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Vultr profile image Sanskriti Harmukh
Sanskriti Harmukh for Vultr

Posted on with Aashish Chaurasiya • Originally published at docs.vultr.com

Deploying n8n Workflow Automation Engine on Ubuntu 24.04

#automation #devops #docker #selfhosted

n8n is an open-source, node-based workflow automation engine (a self-hosted alternative to Zapier and Make) with hundreds of integrations and full control over data flow. This guide deploys n8n using Docker Compose with Traefik handling automatic HTTPS. By the end, you'll have an n8n instance running securely at your domain, ready to build workflows.

Set Up the Directory Structure

1. Create the project directory structure:

$ mkdir -p ~/n8n-automation/n8n-data
$ cd ~/n8n-automation
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2. Set ownership for the n8n data directory:

$ sudo chown -R 1000:1000 n8n-data
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3. Create the environment file:

$ nano .env
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DOMAIN=n8n.example.com
LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=admin@example.com
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Deploy with Docker Compose

1. Create the Docker Compose manifest:

$ nano docker-compose.yaml
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services:
  traefik:
    image: traefik:v3.6
    container_name: traefik
    command:
      - "--providers.docker=true"
      - "--providers.docker.exposedbydefault=false"
      - "--entrypoints.web.address=:80"
      - "--entrypoints.websecure.address=:443"
      - "--entrypoints.web.http.redirections.entrypoint.to=websecure"
      - "--entrypoints.web.http.redirections.entrypoint.scheme=https"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.letsencrypt.acme.httpchallenge=true"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.letsencrypt.acme.httpchallenge.entrypoint=web"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.letsencrypt.acme.email=${LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL}"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.letsencrypt.acme.storage=/letsencrypt/acme.json"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - "letsencrypt:/letsencrypt"
      - "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro"
    restart: unless-stopped

  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    container_name: n8n
    hostname: n8n
    expose:
      - "5678"
    volumes:
      - "./n8n-data:/home/node/.n8n"
    environment:
      - N8N_HOST=${DOMAIN}
      - N8N_PORT=5678
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://${DOMAIN}/
      - GENERIC_TIMEZONE=UTC
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.n8n.rule=Host(`${DOMAIN}`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.n8n.entrypoints=websecure"
      - "traefik.http.routers.n8n.tls.certresolver=letsencrypt"
      - "traefik.http.services.n8n.loadbalancer.server.port=5678"
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  letsencrypt:
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2. Start the services:

$ docker compose up -d
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3. Verify the services are running:

$ docker compose ps
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4. View the logs:

$ docker compose logs
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Access n8n

Open https://n8n.example.com in a browser. The first sign-up creates the owner account — from there you can build workflows in the node-based editor or import community templates.

Next Steps

n8n is running and served securely over HTTPS. From here you can:

  • Connect to your services with built-in nodes (HTTP, databases, SaaS APIs, AI)
  • Add credentials and create scheduled, webhook-triggered, or event-driven workflows
  • Switch persistence to PostgreSQL for production-scale workloads

For the full guide with additional tips, visit the original article on Vultr Docs.

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