My Router is at 10.0.0.1. My desktop is at 10.0.0.11. I also use a laptop which gets an address in the DHCP range which starts at 10.0.0.100.
My Router is a Turris Omnia which is running a version of OpenWRT with an extra interface.
What I should have done at the time is have a look in the Router logs and the Pi logs to see what was going on instead of just saying, ‘cool, now I can get on with stuff’!
Looking at the router logs it seems that it had been offering an address in the DHCP range to the Pi:-
messages.2:Apr 15 12:11:18 turris dnsmasq-dhcp[4887]: DHCPDISCOVER(br-lan) e4:5f:01:48:e1:01
messages.2:Apr 15 12:11:18 turris dnsmasq-dhcp[4887]: DHCPOFFER(br-lan) 10.0.0.188 e4:5f:01:48:e1:01
but I wasn’t seeing that at all on the Pi! This deserves further digging and trying another install on the spare SD card. But that will be next week now. I have paid work and fortunately it isn’t networking! (Which is witchcraft.)
As I understand it, you are using SSD memory for storage, my intention is to use HDD memory because they are much cheaper and put a good amount of TB into it, would the configuration be the same?
Absolutely! Yes, it will be just the same. The HDD should mount as /dev/sda just like the SSD. It will behave exactly the same for the purposes of formatting with ‘fdisk’, mounting it with ‘mount’ and the settings in ‘/etc/fstab’ will still be valid.
The only difference will be the read and write speed of the drive. But I don’t think Safe will be a high IO at the individual computer level and your node(s) will be behind an internet connection that will put a practical limit on IO to the drive anyway. Furthermore, a Raspberry Pi does not by any means have a high speed drive interface and its CPU is weedy. I’ve never done any benchmarking on one but I doubt it can even drive an consumer grade SSD at full speed. I could be wrong and I’ll find out!
I’d be using an HDD myself (I have a whole stack of them spare) but I want to keep the size of the box down and also the noise.
It was set to dhcpd. I’ve never liked it. I don’t much like Network Manager either! But it looks like dhcpd is the default and so it needs to be tolerated to get connected to start with.
Next week I’ll have another go and hopefully find out why at 169.254 address works for connecting to. I agree it sounds weird and there must be something funny going on!
Yes, it does work. The Pi does self assign itself the address 169.254.141.197 on the wired ethernet interface and it is loginable from another computer on my network. I’m as surprised as you are! I thought I’d done something weird when I saw this before but it’s a genuine thing.
% ping 169.254.141.197 PING 169.254.141.197 (169.254.141.197): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 169.254.141.197: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=19.146 ms 64 bytes from 169.254.141.197: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=12.010 ms 64 bytes from 169.254.141.197: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=10.419 ms
% ssh pi@169.254.141.197
The authenticity of host '169.254.141.197 (169.254.141.197)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:9vue8/Unt/mytlzwfzMxVazNRjYVmcwr3dPzi15Wk+Y.
This host key is known by the following other names/addresses:
~/.ssh/known_hosts:127: 10.0.0.191
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '169.254.141.197' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
pi@169.254.141.197's password:
Linux sn-test-01 5.15.84-v8+ #1613 SMP PREEMPT Thu Jan 5 12:03:08 GMT 2023 aarch64
The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.
Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
Last login: Mon May 1 15:18:59 2023 from 10.0.0.244
pi@sn-test-01:~ $
It’s clearly not a DHCP address but a self assigned one. I just don’t know how it is addressable from my other computers on this address.
I thought I could see a pattern whereby it was accessible from computers directly connected via the router or WiFi but not via a switch. That is reasonable as the switch wouldn’t be able to route that address. But then I found that my other Pi which is connected directly to my router can’t ping it either. Then I realised that the Pi I’ve just setup is also connected to the switch! So that is really confusing because how would it be able to route traffic to this address which is outside its subnet? I realise it will just pass it on to the router because its rule is to pass everything it gets to the router but how is the router happy with passing traffic to 169.x.x.x when that address is completely outside of what it’s supposed to work with? I’m right up against the limit of my understanding of networking here! By the way, the switch itself won’t ping 169.254.141.197 so that’s fun as well!
so I still don’t know what is going on.
