Raspberry Pi micro SDXC Bitcoin blockchain

arabspaceship123

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Isn't that what native means RPi doesn't support it natively you've got adjustments in configurations for SSD to work ?

I'd like to experiement & learn with RPi with SSD or HDD. When I get my RPi I'll run bitcoin node SSD 24/7.

Quote from: Cricktor on June 11, 2023, 10:19:11 AM

Quote from: arabspaceship123 on June 11, 2023, 03:46:18 AM

You aren't mistaken RPi doesn't natively support drives except micro sd.

This is not true, you can set the bootloader of a current RPi 4B to boot from other attached storage devices than the microSD card. A Compute Module 4 can even boot directly from an attached NVMe SSD card if it's on a board that exposed the Compute Module 4's PCIe lane to a NVMe slot.

One of my RPis doesn't even have a microSD card inserted, it boots straight from an attached USB3-SATA enclosure with a HDD in it. It runs a headless Raspbian OS 64bit no-GUI with a simplified Raspibolt installation, basically only Bitcoin Core. No wear'n'tear of a poor microSD card.

I could've used a SSD instead of the HDD drive, but I had no spare 1TB or more SSD for it. For this RPi node I don't need an I/O monster, runs just fine with the HDD (I copied the blockchain data off one of my other SSD nodes). Wink

Cricktor

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Quote from: arabspaceship123 on June 11, 2023, 03:46:18 AM

You aren't mistaken RPi doesn't natively support drives except micro sd.

This is not true, you can set the bootloader of a current RPi 4B to boot from other attached storage devices than the microSD card. A Compute Module 4 can even boot directly from an attached NVMe SSD card if it's on a board that exposed the Compute Module 4's PCIe lane to a NVMe slot.

One of my RPis doesn't even have a microSD card inserted, it boots straight from an attached USB3-SATA enclosure with a HDD in it. It runs a headless Raspbian OS 64bit no-GUI with a simplified Raspibolt installation, basically only Bitcoin Core. No wear'n'tear of a poor microSD card.

I could've used a SSD instead of the HDD drive, but I had no spare 1TB or more SSD for it. For this RPi node I don't need an I/O monster, runs just fine with the HDD (I copied the blockchain data off one of my other SSD nodes). Wink

arabspaceship123

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I'm amazed to read similar hardware I didn't know existed. You aren't mistaken RPi doesn't natively support drives except micro sd. Used RPi isn't easy to buy because high prices sellers add. You can't buy them new they aren't available anywhere. I'll try finding Pine company online. Thanks!

Quote from: darkv0rt3x on May 31, 2023, 10:22:20 AM

If you struggle to buy an RPi, I can suggest you Pine products such as RocpPro64. It already supports NVMe drives. However there are only 4Gb versions. I have one and I don't want anything else. If I'm not msitaken, RPi doesn't support NVMe natively. Pine also launched a new SBC, even more powerful than the RP64 but I think it's only available for devs yet!

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Quote from: DaveF on May 02, 2023, 06:30:02 AM

Can you? Yes.
Should you? No.

This means you will be running the OS and BTC and have the blockchain all on the same SD card which is already not the fastest I/O thing out there.
It's going to kill performance. Just get an external USB drive.

If you look at the Umbrel / raspiblitz / mynode setups they all keep as little as possible on the SD card and put everything on something that is attached to USB.

-Dave

I agree to keep the blockchain on an external drive because having it on sd sacrifices performance. As for umbrel, mynode or statos don't seem very stable to me, I tried with all the plug and play nodes but the microsd kills me at the first power surge and bye bye... this doesn't happen if I install raspian or any other system stable operation. So in my opinion a mini pc is better to install your own node.

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Quote from: arabspaceship123 on May 30, 2023, 04:46:16 PM

If copying blockchain to SD card isn't going to affect life significantly we're agreeing micro SDXC I/O are slow. That's put me off so I won't try it. I'll forget RPi 400 I'll go for your kit make up.

