Rolling update
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.
Kubernetes in Action, Second Edition
The RollingUpdate strategy is a deployment update strategy that replaces application pods gradually while applying an updated pod template.
- How it is used
- Replaces application Pods gradually when a Deployment's Pod template changes, keeping a Service supplied with Pods during the upgrade.
- How deep it goes
- Works through ReplicaSet scaling, readiness, rollout commands, and replacement limits, then distinguishes StatefulSet and DaemonSet behavior.
- Examples
- Uses a three-replica image update, rollout-status output, mixed-version Service requests, and a partitioned StatefulSet update.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it with Deployment strategy settings and kubectl rollout commands; recognize when mixed versions or daemon overlap cause problems.
Read how Kubernetes in Action, Second Edition explains rolling update →
Acing the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Exam, Second Edition
An application rollout is the controlled, versioned progression of deploying a new workload or application version through successive revisions.
- How it is used
- Maintains a running Kubernetes Deployment by replacing its pods with an updated application version while minimizing downtime.
- How deep it goes
- Works through image changes, ReplicaSet transitions, revision history, rollback, and status commands; illustrates rollout limits without exploring controller internals.
- Examples
- Uses an Apache Deployment image change, old and new ReplicaSet listings, and kubectl commands for history, status, pause, resume, and undo.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure it with kubectl to update a Deployment, verify its rollout, inspect revisions, and revert a problematic change.
Read how Acing the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Exam, Second Edition explains rolling update →
Amazon Web Services in Action, Third Edition: An in-depth guide to AWS
A rolling update replaces instances or software versions incrementally while keeping enough of the existing deployment available to avoid service interruption.
- How it is used
- Deploys web-application revisions by replacing EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group without planned user downtime.
- How deep it goes
- Walks through stack deployment, launch-template user data, Auto Scaling update policy, version change, and startup-log inspection.
- Examples
- Updates an Etherpad deployment from version 1.8.17 to 1.8.18 using a CloudFormation version parameter.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure a CloudFormation rolling update and inspect an EC2 startup log when deployment fails.
Machine Learning Platform Engineering
A rolling update is a gradual replacement of running application instances with instances of a newer version while maintaining service availability.
- How it is used
- Maintains application availability while Kubernetes upgrades container images in production.
- How deep it goes
- Explains Deployment-managed ReplicaSet scaling, pauses on errors, and rollback, but does not detail update strategy parameters.
- Examples
- Uses a three-replica hello-joker Deployment updated from image v1 to v2, with kubectl status and event commands.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure a Kubernetes Deployment, observe its rollout, and undo a problematic update.
Read how Machine Learning Platform Engineering explains rolling update →
Kubernetes for Developers
A rolling update incrementally replaces instances of an application with a new version while retaining some existing instances during the transition.
- How it is used
- Deploys new Kubernetes application versions while preserving service availability and limiting additional capacity.
- How deep it goes
- Explains grouped replacement, availability gates, tunable limits, monitoring, and compatibility, but defers detailed health-check treatment.
- Examples
- Uses a three-replica timeserver Deployment, image versions 1 through 3, YAML settings, and kubectl rollout monitoring.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure Kubernetes rolling updates with maxSurge, maxUnavailable, readiness checks, and kubectl status monitoring.
Read how Kubernetes for Developers explains rolling update →
Infrastructure as Code, Patterns and Practices: With examples in Python and Terraform
A change technique that updates similar infrastructure resources incrementally, validating each resource before proceeding to the next.
- How it is used
- Reduces infrastructure-change blast radius during refactoring, upgrades, and in-place updates.
- How deep it goes
- Explains the sequential replacement-and-test workflow and failure isolation, without detailing automation implementation.
- Examples
- Uses replacement servers, application tests, DNS and load-balancer upgrades, and a broken server override script.
- What you can do after
- Apply incremental infrastructure changes and diagnose failures before they affect the remaining resources.
Platform Engineering on Kubernetes
A rolling update replaces running application instances incrementally by starting updated instances and terminating older ones after the replacements are ready.
- How it is used
- Uses Kubernetes Deployments to upgrade running application instances while minimizing downtime.
- How deep it goes
- Explains strategy defaults, replica limits, health probes, ReplicaSets, triggers, and inspection, but not detailed rollout commands or rollback procedures.
- Examples
- Demonstrates a Conference Frontend scaling change, environment-variable update, ReplicaSet creation, and responses from different replicas.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure rolling updates with kubectl, change Deployment templates, and inspect rollout strategy and replica status.
Read how Platform Engineering on Kubernetes explains rolling update →
Bootstrapping Microservices, Second Edition: With Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions, and Terraform
A rolling update is a deployment technique that incrementally replaces running application instances with a new version while keeping other instances available.
- How it is used
- Uses Kubernetes to roll out microservice changes incrementally while preserving service availability.
- How deep it goes
- Explains the replica sequence, readiness gating, halt behavior, and possible rollback, while deferring detailed Kubernetes documentation.
- Examples
- Uses a three-replica gateway deployment configured with RollingUpdate, maxSurge 1, and maxUnavailable 0.
- What you can do after
- Operate Kubernetes deployments that validate each replacement and halt or roll back when a new instance fails readiness.
Related concepts
- Recreate strategycontrasts with · A recreate strategy replaces an application version by stopping all existing instances before starting instances of the new version.
- consumer group rebalancingproduces · Consumer group rebalancing is the redistribution of topic-partition assignments among consumer group members after membership or partition availability changes.
- blue-green deploymentincludes · Blue-green deployment is a release pattern that maintains separate active and replacement environments and switches traffic between them after the replacement is validated.
- Kubernetes Deploymentused by · A Kubernetes Deployment is a declarative API resource that manages the desired state, scaling, and updates of a replicated application workload.
- maxUnavailableconfigured by · maxUnavailable is a Kubernetes rolling-update setting that limits the number of Pods allowed to be unavailable during an update.
- maxSurgeconfigured by · maxSurge is a Kubernetes rolling-update setting that limits the number of additional Pods allowed above the desired replica count.
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