☁️ Deploying Camunda 8 on Microsoft Azure (AKS) – Complete Enterprise Guide

Running Camunda 8 on Microsoft Azure using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a recommended enterprise deployment model.

It provides:
✔ High availability
✔ Horizontal scalability
✔ Cloud-native resilience
✔ Secure enterprise integration
✔ Seamless DevOps & monitoring

This guide explains:

  • Camunda 8 architecture on AKS

  • Required Azure services

  • Deployment flow

  • Security & scaling

  • Best practices and common pitfalls

⭐ 1. Why Deploy Camunda 8 on Azure AKS?

Camunda 8 is cloud-native and Kubernetes-first. AKS is a perfect match.

Key benefits

✔ Managed Kubernetes (less ops effort)
✔ Easy horizontal scaling
✔ Enterprise-grade security (Azure AD)
✔ Native monitoring & logging
✔ Ideal for microservices & event-driven workflows

👉 AKS is the preferred choice for running Camunda 8 in Azure.

⭐ 2. Camunda 8 Components (Quick Recap)

Camunda 8 consists of multiple microservices:

  • Zeebe – Distributed workflow engine

  • Gateway – Client access layer

  • Operate – Monitoring & incidents

  • Tasklist – Human task UI

  • Optimize – Analytics (optional)

  • Identity – Authentication & authorization

  • Elasticsearch / OpenSearch – Data store

Each component runs as a separate container on Kubernetes.

⭐ 3. Azure Architecture for Camunda 8

Typical Azure setup:

  1. AKS Cluster – Hosts Camunda services

  2. Azure Load Balancer / Application Gateway – External access

  3. Azure Managed Disk – Persistent volumes

  4. Azure Container Registry (ACR) – Container images

  5. Azure AD – Identity & SSO

  6. Azure Monitor / Log Analytics – Observability

⭐ 4. Prerequisites

Before deployment, you need:

  • Azure subscription

  • AKS cluster (2–3 node pools recommended)

  • kubectl configured

  • Helm installed

  • Azure Container Registry (optional)

  • DNS & TLS certificates

⭐ 5. Deployment Options

🔹 Option 1: Camunda 8 Helm Charts (Recommended)

Camunda provides official Helm charts.

Advantages:
✔ Faster setup
✔ Production-ready defaults
✔ Easier upgrades

🔹 Option 2: Custom Kubernetes Manifests

Used when:

  • You need full control

  • Strict enterprise governance is required

❗ More operational effort.

⭐ 6. Deploy Camunda 8 Using Helm on AKS

Step 1: Add Camunda Helm repository

helm repo add camunda https://helm.camunda.io
helm repo update

Step 2: Create a namespace

kubectl create namespace camunda

Step 3: Install Camunda 8

helm install camunda camunda/camunda-platform \
  --namespace camunda

This deploys:

  • Zeebe

  • Gateway

  • Operate

  • Tasklist

  • Identity

  • Elasticsearch

⭐ 7. Exposing Camunda 8 Services

Options:

  • Azure Load Balancer

  • Application Gateway (recommended for TLS & WAF)

  • Ingress Controller (NGINX)

Example (Ingress):

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: camunda-ingress
spec:
  rules:
    - host: camunda.mycompany.com
      http:
        paths:
          - path: /
            pathType: Prefix
            backend:
              service:
                name: camunda-gateway
                port:
                  number: 26500

⭐ 8. Identity & Security (Azure AD)

Camunda 8 integrates well with Azure AD via OIDC.

Best practices:

✔ Azure AD for SSO
✔ Role-based access control (RBAC)
✔ Kubernetes Secrets / Azure Key Vault
✔ Network policies
✔ Private AKS cluster (optional)

⭐ 9. Scaling Camunda 8 on AKS

Horizontal scaling

  • Scale Zeebe brokers

  • Scale Gateway replicas

  • Scale Tasklist / Operate

Kubernetes features

✔ HPA (Horizontal Pod Autoscaler)
✔ Node auto-scaling
✔ Multiple availability zones

⭐ 10. Monitoring & Observability

Use:

  • Azure Monitor

  • Log Analytics

  • Prometheus + Grafana (optional)

