Server Setup

!> Important: Make sure that you secure your n8n instance like described under Security!

Example setup with docker-compose

If you have already installed docker and docker-compose you can directly start with step 4.

1. Install Docker

This can vary depending on the Linux distribution used. Example bellow is for Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu bionic stable"
sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-ce -y

2. Optional: If it should run as not root user

Run when logged in as the user that should also be allowed to run docker:

sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}
su - ${USER}

3. Install Docker-compose

This can vary depending on the Linux distribution used. Example bellow is for Ubuntu:

Check before what version the latestand replace "1.24.1" with that version accordingly. https://github.com/docker/compose/releases

sudo curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.24.1/docker-compose-`uname -s`-`uname -m` -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

4. Setup DNS

Add A record to route the subdomain accordingly.

Type: A
Name: n8n (or whatever the subdomain should be)
IP address: <IP_OF_YOUR_SERVER>

5. Create docker-compose file

Save this file as docker-compose.yml

Normally no changes should be needed.

version: "3"

services:
  traefik:
    image: "traefik"
    command:
      - "--api=true"
      - "--api.insecure=true"
      - "--providers.docker=true"
      - "--providers.docker.exposedbydefault=false"
      - "--entrypoints.websecure.address=:443"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.mytlschallenge.acme.tlschallenge=true"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.mytlschallenge.acme.email=${SSL_EMAIL}"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.mytlschallenge.acme.storage=/letsencrypt/acme.json"
    ports:
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ${DATA_FOLDER}/letsencrypt:/letsencrypt
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro

  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    labels:
      - traefik.enable=true
      - traefik.http.routers.n8n.rule=Host(`${SUBDOMAIN}.${DOMAIN_NAME}`)
      - traefik.http.routers.n8n.tls=true
      - traefik.http.routers.n8n.entrypoints=websecure
      - traefik.http.routers.n8n.tls.certresolver=mytlschallenge
      - traefik.http.middlewares.n8n.headers.SSLRedirect=true
      - traefik.http.middlewares.n8n.headers.STSSeconds=315360000
      - traefik.http.middlewares.n8n.headers.browserXSSFilter=true
      - traefik.http.middlewares.n8n.headers.contentTypeNosniff=true
      - traefik.http.middlewares.n8n.headers.forceSTSHeader=true
      - traefik.http.middlewares.n8n.headers.SSLHost=${DOMAIN_NAME}
      - traefik.http.middlewares.n8n.headers.STSIncludeSubdomains=true
      - traefik.http.middlewares.n8n.headers.STSPreload=true
    environment:
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD
      - N8N_HOST=${SUBDOMAIN}.${DOMAIN_NAME}
      - N8N_PORT=5678
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - NODE_ENV=production
      - WEBHOOK_TUNNEL_URL=https://${SUBDOMAIN}.${DOMAIN_NAME}/
      - VUE_APP_URL_BASE_API=https://${SUBDOMAIN}.${DOMAIN_NAME}/
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - ${DATA_FOLDER}/.n8n:/root/.n8n

6. Create `.env` file

Create .env file and change it accordingly.

# Folder where data should be saved
DATA_FOLDER=/root/n8n/

# The top level domain to serve from
DOMAIN_NAME=example.com

# The subdomain to serve from
SUBDOMAIN=n8n

# DOMAIN_NAME and SUBDOMAIN combined decide where n8n will be reachable from
# above example would result in: https://n8n.example.com

# The user name to use for autentication - IMPORTANT ALWAYS CHANGE!
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=user

# The password to use for autentication - IMPORTANT ALWAYS CHANGE!
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=password

# Optional timezone to set which gets used by Cron-Node by default
# If not set New York time will be used
GENERIC_TIMEZONE=Europe/Berlin

# The email address to use for the SSL certificate creation
SSL_EMAIL=user@example.com

7. Create data folder

Create the folder which is defined as DATA_FOLDER. In the example above it is /root/n8n/.

In that folder will the database file from SQLite be saved and also the encryption key.

The folder can be created like this:

mkdir /root/n8n/

8. Start docker-compose setup

n8n can now be started via:

sudo docker-compose up -d

In case it should ever be stopped that can be done with this command:

sudo docker-compose stop

9. Done

n8n will now be reachable via the above define subdomain + domain combination. The above example would result in: https://n8n.example.com

n8n will only be reachable via https not via http!

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