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N8n (stack) N8n (stack)

Automation

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Configuration

Type
Compose
Platform
linux
Source
Repo

Template by xneo1·Source

Services

n8n

Configuration

Image
n8nio/n8n
Ports
5678:5678
Env vars
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=trueN8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=userN8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=passwordDB_TYPE=postgresdbDB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=dbDB_POSTGRESDB_PORT=5432DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=n8nDB_POSTGRESDB_USER=n8nDB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=n8nNODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL=axios,qsN8N_SECURE_COOKIE=false
Restart
unless-stopped

Image details

Pulls: 247.4M
User: n8nio
Created: Jun 22, 2019
Updated: 6 hours ago
Status: active

db

Configuration

Image
postgres:12
Volumes
/var/lib/postgresql/data : db-data
Env vars
POSTGRES_USER=n8nPOSTGRES_PASSWORD=n8nPOSTGRES_DB=n8n
Restart
unless-stopped

Image details

Pulls: 11.2B
User: stackbrew
Created: Jun 05, 2014
Updated: 2 hours ago
Status: active

Standalone Install

Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying N8n (stack)

Installation method

Install on Portainer

Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys

  1. Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
  2. Log into your Portainer web UI
  3. Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
  4. Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
  5. Select N8n (stack), fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me demo
Original stackfile

The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:

services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n
    ports:
      - "5678:5678"
    environment:
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=user
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=password
      - DB_TYPE=postgresdb
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=db
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT=5432
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=n8n
      - NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL=axios,qs
      - N8N_SECURE_COOKIE=false
    depends_on:
      - db
    restart: unless-stopped

  db:
    image: postgres:12
    volumes:
      - db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=n8n
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=n8n
      - POSTGRES_DB=n8n
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  db-data:

Or deploy it directly from the source:

git clone https://github.com/xneo1/portainer_templates
cd portainer_templates
docker compose -f Template/Stack/n8n.yml up -d

More install options in our documentation.

Container Documentation

n8n Documentation

Free and open fair-code licensed node based Workflow Automation Tool.

db Documentation

The PostgreSQL object-relational database system provides reliability and data integrity.

Serve N8n (stack) on your own domain behind Caddy, Nginx or Traefik. Fill in your domain and copy the result. It's a starting point, some apps need their own base URL or extra headers set too.

Proxying n8n-stack.example.com to http://n8n:5678

Add this to your Caddyfile

n8n-stack.example.com {
	reverse_proxy http://n8n:5678
}

Check the logs first

Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.

  • In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run docker logs <container>
  • Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Port already in use

If deployment fails with "Bind for 0.0.0.0:5678 failed: port is already allocated", something else on your server is using that port.

  • Find what's using it: sudo ss -tlnp | grep :5678
  • Stop the other service, or pick a different host port. In 5678:5678 only the left number is yours to change, the right one belongs to the app.

Running but the page won't load

The container is up but nothing appears in your browser.

  • Use your server's real IP: http://your-server-ip:5678. The 0.0.0.0 link Portainer shows isn't a real address.
  • Give it a minute after first deploy, n8n can take a while to initialise.
  • Make sure your firewall allows the port, e.g. sudo ufw allow 5678

Image won't pull

Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull n8nio/n8n

  • "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists. This template uses latest, so try pinning a specific version instead.
  • "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with docker login to raise it.
  • "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with docker system prune

"exec format error"

This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.

  • Check yours with uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.

Container keeps restarting

The unless-stopped restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.

  • Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
  • Get the exit code with docker inspect <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}'
  • Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to no so the failure stays visible.

Stack won't deploy

Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.

  • YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.

Raise an issue

Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.

A Compose stack

N8n (stack) is a Compose stack, a set of containers (2 of them) defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.

The services

This stack is built from 2 containers that run side by side. Here's each one, with the image it runs and anything it waits for first:

  • n8n runs n8nio/n8n, starts after db
  • db runs postgres:12

Ports

A port is the door the app answers on. A mapping like 5678:5678 means it's reachable on port 5678 of your server, where the left number is yours to change and the right one belongs to the app. It opens:

  • 5678:5678

Volumes

A volume is where N8n (stack) keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:

  • /var/lib/postgresql/data kept in the db-data volume Docker manages

Environment variables

Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. N8n (stack) takes 14 of them, all with defaults you can leave alone or tweak:

  • N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE, defaults to true
  • N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER, defaults to user
  • N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD, defaults to password
  • DB_TYPE, defaults to postgresdb
  • DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST, defaults to db
  • DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT, defaults to 5432
  • DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE, defaults to n8n
  • DB_POSTGRESDB_USER, defaults to n8n
  • DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD, defaults to n8n
  • NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL, defaults to axios,qs
  • N8N_SECURE_COOKIE, defaults to false
  • POSTGRES_USER, defaults to n8n
  • POSTGRES_PASSWORD, defaults to n8n
  • POSTGRES_DB, defaults to n8n

Restart policy

The restart policy here is unless-stopped, so Docker restarts N8n (stack) after a crash or reboot, but leaves it off when you stop it on purpose. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).

Networking

Portainer puts these services on one shared private network, so they can find each other by name (like n8n) while only the ports above are open to you.

Platform

The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.

Portainer app templates

Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set N8n (stack) up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying N8n (stack) is a click rather than a wall of config.