You have probably heard about Node-RED and which is one of the most popular tool in IOT revolution. It’s an open-source flow based visual programming tool for wiring the components as a part of Internet of Things. It allows developers at any level to rapidly connect physical IO, cloud-based systems, databases and most APIs in any combination you can imagine.

Node-red can be installed and run on very small hardware machines e.g. Raspberry PI, TinkerBoard etc.

Today we will provide step by step guide to install Node-RED 0.20.x on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS x86_64 (64 bit) Operating system.

Step 1: Update your system

Update the package lists for upgrades for packages that need upgrading, as well as new packages that have just come to the repositories.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Node.js and npm

$ sudo apt-get install nodejs

It is recommended to check the version of Node.js before proceeding. The versions Node.js LTS 8.x or 10.x is recommended. Node-RED does not support Node.js 6.x or earlier.

To check the version of Node.js installed, use the following command: 

$ node -v

OR

$ node --version

Now we have the prerequisites installed, let’s install Node-RED.

Step 4: Install Node-RED

$ sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm node-red node-red-admin
-gThis means that the package is installed globally and it will be available for Node.js
–unsafe-permThis overrides any errors during the time of installation. Basically the user/group ID switching is suppressed when a package script is run, non-root users will be able to install packages.
Node-red-adminThis will install the admin module providing us with some additional administration tools for Node-RED.

Step 5: Test your installation

Node-RED uses the port :1880 as its default port. So, lets allow the port to be used by the service by using the following command:

$ sudo ufw allow 1880

So now we are all set and can start using Node-RED.
Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type the following command:

$ node-red

You can open any browser installed on your system and hit the url bar with the following address:

http://localhost:1880