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Node-RED container with authentication and Home Assistant nodes setup

Introduction

Node-RED is a programming tool. It 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 runtime in a single-click.

Setup

  1. Create the folders needed by the container

    Run the following commands inside your home folder:

    # Open your terminal application
    cd ~
    mkdir -p nodered/data
    cd nodered
  2. Create the script needed to run the container

    Save the following script as nodered_run.sh:

    nodered_run.sh
    # To create this script use your text editor application, for example Nano
    docker run -d \
    --hostname=nodered \
    --name=nodered \
    --net=host \
    -v $PWD/data:/data \
    -e "NODE_RED_CREDENTIAL_SECRET=<key>" \
    -e TZ="Europe/Amsterdam" \
    --restart=unless-stopped \
    --cap-add=NET_ADMIN \
    nodered/node-red
    # IMPORTANT: Please read the instructions below
    Instructions:
    • Optional Replace docker with podman if needed
    • Optional Replace --net=host with ports to pass through if you want to expose ports. Here is described how to check if ports are available. Make sure port 1880 is available
    • Optional Replace $PWD/data with the location of your data if needed. This can be a fileserver mount
    • Optional Replace <key> with your own key which you can specify in settings.js. Otherwise a key will be automatically generated
    • Required Replace Europe/Amsterdam with your own timezone
  3. Run the script to create the container

    Run the following command:

    # Open your terminal application
    sudo sh nodered_run.sh

    The image nodered/node-red is automatically pulled and the container is created.

  4. Enable authentication (optional)

    Because I use Home Assistant nodes within Node-RED but also, for example, an SSH node, I have set up authentication to make it a bit more secure.

    Make sure the Node-RED container is running and generate a hash for the password you want to use:

    # Open your terminal application
    sudo docker exec -it nodered npx node-red admin hash-pw

    Enter the password you want to use for Node-RED and copy the hash to memory.

    Now adjust the following in the nodered/data/settings.js file:

    nodered/data/settings.js
    // To edit use your text editor application, for example Nano
    adminAuth: {
        type: "credentials",
        users: [{
            username: "<username>",
            password: "<hash>",
            permissions: "*"
        }]
    },
    // IMPORTANT: Please read the instructions below
    Instructions:
    • Required Replace <username> with your username, admin for example
    • Required Replace <hash> with the hash you generated earlier. Copy the hash from memory
    • Optional Replace * if needed to change the permissions

    Restart the Node-RED container. Run the following command:

    # Open your terminal application
    sudo docker restart nodered
  5. Install additional nodes (optional)

    The container uses the /data directory as the user configuration directory. To add additional nodes you can open the shell into the container and run the appropriate npm install commands. Here are a few examples of nodes I always install:

    # Open your terminal application
    # Open a shell in the container
    sudo docker exec -it nodered /bin/bash
    # Once inside the container, npm install the nodes in /data
    cd /
    cd data
    npm install node-red-node-wol
    npm install node-red-contrib-bigssh
    npm install node-red-contrib-home-assistant-websocket
    exit
    Instructions:
    • Optional node-red-node-wol is a node to send Wake-On-LAN (WOL) magic packets
    • Optional node-red-contrib-bigssh (Big SSH) is an input node to execute a command over SSH to a remote host
    • Optional node-red-contrib-home-assistant-websocket are various nodes to assist in setting up automation using Node-RED communicating with Home Assistant

    Restart the Node-RED container. Run the following command:

    # Open your terminal application
    sudo docker restart nodered
  6. Check the results

    If needed you can check if the container is running properly.

    Now you can use Node-RED by opening a web browser and going to: http://localhost:1880. Replace localhost with the relevant IP address or FQDN if needed, and adjust the port if you changed it earlier.

Favorites

Node-RED Documentation

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