For my RPi nodes (Raspiblitz, Raspibolt, Umbrel for testing) I only use microSD cards of high quality and designed for high write endurance, specifically Samsung Endurance Pro variants. If you're tempted to get a cheap large capacity microSD card, well, I wouldn't bet how long it will last.

Quote from: arabspaceship123 on May 30, 2023, 04:46:16 PM

I'll wait to buy the best RPi 8GB with 1TB SSD. It isn't easy to buy there's stocking issues so you've done well.

Yes, RPis are unfortunately still in short supply and subject to scalpers asking ridiculous prices here and there. Never give those scalpers what they demand, at least I refuse to do that. Have a look at https://rpilocator.com/ maybe you get lucky and can fetch a device when a shop gets them in stock. Some shops offer their customers some kind of membership offers with limited amount of devices and reserved for shop members.

I got my last RPi Compute Module 4 with 8GB RAM from such a shop's club membership (only registration needed, no extra fees or similar crap) for a totally normal price. With an appropriate mainboard such a RPi Compute Module 4 can also use NVMe SSDs which offers easier setup with TRIM support for the SSD (TRIM support is also possible for a normal RPi 4B and USB3-SATA-adapter, but this depends heavily on the adapter. Some work nicely, some are a pain in the ass.)

darkv0rt3x

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Quote from: arabspaceship123 on May 30, 2023, 04:46:16 PM

Quote from: odolvlobo on May 02, 2023, 07:12:06 PM

I don't see how simply copying data to an SD card is going to affect its life significantly but I don't think running a node on an SD card will work very well because I/O is very slow and an SD card has a much lower life expectancy than an SSD.

If copying blockchain to SD card isn't going to affect life significantly we're agreeing micro SDXC I/O are slow. That's put me off so I won't try it. I'll forget RPi 400 I'll go for your kit make up.

Quote from: odolvlobo on May 02, 2023, 07:12:06 PM

I have Raspibolt running on a RPi 4 with 8 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD. It works well. Memory usage is around 4GB so I think 8GB is preferable in order to avoid swapping. I normally interact with the RPi through SSH, so no keyboard and monitor are necessary.

Also, RPi kits are currently in short supply so you might have trouble buying one.

I'll wait to buy the best RPi 8GB with 1TB SSD. It isn't easy to buy there's stocking issues so you've done well.

If you struggle to buy an RPi, I can suggest you Pine products such as RocpPro64. It already supports NVMe drives. However there are only 4Gb versions. I have one and I don't want anything else. If I'm not msitaken, RPi doesn't support NVMe natively. Pine also launched a new SBC, even more powerful than the RP64 but I think it's only available for devs yet!

arabspaceship123

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Quote from: odolvlobo on May 02, 2023, 07:12:06 PM

I don't see how simply copying data to an SD card is going to affect its life significantly but I don't think running a node on an SD card will work very well because I/O is very slow and an SD card has a much lower life expectancy than an SSD.

If copying blockchain to SD card isn't going to affect life significantly we're agreeing micro SDXC I/O are slow. That's put me off so I won't try it. I'll forget RPi 400 I'll go for your kit make up.

Quote from: odolvlobo on May 02, 2023, 07:12:06 PM

I have Raspibolt running on a RPi 4 with 8 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD. It works well. Memory usage is around 4GB so I think 8GB is preferable in order to avoid swapping. I normally interact with the RPi through SSH, so no keyboard and monitor are necessary.

Also, RPi kits are currently in short supply so you might have trouble buying one.

I'll wait to buy the best RPi 8GB with 1TB SSD. It isn't easy to buy there's stocking issues so you've done well.

philipma1957

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Quote from: n0nce on May 03, 2023, 09:33:13 AM

Quote from: philipma1957 on May 02, 2023, 11:28:57 PM

Buy a used pc

dell
hp
lenovo

they make tons and tons and tons of them.
[...]
under 200 so much better. easy to back up

Correct. Here, I've shown How to run a Bitcoin Core full node for under 50 bucks.
I would probably recommend laptops for this purpose; on one hand, they're not made to run 24/7 and a desktop / tower PC may be better suited, but on the other hand you don't need to get peripherals and you get a mini built-in 'UPS'.

