Driving Canary releases with New Relic and Argo Rollouts

Canary deployments, which incrementally release new features to a subset of users, can be made safer and more efficient using New Relic in conjunction with Kubernetes and Docker. This guide outlines the process of setting up Argo Rollouts, a Kubernetes controller that offers advanced deployment capabilities like canary analysis, using New Relic's AIOps Proactive Detection to monitor application health. The tutorial demonstrates configuring traffic splitting between canary and stable services via Istio, creating necessary Kubernetes resources, and setting up Argo Rollouts Analysis Templates to detect errors and anomalies using New Relic metrics. The strategy involves gradually increasing the canary's traffic while monitoring key indicators such as throughput, response time, and errors. The integration of New Relic provides real-time insights and enables aborting deployments if issues are detected, ensuring only stable versions reach full production. This example is a starting point for defining a strategy tailored to specific applications, and it highlights the importance of monitoring and analysis in successful Canary releases.