n8n Operations Guide — Esquire Embroidery

1

URLs & Access

Service	URL
n8n Editor	https://n8n.esquireembroidery.com
n8n Webhook base	`https://n8n.esquireembroidery.com/webhook/`
Tools Portal	https://tools.esquireembroidery.com
n8n Login	chi@esqembroidery.com (testing)

⚠

Production switch reminder: When moving to production (Phase 4), change the Gmail trigger in n8n from chi@esqembroidery.com to orders@esqembroidery.com.

2

Config & Credentials

File locations

What	Path
n8n PM2 config (host, port, webhook URL)	`/home/ec2-user/n8n.config.js`
FileMaker credentials (n8n-writer, n8n-reader)	`/home/ec2-user/.n8n/.env`
n8n database & workflows	`/home/ec2-user/.n8n/database.sqlite`
n8n encrypted credentials store	`/home/ec2-user/.n8n/`
nginx config for n8n	`/etc/nginx/conf.d/n8n.esquireembroidery.com.conf`
nginx config for tools	`/etc/nginx/conf.d/tools.esquireembroidery.com.conf`
SSL certificates	`/etc/letsencrypt/live/`

FileMaker API accounts

Account	Access	Databases
`n8n-writer`	Create + Edit records (no delete)	Order_managementUI + Order_managementDB
`n8n-reader`	View only	Order_managementUI + Order_managementDB
`chi`	General access (testing)	Order_managementDB

Passwords are stored in /home/ec2-user/.n8n/.env — never commit this file to Git.

View current n8n config

cat /home/ec2-user/n8n.config.js

View FM credentials

cat /home/ec2-user/.n8n/.env

Edit n8n config

# Edit the file, then restart n8n for changes to take effect
nano /home/ec2-user/n8n.config.js
pm2 delete n8n && pm2 start /home/ec2-user/n8n.config.js && pm2 save

3

Check Server Status

Check all PM2 processes

pm2 list

Check n8n is responding

curl -sI https://n8n.esquireembroidery.com | head -3

Watch n8n live logs

pm2 logs n8n

View last 30 lines of n8n logs

pm2 logs n8n --lines 30 --nostream

Check all services at a glance

# Check each service is responding
curl -sI https://n8n.esquireembroidery.com | grep HTTP
curl -sI https://tools.esquireembroidery.com | grep HTTP
curl -s http://localhost:3000/test   # Excel Upload
curl -s http://localhost:3001/test   # PDF Print (no /test route)
curl -s http://localhost:3002/test   # FM Order Upload

4

Reset n8n Password

⚠

This resets ALL user accounts in n8n. You will need to go through the setup screen again and re-enter your license key.

1

Stop n8n

pm2 stop n8n

2

Reset user database

n8n user-management:reset

3

Start n8n again

pm2 start /home/ec2-user/n8n.config.js && pm2 save

4

Open n8n and complete setupGo to https://n8n.esquireembroidery.com — enter your name, email (chi@esqembroidery.com), and new password. Re-activate your license key.

5

PM2 Commands

Command	What it does
`pm2 list`	Show all running processes and their status
`pm2 restart n8n`	Restart n8n (keeps existing env vars)
`pm2 stop n8n`	Stop n8n
`pm2 start /home/ec2-user/n8n.config.js`	Start n8n from config file (use after editing config)
`pm2 delete n8n`	Remove n8n from PM2 (use before re-adding with new config)
`pm2 save`	Save process list so it survives server reboots
`pm2 logs n8n`	Stream live logs for n8n
`pm2 logs n8n --lines 50 --nostream`	Show last 50 log lines without streaming
`pm2 restart all`	Restart every service (use after server reboot)

💡

After editing n8n.config.js, always use pm2 delete n8n && pm2 start /home/ec2-user/n8n.config.js && pm2 save — a plain pm2 restart won't pick up config file changes.

6

Nginx Commands

Command	What it does
`sudo nginx -t`	Test nginx config for errors (always run before reload)
`sudo systemctl reload nginx`	Reload nginx config without downtime
`sudo systemctl restart nginx`	Full restart (brief downtime)
`sudo systemctl status nginx`	Check nginx service status
`sudo certbot renew --dry-run`	Test SSL certificate auto-renewal

7

Disk & Memory

# Check disk usage
df -h

# Check memory
free -h

# Find what's taking disk space
du -sh /home/ec2-user/* 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -10

# Check n8n log size
du -sh ~/.pm2/logs/

# Clear old PM2 logs (if they grow large)
pm2 flush

💡

EC2 instance: t3.medium — 4GB RAM, 20GB EBS disk. n8n uses ~250MB RAM at rest. Run free -h if things feel slow.

8

FileMaker API Test

Use these commands to verify FileMaker Data API access from the server.

Test n8n-writer login

curl -sk -X POST "https://esqserver.com/fmi/data/v1/databases/Order_managementUI/sessions" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -u "n8n-writer:PASSWORD" -d "{}" | python3 -m json.tool

Test n8n-reader login

curl -sk -X POST "https://esqserver.com/fmi/data/v1/databases/Order_managementDB/sessions" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -u "n8n-reader:PASSWORD" -d "{}" | python3 -m json.tool

List all hosted databases

curl -sk "https://esqserver.com/fmi/data/v1/databases" \
  -u "n8n-writer:PASSWORD" | python3 -m json.tool

Quick test all 4 account/database combos

for db in "Order_managementUI" "Order_managementDB"; do
  for user in "n8n-writer:WRITER_PASS" "n8n-reader:READER_PASS"; do
    name=$(echo $user | cut -d: -f1)
    pass=$(echo $user | cut -d: -f2)
    result=$(curl -sk -X POST "https://esqserver.com/fmi/data/v1/databases/$db/sessions" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -u "$name:$pass" -d "{}" | python3 -c \
      "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(d['messages'][0]['code'], d['messages'][0]['message'])")
    echo "$name → $db: $result"
  done
done

⚠

Replace PASSWORD, WRITER_PASS, READER_PASS with actual values from /home/ec2-user/.n8n/.env. Never paste real passwords into documentation.