New to Node-RED. How is your experience on stability and reliability for running it 24/7?
Is Linux is more stable for Node-RED? Is Debian CLI version (no desktop) good?
For me it works 365x7x24 for years now (on Linux only in my case, several RPi:s (3,4 and 5), Lenovo laptop upgraded w SSD). Only time a restart happens is on my own decision. I have no problems with all my setups, distributed devices, interchanging information via MQTT on my local network. I do have desktops enabled on all, never bothered disabling it
I'd always go for Linux for servers unless there was a really good reason to use Windows - and I'm a Windows person.
Debian is a good choice as it is simple and robust. So yes, it tends to be stable.
Just remember that node.js and many npm packages are not stable though - you certainly need to keep on top of updating them. And, of course, you should keep the OS up-to-date for safety. If using node.js, don't rely on the debian package, there is a well maintained repo listed on the node.js official site, use that.
Even running on a Pi, I've had Debian and Node-RED running for years. I've switched to an old laptop in the last few years. Neither required anything more than a very occasional reboot - probably less than once a year.
Running without a desktop is a good idea. It saves a ton of resources and means even less maintenance. You can always add a remote desktop via Docker should you ever actually need one. SSH is your friend. But don't expose SSH to the Internet directly, not worth the risk. If you really need remote access, use a VPN or one of the often mentioned remote access services such as Tailscale or Cloudflare Zero Trust (which actually has a web-based terminal if you want something secure and easy).
Also, if needing to do development on the server, remember that VSCode has excellent remote dev support via SSH.
Compared to Windows?
If you use the official install script on Linux, Node-red will be set up as a systemd service which automatically restarts after a failure so it might sometimes crash but I have never seen any evidence of that.
Occasionally there are reports here of memory leaks in contrib nodes, I think not recently in the core.
Installing and running as a service 24/7 on Windows seems to me astonishingly difficult, yet there are plenty of beginners who manage to achieve this so maybe I am missing something.
Absolutely. For me the ideal platform is a headless Raspberry Pi running all the time and accessed from a browser on my PC.
NR runs well for me on a Pi Zero Two or Pi 4. My Pi 4 also runs MySQL and other services.
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What is development with VSCode? We are just starting days ago only on the graphical block interface
Who is we? A company?
We are trying to build a high school STEM weather station
That's mostly for if you are developing custom nodes. But might also be for editing configuration files or command line scripts.
Good project.
What sensors do you have - anemometer, rain gauge, etc?
What interfaces do they use?
I have temperature, hudmidity, pressure and light sensors form Adafruit and Sparkfun. Have done i2C interface with RPi pico. (yet to be done) from Pico to RPi. Have not got rain and wind sensor but saw Raspberry STEM project howto site has them.
Wind speed is on/off switch. Time period is wind speed.
Wind direction is a set of eight magnetic reed switch. Seem switching resistor. Need to check.
Rain is counting of on/off pulse. One pulse is a small basket of water meaning xxx mm of rain.
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Just out of interest I looked on the STEM site for their weather station instructions.
Alas I couldn't find it. Seems my way of thinking is no more congruent with teachers than it was 50 years ago!
Anyway, good luck with your project.
Maybe some more clues on this weather station related thread - Solar-powered weather station
May this help?
Raspberry Pi weather station
https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/build-your-own-weather-station
If using a Pi, the usual Pi caveats apply:
- Make sure you use a decent and powerful enough power supply. Especially if trying to power via USB.
- An adaptor for an HD or SSD is more reliable. If using an SD-Card for storage, make sure it is a good one with wear levelling and make sure you retain loads of space on it so the wear levelling can work. Samsung EVO cards always seem reliable.
- Even with a good SD-Card, they will fail eventually. A card as in the previous bullet should last at least 3-5 years but it will eventually fail. Have a backup card ready to go.
- Back up data and configuration.
My 2 cents. For school STEM (which is not easy for some/many teachers), Raspberry Pi has commited production ending date of quite many years. Important to future-proof teaching materials and accumulation of knowhows.
Raspberry Pi PICO W has Wifi, low cost, no SD card needed, Python is easy to learn
In UK, seem fully or partially Government funded programs have hardware loan and technical support for primary and secondary school.
For RPi Pi 5 (the Linux computer) NVMe HAT and official power supply are officially recommended. Samsung NVMe SSD is good and long life stated in formal number of TBW (Terra Bytes Written). I am not sure about RPi 1/2/3/4 on use of NVMe SSD
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Multiple machines with Windows, Windows Server, Linux Ubuntu, Raspberry.
All of them runing fine 365/24/7 for about 3-4 years
Does NR run on a Pico? I had a quick look at the Pico series and they don't seem to run a linux based system, rather it seems everything has to be pre-built and installed onto the Pico (somewhat like an Arduino).
I don't think the suggestion was to run node-red on the pico. It was to communicate with the pico using mqtt over wifi.
I guess that’s a no since I was asking not answering! 
I misunderstood. I think your guess is correct.
