[sokoloff]

I know that co-location means “customer owned hardware”, but in this case, I think I’d way rather rent data center owned RPis and just pay them money rather than sending in hardware, having to cycle out hardware if/when it fails, etc.

It also means the colo is running whatever random power supply I send them, which seems like something they’d want to avoid and means that there’s all the inefficiency of 12 supplies per U rather than one beefy +5.1V supply (with battery backing) feeding the Pis via the GPIO pins.

[klyrs]

I was hoping they'd have a DC power supply per rack, but their FAQ makes it clear that this is not the case. Bit of a missed opportunity there. Handling heterogeneous power supplies sounds like a nightmare.

[jagger27]

What a bummer. Something like an 80PLUS Platinum ATX PC PSU could do around 40 amps on the 5V rails. Redundant server PSUs seem like an obvious choice here.

[Dylan16807]

So much of a computer PSU is dedicated to 12 volts, though. I can get a 5V 60A supply for $27 and save a lot of unnecessary complexity.

Though either way you might be better off with a series of USB hubs.

[stirfish]

I use a 40 port usb charging station to power my raspberry pi cluster, but I don't like it because the fan sounds like a hair dryer running

[pvillano]

if you're using amazon.com/dp/B077R5BVVR/ removing just the outer enclosure and removing that fan should be safe, but it might not be the loudest fan...

otherwise the quietest PC is the one in a different room, but you probably already know that

[stirfish]

That's exactly the one I'm using, thanks! I was considering the fan, but I've also been worried about torching my house. I'll give it a shot.

I put some work into the frame the cluster is in, and it makes a pretty nice end table. My main pc is a little fanless industrial computer and I love it.

[jagger27]

Sure, that would make more sense than a giant power bar with a dozen 5V wall warts.

[klyrs]

Could usb hubs introduce security issues for the hosts?

[Dylan16807]

For USB power? I don't think there should be any way for Pis plugged into the same freestanding hub to talk to each other, but if so you could prevent that with power-only cables.

[klyrs]

Call me paranoid (this is about security after all), but there's no visual distinction between data and power-only cables. While a rogue employee can wreak all sorts of havoc in any data center, it's nice to have as many correct-by-inspection systems as possible.

I don't see why one couldn't get a power-only hub, but I couldn't find anything that appeared to be high quality in a quick search. I did find some pretty nice looking rack-mounted kit, but they all appear to be data hubs.

[joosters]

Mythic Beasts do PI hosting with their own servers, and are a very good company: https://www.mythic-beasts.com/order/rpi

[alblue]

I’ve used Mythic Beasts for over a decade now, and they are a great company for all sorts of hosting, not only raspberry Pis.

Plus, they actually serve the Raspberry Pi foundation website and the raspian images /from Raspberry Pis/ so they know what they are doing.

[prirun]

They also sell PI Instances for $2.88/mo:

https://examesh.de/en/instances/pi/

[Dylan16807]

Wait, renting is more than a dollar cheaper than colocating?

[0ld]

they rent you a docker debian instance on a pi, not full pi

[Dylan16807]

> Dedicated Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

> No additional virtualization aside from Docker

So docker is involved but you get a pi all to yourself. Does that make it so much easier to manage that they can pay for the pi themselves and still have much lower costs?

And you get an IP too??

[HideousKojima]

I've worked with a colo in the US that hosts Raspberry Pis and they required that you have a PoE hat, so no sending in a power supply.

[ed25519FUUU]

It looks like they have a custom built rack for the Pi, so supplying a custom 5v rail probably wouldn’t be hard at all and would almost certainly be cheaper than large deployments of PoE switches.

[3xa]

Thanks for your comment about the power supplies. Not every power supply will work. a) As stated in the FAQs and again when successfully booked: " Note that the power supply should have at least 3.0A / 5.1V power. It must be CE certified and support DC power." b) The DCs are located in Germany: 230 V - DC.

I have also read all the other comments on this subject: Yes, currently each Pi runs with its own power supply.

Currently, our team is developing a dedicated power supply for all Pi slots within the rack. Then it will also be possible for users to turn the power on and off via the colocation dashboard. However, the development will still take a little time. The reason for this is that some components are not immediately available and especially not in large quantities. See analogously the availability of Pis.

[geerlingguy]

It seems like either feeding 5v via custom power supply on GPIO or requiring PoE HATs (though those are slightly less efficient...) would be a better scalable option.

One massive thing that seems to be missing here (unless I've missed it) is any kind of remote ability to manage the server, eg at a minimum remote power cycling, if the Pi locks up. It would also be nice to get remote console but that would require even more effort and potentially slight customization on the Pis' boot config (to enable UART).

[sokoloff]

Agree, a central supply with a 3A MOSFET for control and a PTC for basic protection would give a lot more functionality and reduce customer downtime and smart-hands touches.

[RL_Quine]

At that point what you're describing has little resemblance to a hosted RPI though, the complexity justifies just making something custom that's better suited to the task than shoe horning Raspberry Pi hardware into a rack.

[danachow]

Sorry but that’s bullshit.. they’re describing a basic power switch (even simpler than a PoE hat) which is nothing compared to the design complexity of an MCU board with memory, peripherals and chip level power conversion.

[spicybright]

I can unplug and re-plug in my physical raspi. If I'm renting a remote raspi, I expect the same ability to do so.

[husam212]

I would rather renting too, I'm looking for a hosting service that offers Arch Linux ARM, can't find any.

[ScaleneTriangle]

If it doesn't have to be a Pi and just needs to be ARM, then AWS, GCP and Oracle all offer ARM instances and the ability to have custom images. I'm pretty sure they all have options that cost less than .05 USD an hour for on demand, and I know that GCP and AWS have tons of free credit available.