Series Introduction: Building a Production-Ready n8n Workflow Automation Platform on Azure Kubernetes Service

Welcome to This Series!

In this comprehensive 8-part series, I'll take you through the complete journey of deploying n8n workflow automation platform on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) using a first principles approach. Rather than just providing configuration files, we'll explore the reasoning behind each design decision and build up a production-grade system step by step.

What You'll Learn

By the end of this series, you'll understand:

• How to design a robust workflow automation architecture from first principles
• Best practices for deploying stateful applications on Kubernetes
• Implementation of queue-based processing for reliable workflow execution
• Security hardening for production deployments
• Monitoring, maintenance, and troubleshooting techniques specific to n8n and AKS
• Performance and cost optimization strategies

Who This Series Is For

This series is designed for:

• DevOps engineers looking to deploy workflow automation tools
• Kubernetes administrators seeking stateful application examples
• n8n users wanting to scale beyond basic deployments
• Cloud architects interested in production-grade Azure implementations
• Automation specialists exploring enterprise-ready platforms

While some familiarity with Kubernetes concepts and Azure is helpful, I'll explain key concepts along the way to make this accessible to those newer to these technologies.

Why n8n on Kubernetes?

n8n is a powerful workflow automation tool similar to Zapier or Integromat, but with the advantage of being self-hosted. This means you maintain complete control over your data and workflows.

Running n8n on Kubernetes provides several key benefits:

• High availability: Ensure your automation workflows run 24/7
• Scalability: Handle growing workflow volume with automatic scaling
• Resource efficiency: Optimize resource allocation based on actual demand
• Simplified management: Standardize deployment, updates, and monitoring

Series Overview

Here's what we'll cover in this 8-part journey:

Part 1: Introduction and Architecture Overview Understanding the core principles behind a production workflow system and designing a robust architecture.

Part 2: Setting Up the Foundation Creating the AKS cluster, configuring namespaces, networking, and persistent storage.

Part 3: Data Layer Implementation Deploying PostgreSQL and Redis with security best practices and proper persistence.

Part 4: Application Layer Implementing the n8n main service and worker nodes with queue-based processing.

Part 5: External Access and Security Configuring ingress, SSL/TLS encryption, and secure access patterns.

Part 6: Monitoring and Optimization Setting up monitoring, maintenance procedures, and performance optimization.

Part 7: Troubleshooting Guide Comprehensive approach to diagnosing and resolving common issues.

Part 8: Conclusion and Next Steps Summarizing our implementation, reviewing benefits, and exploring advanced enhancements.

Let's Get Started!

Join me on this journey as we build a production-grade n8n deployment from the ground up. Each article in the series will build upon the previous ones, creating a complete system that is scalable, secure, and maintainable.