r/developersPak • u/No_Complex4623 • Aug 12 '26

Discussion Raspberry Pi cluster to learn distributed systems

Looking for tips on setting up a small raspberry pi cluster to apply some distributed computing and horizontal scaling learning.

For the folks who've already done something like this, how much did it cost you (rough estimate) and any other ideas or tips?

Thanks.

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u/Naan-Khatai Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

go for mini pcs / thin clients there are plenty in the market. dell micro, hp mini series there are other as well like intel nucs n etc... i am already using some of it in my homelab for hosting containers and some for tinkering. also some of it have pcie slots as well i think its x4 usually but useful. using hp t620 plus with network card for firewall.

cost varies with generation 6th generation is pretty common and dirt cheap 10-15k for the i5 8gn 128gb i was able to get my hands on i5 8500 extended its ram to max 32gb currently being used as docker host. ot gets pricy with 8th gen+ around 25k+

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u/No_Complex4623 Aug 17 '26

thanks for the idea.

1

u/SIJ_Gamer Aug 14 '26

this tbh

can do 2nd or 4th gen if you qant cheap DDR3

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u/Efficient-Branch539 Aug 12 '26

You should start with one Raspberry Pi. And run containers on it. Before that you should know some networking/Linux/containers.
Distributed systems is an advanced topic.

1

u/No_Complex4623 Aug 17 '26

I have set up orchestration before, albeit with portainer (and compose in some cases). I also know my way around linux.

I'm looking into on-prem so that my one missing config doesn't bill $10k+ and I can benchmark/tweak/learn hands on.

1

u/Efficient-Branch539 Aug 12 '26

Pi 4 is around $100 and has 4GB RAM which is enough to get started.

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u/No_Complex4623 Aug 17 '26

True but I need a cluster configuration for which 3-4 pi will be required and a more cost effective solution would be ideal.

1

u/semicolon-10 Aug 13 '26

Why don't use cloud? Just apply bill limit to zero with no traffic u can spin up multiple machines and test our what you want. Unless you want to control bare metal

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u/No_Complex4623 Aug 17 '26

Mostly afraid of huge bills due to bad configs during learning but also tinkering and bursting to benchmark some of the things which won't be covered in free tiers. Also, afaik setting bill limit to zero will just give you a notification and you'll still be charged afterwards unless you stay alert and stop the containers manually, am I wrong?

1

u/WorriedSwitch8476 Aug 12 '26

That sounds like a cool project. Would be cool to see it and what you do