N8N SSH Homelab Health Report to Telegram (Daily)

Get a Daily Homelab Health Snapshot in Telegram—via SSH

This n8n workflow connects to your homelab server over SSH every morning, runs a read-only Python health check, and sends a single, formatted status report to your Telegram chat—so you know immediately when disk space, memory/load, services, Docker, or backups need attention.

What this workflow does

• Runs daily at 07:30 using an n8n Schedule trigger.
• Loads configurable thresholds and options (including backup folder path, disk/memory/load thresholds, whether to check Docker, and restore-drill cadence).
• Executes a read-only health-check script on the target server via SSH (requires python3 and access to commands like systemctl and df).
• Parses and evaluates results for:
  • Disk usage against configured thresholds
  • Memory and system load
  • Failed systemd services
  • Docker container health (optional, based on settings)
  • Backup freshness (backup age compared to backup_max_age_h)
  • Restore-drill reminders based on last_restore_drill and restore_drill_every_days
• Sends either a concise “all good” message or a warning-filled report to your configured Telegram chat.

Use cases

• SaaS operators monitoring a small production-like homelab without dashboards.
• Automation engineers who want reliable, scheduled health checks with actionable alerts in Telegram.
• Home lab owners tracking backup freshness and planning restore drills.

Technical details

• Tested on n8n 2.41.5 (self-hosted Docker)
• n8n nodes: Schedule Trigger, SSH, Code, Telegram, and supporting nodes (e.g., set, sticky note)
• SSH access uses an SSH private key credential and a normal user (non-root)
• Telegram integration requires a bot token from @BotFather and a destination chat ID