Principles and practices in Continuous Deployment at Etsy. Presented by Mike Brittain at TimesOpen (nytimes) on July 22, 2014

1. Principles and Practices in
Continuous Deployment
Mike Brittain
Engineering Director, Etsy
@mikebrittain
July22,2014

2. “Continuous Deployment”
Process by which our team deploys software changes
to production services over 30 times per day.

3. The Release Hurdle
2-3 weeks of code changes per release
Highly-orchestrated releases (6+ hours)
^ Same for rollbacks
Scheduled downtime
Long, stressful days
Slow iterations

4. pro·duc·tion [pruh-duhk-shuhn] (n)
1. This complex system of application code,
distributed services, servers, networking gear, etc.,
upon which we’re going to try to carefully apply a
complicated set of changes and hope that nothing
goes wrong. Cross your fingers… here goes.

5. Software for large-scale web sites has been
traditionally written by one group of people, then
released and operated by a different group.
These two groups have very different levels of
visibility into how the software works.

6. Stagnation

7. “…frequent and prolonged outages.”
2010 CAPACITY PLAN

8. First, Principles
Enable rapid product innovation
Resolve scaling hurdles
Reduce mean-time-to-recovery
Grow a talented and engaged engineering team
Minimal bureaucracy and process

9. http://timothyfitz.com/2009/02/10/continuous-deployment-at-imvu-doing-the-impossible-fifty-times-a-day/
In a software release process Fail Fast means releasing undeployed
code as fast as possible, instead of waiting for a weekly release to break.

10. http://youtu.be/LdOe18KhtT4

11. Continuous Deployment
Continuous Delivery
~ vs ~

12. Frequent check-ins directly to
mainline.
Continuous Deployment Continuous Delivery
✓ ✓

13. Continuous Integration and
Automated tests.
Continuous Deployment Continuous Delivery
✓ ✓

14. Keep the build green.
We’re always ready to release.
Continuous Deployment Continuous Delivery
✓ ✓

15. “One button” deploys.
Continuous Deployment Continuous Delivery
✓ ✓

17. Business dictates when a build is
deployed.
Continuous Deployment Continuous Delivery
✓

18. Every passing build is deployed to
production.
Continuous Deployment Continuous Delivery
✓

19. All enhancements are gated by
Config Flags. (“Branch in code”)
Continuous Deployment Continuous Delivery
✓ ?

20. Most of the builds we deploy are
“dark” changes.
CSS rules, template copy, un-referenced code (classes,
functions, templates), code paths behind disabled
flags, etc.

21. Dev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Release
Check in
Trigger
Feedback
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_delivery
Continuous Delivery release pipeline

22. Dev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Release
Check in
Trigger
Feedback
Check in
Trigger
Feedback Trigger
Feedback
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_delivery
Continuous Delivery release pipeline

23. Dev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Release
Check in
Trigger
Feedback
Check in
Trigger
Feedback Trigger
Feedback
Check in
Trigger
Feedback Trigger
Feedback Approval
ApprovalFeedback
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_delivery
Continuous Delivery release pipeline

24. Dev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Release
Check in
Trigger
Feedback
Check in
Trigger
Feedback Trigger
Feedback
Check in
Trigger
Feedback Trigger
Feedback Approval
ApprovalFeedback
Continuous Delivery release pipeline
Dev / Integration Staging Production

25. Dev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Release
Check in
Trigger
Feedback
Check in
Trigger
Feedback Trigger
Feedback
Check in
Trigger
Feedback Trigger
Feedback Approval
ApprovalFeedback
Continuous Delivery release pipeline
Dev / Integration Staging Production
Assumptions:
Deploy process is infallible.
Staging is a perfect reflection of
Production, with respect to
hardware, configurations, data,
overall load, capacity, etc.

26. “What do you mean, ‘it’s not working in
production?’ I TESTED IT BEFORE WE
RELEASED!”
(DUN DUN DUUUUHHHNNN !!!)

27. Dev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Release
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Continuous Delivery release pipeline
Dev / Integration Staging Production
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval

28. Dev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Release
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Continuous Delivery release pipeline
Dev / Integration Staging Production
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Feedback

29. DUN DUN DUUUUHHHNNN !!!

30. Dev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Release
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Continuous Delivery release pipeline
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Feedback
"Because you’re integrating
so frequently, there is
significantly less back-
tracking to discover where
things went wrong , so you
can spend more time
building features.”
!
—ThoughtWorks
!
!
http://www.thoughtworks.com/continuous-integration
Dev / Integration Staging Production

31. Dev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Release
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Continuous Delivery release pipeline
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Feedback
Dev / Integration Staging Production
Where’s the bug?
!
In one of the numerous check-ins?
Missing unit tests?
Missing automated UA tests?
Missing manual UA tests?
!
Data out of sync?
Server configurations out of sync?
Capacity vs. current load?
Deployment script?

