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Install the Nodes

Prerequisites

  • Ansible installed on your computer to steer the installations and later updates.
  • Nodes are a Raspberry Pi
  • Latest Trixie 64bit lite installed on every node. Use the RPi Imager to write the SD-cards. Ensure to allow login ssh-key based and the hostname is wiggle0, wiggle1, ...
  • The nodes are accessible from your computer and the computer running the photobooth-app by hostname/IP.

Software Setup

Assumptions

To keep the installation guid lean, following assumptions are made. If you have a different setup, you need to adjust the installation procedure on your own.

  • Our computer runs on linux. Windows is also OK, but we do not describe the installation here.
  • Nodes use pi as username.
  • 4 camera nodes, hostnames start 0 based indexing like wiggle0, wiggle1, ...
  • Every node is configured the same, a Raspberry Camera Module 3 is used for each node.

Prepare the Automated Installation using Ansible

Ensure you have ansible installed:

ansible --version

Now create a working directory that will hold your configuration. You use it later again when you need to update the nodes.

cd ~
mkdir ansible-wigglenodes
cd ansible-wigglenodes

Now create hosts.ini in the newly created directory.

hosts.ini
[wigglenodes] # group
wiggle0 ansible_user=pi software_sync_role=server device_id=0 camera=picam
wiggle1 ansible_user=pi software_sync_role=client device_id=1 camera=picam
wiggle2 ansible_user=pi software_sync_role=client device_id=2 camera=picam
wiggle3 ansible_user=pi software_sync_role=client device_id=3 camera=picam

Now test that the nodes can be accessed using ansible by sending a simple ping. It will send a ping-pong request to the group wigglenodes defined in the hosts.ini inventory file.

ansible wigglenodes -i hosts.ini -m ping

Run the Automated Installation using Ansible

Download the latest playbook:

git clone https://github.com/photobooth-app/ansible.git

ansible-playbook playbooks/install_nodes.yaml -i inventories/hosts.ini

Advanced Configuration

The nodes are configured using .env files