Thank you for subscribing to the Node-RED on AWS service. Below you can find the guide to help get you started with Node-RED on AWS.

Table of contents

Access the Node-RED Development Interface

Launch the product via one click deployment and wait until instance passes all status checks.

The Node-RED Admin interface can be accessed at the public IPv4 DNS address, port 8000, http://public_ipv4_address:8000/microflows.

For example http://ec2-34-238-164-135.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8000/microflows.

You can find the Public IPv4 address by opening your EC2 instances list and opening the Node-RED instance.

Obtain the Node-RED & AMI Access Credentials

You will need two sets of credentials

Node-RED Credentials

The default username is microflows.
The default password is the AMI Instance ID (for example i-06ce71cfd2b13827a) which can be found in the AWS EC2 Service -> Instances

Server Credentials

The server credentials that allow you to log in to your AWS Cloud server using an SSH client and execute commands on the server using the command line. These credentials consist of an SSH username and key.

The default SSH username is ubuntu.

Obtain SSH Credentials from the AWS Console

If you are using the AWS console, you have either created and downloaded an SSH key pair or uploaded one the first time you deployed a server. Check the following sections to know where the SSH keys can be created or uploaded on the AWS console:

  • If required, use the region selector in the top right corner to switch to the region where your instance was launched.
  • In the left navigation bar, click the “Network & Security -> Key Pairs” menu item.

  • In the resulting page, you will see a list of the Key Pairs that are already uploaded to the console and available to use when launching an instance.

From this screen you can also create a new Key Pair that you can download later:

Make sure you select .pem private key file format if you plan to use OpenSSH or .ppk private key file if you plan to use Putty to connect to the EC2 instance.

NOTE: If you did not associate a key pair with your AWS server, you will not be able to log in to it. In this case, contact AWS support and follow their instructions to gain SSH access to your server.

Connect with an SSH client on Windows using an SSH key

In order to access your server via SSH tunnel you need an SSH client. In the instructions below we have selected PuTTY, a free SSH client for Windows and UNIX platforms. To access the server via SSH tunnel using PuTTY on a specific port using an SSH tunnel, you need to have it configured in order to allow connections to your server.

Step 1: Obtain PuTTY

  • Download the PuTTY ZIP archive from its website.
  • Extract the contents to a folder on your desktop.
  • Double-click the putty.exe file to bring up the PuTTY configuration window.

Step 2: Configure PuTTY

  • Double-click the putty.exe file to bring up the PuTTY configuration window.
  • In the PuTTY configuration window, enter the host name or public IP address of your server into the “Host Name (or IP address)” field, as well as into the “Saved Sessions” field. Then, click “Save” to save the new session so you can reuse it later.

  • Obtain your SSH credentials in order to allow the authentication against the server.
  • In the “Connection -> SSH -> Auth” section, browse to the private key file (.ppk) you’ve previously obtained in the step above.

  • In the “Connection -> Data” section, enter the username ubuntu into the “Auto-login username” field, under the “Login details” section.

  • In the “Session” section, click on the “Save” button to save the current configuration.
  • Select the session you want to start (in case that you have saved more than one session) and click the “Open” button to open an SSH session to the server.

PuTTY will first ask you to confirm the server’s host key and add it to the cache. Go ahead and click “Yes” to this request.

You should now be logged in to your server.

TIP: In case of difficulties using PuTTY, refer to the official documentation for troubleshooting advice and resolution for common error messages.

Understand the default port configuration

  • The default Node-RED TCP port the runtime listens on is 8000.
  • Port 22 is the default port for SSH connections.
  • Port 80 is the default TCP port for WebSocket connections.

Administering Node-RED

Start and Stop Services

By default Node-RED will start at boot time. To start and stop Node-RED use the following commands:

pm2 start node-red
pm2 stop node-red

Node-RED Logs

pm2 info node-red
pm2 logs node-red