Canary deployment

As explained in Google Anthos in Action

A canary deployment is a release strategy that exposes a new version to a small portion of traffic before expanding its availability.

A canary deployment rolls out a release to a small subset of users or servers, tests the change, and then expands it to the remaining population. The old and new service versions can run simultaneously while traffic rules control exposure. section 15.8 section 4.5.3

A progressive rollout typically proceeds by:

• Deploying the new service version alongside the version already serving most traffic. section 4.5.3
• Directing a predefined traffic share or user segment to the new version. section 4.5.3
• Increasing exposure when the canary shows no problems, then moving all traffic and discarding the old version. section 4.5.3

Traffic-split canary

A service-mesh rule redirects 5% of traffic to the new release of Service A while the remaining traffic uses the established version. A user-agent rule can instead target iPhone traffic specifically. Operations can execute either change on the fly without disrupting end users. section 4.5.3

Figure 4.7 Istio canary deployment feature based on traffic

Shows an Istio canary deployment that uses traffic splitting to expose a new service release to a controlled percentage of traffic. section 4.5.3

Figure 4.8 Istio canary deployment feature based on user-agent

Shows an Istio canary deployment that selects traffic by user-agent, such as iPhone traffic. section 4.5.3

How Google Anthos in Action covers it

How deep it goes

Explains rollout stages, concurrent versions, percentage and user-agent routing, but does not detail deployment configuration.

Examples

Uses a 5% traffic split and user-agent targeting for Service A through Istio.

What it assumes

Assumes services or servers can run multiple versions and traffic rules can select users or percentages.

What you can do after

Operate progressive releases by routing selected traffic to a new version and expanding exposure after testing.

How it connects

Connects canary deployments with traffic routing, A/B testing, progressive rollout, service mesh, and CI/CD integration.

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Also explained in

• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Platform Engineering on KubernetesA canary release is a deployment technique that gradually routes live traffic to a new software version while retaining traffic on a stable version for early validation and rollback.
• 

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  Kubernetes in Action, Second EditionA release technique that exposes a new application version to a limited subset of instances or traffic before expanding it broadly.
• 

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  Infrastructure as Code, Patterns and Practices: With examples in Python and TerraformA canary deployment is a release pattern that incrementally exposes a change to a limited portion of users, traffic, or infrastructure before expanding it broadly.
• 

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  Machine Learning System DesignCanary deployment is a release strategy that sends a limited portion of users or traffic to a new version before fully switching over.
• 

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  Think Like a Software Engineering ManagerA canary deployment releases a software change to a limited subset of users or infrastructure before expanding it to the full population.
• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Kubernetes for DevelopersA rollout is the controlled propagation of an application or platform update across its deployed instances or locations.

Compare how 7 books explain canary deployment →

Related concepts

• blue-green deploymentalternative to · Blue-green deployment is a release pattern that maintains separate active and replacement environments and switches traffic between them after the replacement is validated.
• deploymentkind of · Deployment is the process of making software, models, or other computational systems available to operate in a target environment.
• testing in productionused by · Testing in production is the practice of evaluating software or infrastructure behavior in a live production environment.
• evaluation suiteuses · An evaluation suite is an organized collection of tests, cases, or tasks used to assess a system against specified behaviors or criteria.
• experimentationcontrasts with · Experimentation is the deliberate testing of an idea, intervention, or alternative by observing outcomes to gather evidence or compare effects.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Google Anthos in Action. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.