Self. hosted n8n in kubernetes, loose credentials when I update to a new version

Questions
1

Hi All,
I am trying to experiment with self hosted n8n in kubernetes.
I am hosting my n8n version on my Mac using minikube.

  • n8n version: 1.95.0 (deliberately used an old image so I can update it)
  • Database (default: SQLite): postgres (self hosted as well in minikube
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): kubernetes
  • Operating system:

here the k8s deployment I am using (not I have anonymised sensitive field with <> but I have actual values there:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  labels:
    service: n8n
  name: n8n
  namespace: n8n-supabase-dev
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      service: n8n
  strategy:
    type: RollingUpdate #Recreate
    rollingUpdate:
      maxSurge: 1
      maxUnavailable: 1
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        service: n8n
    spec:
      initContainers:
        - name: volume-permissions
          image: busybox:1.36
          command: ["sh", "-c", "chown 1000:1000 /data"]
          volumeMounts:
            - name: n8n-claim0
              mountPath: /data
      containers:
        - command:
            - /bin/sh
          args:
            - -c
            - sleep 5; n8n start
          env:
            - name: DB_TYPE
              value: postgresdb
            - name: DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST
              value: postgres-service.n8n-supabase-dev.svc.cluster.local 
            - name: DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT
              value: "5432"
            - name: DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: postgres-secret
                  key: POSTGRES_DB
            - name: DB_POSTGRESDB_USER
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: postgres-secret
                  key: POSTGRES_NON_ROOT_USER
            - name: DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: postgres-secret
                  key: POSTGRES_NON_ROOT_PASSWORD
            - name: N8N_HOST
              value: <<something>>
            - name: N8N_PROTOCOL
              value: http
            - name: N8N_PORT
              value: "5678"
            - name: WEBHOOK_URL
              value: <<webhook>>
            - name: N8N_SMTP_HOST
              value: <<something>>
            - name: N8N_SMTP_PORT
              value: "465"
            - name: N8N_SMTP_USER
              value: "apikey"
            - name: N8N_SMTP_PASS
              value: <<something>>
            - name: N8N_SMTP_SENDER
              value: <<something>>
            - name: N8N_SECURE_COOKIE
              value: "true"
              # valueFrom:
              #   secretKeyRef:
              #     name: n8n-secret
              #     key: N8N_SECURE_COOKIE
          # image: n8nio/n8n
          image: n8nio/n8n:1.95.0
          imagePullPolicy: Always
          name: n8n
          ports:
            - containerPort: 5678
          resources:
            requests:
              memory: "250Mi"
            limits:
              memory: "500Mi"
      restartPolicy: Always
      volumes:
        - name: n8n-claim0
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: n8n-claim0
        - name: n8n-secret
          secret:
            secretName: n8n-secret
        - name: postgres-secret
          secret:
            secretName: postgres-secret

Basically when I update the image of the n8n container, all the stored credentials have “Need first setup”, so they are all empty.

preview (1)
preview (1)1245Ă—414 19.6 KB

Is there any setting I am missing?

Thanks for any reply

2

It looks like you’re using a volume that isnt persistent, and would get recreated whenever you recreate the pods as a stateless app. If you dont specify the encryption key, ut will create a new one whener a new pod is created. Include the encryption key as an environment variable, and/or use a persistent volume on azure, or a file share/host folder, rhat doesnt go away when you delete a pod

2 Likes
3

Yes, you are right. Silly mistake!
Thanks for pointing it out!