Create canary release rules for SAE applications and enable rules for small-scale validation - Serverless App Engine

For microservice applications deployed in SAE, you can enable phased release (also known as canary release) rules for small-scale validation to ensure the security of upgrade operations. After successful validation, you can upgrade the entire application.

Prerequisites

You have deployed an application.
You have activated MSE microservice administration Professional Edition.
Note
Using MSE incurs separate fees. For billing information about MSE, see Billing overview for microservice administration.

Limits

This feature is only applicable to microservice applications created after November 8, 2023.

Feature access

Log on to the SAE console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Applications > Applications. On the page that appears, select a region in the top navigation bar and a namespace from the Namespace drop-down list, and then click the desired application name.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Microservice governance > Traffic Governance, and click the Canary Release Rule tab.

Creating canary release rules

On the Canary Release Rules page, click Create Canary Release Rule, configure the relevant information, and then click OK.

Note

If you are using this feature for the first time, you need to click Enable Microservice Administration on this page and refresh the page before you can configure canary release rules.

Configuration item	Description
Rule Type	Layer-7 Traffic Canary release (K8s Ingress): This allows specific marked layer-7 traffic to be directed to instances in canary release batches during the phased release process. Microservice Traffic: This allows specific marked traffic to be directed to instances in canary release batches during the phased release process.
Rule Name	Set the name of the canary release rule.
Description	Description of the canary release rule.
Canary Release Type	Canary release based on content.
Gateway Instance (ALB Ingress)	This needs to be configured when Rule Type is set to Layer-7 Traffic Canary Release (K8s Ingress). SAE implements gateway routing (Ingress) based on ALB, which can route to different applications based on domain names and paths. You need to configure an ALB instance for your application and create routing rules first. For more information, see Setting routing rules for applications (ALB).
Service For Canary Release	This needs to be configured when Rule Type is set to Layer-7 Traffic Canary Release (K8s Ingress). Select the application that needs canary release and its corresponding port.
Framework Type	This needs to be configured when Rule Type is set to Microservices Traffic. Configure the framework type for the canary release rule. Spring Cloud: You need to set Path. Dubbo: You need to select Service Method.
Condition Mode	This needs to be configured when Rule Type is set to Microservices Traffic. Configure the condition mode for the canary release rule. Select Meet All Following Conditions or Meet One of Following Conditions.
Condition List	Click +Add Condition to add multiple conditions. Microservice canary release traffic Spring Cloud: Based on parameter types (Cookie, Header, or Parameter), configure Parameter, Condition, and Value. Dubbo: Configure Parameter, Parameter Value Expression, Condition, and Value. Layer-7 traffic canary release Based on parameter types Cookie, Header, or Source IP, configure Parameter and Value.

For Microservice Traffic, you can also click +Add Canary Release Rule to create multiple entry traffic rules that can take effect simultaneously.

Editing or deleting canary release rules

On the Canary Release Rules page, find the target rule and in its Action column, you can Edit or Delete it.

After activating the MSE microservice administration feature, MSE will continue to bill you even if you have deleted the canary release rules. You can refer to the following information to decide whether to disable the microservice administration feature.

If you do not need to use the microservice administration feature, you can avoid unnecessary MSE fees by going to the application Basic Information page, and in the upper-right corner, selecting More > Disable Microservice Governance. Follow the page prompts to disable it.

Warning

After you disable the microservices governance feature, other features related to microservices governance (including graceful start and shutdown, canary release rules, and throttling and degradation) cannot be used except for the service list feature. An application restart is triggered when you disable the microservices governance feature. You must determine business risks before you disable the microservices governance feature.

More information

After creating canary release rules, you can configure a phased release strategy for your application to test new versions. Taking Spring Cloud microservice applications as an example, SAE explains how to perform a phased release of applications. For more information, see Phased release of applications.