Monitor:
✔ Workflow throughput
✔ Job execution latency
✔ Incidents & retries
✔ Resource utilization

⭐ 11. Storage Considerations

ComponentStorage
ZeebeAzure Managed Disks
ElasticsearchPersistent Volumes
BackupsAzure Blob Storage

✔ Always use persistent volumes
✔ Plan backup & restore strategy

⭐ 12. Best Practices for Production

✔ Use multiple Zeebe brokers
✔ Separate node pools (compute vs storage)
✔ Enable TLS everywhere
✔ Use private endpoints
✔ Automate with CI/CD (GitHub Actions / Azure DevOps)
✔ Test upgrades in staging
✔ Monitor costs & autoscaling

⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

❌ Single-node AKS cluster
❌ No persistent volumes
❌ Exposing services without TLS
❌ Ignoring backups
❌ Underestimating Elasticsearch size
❌ Treating Camunda 8 like Camunda 7

🎉 Conclusion

Deploying Camunda 8 on Azure AKS gives you:

✔ Cloud-native scalability
✔ High availability
✔ Enterprise security
✔ Seamless DevOps integration

👉 Azure + AKS is a production-grade platform for running Camunda 8 at scale.


💼 Professional Support Available

If you are facing issues in real projects related to enterprise backend development or workflow automation, I provide paid consulting, production debugging, project support, and focused trainings.

Technologies covered include Java, Spring Boot, PL/SQL, Azure, and workflow automation (jBPM, Camunda BPM, RHPAM).




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

jBPM Installation Guide: Step by Step Setup

  jBPM Installation Guide – Step by Step for Beginners If you are starting with jBPM (Java Business Process Management) , the first step is to set up your environment. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to install jBPM, configure it, and run your first business process. 🔎 What is jBPM? Before we dive into installation, a quick recap: jBPM is an open-source Business Process Management (BPM) suite , written in Java, that allows you to model, execute, and monitor workflows using BPMN 2.0 standards. It can run standalone , embedded in applications , or deployed on a Java EE server . 🖥️ Prerequisites Before installing jBPM, make sure you have: Java JDK 11 or later (Java 17 is commonly used) Maven 3.x (for building and managing dependencies) Git (optional, if you want to clone sample projects) A Database (H2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle) – jBPM ships with H2 for testing At least 4GB RAM (8GB recommended for Workbench & KIE Server) 📦 Download ...
Read more

Scopes of Signal in jBPM

Image
💡 Introduction Signals in jBPM 7 are a core part of event-driven workflow design. They allow asynchronous communication between process instances, making it possible to start , interrupt , or coordinate processes without direct linking. However, signals can have different scopes , which define how far the signal travels and who receives it . Let’s explore the four available scopes in detail: 🔹 Process Scope 🔹 Default Scope 🔹 External Scope 🔹 Project Instance Scope 🧩 1️⃣ Process Scope 📘 Definition Process scope signals are local to a single process instance or its child subprocesses . They are not visible outside that instance hierarchy. 📋 Use Case Used for communication inside the same process , like triggering subprocesses or event sub-processes. 🖼️ Process Scope Example Below is an example of a simple process-scoped signal. Only this process (or its subprocess) will catch this signal. ⚙️ 2️⃣ Default Scope 📘 Definition The default scope ...
Read more

OOPs Concepts in Java | English | Object Oriented Programming Explained

Image
🔹OOPS (Object Oriented Programming System) in Java Object-Oriented Programming (OOPS) is a programming paradigm that uses classes and objects to design software. It simplifies development and maintenance by applying key concepts: 📌 Class: Class   is a user-defined data type which defines its properties and its functions. Class is the only logical representation of the data. For example, Human beings in an organisation is a class like Employee. The age, name, department, salary etc. of a human being/employee are its properties, and the jobs performed by the employees in an organisation are known as functions.  The class does not occupy any memory space till the time an object is instantiated. A class is a user-defined data type that defines properties and functions. For example: Class: Employee Properties: name, age, salary Functions: work(), attendMeeting() A class does not occupy memory until an object is created. ...
Read more