🚀 n8n Installer for Raspberry Pi

Automated script to install n8n (workflow automation tool) on Raspberry Pi with a single command line. No tested on other ubuntu or debian distributions but it should work.

✨ Features

✅ Fully automated installation of n8n and all its dependencies
🔧 Node.js automatic installation and configuration
🌐 Nginx as reverse proxy (optional)
🔒 SSL/TLS with Let's Encrypt (optional)
🛡️ Firewall automatic configuration with UFW (optional)
🔄 systemd service for automatic startup
🎯 Optimized for Raspberry Pi (compatible with Debian/Ubuntu)
📝 Customizable configuration via parameters

🚀 Quick Installation

Basic installation (recommended)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fernandezvara/n8n-pi/main/install-n8n.sh | sudo bash

With wget

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fernandezvara/n8n-pi/main/install-n8n.sh | sudo bash

Installation with domain and SSL

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fernandezvara/n8n-pi/main/install-n8n.sh | sudo bash -s -- -d tu-dominio.com -s

🔧 Configuration options

Option	Description	Default value
`-h, --help`	Show help	-
`-u, --user USER`	User to run n8n	`n8n`
`-p, --port PORT`	Internal port for n8n	`5678`
`-d, --domain DOMAIN`	Domain for SSL	-
`-s, --ssl`	Install SSL with Let's Encrypt	`false`
`--no-nginx`	Do not install nginx	`false`
`--no-firewall`	Do not configure firewall	`false`
`--node-version VERSION`	Node.js version	`18`

📋 Usage examples

Basic installation

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fernandezvara/n8n-pi/main/install-n8n.sh | sudo bash

Installs n8n with nginx and firewall
Accessible at http://IP_RASPBERRY

With custom domain

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fernandezvara/n8n-pi/main/install-n8n.sh | sudo bash -s -- -d my-domain.com

Configures nginx for the specified domain
Accessible at http://my-domain.com

With SSL/HTTPS automatic

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fernandezvara/n8n-pi/main/install-n8n.sh | sudo bash -s -- -d my-domain.com -s

Installs SSL certificate with Let's Encrypt
Accessible at https://my-domain.com

User and port customization

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fernandezvara/n8n-pi/main/install-n8n.sh | sudo bash -s -- -u my-user -p 3000

Creates user my-user
n8n running on port 3000

Only n8n (without nginx or firewall)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fernandezvara/n8n-pi/main/install-n8n.sh | sudo bash -s -- --no-nginx --no-firewall

Minimal n8n installation
Accessible directly at http://IP_RASPBERRY:5678

Offline installation

# Download script
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fernandezvara/n8n-pi/main/install-n8n.sh
chmod +x install-n8n.sh

# Run with options
sudo ./install-n8n.sh -d my-domain.com -s

🏗️ Installation architecture

┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│   Internet      │────│     Nginx       │────│      n8n        │
│   (Port 80/443) │    │  (Reverse Proxy)│    │   (Port 5678)   │
└─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘
         │                       │                       │
         │              ┌─────────────────┐              │
         │              │   Let's Encrypt │              │
         │              │   (SSL/TLS)     │              │
         │              └─────────────────┘              │
         │                                               │
┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│      UFW        │    │    Systemd      │    │    SQLite       │
│   (Firewall)    │    │   (Service)     │    │   (Database)    │
└─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘

📁 File structure

After installation:

/home/n8n/
├── .n8n/
│   ├── .env                # n8n configuration
│   ├── database.sqlite     # Database
│   ├── n8n.log             # Application logs
│   └── nodes/              # Custom nodes
│
/etc/systemd/system/
├── n8n.service             # Systemd service
│
/etc/nginx/sites-available/
├── n8n                     # Nginx configuration
│
/var/log/nginx/
├── n8n_access.log          # Access logs
└── n8n_error.log           # Error logs

