One of my nodes is full so I was going to grab another RPi4 and spin up a new node but apparently that’s not happening. I don’t pay attention to hardware market unless I am ready to buy something and from the 2 mins worth of searching I did it appears the RPi4 is end of manufacturing and sold only at scalpers prices and the rumor of a RPi5 in 2023 seems to be pushed out.
Anyone here a hardware news follower and have better or different news/details?
I dont think they stopped making rpi4 but since covid happened everything got delayed so supply has slowed but demand hasnt. as for rpi5 I doubt thats coming anytime soon maybe 2024.
what’s your current RPi4 setup look like? 4GB or 8GB model by chance? Both USB3 ports used? if not then I’d just grab another external hard drive and use the same RPi for the next node.
I know when I was running nodes on RPi’s, I typically used one per node, but that was usually because I was usb-booting from an SSD, so both USB3 ports used with the SSD and HDD…
If you’re comfortable enough with other linux distros, like ubuntu, there are a lot of alternatives out there. A couple of years ago, I ended up migrating four of my nodes to an Odroid H2+. It has a 4x PCIe 2.0 nvme slot, so I use a WD blue nvme SSD as the boot drive, I shucked two node HDDs from the external enclosures (WD Elements) and connected to the H2+ via the onboard SATA 3.0 connections, and then used the two USB3 ports to connect two more WD Elements external drives. Hardkernel makes/made a nice acrylic case that holds the two bare metal HDDs and computer. So four nodes on one box.
The H2+, which was obsoleted over COVID, runs on an Intel J4115 (quad core) so it’s an x86 processor, and has two SODIMM slots, which I loaded with 2x 8GB RAM. Plus it has 2x 2.5gbps ethernet ports. So quite a bit more powerful than a raspberry pi…
Here’s a picture of that setup in my rack.
It works really well, albeit a bit over kill just for nodes. But it runs rock solid.
Long story short, you could look at some of the Odroid single board computers. They have some really “lite” ones that could run “server” based OS options, and then some beefed up ones like the “H” line up, which they just came out with an upgraded H3/H3+ line up, that can run full windows. Also, not to be confused with the “HC” lineup.
Although, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also point you to this recent thread where Storj specifically states that it would/could be in the best interest of SNOs to not purchase new hardware JUST for storj nodes. SNO's please don't buy anything
Although, they’re really just pointing out the risks when it comes to ROI expectations. To be honest, over the years when I was using RPis…I probably purchased 7 or 8 of them…some used for Storj at one point, and now none of them being used for Storj. Actually most are sitting around collecting dust. I’m perfectly fine with that. Actually, I just purchased some PiKVM boards from geekworm and am using a couple of these RPi4s to run those in servers.
I have Odroids, Banana Pi, Orange Pi, Rock Pi, Pine, Rpi3 and Rpi4, Latte Pandas, a few other SBC’s I have forgotten. NAS devices, a few PC’s reconfigured into Linux machines, and probably like… 8 Windows boxes. Plus a few Chromebooks.
With the SBC’s I use them exclusively as test devices for Storj configurations… Some have been running for years both on v2 as well as v3. They are not all running though, many I test and then break down and reconfigure into other tests. I will likely repurpose some now to run as a Satellite and donate some to the Community.
God, I wish the RPI5 would come out this year.
How many nodes do you run on your RPi4?
Is it a 4GB?
If so you can run 4 on it without a pb, and if you’re ready to ignore ToS (which I cannot recommend doing even though I technicall do…) I’m sure it can handle way more than that CPU and RAM wise, so long as disks can keep up (as in… If they are CMR).
Valid points people have posted. I will have to give some consideration to dual node options as it is a Pi4 4gb but the node is at a remote location I don’t frequent so that is why I was considering installing additional hardware instead of expanding current. I can basically fully config at home and make a quick visit instead of spending hours doing the config locally.
I’m successfully running 3 nodes on a single RPi3. The drives are in a 3-bay USB3 dock. Just for reference on “how many nodes can you run on X?”
I dont think it goes against TOS since its 1 node per core anyways and some run alot more then that per core. Since different performance levels of cpus are different.
