Troubleshooting n8n Startup and Node Editing Delays on Ubuntu Docker

Hello everyone,

I recently migrated from a Windows 11 setup to an Ubuntu Desktop environment to run n8n via Docker. Even with high-performance hardware (NVIDIA 3090 GPU, 64GB RAM), I’m experiencing unexpected delays: a 1-second startup lag and 3–5 second delays when editing nodes. This behavior wasn’t present on my previous Windows setup, so I suspect it might be related to differences in Docker volume or file system performance under Ubuntu.

I’m using a configuration based on the self-hosted-ai-starter-kit with a few modifications. Below is the complete YAML configuration for reference:

YAMLCopied
volumes:
  n8n_storage:
  postgres_storage:
  ollama_storage:
  qdrant_storage:

networks:
  n8n:

x-n8n: &service-n8n
  image: n8nio/n8n:latest
  networks: ['n8n']
  environment:
    - DB_TYPE=postgresdb
    - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=postgres
    - DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=${POSTGRES_USER}
    - DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
    - N8N_DIAGNOSTICS_ENABLED=false
    - N8N_PERSONALIZATION_ENABLED=false
    - N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY
    - N8N_USER_MANAGEMENT_JWT_SECRET
    - WEBHOOK_URL=https://nogrok-free-fixed-domain.app/
    - N8N_FILES_DIR=/home/infoshare/n8n/files
    - N8N_ENFORCE_SETTINGS_FILE_PERMISSIONS=true
    - TZ=Asia/Seoul
    - GENERIC_TIMEZONE=Asia/Seoul

  links:
    - postgres

x-ollama: &service-ollama
  image: ollama/ollama:latest
  container_name: ollama
  networks: ['n8n']
  restart: unless-stopped
  ports:
    - 11434:11434
  volumes:
    - ollama_storage:/root/.ollama
  runtime: nvidia  
  deploy:
    resources:
      reservations:
        devices:
          - driver: nvidia
            count: 1
            capabilities: [gpu]

x-init-ollama: &init-ollama
  image: ollama/ollama:latest
  networks: ['n8n']
  container_name: ollama-pull-llama
  volumes:
    - ollama_storage:/root/.ollama
  entrypoint: /bin/sh
  command:
    - "-c"
    - "sleep 3; OLLAMA_HOST=ollama:11434 ollama pull llama3.2;ollama pull nomic-embed-text"

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    networks: ['n8n']
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD
      - POSTGRES_DB
      - TZ=Asia/Seoul
    volumes:
      - postgres_storage:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ['CMD-SHELL', 'pg_isready -h localhost -U ${POSTGRES_USER} -d ${POSTGRES_DB}']
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 10

  n8n-import:
    <<: *service-n8n
    container_name: n8n-import
    entrypoint: /bin/sh
    command:
      - "-c"
      - "n8n import:credentials --separate --input=/backup/credentials && n8n import:workflow --separate --input=/backup/workflows"
    volumes:
      - /home/infoshare/n8n/backup:/backup
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy

  n8n:
    <<: *service-n8n
    container_name: n8n
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 5678:5678
    volumes:
      - n8n_storage:/home/infoshare/n8n/node/.n8n
      - /home/infoshare/n8n/backup:/backup
      - /home/infoshare/n8n/shared:/data/shared
      - /home/infoshare/n8n/files:/files:rw
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
      n8n-import:
        condition: service_completed_successfully

  qdrant:
    image: qdrant/qdrant
    container_name: qdrant
    networks: ['n8n']
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 6333:6333
    volumes:
      - qdrant_storage:/home/infoshare/n8n/qdrant/storage

  ollama:
    <<: *service-ollama  
    container_name: ollama-gpu  

  ollama-pull-llama:
    <<: *init-ollama
    depends_on:
      - ollama  

If anyone has encountered similar issues or has suggestions on improving n8n’s responsiveness on Ubuntu, especially regarding Docker volume and container configuration, your insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!