Installing Node-RED as a Windows Service

In this post I am going to cover installing, configuring and running Node-RED as a Windows service. Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways, and is especially useful for home automation through IoT. There is a lot to cover, so let’s dive right in.

Installing Node-RED

Installation is pretty straight forward and requires only 2 simple steps, more detailed installation notes are available on the official Node-RED site should you need them.

The first thing you will need is any stable version of node.js installed. At the time of writing this article v6.10.3 was the latest stable build.

Once node.js is installed, open a command window and enter in the following command to install Node-RED.

That’s it Node-RED is installed and ready to be used, to launch it run » node-red » from the same command line.

Securing Node-RED

It is a good idea to secure your Node-RED installation with an username and password, especially if you would like it to be public facing. To secure Node-RED you will need to modify your settings.js file which is located in your users directory, in my case this is:

Locate the adminAuth section in the file and uncomment it. You will notice that there is a password property with a hashed password value assigned to it, we are going to need to generate a new hash for your password to replace it with. The Node-RED creators provide a tool for doing just this, and can be installed and run using the following console commands:

You will be prompted for your password 2 times and after the second time the node-red-admin tool will print out a hash value. The outputted value needs to find it’s way back into your settings.js file.

You will also need to modify the userDir property and hard-code it’s value to your .node-red folder. You need to specify the full path to the directory because when running Node-RED as a service the working directory may differ breaking any relative paths you may have defined. In my case I set userDir to the following:

Save and close the settings file.

The Node-RED Service

You will need to download a tool called NSSM in order to run Node-RED as a service — I covered NSSM in more detail in this post, however for now, all you need to do is download the latest version ( nssm 2.24-101-g897c7ad ) and copy either the 32-bit or 64-bit executable to any folder on your computer.

In a command line, navigate to the folder containing nssm.exe and run the following command:

This will present you with a dialog box similar to the one below.

On the Application tab enter in the below values, making sure that you adjust the paths where necessary.

On the Details tab, give the service a name and set it’s startup type to Automatic (Delayed Start) — this will ensure that Node-RED starts with Windows, but only once your computer has had some time to settle.

You now have a Node-RED service — under service manager, click the Start Service button to start your Node-RED service.

Troubleshooting

Should you run into any problems starting your new Node-RED service (like stopping immediately after starting it) you can follow the below steps to make identifying the issue a lot easier.

Navigate to the folder where you places the nssm.exe executable and run the following command.

This will present you with an edit screen like the one shown below.

If you navigate to the I/O tab you will see options for stdin , stdout and stderror streams. These are used mainly on *NIX based systems, but node.js provides some implementation of them and so does nssm . If you provide a path to a .txt file like shown above (although I forgot to add the extension), save and restart your Node-RED service, the files will be created and any console output from Node-RED will be redirected to the file specified, e.g.:

Hopefully Node-RED will provide you with some reason for failure in this file that will make troubleshooting a lot easier.

Please do not forget to run nssm edit node-red again once you have resolved your issue, and remove these values.

Conclusion

Node-RED is an amazing tool, and opens up a ton of possibilities through a simple drag and drop UI. There is a lot more to Node-RED that initially meets the eye, and coupled with something like MQQT gives you so much more power.

Below is the controller flow, and UI designed with Node-RED to control a MP3 player board via an ESP8266 (post coming soon)

Richard Niemand

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Installing and Running Node-RED on a Windows PC

1. Introduction

Node-RED is a visual programming tool aimed at connecting hardware devices, APIs and online services in alternative ways, without the need for traditional programming experience. The software provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its run-time in a single-click. Although the concept of flows, nodes & palettes may sound unfamiliar, Node-RED makes programming simple by using a visual representation of code in blocks with lines between them.

Some examples of the many functions available are:

• REST clients to query data on other servers
• Modbus TCP client to talk to Brainboxes Remote IO devices
• JavaScript functions can be created within the rich text editor
• A built-in library allows you to save useful functions, templates or flows for re-use
• The flows created in Node-RED are stored using JSON which can be easily imported and exported for sharing with others
• An online flow library allows you to share your best flows with the world.

2. Software & Equipment Requirements

1. A Brainboxes supplied Ethernet I/O device
2. Any Windows PC/laptop
3. Network connection

3. Installing Node-RED

The following are instructions on how to install Node-RED on a Windows based operating system. All required download links can be found on the official Node-RED and NodeJS websites.

3.1 Node.js

Node-RED uses a runtime engine called Node.js. Node.js is a JavaScript based programming language and must be installed before Node-RED. Node.js can be downloaded from the official Node.js website. When installing Node.js for use with Node-RED it is recommended that you install the 10.XX.X. LTS variant.

Once the installation is complete, open up a Windows command prompt, you can open a command prompt by using the keyboard shortcut (Windows key + r) type cmd and then once the command prompt has opened, input the following:

This command checks if both Node.js and NPM are correctly installed, and if so it will return a version number. The output should look something like this:

NPM is a package manager for the JavaScript programming language, this is needed for installing additional Node-RED packages which we will need later. NPM should be installed by default when installing Node.js.

3.2 Install Node-RED

Now we can begin to install Node-RED, navigate to CMD and input the command:

Please note if the module does not install and throws up error messages regarding permissions, you will need to run CMD in Administrator mode. If you are having trouble with this please contact your System Administrator. Once this command is ran Node-RED will begin to install. Please note this can take some time to complete.

Once complete, the output should look like this:

4. Additional packages you will need

There are some additional packages you will need to install when following this guide.

