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M.2-Raspberry-Pi-5

How to migrate from existing mico SD RPi5 to M.2 Drive.

Software and Storage Setup

  • **In a cluster environment, shared storage is critical. This allows all nodes to work on the same set of files simultaneously.

In a cluster having a central store that all nodes can access is a requirement.

With the release of the Raspberry Pi 5, small and fast M.2 physical storage is now available. So each node will have this to run and load the OS and workloads. There will be local backup onto SD Cards, but also recovery backups into the cloud.

Shares across the cluster will be two fold, using traditional NFS as well as Gluster, more about that later.

Slurm will be used to automate and orchestrate jobs across the cluster and OpenMPI will be used to manage the inter CPU communication between the Raspberry Pi's.

I will be building a Python and R demo to show case this working.

Setting up the M.2 HAT for RPi5

Booting Raspberry Pi 5 from an M.2 NVMe Drive Using a HAT

The Raspberry Pi 5 can significantly benefit from using an M.2 NVMe drive for faster read/write performance compared to traditional SD cards. By following this guide and using the provided scripts, you will be able to boot and run the Raspberry Pi OS and services from an M.2 NVMe drive connected via a compatible HAT.

This guide outlines the two-step process required to enable NVMe booting on the Raspberry Pi 5:

  1. Modifying the Raspberry Pi boot configuration and rebooting the system.
  2. Partitioning and cloning the existing SD card content to the M.2 NVMe drive post-reboot.

Prerequisites:

  • A Raspberry Pi 5 with an M.2 NVMe HAT connected.
  • An M.2 NVMe SSD properly inserted into the HAT.
  • A microSD card with a working Raspberry Pi OS installation.
  • SSH or console access to the Raspberry Pi.
  • Basic knowledge of working with shell scripts.

Steps Overview:

Step 1: Pre-reboot Configuration Script

The first script modifies the Raspberry Pi’s boot configuration to enable support for the NVMe drive and updates the boot order to prioritize booting from the NVMe drive. It then reboots the system.

Key Tasks Performed by the Script:

sh prepare.sh

  1. Modifies /boot/firmware/config.txt to enable PCIe Gen 3 support for the M.2 NVMe drive.
  2. Updates the boot order to prefer USB or NVMe boot.
  3. Reboots the system.

This script updates the Raspberry Pi’s configuration to recognize the M.2 NVMe drive on the HAT and prioritizes booting from it. After reboot, the NVMe drive should be detected and initialized for further setup.

Step 2: Post-reboot Partitioning and Cloning Script

Once the system has rebooted with the updated configuration, the second script can be run. This script partitions the NVMe drive, marks the partition as bootable, and clones the entire content of the SD card onto the NVMe drive using the dd utility.

sh ./migrate.sh

Key Tasks Performed by the Script:

  1. Displays PCI devices and block devices to ensure the NVMe drive is recognized.
  2. Creates a new bootable partition on the NVMe drive.
  3. Clones the contents of the SD card onto the NVMe drive using dd.
  4. Ensures data synchronization by running sync to write changes to the NVMe drive.

This script partitions the NVMe drive and clones the content of the SD card. Once cloning is complete, you can boot the Raspberry Pi 5 from the M.2 NVMe drive.

Optional: Automating the Post-reboot Script

To automate the post-reboot partitioning and cloning process, you can configure a systemd service that runs the second script upon the next boot. This ensures that after the first reboot, the necessary steps to partition and clone the SD card to the NVMe drive are completed automatically.

Final Notes:

  • Backup Data: Always back up critical data before running operations like fdisk or dd, as they are destructive and can result in data loss if misused.
  • Booting from NVMe: After following the steps, your Raspberry Pi 5 should be able to boot from the M.2 NVMe drive, providing faster storage for both the OS and any services you run.
  • Performance: Using an NVMe drive significantly improves system performance, particularly for disk-heavy workloads such as databases or Docker containers.
  • Troubleshooting: If the system doesn’t boot from the NVMe drive, ensure that the boot order is correctly configured, and verify that the NVMe drive is properly detected by the Raspberry Pi during boot.

By following this procedure, you can configure your Raspberry Pi 5 to boot from a high-performance M.2 NVMe drive, allowing you to run the operating system and critical services with improved speed and reliability.