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Initial Setup Guide

This guide walks you through deploying the stack on a fresh Ubuntu VPS from scratch.

1. Provision Your VPS

You need a VPS with:

  • Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or later
  • At least 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended for running both n8n and Baserow)
  • Ports 80 and 443 open in the firewall

Open Firewall Ports (UFW)

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp    # SSH — ensure this is open before enabling ufw
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status

2. Point DNS at Your Server

Before starting the stack, create DNS A records for both subdomains:

Record Type Value
n8n.yourdomain.com A Your VPS public IP
baserow.yourdomain.com A Your VPS public IP

Wait for DNS to propagate before running setup. You can verify with:

dig +short n8n.yourdomain.com
# Should return your VPS IP

DNS propagation typically takes 5–30 minutes with modern registrars. Caddy's automatic SSL will fail if DNS hasn't propagated yet.

3. Install Docker on Ubuntu

# Remove any old versions
sudo apt-get remove -y docker docker-engine docker.io containerd runc 2>/dev/null || true

# Install prerequisites
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release

# Add Docker's official GPG key
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | \
  sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

# Set up the repository
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] \
  https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

# Install Docker Engine and Compose plugin
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io \
  docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

# Allow current user to run Docker without sudo
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

# Verify
docker --version
docker compose version

4. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/whybothercoding/self-hosted-automation-stack.git
cd self-hosted-automation-stack

5. Run Setup

bash scripts/setup.sh

The script will prompt you for:

  • Domain name — your root domain (e.g. example.com)
  • n8n subdomain — defaults to n8n → becomes n8n.example.com
  • Baserow subdomain — defaults to baserow → becomes baserow.example.com
  • Email for SSL — used for Let's Encrypt registration
  • PostgreSQL password — choose a strong password (not shown in terminal)
  • Encryption keys — auto-generated with openssl rand -hex 32; the n8n key is printed on screen — save it immediately

The script then:

  1. Writes your answers to .env
  2. Runs docker compose pull to download images (~1-2 GB, takes a few minutes)
  3. Runs docker compose up -d to start all services

6. Verify Everything is Running

docker compose ps

Expected: all four services showing Up (postgres will also show healthy):

NAME       STATUS          PORTS
postgres   Up (healthy)
n8n        Up
baserow    Up
caddy      Up              0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp

Check SSL Certificate Issuance

docker compose logs caddy --tail=50

Look for lines containing certificate obtained successfully. This may take 1–2 minutes after first start.

Once SSL is confirmed:

  • n8n: https://n8n.yourdomain.com — account creation wizard
  • Baserow: https://baserow.yourdomain.com — registration page

7. First-Run Configuration

n8n

On first visit, n8n shows an account creation form. Create your admin account. Your workflows, credentials, and settings are stored in the n8n_data volume and PostgreSQL.

Baserow

Baserow shows a registration page on first visit. Create your admin account. All table data is in PostgreSQL; file uploads are in the baserow_data volume.

8. Next Steps