Install Node.js - I installed version 16.x
Create a new user to run n8n then login as that user
adduser --disabled-password n8n
su - n8nCreate a hidden directory for Node.js
mkdir ~/.nodejs_globalSet the NPM prefix to the new directory
npm config set prefix ~/.nodejs_globalModify the user environment PATH to include the new directory
echo 'export PATH=~/.nodejs_global/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.profileActive the new env config
source ~/.profileUse npm to install n8n
npm install n8n --location=globalInstall pm2 to manage the n8n service
npm install pm2@latest --location=globalStart, enable, and save n8n via pm2. You should be prompted here to setup systemd and run another command.
pm2 start n8n
pm2 startup
pm2 saveI reboot my server at this point to clear out anything that pm2 was doing and let systemd handle everything (which still uses pm2) going forward. I also changed the name of the systemd n8n file from pm2-n8n.service to n8n.service.