N8N automation tool (installation and configuration using docker in Linux) 

In today’s fast-paced automation landscape, n8n has emerged as a powerful, open-source workflow automation tool that empowers engineers to streamline processes with ease. In this blog I will demonstrate building the application using docker on a linux virtual machine.

As in previous blogs I will be using a fresh install of Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS that can be download from HERE. I then follow the Docker guide on how to istall all the relevant docker packages.

Firstly set up the Docker apt repository, starting with adding the docker GPG key.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

Next add the docker repo to the apt resourses list.

echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

Next downloand and install all the necessary docker components.

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Next create a docker volume to store you n8n data.

docker volume create n8n_data

Use the following command to  download the most recent n8n image, creates your container, and exposes the container on port 5678.

docker run -it --rm --name n8n -p 5678:5678 -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n

If this runs without issue you will be able to browse to the n8n log in screen at http://localhost:5678

Add an email address, names and a password and that’s enough to set up a demo account.

Add some details into the customisation window.

After these small, easy steps you’ll be greated with the n8n default dashboard, ready to create you’re first workflow. In the following blogs we will look into developing some simple automations to make systems administration and security tasks more efficient.