32. Dev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Release
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Continuous Delivery release pipeline
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Approval
Check in
Trigger
Trigger
Approval
Feedback
Dev / Integration Staging Production
How will we know when
something is wrong in
production?
!
How long will it take to
resolve the issue?
Check in
Trigger

33. We aim to reduce fundamental surprise in
every release, and we optimize for detecting
and recovering from failures quickly.
Sarabbit on Flickr:

34. “Quality is not just testing pre-release.
It also includes our adaptability and
response time.”
- Jeff Sussna at ALM Forum, 2014

35. Pre-production validation
Code deployed to de-pooled application (web) servers
touching prod services and databases.
Smoke tests
Integration tests
Functional tests
User-Acceptance (ad hoc, targeted)

36. Production validation
Exactly the same server configs, services and data as
pre-prod, but this is where we introduce application
code to live traffic.
Smoke tests (esp. over public hostnames)
User-Acceptance testing behind config flags
Gratuitous monitoring
Customer support and forums

37. Monitoring

38. Monitoring
PHP Warnings Bug Reports and Help Requests

39. Deploy logs

40. Check in
Trigger
Feedback Trigger
Feedback Approval
Approval
Smoke Tests
User Acceptance!
Tests
ReleaseDev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Deploy (Prod)
Monitoring and
Automated Alerts
Continuous Deployment release pipeline
Feedback

41. Dev Pre-Production
(“Princess”)
Production
Check in
Trigger
Feedback Trigger
Feedback Approval
ApprovalFeedback
Smoke Tests
User Acceptance!
Tests
ReleaseDev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Deploy (Prod)
Monitoring and
Automated Alerts
Continuous Deployment release pipeline
CI

42. Dev Pre-Production
(“Princess”)
Production
Check in
Trigger
Feedback Trigger
Feedback Approval
ApprovalFeedback
Smoke Tests
User Acceptance!
Tests
ReleaseDev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Deploy (Prod)
Monitoring and
Automated Alerts
Continuous Deployment release pipeline
CI
Approval
Approval
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback

43. Dev Pre-Production
(“Princess”)
Production
Check in
Trigger
Feedback Trigger
Feedback Approval
ApprovalFeedback
Smoke Tests
User Acceptance!
Tests
ReleaseDev Team Version Control
Build & Unit
Tests
Automated
Acceptance Tests
User Acceptance
Tests
Deploy (Prod)
Monitoring and
Automated Alerts
Continuous Deployment release pipeline
CI
Approval
Approval
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback Approval
Feedback Approval
Feedback

44. “Allow buttons properly to inherit color
from their parent node.”

47. The Release Hurdle
2-3 weeks of code changes per release
Highly-orchestrated releases (6+ hours)
^ Same for rollbacks
Scheduled downtime
Long, stressful days
Slow iterations

48. @mikebrittain
Very end of 2009 Today
DEPLOYMENTSPERDAY
APPCODE
CONFIGFILES

49. First, Principles
Enable rapid product innovation
Resolve scaling hurdles
Reduce mean-time-to-recovery
Grow a talented and engaged engineering team
Reduce bureaucracy and process

51. Admin-launch and whitelist
Ramp-up public traffic

52. US","region":"US","detected_currency_code":"USD","detected_language":"en-
US","detected_region":"US","accept-languages":"en-US","cdn-
provider":"","isMobileDevice":"0","isMobileSupported":"0","isMobileRequestIgnoreCookie":"0"
,"isTabletSupported":"0","isTouch":"0","isEtsyApp":"0","isPreviewRequest":"0","isChromeInst
antRequest":"0","isMozPrefetchRequest":"0","listing_ids":
[104073511,130604774,159651433,155451607,160523743,124025232,95186610,82967340,114692884,11
4767467,117266897,157579748],"scheduled_modules_content_ids":
[10808052776,10256029946],"primary_event":"1",".event_source":"web",".event_logger":"fronte
nd","php_ab_test_names":"translation_profiler.profiling;translation_profiler.logging;transl
ation_profiler.backend_event_logging;footer_redesign_20131201;international.languages.el;in
ternational.languages.ja;international.languages.no;international.languages.pl;internationa
l.languages.ro;international.languages.tr;simplified_locale_experience;full_site_ssl;admin_
toolbar;enabled_locale_subdirectories;affiliates.publishing.user_publishers;buyer_invites_r
ecipients;home_improvement;home_improvement.new_homepage;authoritative_items;refactored_foo
ter;conversations.rejuvination;contextual_homepage_recs.global;css_from_www;shrinkray.css;c
srf_nonce_refactor.allow_colon;csrf_nonce_refactor.reverse_order;csrf_nonce_refactor.no_enc
Analytics connected to config names

53. Observed impact
Time series data for
duration of the
experiment
“Catapult”

54. Frank
Product Manager

55. “I want to find out whether
buyers will favor a single
price for the product that
includes shipping.”
https://www.etsy.com/shop/lucra

56. Eligibility requirements:
- Must be first page of visit
- Buyer & seller in same region
- etc…

57. Time: < 8 hours
Staff: One
!
Design, config flag (disabled), eligibility code in
controller, template code, CSS, code review,
automated tests, deployed code, config flag enabled.

58. We do not bundle the item
price and shipping cost
together today.
!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/lucra

60. Ambitious Product Goal
Monolithic
Building and measuring many
things at once.

61. Ambitious Product Goal
Monolithic
Building and measuring many
things at once.
Iterative
One thing at a time, our design
goal is always in sight.

62. Time: < 8 hours
Staff: One
!
Design, config flag (disabled), eligibility code in
controller, template code, CSS, code review,
automated tests, deployed code, config flag enabled.
Deployed Deployed

63. http://timothyfitz.com/2009/02/10/continuous-deployment-at-imvu-doing-the-impossible-fifty-times-a-day/
“Maybe this is just viable for a single
developer … your site will be down. A lot.”
~ Informed reader

64. etsystatus.com

65. @mikebrittain
Very end of 2009 Today
DEPLOYMENTSPERDAY
APPCODE
CONFIGFILES

66. $1.35 Billion Goods sold in 2013
60+ Million Unique visitors per month
!
200+ Committers, everyone deploys
http://www.etsy.com/blog/news/2013/etsy-statistics-december-2012-weather-report/Items by anjaysdesigns, betwixxt, OneStarLeatherGoods, mediumcontrol, TheDesignPallet

67. Thank you.
Mike Brittain
Engineering Director, Etsy
@mikebrittain
July22,2014
mikebrittain.com/talks