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Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server

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Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server

#111

Post by justin66 »

the_pwner224 wrote: post #91
justin66 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the Pi people finally got USB boot finished for the Pi 4, I'm not sure what USB annoyances are left to worry about? That's really why I asked the question. A USB 3 SSD seems about as trouble-free as a storage device can possibly be.

A M.2 SSD is more trouble free. I recently built a desktop computer. It uses a 6x6 inch mini-ITX motherboard. The motherboard has a CPU and 2 sticks of RAM in it, raising the height to about 2 inches. The SSD goes inside the motherboard in the M.2 slot. Aside from this 6x6x2" unit, the only other things are: - the gigantic graphics card - not necessary on these type of computers - the power supply unit - standard USB…

It's a slightly different paradigm, that's for sure. It feels technically neater to interface a little more directly with the storage hardware. I'm not sure how much I'd give up for that, though.

> having a large external USB SSD with a cable to connect.

The Samsung t5 and t7 SSDs I'm using with RPi 4s are about the size of a credit card (a stack of five credit cards, I guess). The tiny, very solid flirc cases for the Pis aren't much bigger, and dissipate heat beautifully. I like this solution a lot more than I anticipated I would.

Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server

#112

Post by justin66 »

novok wrote: post #104
justin66 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the Pi people finally got USB boot finished for the Pi 4, I'm not sure what USB annoyances are left to worry about? That's really why I asked the question. A USB 3 SSD seems about as trouble-free as a storage device can possibly be.

You have to do special config stuff to make it work, its not a default way to do things like an SD card or m2 card is on other SBCs. Also usb cables can get disconnected sometimes.

> You have to do special config stuff to make it work

Flashing the newest firmware is about it, now.

Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server

#113

Post by csdreamer7 »

m-p-3 wrote: post #95
Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had encrypted USB storage on a Pi 2, as a Git server for over 5 years, used by several users for large projects, when the commit size was large there were some CPU bottleneck(it's Pi2 after all), but never had any reliability issues although I had daily backup to another USB storage on the same device and a remote-backup pushed from the device. I might have rebooted it 3-4 times over past 5 years just for cleani…

I believe you can boot from USB now, even on the Pi 4. No way I'd rely on an SD card for the OS if this was to be used over a long period. I saw too many of those fail or become corrupted over time, even when minimizing writes.

I saw a Youtube video on bios beta that allowed booting from a usb drive or a usb connected hard drive.

Is that bios out of beta now?

Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server

#114

Post by rocky1138 »

city41 wrote: post #89
colordrops wrote: post #9

A lot of skepticism in this thread. I've got a pi4 4GB running Ubuntu server, acting as a SMB file server, Plex media server, Mopidy music server, Spotify Connect endpoint, video recorder for my two outdoor IP cameras, and a Minecraft server for my kids, all running simultaneously. And it's not breaking a sweat, not even getting close to full memory or CPU utilization. I do use a USB nvme SSD enclosure for storage to…

I find the pi4 is pretty close to being fast enough to be my daily driver. Not quite, but it's pretty close. I suspect the pi5 will meet my needs. Being able to just mount a ~$100 computer on the back of my monitor and do my work on it will be pretty mind blowing.

Take a look at the Chuwi Larkbox!

Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server

#115

Post by pmarreck »

zelly wrote: post #40
mastrsushi wrote: post #4

An ARM based server almost sounds like an oxymoron.

I got a Raspberry Pi 4 and naively thought that because it was ARM it used little power and didn't need fans. In a few weeks the board melted and now won't turn on. Was only running a few programs.

I just got a Pi 4 and for a year now I've known it gets very very hot. I ordered this heatsink case for it

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VWM4J4L/ref=ppx_yo_dt...

Should solve the problem. :)

Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server

#116

Post by netsharc »

wishinghand wrote: post #84
colordrops wrote: post #9

A lot of skepticism in this thread. I've got a pi4 4GB running Ubuntu server, acting as a SMB file server, Plex media server, Mopidy music server, Spotify Connect endpoint, video recorder for my two outdoor IP cameras, and a Minecraft server for my kids, all running simultaneously. And it's not breaking a sweat, not even getting close to full memory or CPU utilization. I do use a USB nvme SSD enclosure for storage to…

What USB nvme enclosure are you using? And what SSD?

Not an ad, but I saw this USB portable NVME drive today, seems like an easier (and probably pricier) solution: https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/portable-drives/san...

Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server

#117

Post by vcavallo »

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #103
vcavallo wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$300-$500 ballpark. especially if the pi is usable for other (relatively light) home server uses and the camera network is extensible

Thanks, not sure whether a Pi Nano can handle more than a feed from 1080p/60 camera 24/7 but I'll post the need gap of self hosted IP camera setup in my problem validation platform[1] to find existing solutions and to see if others want it. [1] https://needgap.com

interesting project! thanks for referencing it. how long have you been running it and what’s the experience been like?

Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server

#118

Post by m-p-3 »

tjpnz wrote: post #15
colordrops wrote: post #9

A lot of skepticism in this thread. I've got a pi4 4GB running Ubuntu server, acting as a SMB file server, Plex media server, Mopidy music server, Spotify Connect endpoint, video recorder for my two outdoor IP cameras, and a Minecraft server for my kids, all running simultaneously. And it's not breaking a sweat, not even getting close to full memory or CPU utilization. I do use a USB nvme SSD enclosure for storage to…

I've been using mine for Plex and Deluge the previous 6-months or so. In terms of performance it's been all but flawless.

Sorry but english isn't my first language, do you mean that it was flawless or not?

Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server

#119

Post by tuatoru »

m-p-3 wrote: post #118
tjpnz wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using mine for Plex and Deluge the previous 6-months or so. In terms of performance it's been all but flawless.

Sorry but english isn't my first language, do you mean that it was flawless or not?

"All but" means "almost" or "nearly". (Most of the time -- as usual English has exceptions and inversions for this.)

In this case I think it means "nearly".

Re: Turning the Raspberry Pi 4 into a Mini Server

#120

Post by flukus »

city41 wrote: post #89
colordrops wrote: post #9

A lot of skepticism in this thread. I've got a pi4 4GB running Ubuntu server, acting as a SMB file server, Plex media server, Mopidy music server, Spotify Connect endpoint, video recorder for my two outdoor IP cameras, and a Minecraft server for my kids, all running simultaneously. And it's not breaking a sweat, not even getting close to full memory or CPU utilization. I do use a USB nvme SSD enclosure for storage to…

I find the pi4 is pretty close to being fast enough to be my daily driver. Not quite, but it's pretty close. I suspect the pi5 will meet my needs. Being able to just mount a ~$100 computer on the back of my monitor and do my work on it will be pretty mind blowing.

Some of the "toy" pi laptops like the CrowPi2 (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elecrow/crowpi2-steam-e...) are getting really close to being usable as a daily driver for me. I'd love something like that with a combination a breadboard for hacking, an SSD drive, a battery and a dock instead of the built-in toys.
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