Deployment Flashcards

What is a rolling deployment?

Answer: Updating instances incrementally, a few at a time, while keeping others live

Rolling deployments replace old instances with new ones gradually, maintaining availability throughout the process.

What environment variable naming convention is widely used to distinguish deployment targets?

Answer: NODE_ENV=production

NODE_ENV=production is the de facto standard used by Node.js frameworks and bundlers to enable production optimizations.

Which tool is commonly used for container orchestration at scale?

Answer: Kubernetes

Kubernetes automates deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across clusters of machines.

What does a .dockerignore file do?

Answer: Excludes files and directories from the Docker build context

.dockerignore excludes paths from being sent to the Docker daemon during build, reducing image size and build time.

In GitHub Actions, what triggers a workflow defined with `on: push: branches: [main]`?

Answer: Any commit pushed directly to the main branch

This configuration runs the workflow whenever commits are pushed to the main branch specifically.

What is the function of an Nginx reverse proxy in a web deployment?

Answer: Forwarding client requests to backend application servers and returning responses

Nginx as a reverse proxy sits in front of app servers, routing requests, handling SSL, and load balancing.

What does 'zero-downtime deployment' mean?

Answer: New code is released without making the application unavailable to users

Zero-downtime deployment ensures users experience no service interruption while new code is being released.