n8n-docs/docs/hosting/server-setups/google-cloud.md

Hosting n8n on Google Cloud

This hosting guide shows you how to self-host n8n on Google Cloud (GCP). It uses n8n and Caddy as a reverse proxy using Kubernetes to create the necessary resources.

Prerequisites

Hosting options

Google Cloud offers several ways suitable for hosting n8n, including Cloud Run (optimized for running containers), Compute Engine (VMs), and Kubernetes Engine (containers running with Kubernetes).

This guide uses the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) as the hosting option. Using Kubernetes requires some additional complexity and configuration, but is the best method for scaling n8n as demand changes.

The steps in this guide use the Google Cloud UI, but you can also use the gcloud command line tool instead.

Create project

GCP encourages you to create projects to logically organize resources and configuration. Create a new project for your n8n deployment by clicking the project dropdown menu and then the NEW PROJECT button. Then select the newly created project and as you follow other steps in this guide, make sure you have the correct project selected.

Enable the Kubernetes Engine API

GKE isn't enabled by default, search for "Kubernetes" in the top search bar and select "Kubernetes Engine" from the results.

Enable the Kubernetes Engine API by clicking the Enable button.

Create a cluster

From the GKE service page, click the Clusters menu item and then the CREATE button.

Login to instance

The remainder of the steps in this guide require you to login to the instance via an SSH connection. You can find the connection details for a cluster instance by opening its details page and then the CONNECT button. The resulting code snippet shows a connection string that needs you to have the gcloud command line tool installed. Paste and run that code snippet into a terminal to change your local Kubernetes settings to use the new gcloud cluster.

Setup DNS

n8n typically operates on a subdomain. Create a DNS record with your provider for the subdomain and point it to a static IP address of the instance.

If the instance doesn't already have a static IP address, you can assign one to it by editing the instance, and changing the network interface from "Ephemeral" to "Static".

Open ports

To set up secure connections to the instance, you need to open Firewall rules. You can do this when creating or editing an instance from the Firewall section, or you can use the gcloud CLI tool to open the ports.

Create folders

Both n8n and Caddy require creating folders and files that the host operating system copies to Docker containers. Create the following on the instance in a location accessible by Docker:

• caddy_config
• caddy_config/Caddyfile
• caddy_data
• local_files

Configure n8n

Create an .env file in the same folder you will run Docker Compose from, and add the following, replacing the values with your own:

# Path where you created folders and files earlier
DATA_FOLDER=/root/n8n

# The top level domain to serve from
DOMAIN_NAME=example.com

# The subdomain to serve from
SUBDOMAIN=n8n

# DOMAIN_NAME and SUBDOMAIN combined decide where n8n will be reachable from
# above example would result in: https://n8n.example.com

# The user name to use for authentication - IMPORTANT ALWAYS CHANGE!
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER=user

# The password to use for authentication - IMPORTANT ALWAYS CHANGE!
N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD=password

# Optional timezone to set which gets used by Cron-Node by default
# If not set New York time will be used
GENERIC_TIMEZONE=Europe/Berlin

# The email address to use for the SSL certificate creation
SSL_EMAIL=example@example.com

Create Docker Compose file

Create a docker-compose.yml file, and add the following:

version: "3.7"

services:
  caddy:
    image: caddy:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ${DATA_FOLDER}/caddy_data:/data
      - ${DATA_FOLDER}/caddy_config:/config
      - "${DATA_FOLDER}/caddy_config/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile"

  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n
    restart: always
    ports:
      - 5678:5678
    environment:
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER
      - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD
      - N8N_HOST=${SUBDOMAIN}.${DOMAIN_NAME}
      - N8N_PORT=5678
      - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
      - NODE_ENV=production
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://${SUBDOMAIN}.${DOMAIN_NAME}/
      - GENERIC_TIMEZONE=${GENERIC_TIMEZONE}
    volumes:
      - ${DATA_FOLDER}/.n8n:/home/node/.n8n
      - ${DATA_FOLDER}/local_files:/files

volumes:
  caddy_data:
    external: true
  caddy_config:

Configure Caddy

Open the Caddyfile you created earlier, and add the following configuration, adding your subdomain:

<SUB_DOMAIN> {
    reverse_proxy n8n:5678 {
      flush_interval -1
    }
}

Using n8n in the configuration

Create Docker volume

To persist Caddy configuration between restarts, the Docker Compose file above specifies an external volume, create that with the following command:

docker volume create caddy_data

Start Docker Compose

Start n8n and Caddy with the following command:

docker-compose up -d

Open the URL formed of the subdomain and domain name defined earlier, enter the user name and password defined earlier, and you should be able to access n8n.

Stop n8n and Caddy with the following command:

sudo docker-compose stop