Hardware recommendations (2022) for node red home automation server

General
21

Hi @steirx,

have you thought about splitting your Node-RED instance into multiple ones?

I have been using this approach for several years now for my home systems, splitting different aspects of my system into separate instances after experiencing similar issues with some custom nodes (which where a lot more frequent back then).

E.g. instances for:

  • the "core" controller
    • this is running the essential stuff, so I'm very conservative regarding updates and custom nodes used
  • a "bridge" instance
    • makes other (non-essential) devices or services controllable via MQTT, like AVR, TV, snapcast, MPD
  • Telegram bot
  • Dashboards (several instances for NR Dashboard, uibuilder)
  • playground for testing stuff

All communicating via MQTT and a local Redis server.

Some advantages:

  • more failure resistant if something crashes your runtime
  • update separately
  • run different versions of Node-RED and/or nodes

So mostly, I don't even have to touch the "core controller" anymore when adding new parts to my system.

Apart from other benefits, it could also help to narrow your issue down to a single instance. It would require some redesign of your system, of course, but I think it's worth it in the long term. :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes
22

Previously, I had 3 NR running on dedicated RPIs with high CPU and memory load, but it was very difficult to maintain and to keep them in sync.

I have now moved to an old laptop (2gh,4GB ram, 100GB SSD, running ubuntu) operating NR out of an docker environment and everything is runnung smoothly and the machine is mostly IDLE.

In meanwhile I'm now also running several dockers on this machine and my average cpu utlisiation is never over 40%

  • Grafana
  • InfluxDb
  • MotionEye (monitor RTSP cameras raising an event in NR whenever motion is detected)
  • Deepstack (for some AI testing)
  • NR Dev & Test

another benefit of the laptop solution is the battery backup which already saved me several times when there was a power outage :wink:

1 Like
23

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