As businesses move more and more of their operations online, they need to be able to quickly and reliably roll out new software and systems. Blue-green deployment is an important strategy for achieving this.
Blue-green deployment is a deployment strategy that involves creating two identical infrastructure environments – one ‘blue’ and one ‘green’ – for a rollout of new software or systems. Typically, the ‘blue’ environment is the existing system, while the ‘green’ environment is the new system. The goal of blue-green deployment is to reduce the risk of failure and downtime associated with deploying a new system.
Before you begin, you'll need to create the necessary infrastructure to support your blue-green deployment strategy. This includes setting up two identical production environments, one for the blue version of the application and one for the green version.
The next step is to install the application on both the blue and green environments. This should include configuring the application, setting up the database, and any other steps needed to get the application up and running.
Once the application is installed, it's important to test it to make sure that everything is working correctly. This includes running automated tests, manual tests, and performance tests to ensure that the application is functioning as expected.
Once the application is tested, you can begin the deployment process by deploying the blue version of the application. This should include switching the DNS settings to point to the blue environment, deploying the code and any necessary configuration changes, and manually verifying that the application is working correctly.
Once the blue version is deployed and working correctly, you can deploy the green version of the application. This should include the same steps as deploying the blue version, along with any necessary configuration changes.
The final step is to switch the traffic from the blue environment to the green environment. This should be done gradually to ensure that the application continues to function correctly. When the traffic is switched, you should monitor the application to make sure that everything is working as expected.
Blue-green deployment offers a number of advantages for businesses.
• Reduced downtime: By utilizing two separate environments, blue-green deployment allows the two systems to be tested in parallel and ensures that the new system is functioning properly before being released to the public. This reduces the risk of downtime due to errors in the new system.
• Quicker deployment: By testing the new system in a separate environment, blue-green deployment allows for a quicker and smoother deployment process as the system can be tested before going live.
• Easier rollback: If the new system doesn’t work as expected, the ‘green’ environment can be quickly rolled back to the ‘blue’ environment. This eliminates the need for manual rollbacks and makes recovery much faster and easier.
• Improved scalability: By having two separate environments, businesses can more easily scale up or down depending on the needs of the system.