I went quick when I search ebay.

But those
lenovo tiny
dell
hp elite

they are brick shit houses over built.

many allow for two interior drives. All you need do is download one blockchain one time.

you can clone the ssd three or four times for back up.

You can buy 2 identical pcs

n0nce

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Quote from: philipma1957 on May 02, 2023, 11:28:57 PM

Buy a used pc

dell
hp
lenovo

they make tons and tons and tons of them.
[...]
under 200 so much better. easy to back up

Correct. Here, I've shown How to run a Bitcoin Core full node for under 50 bucks.
I would probably recommend laptops for this purpose; on one hand, they're not made to run 24/7 and a desktop / tower PC may be better suited, but on the other hand you don't need to get peripherals and you get a mini built-in 'UPS'.

philipma1957

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'The right to privacy matters'

Can I hurt myself = yes.

Can I run your setup = yes.

As Jeff Goldblum said “Just because you can does not mean you should”

Buy a used pc

dell
hp
lenovo

they make tons and tons and tons of them.

Many hold 2 ssds you can simply easily run them.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ProDesk-400-G4-Tiny-Mini-PC-Desktop-Computer-Intel-Core-i3-8th-500GB-NO-OS/125903436538?

100 dollars.

get a 1tb ssd you are done.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-870-EVO-1TB-Internal-SSD-SATA/325431576613?

under 200 so much better. easy to back up

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Quote from: arabspaceship123 on May 02, 2023, 04:51:33 AM

I've used 500GB SSD for downloading 95.34% bitcoin blockchain so next it's 1TB tests.

If I could I'd buy Pi 400 or RPi4 8GB with 1TB micro SDXC card I'd transfer bitcoin from the 500GB SSD to reach 95% so 5% blockchain download shouldn't reduce SDXC life expectancy. I don't know what life expectancy reductions are going to happen on micro SDXC if it's receiving 95% blockchain transfer from the other SSD.

Operating on Pi 400 is 4GB RAM with built in keyboard means searching for keyboard isn't needed when it's connecting to monitors. Operating on RPi4 8GB it's compact but doesn't have keyboard. If you've run nodes before you're advice will act as guiding me. In theory is it recommended or possible to run a node on 1TB micro SDXC with every 10 minute block updates?

It is possible to run Bitcoin node of that system but I won't recommend you to run it on Raspberry Pi 4 as its processing power is very low and could be the cause of instability. It is technically possible to download and run the blockchain copy on 500 GB SSD, but you should also keep in mind that the size of Bitcoin blockchain is growing with all new transactions and thus 500 GB is not future proof enough.

Micro SDXC is not a good option for storing of the Bitcoin blockchain as the storage device is very slow and its life expectancy isn't good at all. The read/write speeds of that micro SDXC are so slow and if added that on an already slow RPI4 then that will make the system even more instable. Although transferring of blockchain from the SSD to micro SDXC won't affect the life expectancy of it in any way but writing of new blocks for extended period will affect its life expectancy of the storage device.

It's better to go with a 1 TB SSD as that will still be a better option than micro SDXC for just running the node, but still the overall system will be instable due to low processing power that RPI4 offers because that processing power isn't sufficient enough to run the Bitcoin node with stability.

n0nce

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Since the main question is whether writing ~500GB to a fresh 1TB microSD card would hurt it: not really. I wouldn't recommend buying large microSD cards, for different reasons, though.

These include performance, long-term reliability and the ability to use other form factors like 2.5" SATA for a number of different applications, meanwhile with a microSD as boot drive you're pretty much stuck to single-board computers.

odolvlobo

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Quote from: arabspaceship123 on May 02, 2023, 04:51:33 AM

If I could I'd buy Pi 400 or RPi4 8GB with 1TB micro SDXC card I'd transfer bitcoin from the 500GB SSD to reach 95% so 5% blockchain download shouldn't reduce SDXC life expectancy. I don't know what life expectancy reductions are going to happen on micro SDXC if it's receiving 95% blockchain transfer from the other SSD.

