Questions about multiple nodes on Pi4+

Node Operators
, ,
1

As I’m reaching 50% of my 4.5 TB storage space, I want to start preparing by reading up on hosting a second node on my raspberry pi 4, something I understand it should be able to handle. As I don’t want to get in the way of my current node, I want some “stupid” questions out of the way, some of you might have experience with.

  1. Ideally I’d use a second usb3 connector, same as my current 5TB 2.5" HDD. Energy wise this seems the most “lean” to me. As opposed of 12v disks. Will the original PI adapter be able to handle two USB connected HDD’s?
  2. Am I correct in assuming this setup is most energy efficient?
  3. I’m using 4.5 TB of the 5 to have some headroom. Is this still the preferred amount?
  4. Is there a guide available for separating the two installs on one PI, relating to ports, dashboards, IP addresses, etc. There is a general guide available for installing a second/multiple nodes, but are there things to consider specifically for the PI?

Thanks for the help!

2

All USB connected HDDs should be externally powered, especially with the RPi.

5 Likes
3

You are not going to be happy trying to run two 2.5" hdd off the pi4.
It can work but the power use will make it unreliable.
Next up a powered hub can be used but it will prevent booting by back powering the pi4. It can work but you have to mess with plugs each boot.
Powered 3.5" usb disk will use more power you are correct

1 Like
4

I am using a RAID enclosure for HDD
with USB 3.1 from ICYBOX on my RPi4B. It’s working like a charm - of course with external power supply.

100 GB should be enough. I’ve setup 50 GB actually.

There’s dedicated guide for initial setup on RPi. You can use this to setup another node and check your settings. A second guide is handling the port differences and what you have to take care of.

1 Like
5

If there are any questions regarding the RPi4 being powerful enough (CPU wise) to handle multiple nodes, you should be fine. I’ve got 3 nodes running simultaneously on a previously unused RPi3. Hard drives are connected to a single USB port and externally powered (it’s a 3 drive dock). Both are Pi and drives are protected by a UPS.

6

It will be more like a SMR. Please consider to do not use SMR disks, see PSA: Beware of HDD manufacturers submarining SMR technology in HDD's without any public mention and Topics tagged smr

No. It is not recommended to use external HDD without additional power supply for each HDD.

7

With that much data I would get a NAS and mirror it, ds220+ or similar with 2x16TB

8

Thanks very helpful advice everyone. By the looks of it I need to reconsider my setup. Hahaha.

Isn’t raid advices against? At least for spreading risk of single point of failure?

Will pick this up with the review of my complete setup, thanks

I’ll look into this. Do you power this with a small 12v PSU or adapter?

2 Likes
9

Ah yes did a quick check, it’s the 2.5" BarraCuda 5TB. And here I was thinking I had a lean, thought-out setup. I’m afraid all disk I have with larger sizes are part of this it seems. Only my 8TB Exos 7E8, seems to be alight.

Would it be ok, powering it with a USB cable that has a 12v adapter port? That would be an easy enough transfer and keep my setup relatively the same as it is now. It would also mean I can postpone thinking of a second node.

10

Yes, I do not raid, I just wanted to copy paste the name of the HDD enclosure ^^

Give it a try. As long as it is a single external device, you will see if it is working or not immediately (hdd powered or not).

1 Like
11

I know I can get it running like this, as I did it before with some other setup I had. But since I’m caught a little of guard with the whole USB powered thing, I want to be sure 12v adapter powered isn’t advised against as well.

12

Understood - I maybe misunderstood. You should power the hard drive directly from an electrical outlet.

1 Like
13

It came with its own power adapter. Not sure what is available in your region but this is the dock I’m using:

The one caution I would give with this particular dock (and I believe the 4 drive model was confirmed too) is that adding/removing disks in the dock causes some sort of reset in the connection. So before moving any drives around the Storj node should be stopped and all drives in the dock that are mounted should be unmounted.

14

Thanks @Craig, and @Bivvo for the advice. I’ll look into these products.

15

@Craig @Bivvo - I’m finally there.

I’m now migrating the old 2.5" 5TB into an 8TB disk. (current rsync-ing 3.5 TB)
And another 8TB disk for starting an new node. All in one icybox RD3621U3.

I’m having trouble getting the second node going however

  • created identity “storagenode2”
  • setup the port forwarding (router does 28968:28968, run command does 28968:28967, address pointing to publicip:28967)
  • all my setup/run command adjusted to the second disk.

But placing this piece of code I get an error:

sudo docker run --rm -e SETUP="true" \
--mount type=bind,source="/mnt/storj3/identity",destination=/app/identity \
--mount type=bind,source="/mnt/storj3/storagenode",destination=/app/config \
--name storagenode2 storjlabs/storagenode:latest

Error: storagenode configuration already exists (/app/config)

Any advice/experience to share about this?

16

if you are just increasing the hdd size, you don’t need a new identity. just modify the STORAGE param and that’s it (with all the previous configuration).

17

@Bivvo I’m replacing the 5TB with an 8TB 3.5" disk. Thats’s project one.
Additionaly I want to add a node on another node on different 8TB. But I’m running into issue adding the second node on the same machine.

I don’t want to raid into 1 16TB. Hence the second node

18

if you want make more nodes on raspberry, make sure you use 4gb or 8gb RAM version.

19

Sorry, I’m still confused. Haha. Can you outline somehow shortly what you want to do?

20

@Vadim yes it’s the 4GB
@Bivvo hahaha sorry, ok. Let me try again. I had a setup with only one 5TB hdd that’s at 75%.

I want to do two things. 1. Phase out the 5TB drive. And migrate that node into an 8TB hdd. That’s node 1. And I got that under control.

Now i have another 8TB hdd laying around. And to spread risks I rather have two nodes in one machine, than having one big 16TB node.

But I’m having troubles setting up this second node on the same machine. I’m trying to follow all the guides there are there isn’t a complete guide on what values to adjust if you want to add a second node (or mutliple) on the same machine.