05.3.4 · Skill in Controlled releases
Canary releases
Running a new version on a small slice of traffic first.
A canary release deploys new code to a small part of the infrastructure and compares its error rate and latency with the rest. If the canary looks unhealthy, it is pulled. It catches technical problems before most users meet them.
Resources
2- articleStart hereCanary release ↗Danilo Sato (martinfowler.com) · 5 min
Expose a new version to a small group first and widen it only while it stays healthy.
- bookGo deeperCanarying releases (The Site Reliability Workbook, chapter 16) ↗Google SRE · 25 min
How big a canary should be, how long to wait, and which metrics decide whether to continue.
Tools
none yetTools for this topic are being researched.