Node-Red Crashing Upon Opening

General
1

Hello,

I have a super urgent matter of node-red crashing upon opening. It has been operating completely fine up until about 1 hour ago where now it crashes repeatedly. Below is the error I get. Running on a Raspberry-Pi and my node-red says v1.3.4 from the dropdown menu in the top right.

* nodered.service - Node-RED graphical event wiring tool
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nodered.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2021-06-18 14:45:36 EDT; 16s ago
     Docs: http://nodered.org/docs/hardware/raspberrypi.html
  Process: 2009 ExecStart=/usr/bin/env node-red-pi $NODE_OPTIONS $NODE_RED_OPTIONS (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
 Main PID: 2009 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
~
2

First off, you should be able to start it from the command line using the --safe option.

Second, what changed? It shouldn't just start crashing.

3

What is the full command using the --safe?

Also, quite literally nothing changed. While remotely monitoring it I noticed our node-red-contrib-opcua nodes were not connecting and it was stuck in a loop of auto-restarts.

4 
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ node-red-start --safe

Start Node-RED
 
Once Node-RED has started, point a browser at http://192.168.0.111:1880
On Pi Node-RED works better with the Firefox or Chrome browser
 
Use   node-red-stop                          to stop Node-RED
Use   node-red-start                         to start Node-RED again
Use   node-red-log                           to view the recent log output
Use   sudo systemctl enable nodered.service  to autostart Node-RED at every boot
Use   sudo systemctl disable nodered.service to disable autostart on boot
 
To find more nodes and example flows - go to http://flows.nodered.org
 
Starting as a systemd service.
18 Jun 15:09:58 - [info]
Welcome to Node-RED
===================
18 Jun 15:09:58 - [info] Node-RED version: v1.3.4
18 Jun 15:09:58 - [info] Node.js  version: v14.16.1
18 Jun 15:09:58 - [info] Linux 5.10.17-v7+ arm LE
18 Jun 15:09:59 - [info] Loading palette nodes
18 Jun 15:10:07 - [info] Dashboard version 2.29.0 started at /ui
18 Jun 15:10:08 - [info] Settings file  : /home/pi/.node-red/settings.js
18 Jun 15:10:08 - [info] HTTP Static    : /home/pi/.node-red/static
18 Jun 15:10:08 - [info] Context store  : 'default' [module=memory]
18 Jun 15:10:08 - [info] User directory : /home/pi/.node-red
18 Jun 15:10:08 - [warn] Projects disabled : editorTheme.projects.enabled=false
18 Jun 15:10:08 - [info] Flows file     : /home/pi/.node-red/flows_raspberrypi.json
18 Jun 15:10:08 - [info] Server now running at http://127.0.0.1:1880/
18 Jun 15:10:08 - [warn]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Your flow credentials file is encrypted using a system-generated key.
If the system-generated key is lost for any reason, your credentials
file will not be recoverable, you will have to delete it and re-enter
your credentials.
You should set your own key using the 'credentialSecret' option in
your settings file. Node-RED will then re-encrypt your credentials
file using your chosen key the next time you deploy a change.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
18 Jun 15:10:08 - [info] Starting flows
18 Jun 15:10:09 - [info] [OpcUa-Client:READ] 	Local 'own' certificate is NOT used.
18 Jun 15:10:09 - [info] [OpcUa-Client:WRITE] 	Local 'own' certificate is NOT used.
18 Jun 15:10:09 - [info] [OpcUa-Client:READ] 	Local 'own' certificate is NOT used.
18 Jun 15:10:09 - [info] Started flows
Ubidots Publisher connected
Published successfully,
Published successfully,
18 Jun 15:10:14 - [red] Uncaught Exception:
18 Jun 15:10:14 - SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input
    at JSON.parse (<anonymous>)
    at parseOutputObject (/home/pi/.node-red/node_modules/ubidots-nodered/ubidots/ubidots_in.js:21:43)
    at defineOutputObject (/home/pi/.node-red/node_modules/ubidots-nodered/ubidots/ubidots_in.js:13:19)
    at MqttClient.<anonymous> (/home/pi/.node-red/node_modules/ubidots-nodered/ubidots/ubidots_in.js:110:25)
    at MqttClient.emit (events.js:315:20)
    at MqttClient._handlePublish (/home/pi/.node-red/node_modules/mqtt/lib/client.js:792:12)
    at MqttClient._handlePacket (/home/pi/.node-red/node_modules/mqtt/lib/client.js:282:12)
    at process (/home/pi/.node-red/node_modules/mqtt/lib/client.js:238:12)
    at MqttClient._handlePacket (/home/pi/.node-red/node_modules/mqtt/lib/client.js:290:7)
    at process (/home/pi/.node-red/node_modules/mqtt/lib/client.js:238:12)
nodered.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
nodered.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
nodered.service: Service RestartSec=20s expired, scheduling restart.
nodered.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 4.
Stopped Node-RED graphical event wiring tool.
Started Node-RED graphical event wiring tool.
5

Apparently there is a bug in the ubidots node that crashes node red when it gets invalid data.

6

To run node red in safe mode, which runs the editor but does not start the flows, use node-red --safe

7

I ran in safe mode and disabled some nodes one by one. Started with the node-red-contrib-opcua nodes because they have historically given us a problem but no change. The Ubidots Out node (which publishes to Ubidots) is fine, but the Ubidots In node (which pulls data from Ubidots) causes node-red to crash immediately. I have reached out to them about this. Thanks for your help guys.