n8n Helm Chart for Kubernetes

n8n is an extendable workflow automation tool.

The Helm chart source code location is github.com/8gears/n8n-helm-chart

Requirements

Before you start make sure you have the following dependencies ready and working:

Helm > 3
Postgres DB | MySQL | Embedded SQLite
Helmfile (Optional)

Configuration

The values.yaml file is divided into a n8n specific configuration section, and a Kubernetes deployment-specific section.

The shown values represent Helm Chart defaults, not the application defaults. In many cases, the Helm Chart defaults are empty. The comments behind the values provide a description and display the application default.

These n8n config options should be attached below the root elements secret: or config: in the values.yaml. ( See the typical-values-example section).

You decide what should go into secret and what should be a config. There is no restriction, mix and match as you like.

N8N Specific Config Section

Every possible n8n config value can be set, even if it is now displayed in the excerpt below. All application config settings are described in the: n8n configuration options. Use n8n config as the source of truth, this Charts just forwards everything to the n8n.

database:
  type:   # Type of database to use - Other possible types ['sqlite', 'mariadb', 'mysqldb', 'postgresdb'] - default: sqlite
  tablePrefix:      # Prefix for table names - default: ''
  postgresdb:
    database:       # PostgresDB Database - default: n8n
    host:           # PostgresDB Host - default: localhost
    password:       # PostgresDB Password - default: ''
    port:           # PostgresDB Port - default: 5432
    user:           # PostgresDB User - default: root
    schema:         # PostgresDB Schema - default: public
    ssl:
      ca:             # SSL certificate authority - default: ''
      cert:           # SSL certificate - default: ''
      key:            # SSL key - default: ''
      rejectUnauthorized:    # If unauthorized SSL connections should be rejected - default: true
  mysqldb:
    database:        # MySQL Database - default: n8n
    host:            # MySQL Host - default: localhost
    password:        # MySQL Password - default: ''
    port:            # MySQL Port - default: 3306
    user:            # MySQL User - default: root
credentials:
  overwrite:
    data:        # Overwrites for credentials - default: "{}"
    endpoint:    # Fetch credentials from API - default: ''

executions:
  process:              # In what process workflows should be executed - possible values [main, own] - default: own
  timeout:              # Max run time (seconds) before stopping the workflow execution - default: -1
  maxTimeout:           # Max execution time (seconds) that can be set for a workflow individually - default: 3600
  saveDataOnError:      # What workflow execution data to save on error - possible values [all , none] - default: all
  saveDataOnSuccess:    # What workflow execution data to save on success - possible values [all , none] - default: all
  saveDataManualExecutions:    # Save data of executions when started manually via editor - default: false
  pruneData:            # Delete data of past executions on a rolling basis - default: false
  pruneDataMaxAge:      # How old (hours) the execution data has to be to get deleted - default: 336
  pruneDataTimeout:     # Timeout (seconds) after execution data has been pruned - default: 3600
generic:
  timezone:       # The timezone to use - default: America/New_York
path:           # Path n8n is deployed to - default: "/"
host:           # Host name n8n can be reached - default: localhost
port:           # HTTP port n8n can be reached - default: 5678
listen_address: # IP address n8n should listen on - default: 0.0.0.0
protocol:       # HTTP Protocol via which n8n can be reached - possible values [http , https] - default: http
ssl_key:        # SSL Key for HTTPS Protocol - default: ''
ssl_cert:       # SSL Cert for HTTPS Protocol - default: ''
security:
  excludeEndpoints: # Additional endpoints to exclude auth checks. Multiple endpoints can be separated by colon - default: ''
  basicAuth:
    active:     # If basic auth should be activated for editor and REST-API - default: false
    user:       # The name of the basic auth user - default: ''
    password:   # The password of the basic auth user - default: ''
    hash:       # If password for basic auth is hashed - default: false
  jwtAuth:
    active:               # If JWT auth should be activated for editor and REST-API - default: false
    jwtHeader:            # The request header containing a signed JWT - default: ''
    jwtHeaderValuePrefix: # The request header value prefix to strip (optional) default: ''
    jwksUri:              # The URI to fetch JWK Set for JWT authentication - default: ''
    jwtIssuer:            # JWT issuer to expect (optional) - default: ''
    jwtNamespace:         # JWT namespace to expect (optional) -  default: ''
    jwtAllowedTenantKey:  # JWT tenant key name to inspect within JWT namespace (optional) - default: ''
    jwtAllowedTenant:     # JWT tenant to allow (optional) - default: ''
endpoints:
  rest:             # Path for rest endpoint  default: rest
  webhook:          # Path for webhook endpoint  default: webhook
  webhookTest:      # Path for test-webhook endpoint  default: webhook-test
  webhookWaiting:   # Path for test-webhook endpoint  default: webhook-waiting
externalHookFiles:  # Files containing external hooks. Multiple files can be separated by colon - default: ''
nodes:
  exclude:          # Nodes not to load - default: "[]"
  errorTriggerType: # Node Type to use as Error Trigger - default: n8n-nodes-base.errorTrigger
# the list goes on...

Values

The values file consists of n8n specific sections config and secret where you paste the n8n config like shown above.

