Guide: n8n Workflow Automation in Production

Guide: MinIO as an S3-Compatible Backup Target

Self-hosted S3-compatible object storage for backups: MinIO behind an Nginx proxy, with an rclone-based backup agent and versioned buckets. Your offsite backups without a cloud bill.

Guide: MinIO as an S3-Compatible Backup Target

Self-hosted S3-compatible object storage for backups: MinIO behind an Nginx proxy, with an rclone-based backup agent and versioned buckets. Your offsite backups without a cloud bill.

n8n in queue mode with Redis, PostgreSQL persistence, and proper process supervision — the boring, reliable setup that survives restarts and workload spikes. The automation layer behind several of my own integrations.

What this is

A deployment guide with working examples — not a downloadable product. Everything below is the actual configuration I use, abridged to the parts that matter.

Deployment example

services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n:${N8N_VERSION:-2.37.11}
    container_name: n8n
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
      redis:
        condition: service_healthy
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
      - ./config/n8n:/home/node/.n8n/custom:ro
    ports:
      - ${N8N_PORT:-5678}:5678
    environment:
      - N8N_HOST=${N8N_HOST:-localhost}
      - N8N_PORT=5678
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=${N8N_PROTOCOL:-http}
      - NODE_ENV=production
      - DB_TYPE=postgresdb
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=postgres
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT=5432
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=${POSTGRES_USER:-n8n}
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD:?POSTGRES_PASSWORD is required}
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=${POSTGRES_DB:-n8n}
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_POOL_SIZE=${DB_POOL_SIZE:-3}
      - EXECUTIONS_DATA_PRUNE=${EXECUTIONS_DATA_PRUNE:-true}
      - EXECUTIONS_DATA_MAX_AGE=${EXECUTIONS_DATA_MAX_AGE:-336}
      - EXECUTIONS_DATA_PRUNE_TIMEOUT=${EXECUTIONS_DATA_PRUNE_TIMEOUT:-3600000}
      - N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=${N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY:?N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY is required}
      - N8N_USER_FOLDER=/home/node/.n8n
      - REDIS_ENABLED=${REDIS_ENABLED:-true}
      - REDIS_HOST=redis
      - REDIS_PORT=${REDIS_PORT:-6379}
      - REDIS_PASSWORD=${REDIS_PASSWORD:?REDIS_PASSWORD is required}
      - EXECUTIONS_MODE=${EXECUTIONS_MODE:-queue}
      - N8N_METRICS=${N8N_METRICS:-false}
    healthcheck:
      test:
        - CMD
        - wget
        - --spider
        - http://localhost:5678/healthz
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
    networks:
      - n8n_network

Excerpt — n8n from the compose file. The remaining services (proxies, init jobs, exporters) follow the same pattern and mount their configuration from a config/ directory.

Essential environment variables

Copy .env.example to .env and at minimum set:

N8N_VERSION=latest
N8N_HOST=n8n.example.com
N8N_PORT=5678
N8N_PROTOCOL=https
N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=super_secret_encryption_key_here_32_bytes_long
N8N_METRICS=false

Production checklist

• Set strong, unique secrets in .env before the first start — never ship the example values
• Pin image versions and test upgrades on a staging copy first
• Configure and restore-test backups before you rely on them
• Put the stack behind TLS and restrict management UIs to a VPN or allowlist
• Wire the stack into monitoring and alerting from day one

A guide, not a product. This page is deployment documentation with working examples — there is no zip, no download, no support contract. You adapt the patterns to your own environment, and you own the result.

Want this running production-grade in your infrastructure instead? I teach this as the one-day n8n Automation workshop — details on the consulting page: €1,000/day, remote or on-site, invoice as usual.