n8n¶

n8n is a self-hosted node based automation to run run jobs based on triggers similarly to IFTTT.

There is an official image for this service that we'll use: n8nio/n8n.

Pre-Installation¶

We'll create a folder in the main user's home where all the service's data will be saved.

mkdir ~/services/automation/n8n

Docker Compose¶

n8n will be run using Docker Compose. The content of the docker-compose.yml file is as follows:

services:
  web:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      - mongo
      - redis
      - rabbitmq
    extra_hosts:
      - host.docker.internal:host-gateway
    networks:
      default:
      proxy_external:
        aliases:
          - n8n
    volumes:
      - ./data:/home/node/.n8n
      - ./local:/home/node/host
      - /media/sata_2tb/MVs:/home/node/binds/MVs
    environment:
      TZ: America/Guayaquil
      GENERIC_TIMEZONE: America/Guayaquil
      NODE_ENV: production
      N8N_PORT: 5678
      N8N_PROTOCOL: https
      N8N_HOST: ${DOMAIN_N8N}
      WEBHOOK_URL: https://${DOMAIN_N8N}/
    labels:
      traefik.enable: true
      traefik.docker.network: proxy_external
      traefik.http.routers.n8n.rule: Host(`${DOMAIN_N8N}`)
      traefik.http.routers.n8n.entrypoints: public
      traefik.http.routers.n8n.service: n8n@docker
      traefik.http.services.n8n.loadbalancer.server.port: 5678

  mongo:
    image: mongo:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./mongo:/data/db
    environment:
      TZ: America/Guayaquil
      MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME: ${MONGO_USER}
      MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${MONGO_PASSWORD}

  mongo-express:
    image: mongo-express:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      - mongo
    networks:
      default:
      proxy_external:
        aliases:
          - automation-mongo
    environment:
      TZ: America/Guayaquil
      ME_CONFIG_OPTIONS_EDITORTHEME: ambiance
      ME_CONFIG_BASICAUTH_USERNAME: ${MONGO_BASIC_AUTH_USER}
      ME_CONFIG_BASICAUTH_PASSWORD: ${MONGO_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD}
      ME_CONFIG_MONGODB_SERVER: mongo
      ME_CONFIG_MONGODB_ADMINUSERNAME: ${MONGO_USER}
      ME_CONFIG_MONGODB_ADMINPASSWORD: ${MONGO_PASSWORD}
    labels:
      traefik.enable: true
      traefik.docker.network: proxy_external
      traefik.http.routers.automation-mongo.rule: Host(`${DOMAIN_MONGO_LOCAL}`) || Host(`${DOMAIN_MONGO_VPN}`)
      traefik.http.routers.automation-mongo.entrypoints: local-https
      traefik.http.routers.automation-mongo.tls: true
      traefik.http.routers.automation-mongo.tls.certresolver: le
      traefik.http.routers.automation-mongo.service: automation-mongo@docker
      traefik.http.services.automation-mongo.loadbalancer.server.port: 8081

  redis:
    image: redis:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      TZ: America/Guayaquil

  redis-insight:
    image: redis/redisinsight:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    user: 1000:1000
    depends_on:
      - redis
    networks:
      default:
      proxy_external:
        aliases:
          - automation-redis
    volumes:
      - ./redis-insight:/data
    environment:
      TZ: America/Guayaquil
    labels:
      traefik.enable: true
      traefik.docker.network: proxy_external
      traefik.http.routers.automation-redis.rule: Host(`${DOMAIN_REDIS_LOCAL}`) || Host(`${DOMAIN_REDIS_VPN}`)
      traefik.http.routers.automation-redis.entrypoints: local-https
      traefik.http.routers.automation-redis.tls: true
      traefik.http.routers.automation-redis.tls.certresolver: le
      traefik.http.routers.automation-redis.service: automation-redis@docker
      traefik.http.services.automation-redis.loadbalancer.server.port: 5540

  rabbitmq:
    image: rabbitmq:3-management
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      default:
      proxy_external:
        aliases:
          - automation-rabbitmq
    volumes:
      - ./rabbitmq:/var/lib/rabbitmq
    environment:
      TZ: America/Guayaquil
      RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER: ${RABBITMQ_USER}
      RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS: ${RABBITMQ_PASSWORD}
    labels:
      traefik.enable: true
      traefik.docker.network: proxy_external
      traefik.http.routers.automation-rabbit-mq.rule: Host(`${DOMAIN_RABBITMQ_LOCAL}`) || Host(`${DOMAIN_RABBITMQ_VPN}`)
      traefik.http.routers.automation-rabbit-mq.entrypoints: local-https
      traefik.http.routers.automation-rabbit-mq.tls: true
      traefik.http.routers.automation-rabbit-mq.tls.certresolver: le
      traefik.http.routers.automation-rabbit-mq.service: automation-rabbit-mq@docker
      traefik.http.services.automation-rabbit-mq.loadbalancer.server.port: 15672

networks:
  proxy_external:
    external: true

Secrets¶

Make sure to create a .env file with the following structure:

DOMAIN_N8N=

DOMAIN_MONGO_LOCAL=
DOMAIN_MONGO_VPN=

DOMAIN_REDIS_LOCAL=
DOMAIN_REDIS_VPN=

DOMAIN_RABBITMQ_LOCAL=
DOMAIN_RABBITMQ_VPN=

MONGO_USER=
MONGO_PASSWORD=
MONGO_BASIC_AUTH_USER=
MONGO_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=

RABBITMQ_USER=
RABBITMQ_PASSWORD=

Reverse Proxy¶

This service is exposed by a reverse proxy. More specifically, it is using Traefik.

For this reason, you will see that this service has:

A directive to connect it to the proxy_external external network.
A container alias for the proxy_external network.
A number of labels with names starting with traefik.

If you're not using a reverse proxy, feel free to remove these from the docker-compose.yml file. Keep in mind you might need to bind the ports to connect to the service instead.

Extras¶

Technically to get n8n up and running you only need the web container. However, we've extended this stack with other services to use alongside n8n like:

mongo as a database for data persistence.
redis as a cache for caching certain operations to accelerate certain workflows.
rabbitmq as a message queue for processing events for certain workflows.

Each of these services come with web based dashboards to access their data from outside if needed.

Local Data¶

Additionally, you may have noticed the volumes in the web container. Only the first volume is required to keep n8n's data, the rest are extra volumes that we've included to interface with the host's local filesystem.

Running¶

Start up the service with:

docker compose up -d

That's it! The service will auto-start on system startup and restart on failure.