17

The computing power of raspberry pi is limited and so is the access speed. I have 2 raspberry pi and was hoping I could somehow connect them together and make them work in parallel to get better and faster performance. My main usage of Ras-Pi is going to be running a local NAS, HTPC and a web-server w/ limited development. All of this to be used by my Macbook, TV and some remote access and backup. I am also planning to stream content through it. I tried to do all of it and the performance was really poor. I am looking for a way to make it faster either using these 2 raspberry pi I have or some cheap upgrades or mods.

Daffy
  • 171
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3

2 Answers2

14

Split the tasks, have 1 dedicated to HTPC and hosting the NAS/SMB server; keep this as a media pi. Use the other one as the web server or hosting pi. You can split these tasks however you want. The SMB/NAS pi will obviously be limited by the speed of the USB drive connected to it.

64 Raspberry Pis Turned into a Supercomputer

Steps to make a Raspberry Pi Supercomputer

It will teach you how to create a 2 node computer. Test it out, looks interesting!

techraf
  • 4,319
  • 10
  • 31
  • 42
Impulss
  • 906
  • 11
  • 18
  • that link is phenomenal. – kolin Jan 17 '13 at 10:51
  • Perhaps you could add a quick summary or abstract of how the 'supercomputer' is created instead of only referring the link. – M. Mimpen Mar 12 '14 at 10:19
  • 2
    I didn't only refer to the link. I gave an answer, and provided links to show examples. They aren't the answer, and are only used to show how someone else has done it. I know what you're saying, but this isn't one of those "don't just reference links" answers. – Impulss Mar 12 '14 at 13:15
2

You can.

I did that and i am continously using this for my private software experiments(md5 wep wpa distributed bruteforce, distributed raytracing ...) even though PI's are slow it is a great and cheapest way to learn.

See some of my work here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT8_G02K5Y8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0cTTA1glPc

http://osworld.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/MalinowyGRID-GRIDMAN.jpg http://osworld.pl/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/MalinowyGRID-wyglad-1.jpg

Coded my own grid computing library with the iPhone GridMan app (https://itunes.apple.com/pl/app/gridman/id819277978?mt=8)

The grid computing with a stack of raspberries is a great thing to learn for a minimal price, start with two and distribute the tasks. Then reach for another two and compare the diff.

If you think of supercomputing, go with MPI, paraller computing

If you want to run apps on a pile of PIs think of load balancing, cluster (check beowulf), HA, split your configs across NAS, run different services on different nodes, there is no limit in options.

Of course even 10 of PIs wont run as fast as your macbook but that is a different story.

Some quick stats from my testings

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WylGYy2L4aI/U0mNH-kxHKI/AAAAAAAAARg/fOR9_4Llf3o/s1600/Bez%C2%A0tytułu.png

Cracking WEP on GRID (Viewing on iPhone App) http://a3.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple6/v4/be/0d/63/be0d6328-414c-baa9-4f87-30f9e15c8d89/screen1136x1136.jpeg

And google for gridman raspberry to find out more on my project.

PeeS
  • 121
  • 6