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t90-installing-on-homeassistant

slug: with-homeassistant​

Installing on Node-RED inside Home Assistant​

Home Assistant provides a managed environment for running Node-RED. This setup can sometimes create challenges for complex nodes that require direct backend communication, such as @opcua/for-node-red or @flowfuse/dashboard.

This guide explains the common issues and provides a step-by-step solution to ensure @opcua/for-node-red runs smoothly within your Home Assistant installation.

The Problem: Ingress and API Routing​

When you access Node-RED through the Home Assistant side panel, you are using an "ingress" URL, which looks something like this: http://homeassistant.local:8123/abcde1234_nodered/ingress

This ingress acts as a proxy. Unfortunately, it doesn't always correctly reroute the internal API calls that nodes like @opcua/for-node-red rely on to function.

Symptoms:

  • The OPC UA node editor in Node-RED misbehaves or doesn't load correctly.
  • Other complex UI nodes (like FlowFuse Dashboard) also experience issues.

Solution Part 1: Bypass the Ingress​

The most reliable solution is to access Node-RED directly, bypassing the Home Assistant ingress proxy.

  1. Navigate to your Node-RED add-on configuration in Home Assistant.
  2. In the configuration YAML, set the leave_front_door_open option to true.
  3. Save and restart the Node-RED add-on.
  4. You can now access the Node-RED editor directly at http://<home-assistant-ip>:1880 (replace <home-assistant-ip> with the actual IP address of your Home Assistant instance).

This will resolve the UI and editor-related issues.

Solution Part 2: Configuring a Floating License​

The Node-RED add-on in Home Assistant runs in a container. To use the professional features of @opcua/for-node-red in this environment, you need a floating license and a running LexFloatServer instance that is reachable from your Home Assistant device.

Please contact us to acquire a professional license and get assistance with setting up your floating license server.

You must configure the Node-RED add-on to communicate with your license server. This is done by setting an environment variable before Node-RED starts.

Below is a complete example of a working Node-RED add-on configuration.

theme: default
http_node:
  username: ''
  password: ''
http_static:
  username: ''
  password: ''
ssl: false
certfile: fullchain.pem
keyfile: privkey.pem
system_packages: []
npm_packages:
  - '@opcua/for-node-red'
init_commands:
  - >-
    jq '.scripts.start =
    "CRYPTLEX_FLOATING_ON_PREMISE=http://<your-floating-license-server-ip>:<port>
    node $NODE_OPTIONS node_modules/node-red/red.js"' package.json >
    package.tmp.json && mv package.tmp.json package.json
leave_front_door_open: true
note
  • Replace <your-floating-license-server-ip> and <port> with the actual IP address and port number of your LexFloatServer instance.
  • A professional licence is required to use floating licenses, contact sterfive.com to acquire one and get assistance with setting up your floating license server.