4.1 Node-RED-dashboard

The first package you will need to install is the Node-RED dashboard, this module adds nodes which allow us to easily create a live data dashboard.

To install this module simply open up a command prompt and input:

Please allow a few minutes for this to package install.

Please note if the module does not install and throws up error messages regarding permissions, you will need to run CMD in Administrator mode. If you are having trouble with this please contact your System Administrator.

When the module is successfully installed the response should look something like this:

4.2 node-red-contrib-modbus

The next package you will need to install is contrib-modbus, this module adds nodes that allow us to communicate in ModbusTCP

To install this module simply open up a command prompt and input:

Again, please allow a few minutes for this to install.

Please remember you may need to run this command on an elevated command prompt.

When the module is successfully installed the response should look something like this:

5 Running Node-RED

Once everything has been successfully installed you can now begin to run your Node-RED webserver. You can do this by navigating to a command prompt and typing in the following command:

As we installed Node-RED as a global NPM module it adds the command node-red to your system path which you can then input into a command prompt to start Node-RED

Once the server has booted up successfully the command prompt will let us know that the server is now running, and what IP address it is on.

Take note of the Node-RED webserver’s IP address and input it into your web browser

You have now successfully installed, booted up, and accessed your Node-RED webserver. You can now begin to create your own flows.

6. An Overview of Node-RED

So how do we get started? Below is an overview of the Node-RED interface, with a brief description of each section.

6.1. Palette

The palette on the left contains all the different nodes available for use. From injecting different types of information (strings, Booleans, numbers, etc.), executing Linux command lines and the ability to make different types of connections, to recording simple debug traces, sending emails notifications and displaying information on a text box.

6.2. Workspace

The workspace in the middle is where your flows will be created. As you follow through this simple guide, you will learn how the flows connect and work together in an easy to use, programmable way.

6.3. Sidebar

The sidebar on the right provides additional settings and debug information. Using the debug node available from the palette will show the user what information is being sent, or the information which is being received from the node it is attached to.

6.4. Header

The header at the top, contains the deploy button, which is used for deploying your current workspace. Deploying it will make it available for execution, or it will immediately start running, depending on how you have it set up. You will also find the main menu which allows you to import/export workspaces, or change several configurations regarding your Node-RED project.

Running Node-RED locally

Prerequisites

To install Node-RED locally you will need a supported version of Node.js.

Installing with npm

To install Node-RED you can use the npm command that comes with node.js:

If you are using Windows, do not start the command with sudo .

That command will install Node-RED as a global module along with its dependencies.

You can confirm it has succeeded if the end of the command output looks similar to:

Installing with docker

To run in Docker in its simplest form just run:

For more detailed information see our docker guide.

Installing with snap

If your OS supports Snap you can install Node-RED with:

When installed as a Snap package, it will run in a secure container that does not have access to some extra facilities that may be needed for you to use, such as:

• access to main system storage. Can only read/write to local home directories.
• gcc — needed to compile any binary components of nodes you want to install
• git — needed if you want to use the Projects feature
• direct access to gpio hardware
• access to any external commands your flows want to use with the Exec node (for example).

You can run it in “classic” mode which reduces the container security but then does provide wider access.

Running

Once installed as a global module you can use the node-red command to start Node-RED in your terminal. You can use Ctrl-C or close the terminal window to stop Node-RED.

You can then access the Node-RED editor by pointing your browser at http://localhost:1880.

The log output provides you various pieces of information:

• The versions of Node-RED and Node.js
• Any errors hit when it tried to load the palette nodes
• The location of your Settings file and User Directory
• The name of the flows file it is using.

Node-RED uses flows_ .json as the default flows file. You can change this by providing the flow file name as argument to the node-red command.

Command-line Usage

Node-RED can be started using the command node-red . This command can take various arguments:

Option	Description
-p , —port PORT	Sets the TCP port the runtime listens on. Default: 1880
—safe	Starts Node-RED without starting the flows. This allows you to open the flows in the editor and make changes without the flows running. When you deploy your changes, the flows are then started.
-s , —settings FILE	Sets the settings file to use. Default: settings.js in userDir
—title TITLE	Set process window title
-u , —userDir DIR	Sets the user directory to use. Default:

/.node-red -v Enables verbose output -D X=Y|@file Override individual settings -? , —help Shows command-line usage help and exits flows.json|projectName If the Projects feature is not enabled, this sets the flow file you want to work with. If the Projects feature is enabled, this identifies which project should be started.

Node-RED uses flows_ .json as the default flows file. If the computer you are running on may change its hostname, then you should ensure you provide a static file name; either as a command-line argument or using the flowsFile option in your settings file.

Override individual settings

Since Node-RED 1.1.0

You can override individual settings on the command-line using the -D (or —define ) option.

For example, to change the logging level you can use:

You can also provide the custom settings as a file:

The file should contain a list of the settings to override:

Passing arguments to the underlying Node.js process

There are occasions when it is necessary to pass arguments to the underlying Node.js process. For example, when running on devices like the Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone Black that have a constrained amount of memory.

To do this, you must use the node-red-pi start script in place of node-red . Note: this script is not available on Windows.

Alternatively, if are running Node-RED using the node command, you must provide arguments for the node process before specifying red.js and the arguments you want passed to Node-RED itself.

The following two commands show these two approaches:

Upgrading Node-RED

If you have installed Node-RED as a global npm package, you can upgrade to the latest version with the following command:

If you are using Windows, do not start the command with sudo .

Next steps

Node-RED: Low-code programming for event-driven applications.

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