Backups and upgrades¶
Your workflows, credentials and n8n accounts live on the instance's disk, in
/home/ubuntu/.n8n. Hermes keeps its settings, memory and sessions in
/home/ubuntu/.hermes. Back up both.
Automatic disk snapshots¶
The simplest protection, with no terminal: let AWS snapshot the whole disk on a schedule, with Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager or AWS Backup in the AWS console. A snapshot holds everything on the instance, and you restore it by launching from it.
Back up n8n with hermes-n8n¶
sudo hermes-n8n backup # writes ~/hermes-n8n-backup-<date>.tar.gz
sudo hermes-n8n backup --encrypt # writes ~/hermes-n8n-backup-<date>.tar.gz.gpg, protected with a passphrase you choose
n8n stops for a moment while it is copied, then starts again. The file holds your workflows, credentials, n8n accounts and history, n8n's encryption key, and the keys Hermes and n8n use with each other.
The backup is a secret
It can decrypt every credential you saved in n8n. Keep it somewhere private,
use --encrypt when it leaves the instance, and delete copies you no longer
need.
This file covers n8n and the connections. To keep Hermes's own settings and
memory too, copy /home/ubuntu/.hermes alongside it, or rely on disk snapshots.
Restore¶
On this instance, or on a new one launched from the same or a newer version:
sudo hermes-n8n restore ~/hermes-n8n-backup-<date>.tar.gz # or the .tar.gz.gpg file; it asks for the passphrase
It lists what it will replace and asks first. Your current n8n data is kept in
~/.n8n.pre-restore-<date> until you delete it. Settings you chose in Hermes,
such as a connection you switched off, stay as they are.
To move a backup to another instance, copy it from your own computer:
Mind the colon at the end. Then stop n8n on the old instance, so scheduled workflows do not run twice.
Upgrade n8n¶
Moves n8n, in place, to the newest version we have tested with this image. It backs up first, checks the new version starts and reconnects, and puts the previous version and data back if anything fails. It never moves to an older version.
If upgrade says it could not read the list of tested n8n versions, no tested
version is published for your image yet, or the instance has no internet
access; nothing is changed. You can still move to a newer n8n by launching the
newest image version and restoring your backup onto it.
New versions of Hermes and the system¶
Ubuntu installs security updates automatically. New versions of Hermes arrive
as new versions of the image in AWS Marketplace: launch the new version,
restore your backup onto it, copy across /home/ubuntu/.hermes if
you want Hermes's memory, then terminate the old instance.
Last updated October 25, 2026 · Suggest an improvement