Book Image

Raspberry Pi Super Cluster

By : Andrew K. Dennis
Book Image

Raspberry Pi Super Cluster

By: Andrew K. Dennis

Overview of this book

A cluster is a type of parallel/distributed processing system which consists of a collection of interconnected stand-alone computers cooperatively working together. Using Raspberry Pi computers, you can build a two-node parallel computing cluster which enhances performance and availability. This practical, example-oriented guide will teach you how to set up the hardware and operating systems of multiple Raspberry Pi computers to create your own cluster. It will then navigate you through how to install the necessary software to write your own programs such as Hadoop and MPICH before moving on to cover topics such as MapReduce. Throughout this book, you will explore the technology with the help of practical examples and tutorials to help you learn quickly and efficiently. Starting from a pile of hardware, with this book, you will be guided through exciting tutorials that will help you turn your hardware into your own super-computing cluster. You'll start out by learning how to set up your Raspberry Pi cluster's hardware. Following this, you will be taken through how to install the operating system, and you will also be given a taste of what parallel computing is about. With your Raspberry Pi cluster successfully set up, you will then install software such as MPI and Hadoop. Having reviewed some examples and written some programs that explore these two technologies, you will then wrap up with some fun ancillary projects. Finally, you will be provided with useful links to help take your projects to the next step.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Raspberry Pi Super Cluster
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Booting from an external USB HDD


Booting the Raspberry Pi up to use a USB HDD will give you extra storage capacity and also provide you with a device that is faster and more robust when it comes to accessing data repeatedly. This is especially useful when running large MapReduce applications with Hadoop. The USB HDD should contain external power, if possible, as the max recommended current on the USB ports is 100 mA.

Follow the listed steps to set up your USB HDD and configure your SD card:

  1. Plug in the USB device to one of your Raspberry Pi's USB port's; remember to leave the keyboard attached.

  2. Using the Linux instructions from Chapter 2, Setting Up your Raspberry Pi Software and Hardware for Parallel Computing, grab the disk name and unmount the USB device. You can use the instruction at the following eLinux page to format your USB drive:

    Note

    You can use ls /dev/ | grep "sd" to list connected devices and then to mount the device use sudo mount /dev...