Release Management

Effective release management is crucial for maintaining stable and secure Buzzy deployments. This guide covers best practices for managing Buzzy releases, updates, and deployments.

Table of contents

1. Release strategy

2. Version management

3. Deployment procedures

4. Rollback procedures

5. Testing and validation

6. Monitoring and maintenance

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Release strategy

Release Types

• Major Releases: Significant feature additions and architectural changes

• Minor Releases: New features and enhancements

• Patch Releases: Bug fixes and security updates

• Hotfixes: Critical security or stability fixes

Release Cadence

• Scheduled Releases: Regular release schedule (monthly/quarterly)

• Emergency Releases: Critical fixes outside regular schedule

• Security Updates: Immediate deployment for security patches

• Feature Releases: Based on development completion

Environment Strategy

• Development: Latest development builds

• Staging: Pre-production testing environment

• Production: Stable, tested releases only

• Disaster Recovery: Backup production environment

Version management

Semantic Versioning

Buzzy follows semantic versioning (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH):

• MAJOR: Incompatible API changes

• MINOR: Backward-compatible functionality additions

• PATCH: Backward-compatible bug fixes

Version Tracking

• Container Tags: Docker images tagged with version numbers

• Configuration Management: Version-specific configuration files

• Database Migrations: Tracked database schema changes

• Documentation: Version-specific documentation

Compatibility Matrix

Buzzy Version	MongoDB	Kubernetes	Node.js
3.2.x	4.4+	1.18+	14.x
3.1.x	4.2+	1.16+	14.x
3.0.x	4.2+	1.16+	12.x

Deployment procedures

Pre-deployment Checklist

• Backup current deployment

• Verify system requirements

• Review release notes

• Test in staging environment

• Prepare rollback plan

• Schedule maintenance window

• Notify stakeholders

Blue-Green Deployment

1. Prepare Green Environment: Deploy new version to parallel environment

2. Validate Green: Test new deployment thoroughly

3. Switch Traffic: Route traffic from blue to green

4. Monitor: Watch for issues in new environment

5. Cleanup: Remove old blue environment after validation

Rolling Deployment

1. Update Configuration: Apply new configuration settings

2. Deploy Incrementally: Update services one at a time

3. Health Checks: Verify each service before proceeding

4. Monitor Progress: Watch deployment progress and metrics

5. Complete Rollout: Finish deployment across all instances

Kubernetes Deployment Example

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: buzzy-main
spec:
  replicas: 3
  strategy:
    type: RollingUpdate
    rollingUpdate:
      maxUnavailable: 1
      maxSurge: 1
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: buzzy-main
        image: buzzybuzz/buzzy-main:3.2.1
        readinessProbe:
          httpGet:
            path: /health
            port: 8080
          initialDelaySeconds: 30
          periodSeconds: 10
        livenessProbe:
          httpGet:
            path: /health
            port: 8080
          initialDelaySeconds: 60
          periodSeconds: 30

Rollback procedures

Automated Rollback

• Health Check Failures: Automatic rollback on failed health checks

• Performance Degradation: Rollback based on performance metrics

• Error Rate Threshold: Rollback when error rates exceed limits

• User-Defined Triggers: Custom rollback conditions

Manual Rollback

1. Identify Issue: Determine the scope and impact of the problem

2. Stop Deployment: Halt any ongoing deployment processes

3. Revert Configuration: Restore previous configuration settings

4. Rollback Database: Restore database to previous state if needed

5. Verify System: Confirm system stability after rollback

Kubernetes Rollback Example

# View rollout history
kubectl rollout history deployment/buzzy-main

# Rollback to previous version
kubectl rollout undo deployment/buzzy-main

# Rollback to specific revision
kubectl rollout undo deployment/buzzy-main --to-revision=2

# Check rollout status
kubectl rollout status deployment/buzzy-main

Testing and validation

Pre-deployment Testing

• Unit Tests: Automated testing of individual components

• Integration Tests: Testing of component interactions

• Performance Tests: Load and stress testing

• Security Tests: Vulnerability and penetration testing

Staging Environment Testing

• Full System Tests: Complete application testing

• User Acceptance Tests: Business user validation

• Data Migration Tests: Database upgrade testing

• Backup and Recovery Tests: Disaster recovery validation

Production Validation

• Smoke Tests: Basic functionality verification

• Health Checks: System health monitoring

• Performance Monitoring: Response time and throughput

• User Experience Monitoring: Real user monitoring

Monitoring and maintenance

Release Monitoring

• Application Performance: Response times and throughput

• Error Rates: Application and system errors

• Resource Utilization: CPU, memory, and storage usage

• User Activity: User engagement and behavior

Maintenance Activities

• Security Updates: Regular security patch application

• Dependency Updates: Third-party library updates

• Performance Optimization: System tuning and optimization

• Capacity Planning: Resource scaling and planning

Alerting and Notifications

• Critical Issues: Immediate notification for critical problems

• Performance Degradation: Alerts for performance issues

• Security Events: Notifications for security incidents

• Deployment Status: Updates on deployment progress

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