deployment-patterns

Deployment Patterns

Production deployment workflows and CI/CD best practices.

When to Activate

• Setting up CI/CD pipelines
• Dockerizing an application
• Planning deployment strategy (blue-green, canary, rolling)
• Implementing health checks and readiness probes
• Preparing for a production release
• Configuring environment-specific settings

Deployment Strategies

Rolling Deployment (Default)

Replace instances gradually: old and new versions run simultaneously during rollout.

Instance 1: v1 → v2  (update first)
Instance 2: v1        (still running v1)
Instance 3: v1        (still running v1)

Instance 1: v2
Instance 2: v1 → v2  (update second)
Instance 3: v1

Instance 1: v2
Instance 2: v2
Instance 3: v1 → v2  (update last)

Pros: Zero downtime, gradual rollout Cons: Two versions run simultaneously: requires backward-compatible changes Use when: Standard deployments, backward-compatible changes

Blue-Green Deployment

Run two identical environments. Switch traffic atomically.

Blue  (v1) ← traffic
Green (v2)   idle, running new version

# After verification:
Blue  (v1)   idle (becomes standby)
Green (v2) ← traffic

Pros: Instant rollback (switch back to blue), clean cutover Cons: Requires 2x infrastructure during deployment Use when: Critical services, zero-tolerance for issues

Canary Deployment

Route a small percentage of traffic to the new version first.

v1: 95% of traffic
v2:  5% of traffic  (canary)

# If metrics look good:
v1: 50% of traffic
v2: 50% of traffic

# Final:
v2: 100% of traffic

Pros: Catches issues with real traffic before full rollout Cons: Requires traffic splitting infrastructure, monitoring Use when: High-traffic services, risky changes, feature flags

Docker

Multi-Stage Dockerfile (Node.js)

# Stage 1: Install dependencies
FROM node:22-alpine AS deps
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json package-lock.json ./
RUN npm ci --production=false

# Stage 2: Build
FROM node:22-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=deps /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY . .
RUN npm run build
RUN npm prune --production

# Stage 3: Production image
FROM node:22-alpine AS runner
WORKDIR /app

RUN addgroup -g 1001 -S appgroup && adduser -S appuser -u 1001
USER appuser

COPY --from=builder --chown=appuser:appgroup /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY --from=builder --chown=appuser:appgroup /app/dist ./dist
COPY --from=builder --chown=appuser:appgroup /app/package.json ./

ENV NODE_ENV=production
EXPOSE 3000

HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=3s --start-period=5s --retries=3 \
  CMD wget --no-verbose --tries=1 --spider http://localhost:3000/health || exit 1

CMD ["node", "dist/server.js"]