Adding a New Node to the ODROID XU4 Cluster

I recently acquired another ODROID XU4 device (and a MicroSD card for bulk storage) to add it to my XU4 cluster. This new node brings my node count to five. Adding a new node to the cluster is relatively straight forward, but there are a lot of details. In the modern datacenter, this operation would be accomplished through a package manager, which would build the new node according to an image. However, I haven’t set up package management on my cluster so I will need to sit up the new node manually. In the original cluster configuration, I used a 5-port ethernet switch for the internal network. Given that there was an open port, no additional hardware beyond the new node is needed. However, if I were to add a sixth node (or beyond), I would need to update my ethernet switch to something such as an 8-port switch. I will also note that using the 40 mm PCB spacers I originally ordered makes Read More …

Adding the MicroSD Data Drives to the ODROID XU4 Cluster

We are nearly done with the basic set up of the ODROID XU4 four node cluster. The final step is to configure the MicroSD cards that were in the bill of materials as data drives for each node. Before we start, ensure that the cluster is completely powered down and remove the power cords from each node. We will be removing and adding components to the ODROID XU4’s, and it is just best practice to have no power to the device when removing or adding components. The first step is to format each MicroSD card with the ext4 filesystem. Each platform has it’s own instructions for how to do this. I will provide the Mac OS X instructions since that is what I use. In the terminal, do the following: If you don’t have it already, install the Homebrew package management app for OS X. Visit the brew.sh website for instructions. Install the e2fsprogs utility using brew install e2fsprogs With the MicroSD card attached to your computer, Read More …