Exploring Deployment Jobs strategies in Azure DevOps multi-stage YAML – Canary Deployment

Exploring Deployment Jobs strategies in Azure DevOps multi-stage YAML – Canary Deployment

A Canary Deployment is a progressive deployment strategy where a small subset of users or a small portion of resources are used to validate updates in a production-like environment before fully rolling out changes.

This minimizes risk by ensuring that issues are identified early in the deployment process.

Key Concepts of Canary Deployment

1. Progressive Rollout: Deploy updates to a small, controlled portion of the environment (e.g., 1-5% of users) before expanding to the entire environment.

2. Risk Mitigation: Detect and fix issues early while limiting the impact on the entire user base.

3. Validation: Monitor performance, stability, and issues in the canary environment.

Example Multi-stage YAML with Canary Deployment Strategy

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stages:
2
  - stage: Canary
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    jobs:
4
      - job: DeployCanary
5
        steps:
6
          - script: echo "Deploying to Canary environment..."
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          - script: echo "Testing in Canary environment..."
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          - hooks:
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              - approval:
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                  name: Canary Approval
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                  condition: eq(variables['Build.Status'], 'Succeeded')
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  - stage: Production
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    dependsOn: Canary
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    jobs:
15
      - job: DeployProduction
16
        steps:
17
          - script: echo "Deploying to Production environment..."

Details of Canary Deployment Strategy

1. Canary Stage:

   • A limited subset of users or resources are deployed to the Canary environment.

   • Monitor for stability, performance, and issues in real-time.

2. Approval Gate: Once the Canary stage is validated, an approval gate ensures that only successful Canary deployments move to Production.

3. Production Stage: After successful Canary validation, deploy the update to the full Production environment.

Steps in Canary Deployment

1. Deploy to Canary:

   • Deploy updates to a small percentage of users or a controlled environment.

   • Monitor for issues like performance, stability, or functionality.

2. Approval for Production: After successful Canary testing, ensure manual approval before deploying to the full Production environment.

3. Deploy to Production: Deploy updates to the entire Production environment if Canary tests pass successfully.

Additional Considerations

1. Traffic Management: Use load balancing and traffic splitting tools (e.g., Azure Traffic Manager) to direct a portion of traffic to the Canary environment.

2. Monitoring: Continuously monitor performance, logs, and analytics in the Canary environment.

3. Rollback Strategy: Prepare for rollback in case issues arise in the Canary environment.

4. Automatic Approval Gates: Only move to Production once the Canary phase passes successfully.

Using Automated Canary Deployments with Approval Gates

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17
1
stages:
2
  - stage: Canary
3
    jobs:
4
      - job: DeployCanary
5
        steps:
6
          - script: echo "Deploying to Canary..."
7
          - script: echo "Validating Canary environment..."
8
          - hooks:
9
              - approval:
10
                  name: Canary Approval
11
                  condition: eq(variables['Build.Status'], 'Succeeded')
12
  - stage: Production
13
    dependsOn: Canary
14
    jobs:
15
      - job: DeployProduction
16
        steps:
17
          - script: echo "Deploying to Production..."

Benefits of Canary Deployment

1. Early Detection: Issues are detected early in a limited environment.

2. Reduced Risk: Ensures that only stable, validated changes move forward.

3. Controlled Rollout: Minimize user impact by testing in a small subset before full deployment.