Hi, I am trying to run a large file stored in my VM using n8n ssh node, the node is not outputting any results even after waiting for log hours. Please suggest how can i run large files in n8n (MB/GB sizes)
hello @cyberengg_automation
What is your use case? N8n ssh node is not for running large files
@barn4k Thanks for the respinse, I’m trying to analyze a large PCAP file using Tshark installed on my VM. The plan is to execute the Tshark command through the n8n SSH node, retrieve the results into n8n, and then perform further analysis using n8n workflows.
However, I’m running into an issue when handling large datasets. I’m seeing similar problems not only with PCAP analysis but also when ingesting large volumes of data into n8n through sources like Google Sheets or Excel.
Has anyone faced this type of limitation or performance issue when processing large data in n8n? Any suggestions or best practices to handle this efficiently would be helpful.
What is your setup? How much memory and CPU? Which n8n version are you using?
When you run tshark over SSH, the problem is usually the amount of stdout you’re trying to bring back into n8n. Streaming MB/GB of output into an execution can stall or hit buffering/memory limits, so it looks like it “never finishes”. The better pattern is to keep the heavy work on the VM: run tshark and write the results to a file, then use the SSH node to download that file (or return only a small summary). That’s exactly what the SSH node is meant for (execute + upload/download). SSH | n8n Docs
If you do need to move big files through n8n, make sure binary data is stored on disk so you don’t keep everything in RAM. Scaling binary data in n8n | n8n Docs