Headless Raspberry Pi setup from macOS

Use Raspberry Pi Imager from the official Raspberry Pi website. Select a supported 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS Lite image. In OS customization, set a unique hostname, an administrator account, locale and network settings. Enable SSH and prefer a public key. Write only to the intended microSD card; imaging erases it.

Boot with a suitable regulated power supply and a short, sound cable. Locate the Pi using its configured .local name or your router’s DHCP list. Use private placeholders in shared commands:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/pi_observability -C pi-observability
ssh -i ~/.ssh/pi_observability ADMIN@PI_HOST

If SSH initially requires a password, install the public key using an interactive password prompt:

cat ~/.ssh/pi_observability.pub | ssh ADMIN@PI_HOST 'umask 077; mkdir -p ~/.ssh; cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys; chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys'

Verify key login in a second terminal before altering password authentication. Rotate any disclosed password through an interactive secure session. Never commit private keys or copy a password into command arguments, telemetry labels or this wiki.

Inspect df -h /, free -m, uname -a, systemctl --failed, and vcgencmd get_throttled. Run sudo apt update and a reviewed OS maintenance update as an administrative task, outside metric scraping. Reboot when required, reconnect and recheck the system before installing collectors.

The baseline device is a Pi 4 with roughly 4 GiB RAM and a small microSD card. Capacity and package versions can change; use current measurements rather than the original handoff values.