Server setup clarification

tcurdt · March 10, 2020, 12:24am

I am in the middle of setting up a new docker instance and looking at the env variables I am a little confused.

  - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_ACTIVE=true
  - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_USER
  - N8N_BASIC_AUTH_PASSWORD
  - N8N_HOST=${SUBDOMAIN}.${DOMAIN_NAME}
  - N8N_PORT=5678
  - N8N_PROTOCOL=https
  - NODE_ENV=production
  - WEBHOOK_TUNNEL_URL=https://${SUBDOMAIN}.${DOMAIN_NAME}/
  - VUE_APP_URL_BASE_API=https://${SUBDOMAIN}.${DOMAIN_NAME}/

It all makes sense to me except for the N8N_HOST and N8N_PROTOCOL.

Is N8N_HOST used for the listen of the socket? Why wouldn’t that be 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.0? All the external routes should be covered by WEBHOOK_TUNNEL_URL and VUE_APP_URL_BASE_API. Why is there a N8N_PROTOCOL?

What am I missing?

jan · March 10, 2020, 9:14am

Yes you are totally right, that is currently not important. You can find that information also here:

tcurdt · March 10, 2020, 11:49am

Hm. I still find the docs or even the impl confusing.

The N8N_HOST still seems to matter with the base URLs set for the bind address. And frankly speaking I’d make it explicit and always required the base URLs.

The very least I’d change the docs to N8N_HOST=0.0.0.0 to hint at it.

jan · March 10, 2020, 11:54am

Why do you think that? Here is the regarding code:

github.com

n8n-io/n8n/blob/master/packages/cli/src/Server.ts#L1249

      
        
            					if (req.query.withUsageCount === 'true') {
            						const tablePrefix = config.get('database.tablePrefix');
            						return TagHelpers.getTagsWithCountDb(tablePrefix);
            					}
            
            
					return Db.collections.Tag!.find({ select: ['id', 'name'] });
            				},
            			),
            		);
            
            
		// Creates a tag
            		this.app.post(
            			`/${this.restEndpoint}/tags`,
            			ResponseHelper.send(
            				async (req: express.Request, res: express.Response): Promise<TagEntity | void> => {
            					if (config.get('workflowTagsDisabled')) {
            						throw new ResponseHelper.ResponseError('Workflow tags are disabled');
            					}
            					const newTag = new TagEntity();
            					newTag.name = req.body.name.trim();

As you can see that all it cares about is the port.

tcurdt · March 10, 2020, 12:39pm

Arg, my docker config has covered that up. My mistake. So you cannot even set a bind address at all? Is the listen a wrapper around express?

I’d propose to add a N8N_BIND or N8N_LISTEN. And I would also deprecate the N8N_HOST and just require the base URLs.

That would make things much clearer IMO.

jan · March 10, 2020, 1:17pm

Exactly right now there is no bind address at all.

No listen is directly plain old express:

Thanks a lot for your proposal! Yes, agree that it should be improved in the future which will happen. That will, however, happen later with a larger update to improve with also other things and make everything future-proof.

tcurdt · March 10, 2020, 1:45pm

Nice. Then it’s at least a low hanging fruit. Just another parameter.
But no rush from my side. I can control it via docker for now.