N8n with WSS on VPS using CyberPanel / OpenLiteSpeed — How to make it work?

Questions
1

Hi folks!

I’m trying to run n8n on a self-managed VPS using Docker with CyberPanel (OpenLiteSpeed) as the web server. Since recent n8n versions require a secure WebSocket (WSS) connection for push updates, I’m trying to get that working behind CyberPanel.

Unfortunately, OpenLiteSpeed does not support wss:// proxying natively (only ws://), and all my attempts at getting this to work — or fall back to polling — fail due to cookie/session/authentication issues.

I’m open to any working solution — whether that’s using OpenLiteSpeed directly or putting something like Traefik/Caddy/Nginx in front of n8n — as long as:

login works reliably

session cookies arrive

n8n frontend works with either polling or WSS

What is the error message (if any)?

If using websocket backend (N8N_PUSH_BACKEND=websocket), browser shows:

Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at wss://n8n.sceneryworkshop.nl/rest/push?pushRef=xyz
NS_ERROR_WEBSOCKET_CONNECTION_REFUSED

If using polling backend, browser shows:

401 Unauthorized on /rest/login and /rest/push
Set-Cookie rejected by browser due to invalid or missing domain
No active session; login does not persist

Please share your workflow

This issue happens before any workflow is run — it occurs at the login stage, so no canvas or nodes are loaded.
Share the output returned by the last node

N/A — login itself fails due to session problems. No node ever runs.
Information on your n8n setup

n8n version: 1.90.2 (latest at time of writing)

Database: Default (SQLite)

n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting: own (standalone container), also tried queue mode

Running n8n via: Docker

Operating system: Ubuntu 22.04 on self-managed VPS

Docker version: 28.0.4

Docker Compose version: v2.33.1

Reverse proxy environment

Main web server: CyberPanel with OpenLiteSpeed 1.7.19

SSL: Managed via CyberPanel (Let’s Encrypt)

WAF / ModSecurity: Disabled

Domain: n8n.sceneryworkshop.nl

What I’ve tried

External App + Context in OLS configured to proxy / to 127.0.0.1:5678

Added required proxy headers like:

RequestHeader set Host %{HTTP_HOST}e
RequestHeader set X-Real-IP %{REMOTE_ADDR}e
RequestHeader set X-Forwarded-For %{REMOTE_ADDR}e
RequestHeader set X-Forwarded-Proto https
RequestHeader set Cookie %{HTTP_COOKIE}e

Attempted to allow Set-Cookie in response via both:

Header set Set-Cookie %{HTTP:SET_COOKIE}e

addResponseHeader in the vHost rewrite rules

Verified that n8n is fully running and accessible directly via curl:

curl -v http://localhost:5678/rest/push
> Returns 401 (expected without session)

Browser dev tools confirm:

    No Set-Cookie header received at login

    Cookie rejected for invalid domain

Tried to run Traefik in Docker as a sidecar (on ports 8880/8843), but ran into port conflicts or no change in outcome

n8n still works in itself — but login/sessions/push break down behind OLS

What I’m looking for

A working n8n + WSS setup behind CyberPanel / OLS

Or a supported/predictable fallback using polling that works with session cookies

Either using OpenLiteSpeed directly or adding a reverse proxy like Nginx/Caddy/Traefik in front — I’m open to any solution that “just works”

Thanks a lot in advance — and happy to provide logs, screenshots, config snippets, or docker-compose files as needed!

— Hielke

2

I have a very similar issue. I had to downgrade to version 1.86.1.

I was originally running something prior to 1.86.1, then upgraded to 1.91.2 and noticed the same issues with web sockets. I downgraded in steps (skipped 1.87.0) down to 1.86.1 and then everything started working again.

My setup is different. I am running n8n in docker, then nginx running locally in the system. The whole setup is in a local LAN, so my domain is something like “n8n.myhost.foo”.

3

Estou tendo o mesmo problema, rodo na vps ubuntu com o cyberpanel

4

I deploy n8n on openlitespeed with queue mode just using SSE not Websocket and it works perfectly just setup N8N env > N8N_PUSH_BACKEND=sse

Another step i produce:

  1. Setup proxy on /usr/local/lsws/conf/httpd_config.conf
extprocessor n8n-main {
  type                    proxy
  address                 YOURIPADDRESS:5678
  maxConns                100
  pcKeepAliveTimeout      60
  initTimeout             60
  retryTimeout            0
  respBuffer              0
}
  1. Rewrite rules on your domain
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
REWRITERULE ^(.*)$ http://n8n-main/$1 [P]