Add modules to n8n running on AWS ECS serverless

[yukyo]

Describe the problem/error/question

Hello, I have been using n8n for 2 years on a DigitalOcean + Hetzner droplets. I’m having some scalability issues where I’m forced to make new droplets or keep spreading my n8n instances.

I got someone who recommended me to use n8n on AWS using ECS + load balancer.
Now that the installation is ready to be used, I want to use some modules that I have been using in my other droplets (aws-sdk, cheerio, datauri, axios, etc). And seems that is something very hard to implement as he said we are using “serverless AWS ECS with docker images” so to make any changes, “we will have to modify the docker image for n8n main and n8n worker nodes because solution is High available”.

I’m not sure if I’m fully understanding all the concepts but seems my setup on AWS is using a n8n docker image that can’t be easily edited to add modules?

I’m pretty surprised that something that would take me a few minutes to install on my digitalocean/hetzner droplets would take 8 hours to do on this AWS setup, as this gentleman mentioned??

I normally would go to n8n installation path, mkdir a new folder /node_modules, go to that folder, npm install the modules that I need, go back to docker-composer file and declare the modules and the paths:

ex:

• NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL=axios,aws-sdk
• ${DATA_FOLDER}/node_modules/aws-sdk:/usr/local/lib/node_modules/aws-sdk
• ${DATA_FOLDER}/node_modules/axios:/usr/local/lib/node_modules/axios

Do you have any ideas how to easily install modules with my configuration, which is AWS ECS?

Thanks.

[EmeraldHerald]

Hi @yukyo Sorry to hear you’re having trouble with this!

While we can’t really help with publishing your custom image, we can definitely try to guide you in the right direction

For starters, you might want to take a peek at this post from @MutedJam:

How to build own image with custom node modules?

Hi @brewoutlay, I am very sorry you’re having trouble! In general, I think you can even leave out the final line and should be good, seeing you’re installing the modules globally anyway. I just tested the below Dockerfile: FROM n8nio/n8n:1.1.1 USER root RUN npm install -g hello-world-npm This works fine in the Code node: [image] Seeing you your n8n instance doesn’t start, perhaps you can share your server log to see which error exactly it is throwing?

It would give you the simplist possible “Hello World” custom n8n image using the hello-world-npm module that you can use to test and build up from. From there, you can use it as a guideline to install other packages The only part left from there would be making it available on AWS. This guide is not n8n specific, but it’s a pretty great guide to cover that part.

Of course, I’m not so sure how up to date that guide is, so you may need to check in with AWS on deployment if it’s no longer accurate. But this process shouldn’t take eight hours either

If all of this doesn’t help, it may be best to stick with DigitalOcean + Hetzner, as it’s what you know

[BramKn]

It is indeed needed to create your own images when you are using a container service like ecs.
So simply an image that installs n8n and then adds the custom modules you need.
The post of @MutedJam should still be valid.