I don't see how simply copying data to an SD card is going to affect its life significantly but I don't think running a node on an SD card will work very well because I/O is very slow and an SD card has a much lower life expectancy than an SSD.

Quote from: arabspaceship123 on May 02, 2023, 04:51:33 AM

Operating on Pi 400 is 4GB RAM with built in keyboard means searching for keyboard isn't needed when it's connecting to monitors. Operating on RPi4 8GB it's compact but doesn't have keyboard. If you've run nodes before you're advice will act as guiding me. In theory is it recommended or possible to run a node on 1TB micro SDXC with every 10 minute block updates?

I have Raspibolt running on a RPi 4 with 8 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD. It works well. Memory usage is around 4GB so I think 8GB is preferable in order to avoid swapping. I normally interact with the RPi through SSH, so no keyboard and monitor are necessary.

Also, RPi kits are currently in short supply so you might have trouble buying one.

arabspaceship123

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Quote from: DaveF on May 02, 2023, 06:30:02 AM

This means you will be running the OS and BTC and have the blockchain all on the same SD card which is already not the fastest I/O thing out there.
It's going to kill performance.

I/O wouldn't be good from 0.01% I'm talking about 95% upwards. If it's headed to fail I won't devote time & money buying a Pi 400 or RPi4.

Quote from: DaveF on May 02, 2023, 06:30:02 AM

Just get an external USB drive.

The plan's been to use 1TB SSD on Windows Pi Linux & Mac all for enjoying learning. I don't have Pi so Linux or Mac next.

Quote from: DaveF on May 02, 2023, 06:30:02 AM

If you look at the Umbrel / raspiblitz / mynode setups they all keep as little as possible on the SD card and put everything on something that is attached to USB.

Raspiblitz's the dominant option. Umbrel's in beta. myNode Community Edition's open source uses docker.

Quote from: BitMaxz on May 02, 2023, 06:41:39 AM

I would suggest better use external SSD for storing blockchain data and use only SDXC with enough space to run an OS.

When using Pi that's the best way 1TB SSD on USB.

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That's a bit expensive if you are going to use micro SDXC compared to SSD and another thing is most of the 1TB Micro SDXC have fake volume and it can cause data corruption so if you download the whole blockchain there is a possibility some parts may become corrupted.

I would suggest better use external SSD for storing blockchain data and use only SDXC with enough space to run an OS.

DaveF

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Can you? Yes.
Should you? No.

This means you will be running the OS and BTC and have the blockchain all on the same SD card which is already not the fastest I/O thing out there.
It's going to kill performance. Just get an external USB drive.

If you look at the Umbrel / raspiblitz / mynode setups they all keep as little as possible on the SD card and put everything on something that is attached to USB.

-Dave

arabspaceship123

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I've used 500GB SSD for downloading 95.34% bitcoin blockchain so next it's 1TB tests.

If I could I'd buy Pi 400 or RPi4 8GB with 1TB micro SDXC card I'd transfer bitcoin from the 500GB SSD to reach 95% so 5% blockchain download shouldn't reduce SDXC life expectancy. I don't know what life expectancy reductions are going to happen on micro SDXC if it's receiving 95% blockchain transfer from the other SSD.

Operating on Pi 400 is 4GB RAM with built in keyboard means searching for keyboard isn't needed when it's connecting to monitors. Operating on RPi4 8GB it's compact but doesn't have keyboard. If you've run nodes before you're advice will act as guiding me. In theory is it recommended or possible to run a node on 1TB micro SDXC with every 10 minute block updates?

I've started to run bitcoin tests for enjoyment & learning. Later I'd like to use Pi Linux & Mac for blockchain download tests.

Topic: Raspberry Pi micro SDXC Bitcoin blockchain (Read 274 times)