Raspberry Pi 2 Node

[foggyb]

Is there any reason one could not run a full bitcoin node on a Raspberry Pi 2? I see these are very cheap now, just $37. Add a 32GB SD card and you have a fully functioning node right?

[shorena]

Is there any reason one could not run a full bitcoin node on a Raspberry Pi 2? I see these are very cheap now, just $37. Add a 32GB SD card and you have a fully functioning node right?

32GB is not enough, but yes people run full nodes on a raspi. It takes ages to download and verify, mainly due to the slow CPU. You might want to get the blockchain with a different machine and copy it.

[DuddlyDoRight]

Without GPIO hacking ATA or other: USB->SATA converter with ARM drivers integrated. Between pagefile and 3xMBps bus speed of USB 2.0 you'll be annoyed.

You can also put a storage server on your NAT. Still pagefile and like 60% CPU utilization though..

[Jet Cash]

It seems that Microsoft are selling with an embedded Windows 10
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/distribution-world/microsoft-starts-selling-raspberry-pi-2016-01/

not that I would suggest using Windows 10.

[Erkallys]

I have tempted by running a full node on my Rapsberry Pi 2 for a while. If someday I have something big enough to store the blockchain (64 GB (128 ?) SD card, HDD...) and that I know how to use, I'll do it. I already have the HDD, now I still need to learn how to plug in it ...

[gmaxwell]

You would need a 128GB SD card now. The performance will be very poor, it's just on the margin of workable.  SD cards usually don't have good write endurance either.

[Erkallys]

You would need a 128GB SD card now. The performance will be very poor, it's just on the margin of workable.  SD cards usually don't have good write endurance either.

That's why I thought about using an HDD. How does it need to be plugged, on th GPIO ports ?

[ranochigo]

You would need a 128GB SD card now. The performance will be very poor, it's just on the margin of workable.  SD cards usually don't have good write endurance either.

That's why I thought about using an HDD. How does it need to be plugged, on th GPIO ports ?

You can buy an adapter for a HDD and plug the USB onto raspberry pi. There's even a guide here but you would need a powered USB hub. IIRC, Banana Pi Pro have a Sata port.

This would be a good idea for a node in the past but not so much now, mainly due to the blockchain size and it's efficiency. The mempool was much slower in the past with lower transaction volume and hence it could run with lower ram and more connections. With the increased mempool, you would need to tweak the client slightly by using several optimizations. As shorena said, consider verifying the entire blockchain on your own computer before moving it to the raspberry pi. By copying the entire directory, you won't have to synchronize and verify from the beginning.

It seems that Microsoft are selling with an embedded Windows 10
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/distribution-world/microsoft-starts-selling-raspberry-pi-2016-01/

not that I would suggest using Windows 10.

Windows is definitely not the recommended one with their memory footprint.

[Erkallys]

You would need a 128GB SD card now. The performance will be very poor, it's just on the margin of workable.  SD cards usually don't have good write endurance either.

That's why I thought about using an HDD. How does it need to be plugged, on th GPIO ports ?

You can buy an adapter for a HDD and plug the USB onto raspberry pi. There's even a guide here but you would need a powered USB hub. IIRC, Banana Pi Pro have a Sata port.

This would be a good idea for a node in the past but not so much now, mainly due to the blockchain size and it's efficiency. The mempool was much slower in the past with lower transaction volume and hence it could run with lower ram and more connections. With the increased mempool, you would need to tweak the client slightly by using several optimizations. As shorena said, consider verifying the entire blockchain on your own computer before moving it to the raspberry pi. By copying the entire directory, you won't have to synchronize and verify from the beginning.

It seems that Microsoft are selling with an embedded Windows 10
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/distribution-world/microsoft-starts-selling-raspberry-pi-2016-01/

not that I would suggest using Windows 10.

Windows is definitely not the recommended one with their memory footprint.

Than you for your advice. So you would recommend to use a Linux computer instead of a Raspberry Pi 2. And what about a cluster of RPi 2 ? This way the RAM and the CPU capacities could be increased in keeping the bill low.

[Jet Cash]

It's a pity that the USB ports are only usb2. Maybe the next version will be usb 3 and allow ssd disks to be connected.

[ranochigo]

You would need a 128GB SD card now. The performance will be very poor, it's just on the margin of workable.  SD cards usually don't have good write endurance either.

That's why I thought about using an HDD. How does it need to be plugged, on th GPIO ports ?

You can buy an adapter for a HDD and plug the USB onto raspberry pi. There's even a guide here but you would need a powered USB hub. IIRC, Banana Pi Pro have a Sata port.

This would be a good idea for a node in the past but not so much now, mainly due to the blockchain size and it's efficiency. The mempool was much slower in the past with lower transaction volume and hence it could run with lower ram and more connections. With the increased mempool, you would need to tweak the client slightly by using several optimizations. As shorena said, consider verifying the entire blockchain on your own computer before moving it to the raspberry pi. By copying the entire directory, you won't have to synchronize and verify from the beginning.

It seems that Microsoft are selling with an embedded Windows 10
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/distribution-world/microsoft-starts-selling-raspberry-pi-2016-01/

not that I would suggest using Windows 10.

Windows is definitely not the recommended one with their memory footprint.

Than you for your advice. So you would recommend to use a Linux computer instead of a Raspberry Pi 2. And what about a cluster of RPi 2 ? This way the RAM and the CPU capacities could be increased in keeping the bill low.

Raspbian runs on Linux so I was recommending to use Linux instead on Windows on raspberry pi 2.

I've never heard of someone daisy chaining raspberry pis to run a Bitcoin node. Daisy chaining[1] is sure possible but it isn't for an average users. If you're thinking about daisy chaining raspberry pis, it makes more sense to buy an old low profile computer to run the node on.

