Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) supports phased releases. You can use this feature to release different versions of an application and iterate applications in an efficient manner. This allows you to verify the functionality of a new application version.

Background information

Note By default, alicloud-application-controller is installed for a cluster in version 1.9.3 or later. For a cluster of an earlier version, you can upgrade the cluster based on the instructions in the ACK console.

Procedure

  1. Log on to the ACK console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Clusters.
  3. On the Clusters page, click the name of a cluster or click Details in the Actions column. The details page of the cluster appears.
  4. In the left-side navigation pane, click Releases.
  5. Click the Batch Release tab. On the tab that appears, click Create Batch Release in the upper-right corner.
    Note If the button is unavailable, you must upgrade the cluster based on the instructions in the ACK console.
  6. In the Batch Release Basic Information step, specify parameters Name, Cluster, Namespace, and Release Option. Click Next.
    Configure parameters for a phased release
  7. In the Batch Release Configuration step, configure pods and services and click Update. An application is created.
    Create an application
  8. Return to the Batch Release tab. You can find the newly created release and its status is Not Started. To view the details of the release, click View Details in the Actions column.
    View release details 1
  9. On the details page of the release, view release details. To update the release, click Change Configuration in the upper-right corner.
  10. On the page that appears, modify the parameter values for the release and click Update.
    Update the release
  11. By default, the Batch Release tab appears. You can view the status of the release. After the first version is deployed, click View Details in the Actions column.
    View release details 2
  12. On the details page of the release, view release details. The Not Started tab displays two pods and the Completed tab displays two pods. This indicates that the first version is deployed. To deploy the second version, click Continue. To roll back to the previous version, click Roll Back.
    Rollback
  13. After the release is completed, click the History tab and select a history version to which you want to roll back.
    Roll back to a history version

What to do next

The phased release feature allows you to verify the functionality of a new application version without splitting traffic from the old version. Therefore, a phased release consumes fewer resources than a blue-green release. You can implement a phased release in the ACK console. Support for YAML files will be available soon.