AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)Cloud Technology and ServicesHard
A company wants to release a new version of its web application to only 5% of production users initially, monitor error rates and performance, and then gradually increase the percentage of traffic to the new version if no issues are found. Which deployment method BEST describes this approach?
- ARolling deployment
- BBlue/Green deployment
- CCanary deployment
- DIn-place deployment
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Canary deployment
A canary deployment gradually shifts a small percentage of traffic to the new version first, allowing teams to monitor performance and errors before incrementally increasing traffic, minimizing risk of widespread issues.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Rolling deployment updates instances in batches sequentially, but it doesn't typically use traffic-percentage-based canary testing.
- B. Blue/Green deployment switches all traffic at once between two full environments rather than gradually increasing a small percentage.
- D. In-place deployment updates the application directly on existing servers, without traffic shifting, potentially causing downtime.
Canary Deployment
A deployment strategy that releases a new application version to a small subset of users or traffic first, gradually increasing exposure while monitoring for issues.
- Minimizes blast radius of potential issues
- Differs from Blue/Green by gradual traffic shift rather than full cutover
- Often paired with monitoring tools like CloudWatch
Memory trick: Canary in the coal mine: test with a few before risking everyone.