Image the SD cards
- Donwload the Raspbian OS
- Insert an SD card into your card reader.
- Create a master image. On OS X you can use the following:
# find sd card
diskutil list
sudo dd of=/dev/rdisk1 if=~/rpi_mpi.img bs=1m
- Connect keyboard, mouse, display
- if you need gui (e.g., gtk for matplotlib output) run
startx
- On the master node, install the necessary software. Here is our final image.
- Next, you want to copy this image to the other SD cards
# copy master image locally note change disk1 -> rdisk1
sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk1 of=~/rpi_mpi.img bs=1m
- Then, for every sd card (i.e., each node in the cluster)
# update image using script
python setup_node.py rpi_mpi.img 1 #Here, 1 is an ID for the node
# copy master image locally note change disk1 -> rdisk1
sudo dd of=/dev/rdisk1 if=~/rpi_mpi.img bs=1m
Create the Hardware Connections
Wire the Network
- static IP created in setup
- 10/100 Ethernet (so not the fastest)
- Put on simple network switch (no internet, no dhcp)
Power the Devices
- We used USB power hubs
- According to docs, each pi needs around 500-1000 mA, 5V
Run MPI
mpiexec --machinfile ~/machinefile -n 4 python hellompi.py
