Deployment
Introduction
Deployment is the process of delivering software from artifacts to running production environments. How you deploy directly impacts risk, downtime, and ability to respond to problems.
The CD Model treats deployment as a deliberate, controlled process with multiple strategies available depending on risk tolerance, infrastructure capabilities, and organizational maturity.
Deployment vs Release
Critical distinction:
- Deployment (Stage 10): Code reaches production environment
- Release (Stage 12): Features become available to users
Modern CD practices decouple these:
- Deploy code to production (with features disabled via feature flags)
- Release features gradually (enable via flags for specific user segments)
This decoupling enables:
- Continuous deployment without continuous release
- Risk reduction through gradual rollout
- Instant feature disablement without redeployment
- A/B testing and experimentation
Deployment in the CD Model
Stage 10: Production Deployment:
- Deploy artifacts to production infrastructure
- Choose deployment strategy based on risk and infrastructure
- Execute deployment via Deploy Agents (Zone C)
- Verify health checks and smoke tests
Stage 11: Live Monitoring:
- Monitor application health in production
- Track key metrics (errors, latency, throughput)
- Automated rollback on threshold breaches
- Manual rollback procedures available
Stage 12: Release Toggling:
- Control feature exposure via feature flags
- Gradual rollout to user segments
- Instant disable if issues detected
- Independent of deployment
Deployment Strategy Selection
Different situations call for different strategies:
Hot Deploy: Fast, simple, brief downtime acceptable
Rolling: Zero downtime, gradual instance updates
Blue-Green: Instant rollback, higher infrastructure cost
Canary: Gradual production validation, metrics-driven
Rings: Progressive user group rollout, organizational-scale
Feature Flags: Decouple deployment from release, runtime control
The right strategy depends on:
- Risk tolerance
- Infrastructure capabilities
- Downtime requirements
- Team maturity
- Cost constraints
In This Section
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| Deployment Strategies | Comprehensive explanation of deployment patterns with tradeoffs and use cases |
| Deployment Rings | Progressive user group rollout pattern explained in depth |
| Feature Flags | Feature flag lifecycle management from creation to cleanup |
| Rollback Procedures | Emergency rollback execution guide with decision criteria and procedures |
| Incident Response | Production incident response playbook with severity levels and templates |
Next Steps
- Deployment Strategies - Deep dive into each pattern
- CD Model Stages 8-12 - See deployment in CD Model context
- Environments Architecture - Environment types and network zones
Quick Reference
- Deployment Strategies Reference - Strategy comparison table
- Deployment Rings Reference - Ring structure table
Tutorials | How-to Guides | Explanation | Reference
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