[1] http://www.zdnet.com/article/build-your-own-supercomputer-out-of-raspberry-pi-boards/

[Jet Cash]

Is cpu power a consideration when running a node (as long as it's reasonable)? The storage requirement could be reduced by running a pruned node with 0.12. A 128GB usb stick with the blockchain stored on it could be used to initialise the node. I'm thinking of doing this instead of struggling with my Chromebook.

[Erkallys]

You would need a 128GB SD card now. The performance will be very poor, it's just on the margin of workable.  SD cards usually don't have good write endurance either.

That's why I thought about using an HDD. How does it need to be plugged, on th GPIO ports ?

You can buy an adapter for a HDD and plug the USB onto raspberry pi. There's even a guide here but you would need a powered USB hub. IIRC, Banana Pi Pro have a Sata port.

This would be a good idea for a node in the past but not so much now, mainly due to the blockchain size and it's efficiency. The mempool was much slower in the past with lower transaction volume and hence it could run with lower ram and more connections. With the increased mempool, you would need to tweak the client slightly by using several optimizations. As shorena said, consider verifying the entire blockchain on your own computer before moving it to the raspberry pi. By copying the entire directory, you won't have to synchronize and verify from the beginning.

It seems that Microsoft are selling with an embedded Windows 10
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/distribution-world/microsoft-starts-selling-raspberry-pi-2016-01/

not that I would suggest using Windows 10.

Windows is definitely not the recommended one with their memory footprint.

Than you for your advice. So you would recommend to use a Linux computer instead of a Raspberry Pi 2. And what about a cluster of RPi 2 ? This way the RAM and the CPU capacities could be increased in keeping the bill low.

Raspbian runs on Linux so I was recommending to use Linux instead on Windows on raspberry pi 2.

I've never heard of someone daisy chaining raspberry pis to run a Bitcoin node. Daisy chaining[1] is sure possible but it isn't for an average users. If you're thinking about daisy chaining raspberry pis, it makes more sense to buy an old low profile computer to run the node on.

[1] http://www.zdnet.com/article/build-your-own-supercomputer-out-of-raspberry-pi-boards/

What frightens me in the "old low profile computer" is that, since is old, he can "die", especially his HDD. I know that I might change it, but this way I prefer buy a new computer, since the price difference will be really low, and this lead to a big bill, so I want to build it on a (few) Raspberry Pi 2(s), so the cycle restart ...

[ranochigo]

Is cpu power a consideration when running a node (as long as it's reasonable)? The storage requirement could be reduced by running a pruned node with 0.12. A 128GB usb stick with the blockchain stored on it could be used to initialise the node. I'm thinking of doing this instead of struggling with my Chromebook.

CPU(IIRC) and ram usage gets higher with more peers and initial synchronization. Pruned nodes in 0.12 would only relay new blocks to compatible peers[1]. It probably won't help with the synchronization fully, just the relaying of new blocks and transactions.

What frightens me in the "old low profile computer" is that, since is old, he can "die", especially his HDD. I know that I might change it, but this way I prefer buy a new computer, since the price difference will be really low, and this lead to a big bill, so I want to build it on a (few) Raspberry Pi 2(s), so the cycle restart ...

Quite true. As I said, it probably isn't necessary for more resources to run Bitcoin Core unless you need lots of connections. You can always build your own computer with parts that require low energy if you need it. It isn't easy to daisy chain raspberry pis, at least to me.

[1] https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/0.12/doc/release-notes.md

[coinzat]

there is an OS is created for raspberry pi to run a bitcoin core. It called Rokos, I did not try it but you can get more info from these links:

http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/04/the-rokos-core-os-turns-your-raspberry-pi-into-a-bitcoin-node/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1312616.0

[DuddlyDoRight]

Or you could just do what I said in my post and save a lot of time and money. PI-2 has no fast-bus so it's network storage or some USB converter solution. Not sure why you'd use SD the write-cycles would be gone in months..

[foggyb]

You would need a 128GB SD card now. The performance will be very poor, it's just on the margin of workable.  SD cards usually don't have good write endurance either.

I haven't run a full node in years so wasn't sure about the storage requirement. A USB 2.0 HDD would work as others have pointed out. Probably in the future we will have a faster Raspberry Pi with SATA ports and USB 3.0 for sure.

[DuddlyDoRight]

You would need a 128GB SD card now. The performance will be very poor, it's just on the margin of workable.  SD cards usually don't have good write endurance either.

I haven't run a full node in years so wasn't sure about the storage requirement. A USB 2.0 HDD would work as others have pointed out. Probably in the future we will have a faster Raspberry Pi with SATA ports and USB 3.0 for sure.

None of the OSH friendly ARM chips, like the TI cortex a7, have any fast buses. Some ARM chips have PCIe 2.0 but are closed license.

I don't think you can do high frequency over I2C or SPI without converting it down either. So basically something like class 10 CF is as fast as it gets. USB 2.0 is slower.

[Jet Cash]

banana pi has a sata port. but I gather it runs it though the usb chip. so it isn't very fast

[Lincoln6Echo]

I have written an instruction to run bitcoin Core with Banana Pi. It is in german but you can still copy paste the instructions to install Core (See Post 3).
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=973628.0

The Bananian Os uses only around 50MB of Ram so that there is 950MB for Bitcoin Core.
https://www.bananian.org/

Rokos seems like a good option for the RPI 2.

If you like to run something more future proof Intel Nuc or MinnowBoard Turbot (both x86) is another option.
http://wiki.minnowboard.org/MinnowBoard_Turbot