For a recent project I needed to run Node-RED on windows and it became apparent that being able to run it as a service would be very useful.

After a little poking around I found a npm module called node-windows.

You install node-windows with as follows:

npm install -g node-windows

followed by:

npm link node-windows

in the root directory of your project. This is a 2 stage process as node-windows works better when installed globally.

Now the npm module in installed you configure the Windows service by writing a short nodejs app. This windows-service.js should work for Node-Red

var Service = require('node-windows').Service;

var svc = new Service({
  name:'Node-Red',
  description: 'A visual tool for wiring the Internet of Things',
  script: require('path').join(__dirname,'red.js')
});

svc.on('install',function(){
  svc.start();
});

svc.on('uninstall',function(){
  console.log('Uninstall complete.');
  console.log('The service exists: ',svc.exists);
});

if (process.argv.length == 3) {
  if ( process.argv[2] == 'install') {
    svc.install();
  } else if ( process.argv[2] == 'uninstall' ) {
    svc.uninstall();
  }
}

Run the following to install the service:

node windows-service.js install

and to remove the service:

node windows-service.js uninstall

There is also a OSx version of node-windows called node-mac, the same script with a small change should work on both:

if (process.platform === 'win32') {
  var Service = require('node-windows').Service;
} else if (process.platform === 'darwin') {
  var Service = require('node-mac').Service;
} else {
  console.log('Not Windows or OSx');
  process.exit(1);
}

var svc = new Service({
  name:'Node-Red',
  description: 'A visual tool for wiring the Internet of Things',
  script: require('path').join(__dirname,'red.js')
});


svc.on('install',function(){
  svc.start();
});

svc.on('uninstall',function(){
  console.log('Uninstall complete.');
  console.log('The service exists: ',svc.exists);
});

if (process.argv.length == 3) {
  if ( process.argv[2] == 'install') {
    svc.install();
  } else if ( process.argv[2] == 'uninstall' ) {
    svc.uninstall();
  }
}

I have submitted a pull request to include this in the base Node-RED install.

EDIT:

I’ve added node-linux to the pull request as well to generate /etc/init.d SystemV start scripts.