Migrate/copy dashboard 2.0 to another device

Dashboard
1

Hi Chaps.
To keep things running, I'm currently migrating my Node Red installation from my Raspberry Pi to a Linux Mint machine (an old Dell laptop) so that I can install the latest operating system release on the Pi. I have successfully achieved it except for Dashboard 2.0. Is there any way of copying across in a similar way to exporting and importing my flows.

Thanks.

2

You should be able to export and import dashboard flows exactly as for other flows.

3

Assuming that you put the latest Node-red on the Dell, when you import your flows there will be a popup saying unknown nodes, and an "install all" button.

4

Yeah, I've been installing the unknown node manually as I come across them in my flows. I'm gonna reinstall Linux on the Dell laptop and start from scratch as I don't have dashboard 2 stuff.

5

There is an option --clean for the Node-red installation script which might be useful rather than reinstalling Linux.

It gets rid of any existing Node-red instance and forces a new install of Node-red and node.js

6

Thanks for that Budd but I've already begun the fresh install of Linux mint. I'll remember that for future though.

7

To transfer all your flows across to the new system, first make sure that all nodes in the pi are on the latest version (check in palette manager). Then install node red on the new machine and make sure it runs. Then stop node-red and copy the complete .node-red folder, except for the node_modules folder, across from the pi. Then cd into the .node-red folder and run
npm install
That will automatically install all the additional nodes that were installed on the pi (including the dashboard nodes).
Ignore any Warnings that appear when you do this. Don't ignore errors of course.
Finally restart node-red and it should all run.

Of course if you have any hardware specific flows that require modifying to run on the PC then you will have to disable or adjust those as required.

When you come to upgrading the OS on the pi then obviously don't do it on your working SD card. Do it on a new card so that you can always go back to the old one in case of disaster.

Once you have the new card basically running then go through the same process with copying the .node_red folder (again except for node_modules) and using npm install to reinstall nodes.

8

Thanks Colin. Will give it a go tomorrow as I have to do other stuff now.

9

Just to let you chaps know what's been happening. I exported a cut down simplified flow from my pi to the Dell and the dashboard 2.0 transferred across and displays ok. I can only assume that the complete flows that I was trying to transfer across had old nodes from dashboard 1.0 and maybe some of them had not been updated in a while. So it seems I have sorted out the issues with your help and as in the past when called upon for your assistance, you chaps have come through splendidly. On another note, and I don't know if its better to open a new thread for this but I've found an issue when running my setup on the Dell laptop. When booting the Dell, my devices will not communicate their data via the built in wireless. I have to plug in an ethernet connection for it to work. Once working I can unplug the ethernet cable and my devices continue to communicate ok. Seems like something to do with the way Linux Mint handles wired/wireless connections. Thanks anyway for the help.

10

On my Raspberries, the systemd startup script (/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/nodered.service, a link to /usr/lib/systemd/system/nodered.service) contains

[Unit]
Description=Node-RED graphical event wiring tool
Wants=network.target

If I understand correctly, that means that Node-red and networking are started at the same time.

Possibly changing it to wait until networking is up will resolve the issue?

Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

Or even

Requires=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
11

I tried the first option to modify the nodered.service file and it only worked. All my devices connected wirelessly to my Node red installation after a slight pause.

Thank you Mr Budd.