Server Management

n8n-deploy enables management of multiple n8n server connections, each with dedicated API keys and configurations for seamless multi-environment workflows.

🎯 Overview

Server management in n8n-deploy provides:

• Multi-Server Support: Connect to development, staging, and production n8n instances
• Server-Key Linking: Associate specific API keys with servers
• UTF-8 Names: Use descriptive names with international characters and emojis
• Active/Inactive States: Toggle server availability without deletion
• Centralized Configuration: All servers managed from single database

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🏗️ Database Schema

erDiagram
    SERVERS ||--o{ SERVER_API_KEYS : "uses"
    API_KEYS ||--o{ SERVER_API_KEYS : "linked to"
    SERVERS {
        INTEGER id PK
        TEXT url
        TEXT name UK
        INTEGER is_active
        TIMESTAMP created_at
        TIMESTAMP last_used
    }
    SERVER_API_KEYS {
        INTEGER server_id FK
        INTEGER api_key_id FK
        TIMESTAMP created_at
    }

Relationships:

• Servers can have multiple API keys (one-to-many)
• API keys can be linked to multiple servers (many-to-many)
• Deleting a server cascades to server_api_keys but preserves api_keys

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📖 Documentation Sections

Server Operations

Create, list, and manage n8n server configurations.

Topics:

• Create new servers with UTF-8 names
• List servers with filtering
• View API keys linked to servers
• Remove servers with cleanup options

Server-Key Linking

Associate API keys with servers for authentication.

Topics:

• Link keys during server creation
• Link keys during API key creation
• Multi-key scenarios for different access levels
• Unlink and relink keys

Troubleshooting

Common server management issues and solutions.

Topics:

• Server already exists errors
• Connection refused issues
• No API keys linked warnings
• Server not found errors

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🚀 Quick Commands

Operation	Command
Create server	n8n-deploy server create "Name" URL
List servers	n8n-deploy server list
Active servers	n8n-deploy server list --active
Server keys	n8n-deploy server keys "Name"
Remove server	n8n-deploy server remove "Name"
JSON output	n8n-deploy server list --json

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💡 Quick Examples

Create Server with Emoji

n8n-deploy server create "Production 🚀" https://n8n-prod.company.com
n8n-deploy server create "Staging 🧪" http://n8n-staging:5678
n8n-deploy server create "Dev 🔧" http://localhost:5678

Link API Key to Server

# Create server
n8n-deploy server create "QA Server" http://n8n-qa:5678

# Add and link API key
echo "$QA_API_KEY" | n8n-deploy apikey add - --name qa_key --server "QA Server"

List Active Servers

# Rich output
n8n-deploy server list --active

# JSON for scripts
n8n-deploy server list --active --json

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📖 Related Documentation

• API Key Management - Manage authentication keys
• Workflow Management - Push/pull workflows using servers
• DevOps Guide - CI/CD automation
• Configuration - Environment variables
• Troubleshooting - Common issues

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Last Updated: October 2025 Feature Status: Stable (v2.x)