SSH n8n INTEGRATION: AUTOMATE SSH WITH N8N

The Upload File action pushes files from your n8n workflow to a remote server via SSH. Perfect for deployments, configuration updates, and any automation that needs to place files on remote machines.

Key parameters:

• Credential to connect with: Required dropdown for selecting your SSH authentication credentials. Same credential system used across all SSH actions.
• Resource: Set to "File" since you're performing file system operations.
• Operation: Set to "Upload" to send a file from your workflow to the remote server.
• Input Binary Field: The name of the binary property from previous nodes containing the file to upload (required). Default is data. This connects to files generated or retrieved earlier in your workflow.
• Target Directory: The remote directory where the file will be placed (required). Example: /home/user or /var/www/uploads. The directory must exist and your SSH user must have write permissions.
• Options: Access additional properties for advanced upload configurations through the "Add option" button.

Use cases: Deployment automation: Upload built assets from your CI/CD pipeline to production servers. Configuration management: Push updated config files to multiple servers in sequence. Content publishing: Upload generated reports, images, or documents to a web server for public access.

The Download File action retrieves files from your remote server and brings them into your n8n workflow as binary data. This is essential for backup automations, log analysis, report generation, and any scenario where you need to process or store remote files.

Key parameters:

• Credential to connect with: Required dropdown to select your SSH credentials. Ensures secure, authenticated access to the remote server.
• Resource: Set to "File" to indicate you're working with the server's file system rather than executing commands.
• Operation: Set to "Download" to retrieve a file from the remote server into your workflow.
• Path: The absolute path to the file you want to download (required). For example, /home/user/invoice.txt or /var/log/nginx/access.log. Must be the complete path—relative paths won't work.
• File Property: The name of the output property where the downloaded file content will be stored (required). Default is data. Subsequent nodes can access this binary data using this property name.
• Options: Additional configuration like encoding or timeout settings. Use "Add option" to access advanced parameters when needed.

Use cases: Automated backup workflows: Download critical config files nightly and store them in AWS S3. Log analysis pipelines: Pull server logs, parse them with JavaScript, and create summary reports. Invoice processing: Retrieve generated PDFs from a server and email them to clients automatically.

The Execute Command action is the cornerstone of SSH automation—it lets you run any shell command on a remote server directly from your n8n workflow. Think of it as having a terminal session that's always ready, waiting for your automation to trigger it.

Key parameters:

• Credential to connect with: A required dropdown where you select your pre-configured SSH credentials (password or private key). This determines which server you're connecting to and how you'll authenticate.
• Resource: Set to "Command" for this action. This required dropdown tells n8n you want to interact with the server's command line rather than its file system.
• Operation: Set to "Execute" to run your specified command. This is the action that actually triggers command execution on the remote server.
• Command: The actual shell command you want to execute. This required text field accepts any valid command your server's shell supports—from simple ls -la to complex scripts with pipes and redirects.
• Working Directory: An optional field specifying where the command runs. Defaults to / (root), but you can set it to /var/www/myapp or any path to avoid typing full paths in your commands.

Use cases: Trigger deployment scripts after code pushes: cd /var/www/app && git pull && npm run build. Run scheduled database backups using Postgres: pg_dump mydb > /backups/db_$(date +%Y%m%d).sql. Check server health metrics: df -h && free -m && uptime. Restart services after configuration changes: systemctl restart nginx.

This action shines when you need to orchestrate server operations as part of larger workflows—combine it with webhooks, schedules, or data from other apps to create fully automated DevOps pipelines.