🔧 Post-installation management

Useful commands

# service status
sudo systemctl status n8n

# real-time logs
sudo journalctl -u n8n -f

# restart n8n
sudo systemctl restart n8n

# stop n8n
sudo systemctl stop n8n

# start n8n
sudo systemctl start n8n

# disable n8n
sudo systemctl disable n8n

Advanced configuration

The main configuration file is in /home/n8n/.n8n/.env:

# Edit configuration
sudo nano /home/n8n/.n8n/.env

# restart n8n
sudo systemctl restart n8n

Backup and restore

# create backup
sudo tar -czf n8n-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /home/n8n .n8n/

# restore backup
sudo systemctl stop n8n
sudo tar -xzf n8n-backup-YYYYMMDD.tar.gz -C /home/n8n/
sudo chown -R n8n:n8n /home/n8n/.n8n
sudo systemctl start n8n

🔒 Security

SSL/HTTPS

If you installed with -s, the certificate will be automatically renewed. To verify:

# certificate status
sudo certbot certificates

# renew certificate
sudo certbot renew

# test renewal
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Firewall

The script configures UFW automatically:

# firewall status
sudo ufw status

# detailed rules
sudo ufw status verbose

Secure access after execution (allow specific IP)

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.100

Authentication

By default, n8n does not have authentication. To enable basic authentication:

Edit /home/n8n/.n8n/.env:

N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=your-user
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=your-password

Restart n8n:

sudo systemctl restart n8n

🚨 Troubleshooting

n8n does not start

# Error logs
sudo journalctl -u n8n --no-pager

# Verify configuration
sudo -u n8n n8n --version

# Verify permissions
ls -la /home/n8n/.n8n/

Nginx error

# nginx configuration
sudo nginx -t

# nginx error logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/n8n_error.log

# restart nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Connectivity issues

# open ports
sudo netstat -tlnp | grep -E ':(80|443|5678)'

# firewall status
sudo ufw status

# local connectivity test
curl -I http://localhost:5678

SSL error

# certificate status
sudo certbot certificates

# certbot logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log

# renew certificate
sudo certbot renew --force-renewal

📦 Uninstall

To completely uninstall n8n:

# stop and disable services
sudo systemctl stop n8n
sudo systemctl disable n8n

# remove system files
sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/n8n.service
sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-available/n8n
sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/n8n

# remove user and data
sudo userdel -r n8n

# uninstall n8n globally
sudo npm uninstall -g n8n

# reload systemd
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# restart nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx

🔄 Update

To update n8n to the latest version:

# stop service
sudo systemctl stop n8n

# update n8n
sudo npm update -g n8n

# start service
sudo systemctl start n8n

# check version
n8n --version

🏷️ Compatibility

Supported operating systems

✅ Raspberry Pi OS (Bullseye, Bookworm)
✅ Debian 10+ (Buster, Bullseye, Bookworm)
✅ Ubuntu 18.04+ (LTS)
⚠️ Other systems (not tested but may work)

Minimum hardware requirements

RAM: 1GB minimum, 2GB+ recommended
Storage: 4GB available minimum
CPU: ARM v7+ or x86_64
Network: Internet connection for download and installation

Software versions

Node.js: v18+ (default v22)
npm: v10+
nginx: v1.14+
Python: v3.6+

🤝 Contribute

Report issues

If you find any issues:

Make sure your system is compatible
Check the troubleshooting section
Create an issue with:
- System information (uname -a, cat /etc/os-release)
- Command executed
- Full error logs
- Steps to reproduce the problem

Improvements and features

Contributions are welcome:

Fork the repository
Create a branch for your feature (git checkout -b feature/new-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add new feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/new-feature)
Create a Pull Request

📚 Additional resources

Official documentation

📄 License

This script is available under the MIT License.

❤️ Acknowledgments

n8n.io for creating this incredible tool
Raspberry Pi Foundation for the hardware
Let's Encrypt for free SSL
The open source community for free software

⭐ If this script was useful to you, consider giving the repository a star.

🐛 Found a bug? Report it here

💡 Have an idea to improve it? Share it here

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
LICENSE		LICENSE
install-n8n.sh		install-n8n.sh
readme.md		readme.md
usage.md		usage.md

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