Blue-green deployment
Blue-green deployment is a release pattern that maintains separate active and replacement environments and switches traffic between them after the replacement is validated.
Platform Engineering on Kubernetes
A blue/green deployment runs an existing version and a replacement version separately, allowing traffic to be switched between them after validating the replacement.
- How it is used
- Supports testing a replacement service alongside production before switching live traffic to it.
- How deep it goes
- Explains Kubernetes Service selectors, Knative traffic rules, and Argo Rollouts configuration, including preview and manual promotion.
- Examples
- Uses notifications-service revisions, Knative blue/green traffic percentages, and an Argo Rollouts preview route with curl output.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via Knative Serving traffic rules or an Argo Rollouts blueGreen strategy to preview and promote a service revision.
Read how Platform Engineering on Kubernetes explains blue-green deployment →
Infrastructure as Code, Patterns and Practices: With examples in Python and Terraform
A blue-green deployment is a release pattern that maintains separate old and new infrastructure environments and switches service traffic between them.
- How it is used
- Reduces disruption and blast radius when changing high-risk, low-level infrastructure or upgrading tools with breaking changes.
- How deep it goes
- Explains configuration, dependent resources, traffic shifting, testing, migration, and cleanup, while deferring detailed rollback practices.
- Examples
- Uses global networks, clusters, premium-networked servers, databases, load balancers, Python IaC, and separate tool-state folders.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure staged infrastructure changes, progressively route traffic, migrate stateful resources, and limit failed updates.
Kubernetes for Developers
A blue/green strategy is a rollout technique that runs old and new application versions side by side and switches traffic between them.
- How it is used
- Uses parallel versions to achieve fast cutovers, reliable rollback, and minimal user disruption during production updates.
- How deep it goes
- Explains deployment, testing, traffic switching, validation, rollback, costs, and tooling, but not detailed configuration steps.
- Examples
- Uses two Deployments behind one Service, internal-user testing, percentage-based traffic, and delayed removal of the old version.
- What you can do after
- Operate a blue-green rollout using Kubernetes constructs and choose additional traffic-splitting or pipeline tooling when needed.
Read how Kubernetes for Developers explains blue-green deployment →
GitHub Actions in Action: Continuous integration and delivery for DevOps
A red-green deployment is a deployment strategy that runs two application versions in parallel and shifts traffic incrementally from the active version to the new version without visible downtime.
- How it is used
- Deploys web applications continuously while preserving production availability during validation and release.
- How deep it goes
- Explains infrastructure, validation, telemetry, staged routing, role swapping, and cleanup through an Azure workflow.
- Examples
- Uses Azure Web App slots, GitHub Actions, release artifacts, Playwright tests, readiness polling, and 10%-then-30% traffic routing.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure an incremental Azure deployment workflow with health checks, automated tests, traffic controls, slot swaps, and cleanup.
Bootstrapping Microservices, Second Edition: With Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions, and Terraform
Blue-green deployment is a release technique that runs old and new application versions in parallel and switches traffic between them.
- How it is used
- Protects customer-facing infrastructure while risky or experimental changes are developed and tested separately.
- How deep it goes
- Defines environments, DNS switching, testing, rollback, and repeated handoffs, but does not detail implementation commands.
- Examples
- Uses blue and green production environments, www.company.com DNS routing, and recurring environment handoffs.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure reversible production rollouts by testing a parallel environment and switching DNS with a rollback path.
Related concepts
- rolling updatekind of · A rolling update is a deployment or upgrade technique that updates or replaces instances or resources incrementally rather than all at once, allowing the rest of the system to continue operating during the change.
- canary deploymentalternative to · A canary deployment is a release strategy that exposes a change to a limited portion of users, traffic, or infrastructure before expanding it more broadly.
- load balanceruses · A load balancer is a hardware or software component that distributes incoming network traffic or requests among multiple destinations, such as servers or service instances.
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