Windows Home Server — Part 4: Automation and Monitoring (n8n & Uptime Kuma Natively)

With our networking, storage, and database engines running natively on bare-metal Windows, we now need tools to monitor our infrastructure and build automation workflows.

Instead of running Docker containers for monitoring and automation, we will install the Node.js runtime directly on Windows and set up Uptime Kuma (infrastructure monitoring) and n8n (workflow automation) as native Node applications wrapped in Windows services.

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1. Preparing the Node.js Environment on Windows

Both Uptime Kuma and n8n run on Node.js. Let's install the Long Term Support (LTS) release of Node.js natively.

Step 1: Install Git and Node.js

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

# Install Git
winget install --id Git.Git -e --accept-source-agreements --accept-package-agreements

# Install Node.js LTS
winget install --id OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS -e --accept-source-agreements --accept-package-agreements

Step 2: Verify Installations

Close and reopen your PowerShell terminal to reload the environment variables, then run:

node --version
npm --version
git --version

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2. Deploying Uptime Kuma Natively

Uptime Kuma is a self-hosted monitoring tool that tracks the status of your websites, APIs, and local services, sending alerts when they go offline.

Step 1: Clone the Repository

Clone the codebase into our server folder:

git clone https://github.com/louislam/uptime-kuma.git C:\Server\uptime-kuma

Step 2: Install Dependencies and Setup

Navigate to the directory, install npm packages, and run the production build:

cd C:\Server\uptime-kuma

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the frontend assets
npm run download-dist

Step 3: Test Run Uptime Kuma

Run it manually to ensure everything compiles correctly:

node server/server.js

Press Ctrl+C to stop it. Uptime Kuma creates its SQLite database at C:\Server\uptime-kuma\data\kuma.db by default.

Step 4: Wrap Uptime Kuma in NSSM

Create a service so it runs continuously in the background:

nssm install UptimeKuma

In the configuration window:

• Path: node.exe (NSSM automatically finds it if it is in your system PATH)
• Startup directory: C:\Server\uptime-kuma
• Arguments: server/server.js --port 3001 --host 127.0.0.1
• Details Tab → Startup Type: Automatic
• I/O Tab → Output (stdout): C:\Server\logs\uptime-kuma.log
• I/O Tab → Error (stderr): C:\Server\logs\uptime-kuma-errors.log

Start the service:

nssm start UptimeKuma

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3. Deploying n8n Natively

n8n is an incredibly powerful workflow automation tool that lets you connect APIs, databases, and local scripts with minimal code.

[!WARNING] The Windows n8n Gotcha: By default, n8n attempts to check Unix-style file permissions on its configuration files. On Windows (which uses NTFS Access Control Lists), this will cause n8n to crash on startup. We must set N8N_ENFORCE_SETTINGS_FILE_PERMISSIONS=false to bypass this check.

Step 1: Install n8n Locally

To keep our installation isolated and avoid global permission conflicts, we will install n8n locally within our server directory:

# Create n8n folder
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "C:\Server\n8n"
cd C:\Server\n8n

# Initialize package config and install n8n
npm init -y
npm install n8n

Step 2: Create the Startup Script

Create a PowerShell wrapper script C:\Server\n8n\start-n8n.ps1 to configure our environment variables and launch n8n:

# Set n8n configurations
$env:N8N_PORT = "5678"
$env:N8N_LISTEN_ADDRESS = "127.0.0.1"

# Critical Windows patch: bypass Unix file permissions check
$env:N8N_ENFORCE_SETTINGS_FILE_PERMISSIONS = "false"

# Define database location (SQLite)
$env:N8N_USER_FOLDER = "C:\Server\data\n8n_data"

# Launch n8n
npx n8n start

Step 3: Install n8n as a Windows Service

Create the service using NSSM:

nssm install n8n

In the configuration window:

• Path: powershell.exe
• Startup directory: C:\Server\n8n
• Arguments: -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:\Server\n8n\start-n8n.ps1
• Details Tab → Startup Type: Automatic
• I/O Tab → Output (stdout): C:\Server\logs\n8n.log
• I/O Tab → Error (stderr): C:\Server\logs\n8n-errors.log

Start the service:

nssm start n8n

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4. Alternative: Node Process Management via PM2

While NSSM is the gold standard for starting processes at boot, Node developers often prefer PM2 for managing Node runtimes. PM2 lets you monitor multiple Node processes from a single dashboard.

Step 1: Install PM2 and Windows Startup Hook

Install PM2 globally and configure it to hook into the Windows startup system:

npm install -g pm2
npm install -g pm2-windows-startup
pm2-startup install

Step 2: Create a PM2 Ecosystem File

Create C:\Server\ecosystem.config.js:

module.exports = {
  apps: [
    {
      name: 'uptime-kuma',
      script: './uptime-kuma/server/server.js',
      cwd: 'C:/Server',
      env: {
        PORT: 3001,
        HOST: '127.0.0.1'
      }
    },
    {
      name: 'n8n',
      script: './n8n/node_modules/n8n/bin/n8n',
      cwd: 'C:/Server',
      env: {
        N8N_PORT: 5678,
        N8N_LISTEN_ADDRESS: '127.0.0.1',
        N8N_ENFORCE_SETTINGS_FILE_PERMISSIONS: 'false',
        N8N_USER_FOLDER: 'C:/Server/data/n8n_data'
      }
    }
  ]
};

Step 3: Start and Save State

Launch the processes and freeze the state to run on system boots:

# Start apps
pm2 start C:\Server\ecosystem.config.js

# Save configuration
pm2 save

Using PM2, you can monitor resource utilization, logs, and process status with:

# Show active processes
pm2 status

# Real-time logs
pm2 logs

# Resource dashboard
pm2 monit

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In the next part, we will turn our server into a media streaming hub.

Proceed to Part 5: Bare-Metal Media Server (Jellyfin with Intel QuickSync Acceleration) →