Do i need a persistent volume on main process in queue mode?

[gdrespiritoagendapro]

Describe the problem/error/question

I have a queue mode setup using kubernetes.
Everytime I deploy an update, or change env variables on the deployment, my main process pod is deleted, and then recreated, causing a 30-60 seconds downtime.
To overcome this issue, i would love to have multiple instances on the main process. (similar to what is described on Configuring queue mode | n8n Docs ), but for a different purpose.

The problem I is that a have a persistent volume that can only be attached to one k8s pod at a time, so if i create a second (o more) pod, this will not be able to attach the volume and crashes.
So: i want to prevent this issue by not using persistent volumes at all, rather than trying to find a way to connect mutiple pods to the same volume.
Note: this persisted volume is mounted on /home/user/.n8n, as decribed in the docs.

I know that the encryption key is generated as a file in there, but as i am already using queue mode, i have that key on environment variables on all the pods, so that should not be an issue. Can i just remove the volumne and it should work? I’m missing something?

main-deployment.yml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  labels:
    service: chronos-n8n
  name: chronos-n8n
  namespace: chronos
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      service: chronos-n8n
  strategy:
    type: Recreate
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        service: chronos-n8n
    spec:
      initContainers:
        - name: volume-permissions
          image: busybox:1.36
          command: ["sh", "-c", "chown 1000:1000 /data"]
          volumeMounts:
            - name: n8n-claim0
              mountPath: /data
      containers:
        - command:
            - /bin/sh
          args:
            - -c
            - sleep 5; n8n start
          envFrom:
            - configMapRef:
                name: n8n-config
          env:
            - name: DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST
              value: "${DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST}"
            - name: DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE
              value: "${DB_POSTGRES_DATABASE}"
            - name: DB_POSTGRESDB_USER
              value: "${N8N_USER}"
            - name: DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD
              value: "${DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD}"
            - name: WEBHOOK_URL
              value: "${WEBHOOK_URL}"
          image: $IMAGE_NAME
          name: n8n
          ports:
            - containerPort: 5678
          readinessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /healthz
              port: 5678
            initialDelaySeconds: 30
            periodSeconds: 10
            timeoutSeconds: 5
            failureThreshold: 3
          resources:
            requests:
              memory: "12500Mi"
            limits:
              memory: "12500Mi"
          volumeMounts:
            - mountPath: /home/node/.n8n
              name: n8n-claim0
      restartPolicy: Always
      volumes:
        - name: n8n-claim0
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: n8n-claim0
        - name: n8n-secret
          secret:
            secretName: n8n-secret
        - name: postgres-secret
          secret:
            secretName: postgres-secret

worker-deployment.yml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  labels:
    service: chronos-n8n-worker
  name: chronos-n8n-worker
  namespace: chronos
spec:
  replicas: 2  # You can adjust this based on your workload needs
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      service: chronos-n8n-worker
  strategy:
    type: Recreate
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        service: chronos-n8n-worker
    spec:
      containers:
        - command:
            - /bin/sh
          args:
            - -c
            - sleep 5; n8n worker
          envFrom:
            - configMapRef:
                name: n8n-config
          image: $IMAGE_NAME
          name: n8n-worker
          ports:
            - containerPort: 5678
          readinessProbe:
            httpGet:
              path: /healthz
              port: 5678
            initialDelaySeconds: 30
            periodSeconds: 10
            timeoutSeconds: 5
            failureThreshold: 3
          resources:
            requests:
              memory: "2Gi"
              cpu: "500m"
            limits:
              memory: "4Gi"
              cpu: "2"
      initContainers:
        - name: task-runner
          image: n8nio/runners:1.113.2
          restartPolicy: Always
          env: 
            - name: N8N_RUNNERS_AUTH_TOKEN
              value: "${N8N_RUNNERS_AUTH_TOKEN}"
      restartPolicy: Always
      volumes:
        - name: n8n-secret
          secret:
            secretName: n8n-secret
        - name: postgres-secret
          secret:
            secretName: postgres-secret

Information on your n8n setup

• n8n version: 1.113.2
• Database (default: SQLite): postgres
• n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): N/A
• Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): k8s
• Operating system: linux