Node-RED on Oracle Cloud Free Tier - Alexa Setup Guide

Requirements

• Oracle Cloud account (free tier eligible)
• ARM Ampere A1 Flex instance (up to 4 OCPUs, 24GB RAM always free)
• Security list/NSG rule to allow inbound TCP port 1880
• Network access for Alexa cloud integration

Installation

1. 1 Create an Oracle Cloud account and launch an ARM Ampere A1 instance
2. 2 Choose Oracle Linux, Ubuntu, or Debian as the OS image
3. 3 SSH into the instance
4. 4 Install Node.js: curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash - && sudo apt-get install -y nodejs build-essential
5. 5 Install Node-RED: sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm node-red
6. 6 Configure OS firewall: sudo iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 1880 -j ACCEPT
7. 7 Add an ingress rule for port 1880 in your VCN security list or network security group
8. 8 Start Node-RED: node-red
9. 9 Access Node-RED at http://your-public-ip:1880
10. 10 Install Alexa integration node via the palette manager inside Node-RED

Alexa Integration

Oracle Cloud's free ARM instance is excellent for running Node-RED 24/7 at no cost. Cloud-based Alexa nodes work perfectly. Local-only nodes (amazon-echo, wemo-emulator) will not work since the instance is not on your home network. Important: configure both the OS firewall (iptables) and the OCI security list to allow port 1880. Use HTTPS and authentication in production.