# The n8n related part of the config
config: # Dict with all n8n config options
#    database:
#      type: postgresdb
#      postgresdb:
#        database: n8n
#        host: localhost
#
# existingSecret and secret are exclusive, with existingSecret taking priority.
# existingSecret: "" # Use an existing Kubernetes secret, e.g created by hand or Vault operator.
secret: # Dict with all n8n config options, unlike config the values here will end up in a secret.
#    database:
#      postgresdb:
#        password: here_db_root_password

##
##
## Common Kubernetes Config Settings
persistence:
  ## If true, use a Persistent Volume Claim, If false, use emptyDir
  ##
  enabled: false
  type: emptyDir # what type volume, possible options are [existing, emptyDir, dynamic] dynamic for Dynamic Volume Provisioning, existing for using an existing Claim
  ## Persistent Volume Storage Class
  ## If defined, storageClassName: <storageClass>
  ## If set to "-", storageClassName: "", which disables dynamic provisioning
  ## If undefined (the default) or set to null, no storageClassName spec is
  ##   set, choosing the default provisioner.  (gp2 on AWS, standard on
  ##   GKE, AWS & OpenStack)
  ##
  # storageClass: "-"
  ## PVC annotations
  #
  # If you need this annotation include it under values.yml file and pvc.yml template will add it.
  # This is not maintained at Helm v3 anymore.
  # https://github.com/8gears/n8n-helm-chart/issues/8
  #
  # annotations:
  #   helm.sh/resource-policy: keep
  ## Persistent Volume Access Mode
  ##
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  ## Persistent Volume size
  ##
  size: 1Gi
  ## Use an existing PVC
  ##
  # existingClaim:

# Set additional environment variables on the Deployment
extraEnv: {}
# Set this if running behind a reverse proxy and the external port is different from the port n8n runs on
#   WEBHOOK_TUNNEL_URL: "https://n8n.myhost.com/

replicaCount: 1

image:
  repository: n8nio/n8n
  pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  # Overrides the image tag whose default is the chart appVersion.
  tag: ""

imagePullSecrets: [ ]
nameOverride: ""
fullnameOverride: ""

serviceAccount:
  # Specifies whether a service account should be created
  create: true
  # Annotations to add to the service account
  annotations: { }
  # The name of the service account to use.
  # If not set and create is true, a name is generated using the fullname template
  name: ""

podAnnotations: { }

podSecurityContext: { }
# fsGroup: 2000

securityContext: { }
  # capabilities:
  #   drop:
  #   - ALL
# readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
# runAsNonRoot: true
# runAsUser: 1000

service:
  type: ClusterIP
  port: 80
  annotations: {}

ingress:
  enabled: false
  annotations: { }
  # kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
  # kubernetes.io/tls-acme: "true"
  hosts:
    - host: chart-example.local
      paths: [ ]
  tls: [ ]
  #  - secretName: chart-example-tls
  #    hosts:
  #      - chart-example.local

resources: { }
  # We usually recommend not to specify default resources and to leave this as a conscious
  # choice for the user. This also increases chances charts run on environments with little
  # resources, such as Minikube. If you do want to specify resources, uncomment the following
  # lines, adjust them as necessary, and remove the curly braces after 'resources:'.
  # limits:
  #   cpu: 100m
  #   memory: 128Mi
# requests:
#   cpu: 100m
#   memory: 128Mi

autoscaling:
  enabled: false
  minReplicas: 1
  maxReplicas: 100
  targetCPUUtilizationPercentage: 80
  # targetMemoryUtilizationPercentage: 80

nodeSelector: { }

tolerations: [ ]

affinity: { }

scaling:
  enabled: false
  
  worker:
    count: 2
    concurrency: 2

  webhook:
    enabled: false
    count: 1

  redis:
    host: 
    password:

redis:
  enabled: false
  # Other default redis values: https://github.com/bitnami/charts/blob/master/bitnami/redis/values.yaml

Typical Values Example

A typical example of a config in combination with a secret.

# values.yaml

config:
  database:
    type: postgresdb
    postgresdb:
      host: 192.168.0.52
secret:
  database:
    postgresdb:
      password: 'big secret'

Setup

helm install -f values.yaml -n n8n deploymentname n8n

Scaling

n8n provides a queue-mode, where the workload is shared between multiple instances of same n8n installation.
This provide a shared load over multiple instances and a limited high availability, because the controller instance remain as Single-Point-Of-Failure.

With the help of an internal/external redis server and by using the excellent BullMQ, the tasks can be shared over different instances, which also can run on different hosts.

See docs about this Queue-Mode

To enable this mode within this helm chart, you simply should set scaling.enable to true. This chart is configured to spawn by default 2 worker instances.

scaling:
  enabled: true

You can define to spawn more worker, by set scaling.worker.count to a higher number. Also, it is possible to define your own external redis server.

scaling:
  enabled: true
  redis:
    host: "redis-hostname"
    password: "redis-password-if-set"

If you want to use the internal redis server, set redis.enable = true. By default, no redis server is spawned.

At last scaling option is it possible to create dedicated webhook instances, which only process the webhooks. If you set scaling.webhook.enabled=true, then webhook processing on main instance is disabled and by default a single webhook instance is started.

Chart Deployment

helm package .
helm repo add  --username='robot$helmcli' --password="$PASSWD" open-8gears https://8gears.container-registry.com/chartrepo/library
helm push --username='robot$helmcli' --password="$PASSWD" . open-8gears

8gears/n8n-helm-chart

8gears

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