n8n Local Setup with systemd (Ubuntu 22+)

n8n Local Setup with systemd (Ubuntu 22+)

This guide helps you install n8n on a bare-metal Ubuntu 22+ system using systemd and local disk.

🏗️ Install Steps (bare metal + systemd)

1. Create n8n user

sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash n8n

2. Install Node.js 20 LTS

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs

3. Install n8n

sudo su - n8n
npm install -g n8n
exit

4. Create systemd service

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/n8n.service

Paste this configuration:

[Unit]
Description=n8n automation
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=n8n
Environment=GENERIC_TIMEZONE=Asia/Bangkok
Environment=EXECUTIONS_MODE=regular
Environment=DB_TYPE=sqlite
ExecStart=/usr/bin/n8n
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

💡 Change to PostgreSQL later if scaling is needed.

5. Start & enable the service

sudo systemctl daemon-reexec
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now n8n

6. Access n8n

Open your browser at: http://localhost:5678

💾 Disk Allocation Guide

This layout assumes 100GB disk for a small to medium n8n setup:

| Mount Point | Size | Notes | |------------------|------------|----------------------------------------| | / | 20 GB | OS + base system | | /var | 20–30 GB | Logs, PostgreSQL database, runtime data | | /home/n8n | 20 GB | n8n user files, working directory | | /opt/n8n_data | 20–30 GB | Optional – backups, uploads, executions | | swap | 2–4 GB | Only if RAM < 8 GB |

✅ Notes