Continuous deployment is a process that allows companies to release software in minutes instead of days or weeks. All new code that is written for an application is immediately deployed in production by using an automated pipeline. This technique can dramatically increase the amount of feedback you collect and give you the ability to adapt to unexpected events. This process requires a great deal of discipline and can enhance software quality, by applying a rigorous set of standards to every change to prevent regressions, outages, or harm to key business metrics. During my presentation I will go through the main elements that make this possible, I will review some existing tools that you can use and tell you a few stories about small and large companies that implement continuous deployment.

1. Continuous
Deployment Pipeline
Andrei Savu @ OpenAgile Timisoara 2012

2. Me
• Founder of Axemblr.com
• Bucharest Java User Group (bjug.ro)
• Open Source Contributor
• Connect with me on LinkedIn

3. Overview
• Agile & Lean Methodology
• Build-Measure-Learn Loop
• Implementation Steps
• Success stories
• Key points

4. Q: How fast can you push
a change in production?
(hot-fix or security update)

5. Agile & Lean
• Release early, Release often
• Maximise learning opportunities
• Build the right thing
• Client as critical component of the process

6. Build-Measure-Learn Loop
IDEAS
LEARN BUILD
DATA PRODUCT
MEASURE

7. Speed! Quality! Cost!
IDEAS
LEARN BUILD
DATA PRODUCT
MEASURE

8. Continuous Deployment
“All new code is automatically deployed in
production by using an automated pipeline”
Assumes: trunk always ready for release, one
step deployment process, monitoring

9. Implementation Steps
Pipeline Components

10. 0.Version Control
• Code and *Infrastructure*
• Choices: Git, SVN
• Configuration: Puppet, Chef, CFEngine

11. 1. CI Server
• Continuous Integration Server
• Backbone. Runs all tests. Gatekeeper.
• Choices: Jenkins, BuildBot, TeamCity etc.
• Start by adding tests for bugs
• Keep the suite fast (10 - 30 minutes)

12. 2. Commit Check
• Version control with a hook that allows the
server to refuse a commit
• Enforce standards
• “stop the line” role
• Halt new changes on broken build

13. 3. Simple Deployment
• One step from a specific revision
• Easy way to create a QA environment
• Push button deployment to production
• Leverage cloud computing technologies

14. 4. Excellent Monitoring
• Correlate w/ deployment & external events
• Monitor business metrics
• Monitor business processes
• Smoke tests included

15. 5. Root cause analysis
• Faults will get in production
• Understand why
• Fix the process
• Avoid blame

16. Manual Done
Trigger
Review & Build & Deploy More Deploy
Commit Monitor
Check Test Staging Tests Prod
Rollback
Fix Root
Process Cause

17. Success Stories

18. IMVU
• ~50 deploys per day in batches
• 9 minutes per build across 30-40 build
servers
• Doing the impossible fifty times a day
http://timothyfitz.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/continuous-deployment-at-
imvu-doing-the-impossible-fifty-times-a-day/

19. Flickr
• 10 deploys per day
• “Lowering the risk of change through tools
and culture” - DevOps
• Feature flags & always ship trunk
• Dev and Ops cooperation at Flickr
http://www.slideshare.net/jallspaw/10-deploys-per-day-dev-and-ops-
cooperation-at-flickr

20. Etsy
• ~25 times per day
• Faster cycles, Improve morale
• “we don’t rollback, we fix the code”
• “So simple, a VC can do it” - Pete Miron
• Fred Wilson on Continuous Deployment
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/02/continuous-deployment.html

21. Wordpress.com
• ~16 releases per day (19 / 5 / 2010)
• Optimize for perfection vs. speed
• One step deploy to 400 machines (30s)
• In praise of continuous deployment
http://toni.org/2010/05/19/in-praise-of-continuous-deployment-the-
wordpress-com-story/

22. Facebook
• 1-2 push per day - 1 large per week
• 1B monthly active users
• Culture, Tools, IRC
• Pushing Millions of Lines of Code Five Days
a Week https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?
v=10100259101684977&oid=9445547199

23. Key Points
• Not rocket science!
• A release should be a non-event
• Build quality in the development process
• Partial implementations can bring a lot of
value

24. Thanks!
Andrei Savu / asavu@axemblr.com
Twitter: @andreisavu

25. Resources #1
• Continuous Integration step by step
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/12/continuous-integration-step-
by-step.html
• Five Whys
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/11/five-whys.html
• Anatomy of the Deployment Pipeline
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1621865
• Building for the Cloud @ Netflix
http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Building-for-the-Cloud-at-Netflix

26. Resources #2
• 10 deploys per day @ Flickr
http://www.slideshare.net/jallspaw/10-deploys-per-day-dev-and-ops-
cooperation-at-flickr
• John Allspaw blog
http://www.kitchensoap.com/
• Jez Humble: Continuous Delivery
http://www.slideshare.net/jezhumble/continuous-delivery-5359386
• Deploying at Github
https://github.com/blog/1241-deploying-at-github

27. Resource #3
• How Facebook Does Deployment
http://java.dzone.com/articles/how-facebook-does-deployment
• Asgard: Web-based Cloud Management and
Deployment
http://techblog.netflix.com/2012/06/asgard-web-based-cloud-management-
and.html
• Chaos Monkey Released Into The Wild
http://techblog.netflix.com/2012/07/chaos-monkey-released-into-wild.html

28. Resource #4
• Keeping Movies Running Amid
Thunderstorms!
http://www.slideshare.net/r39132/keeping-movies-running-amid-
thunderstorms
• LinkedIn Glu
http://linkedin.github.com/glu/docs/latest/html/index.html
• Measure Everything @ Etsy
http://codeascraft.etsy.com/2011/02/15/measure-anything-measure-
everything/

29. Questions?
Andrei Savu / asavu@axemblr.com
Twitter: @andreisavu