I think I’ll have to update those instructions saying that using that address for the rest of the setup from the comfort of your other computer may work for people but if not to just do the manual network for the ethernet interface. I’m guessing most people will just use WiFi though but I need to take into account those that can’t/won’t or issues with using WiFi like I had because of this case.
I’ll rewrite the whole lot as general instructions for and specific ones for this case anyway.
That drive should be a good one. From some googling it appears that it’s not a Shingled Magnetic Recording drives. SMR drives are not good for sustained write usage so might not be very good for Safe computers as they are filling up but might be a great idea once the drive is full of ‘cold’ data. This all needs testing! I’ll be digging into this and doing some testing when there is a live network.
I like the look of that case! I might get one! Geekworm have a good reputation.
I have a question mark over that drive in that case though. I suspect that 12TB Ironwolf will run ‘quite warm’ being an 8 platter model even if it is Helium filled. In a case without any dedicated cooling for the drives it might get toasty. I know there is a fan in the case but that will be for the Pi’s heatsink. It might make the Pi itself hot being in the same case. You don’t want the drive temperature to be more than 45C and you don’t want the Pi to be above 70C. If you are installing 2 drives in the case it will only compound any heat issue. If you are only installing 1 mount it in the bay furthest from the Pi. Consider standing it on it’s edge with the Pi part at the top which should help dissipate heat better.
This is a large drive! It might be a bit over the top. I think it could take a long time for it to be full. You might not mind but storage is wasted until it is needed. If you had bought a smaller, cheaper drive you could have maybe bought another whole setup!
With the new concept of multiple Safe nodes running on one computer there will be a ‘sweet spot’ of CPU, RAM and drive space. I suspect that 12TB or 24TB (if you are getting 2 of those HDD drives) with a Pi 4 and 8GB of RAM will be a long way in the direction of storage heavy. It could be that the CPU and RAM is the most important dynamic. We should all find out soon!
It seems this case has some kind of RAID possible although the link on the page isn’t working. It will be some kind of software RAID which is possible to setup yourself so I’m not sure what advantage this case is bringing to the party with it’s button on the board for RAID. I’ve got to question the wisdom of RAIDing 2 drives on a Safe computer for the data storage though. Raid 0 will just double the probability of an outage. RAID 1 or 10 will just be a waste of money as you’ll need 2 drives to store the amount you can fit on 1 drive and Safe itself is supposed to be doing the data redundancy! Redundant redundancy… Great for keeping a node running when a disk fails but with the move away from Elders, Adults etc. that doesn’t matter as much now.
Or are you going to use the other SATA bay for the OS drive? That would make more sense.
Good points re HDD size perhaps not being the most important metric.
Also re cooling, I’d be happier with an active fan of 100-150mm dia blowing at the HDD and Pi and never mind a case.
Unless you def want that aesthetic, of course. But for reliability, cooling and ease of access, I’d go with an open baseboard construction.
I really don’t know exactly what I’m doing, I just bought that box because it was the only one I found compatible with 3.5” HDDs (I bought 2). I have no idea about RAID, I understand that if I set it to 0 it is as if the 2 disks were one, right? I have no idea how to configure it. I didn’t know the problem with the temperature, so I guess I’ll have to buy additional fans. Although if you think that the materials I have bought will not serve to assemble the node effectively, I can return them without problem.
I think you’ve made good decisions so far, should keep the stuff, we’ll make it work and we’ll all learn something. Let’s just say the drive is ‘sized for growth’! The drive might not get too hot at all. I’m probably just making a fuss over nothing. That big metal case will help a lot.
Having no case would be cool in both senses of the word and is fine for the Technorati like us but I’m trying to put together something that the ‘muggles’ will want to have in their front rooms.
I’ve also got to bear in mind my own propensity for spilling drinks. It’s nice to be able to see the gubbins and watch the electrons flying around but it’s less fun to clean beer off motherboards!
As far as I understand RAID is not necessary in the safe network since the data is already duplicated and randomly distributed, therefore I would have to put it in RAID 0 or not even that? Will it be possible to configure it without using any RAID?
