pi 4 - 2 GB	$59.95
2	Raspberry Pi 4 - 1 GB	$46.95
2	SD Card Gigastone 32 GB (5 pack)	$32.98
6	Pimoroni Fan SHIM	$19.99
1	Micro HDMI to HDMI cable	$11.99
1	Copper Heatsink (8 pack)	$9.99
1	Arctic MX-4 Thermal Paste	$12.99
2	USB Type C Cable 1ft (5 pack)	$12.99
1	Sabrent 60 Watt (12 Amp) 10-Port	$36.99
1	NETGEAR S8000 8-Port Gigabit	$102.99

• The currency is Canadian Dollars.

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2. Preparing SD Card

First, we need to download the OS. I am using Raspbian Buster Lite (terminal only), but there is a Desktop version included, but consuming more resources - which is something that we do not want to waste in a cluster setup.

• Raspbian:
  • https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/
• Other options:
  • https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/

Once we have downloaded the OS image, we have to save it in the SD Card:

• https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/README.md

Done, now we can go to the next step!

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3. Initial Pi Setup

Once we have our SD card ready, we are now going to say "hello world" to each Pi node:

• Connect the SD Card to the board
• Connect the ethernet cable to the board to the router
• Connect the USB-C cable to power on

[TODO...]

Fan Shim Python Script:

• Install Git

  • $ sudo apt update && sudo apt install git

• Install Python:

  • $ sudo apt install python3-pip

• https://learn.pimoroni.com/tutorial/sandyj/getting-started-with-fan-shim

Custom config

• Turn on at 60°
• Turn off at 50°
• RGB at 255

$ cd ~/fanshim-python/examples && sudo ./install-service.sh --on-threshold 60 --off-threshold 50 --delay 2 --brightness 255

Watching temp

$ watch -n 1 vcgencmd measure_temp

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4. Done: next ideas

NGINX https://github.com/renancaldas/aws-ec2-guide#3-nginx https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-a-self-signed-ssl-certificate-for-nginx-in-ubuntu-16-04

[TODO...]