You are responsible for deploying multiple microservices to a production environment. What deployment strategies would you use to ensure minimal downtime and seamless updates?
Answer:
I would use the following deployment strategies:
Blue-Green Deployment:
In this approach, I would run two environments (blue and green). The current version of the service runs in the blue environment, while the new version is deployed to the green environment. Once the green environment is validated, traffic is switched from blue to green, ensuring zero downtime.
Canary Deployment:
I would release the new version of the service to a small subset of users while keeping the old version for the majority of users. Once the new version is validated, it is gradually rolled out to the rest of the users.
Rolling Deployment:
In Kubernetes, I would use rolling updates to gradually replace old versions of the service pods with new ones, ensuring minimal downtime and no disruption to users.
Feature Toggles:
Use feature toggles to enable or disable new features dynamically without redeploying the entire application. This is especially useful for testing new features in production without exposing them to all users.