Communication Issue between N8N and Ollama on Ubuntu (installed on Windows)

Questions
1

Hello everyone,

I’m having a connection issue between N8N and Ollama and I need your help.

Context

  • System: Ubuntu installed on Windows via WSL.
  • Ollama: Installed without Docker and running correctly (verified via http://localhost:11434/).
  • N8N: Installed via Docker.

Problem Encountered

When I try to create a workflow in N8N to communicate with Ollama, I get the following error:

NodeApiError: The service refused the connection - perhaps it is offline
AxiosError:
AggregateError:

Steps Already Taken

  1. I replaced “localhost” with the host IP obtained using the hostname -I command, resulting in: http://172.20.204.93:11434.
  2. Ollama seems to be running correctly as I can access it via http://localhost:11434/ in my browser.

Hypotheses and Questions

  • It appears that N8N (running in Docker) cannot access Ollama (running outside of Docker). Could this be related to network configuration between Docker and WSL?
  • Are there any specific configurations needed to enable communication between these two services?
  • How can I check if the issue is due to a network configuration problem or another aspect of the communication between these services?

Additional Note

I have seen similar posts with potential solutions, but unfortunately, none of them have worked for my setup.

Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions!

2

It looks like your topic is missing some important information. Could you provide the following if applicable.

  • n8n version:
  • Database (default: SQLite):
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app):
  • Operating system:
3

Try http://host.docker.internal:11434

I’m using docker compose for n8n, my ollama instance is running on Windows and was able to connect with the above URL.

6 Likes
4

Hi @Jim_Le,

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and for your suggestion.

I tried using http://host.docker.internal:11434 as you recommended, but unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. I received the following error:

NodeApiError: The connection cannot be established, this usually occurs due to an incorrect host (domain) value
AxiosError: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND host.docker.internal
Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND host.docker.internal

It seems like my setup is not recognizing host.docker.internal. Do you have any other ideas or suggestions on how I might resolve this?

Thanks again for your help!

5

@Graine

Hmm I’m going to assume you’re not using docker-compose. You’ll need to add the --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway flag.

docker run -it --rm --name n8n -p 5678:5678 -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway docker.n8n.io/n8nio/n8n

If this doesn’t work, then I’m all out of ideas!

6

Thank you for your new suggestion @Jim_Le, it didn’t work but I was able to correct the problem using the “–network host” option. I don’t know if this is a good practice :confused:

2 Likes
7

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