Self-Hosted n8n Server Setup

Self-Hosted n8n Server Setup

Self-hosted n8n gives full data control, unlimited workflows and operations, ability to integrate with internal services without VPN.

Requirements

• VPS/server: minimum 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM (recommended 4 GB with >50 active workflows)
• Docker + Docker Compose
• PostgreSQL 12+ (instead of built-in SQLite for production)
• SSL certificate (Let's Encrypt)

docker-compose.yml (Production)

version: '3.8'

services:
  n8n:
    image: docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    environment:
      - N8N_HOST=n8n.example.com
      - N8N_PORT=5678
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - NODE_ENV=production
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://n8n.example.com/
      - GENERIC_TIMEZONE=Europe/Moscow
      # PostgreSQL
      - DB_TYPE=postgresdb
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=postgres
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT=5432
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      # Encrypt credentials
      - N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=${N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY}
      # Email for error notifications
      - N8N_EMAIL_MODE=smtp
      - N8N_SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com
      - N8N_SMTP_PORT=587
      - [email protected]
      - N8N_SMTP_PASS=${SMTP_PASSWORD}
      # Queue for scaling
      - EXECUTIONS_MODE=queue
      - QUEUE_BULL_REDIS_HOST=redis
      - N8N_CONCURRENCY_PRODUCTION_LIMIT=10
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
      redis:
        condition: service_healthy

  n8n-worker:
    image: docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: worker
    environment:
      - DB_TYPE=postgresdb
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=postgres
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      - QUEUE_BULL_REDIS_HOST=redis
      - N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=${N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY}
    depends_on:
      - n8n
      - redis

  postgres:
    image: postgres:15-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: n8n
      POSTGRES_USER: n8n
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U n8n"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: redis-server --requirepass ${REDIS_PASSWORD}
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "redis-cli", "ping"]
      interval: 10s

volumes:
  n8n_data:
  postgres_data:

Nginx Reverse Proxy + SSL

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name n8n.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/n8n.example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/n8n.example.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:5678;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        # For long workflows
        proxy_read_timeout 300s;
        proxy_connect_timeout 75s;
    }
}

Backup

#!/bin/bash
# backup-n8n.sh
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)
BACKUP_DIR=/backups/n8n

# PostgreSQL dump
docker exec n8n-postgres-1 pg_dump -U n8n n8n > "$BACKUP_DIR/n8n_db_$DATE.sql"

# Backup credentials and workflows
docker cp n8n-n8n-1:/home/node/.n8n "$BACKUP_DIR/n8n_files_$DATE"

# Upload to S3
aws s3 cp "$BACKUP_DIR/n8n_db_$DATE.sql" "s3://backups-bucket/n8n/"

# Delete backups older than 30 days
find $BACKUP_DIR -mtime +30 -delete

Monitoring

n8n exports Prometheus metrics at /metrics:

# prometheus.yml
scrape_configs:
  - job_name: 'n8n'
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['n8n:5678']
    metrics_path: /metrics

Timeline

Basic install with Docker + PostgreSQL + Nginx + SSL — 1 day. Worker setup, monitoring, backups — another 1–2 days.