Latchu@DevOps

Posted on Nov 3

🚀Understanding Linear and Canary Deployments in Amazon ECS (New AWS Feature)

#ecs #devops #aws #devdiscuss

AWS recently announced a powerful new feature for Amazon ECS — you can now perform Linear and Canary Deployments natively.
This means safer, smarter, and more controlled application rollouts without needing external tools or complex scripts. 🙌

Let’s break it down in a way anyone can understand.

🧠 What Problem Does This Solve?

Traditionally, ECS deployments replaced old containers with new ones almost instantly.
If something went wrong, users felt the impact right away — downtime, errors, or failed requests.

With Linear and Canary deployments, you can release gradually, watch how your new version behaves, and only fully roll out when you’re confident.

🟢 What is a Canary Deployment?

A Canary Deployment sends only a small percentage of traffic to your new version (the “canary”) while the rest still goes to the stable version.

If the canary performs well — no errors, healthy metrics — ECS automatically shifts all traffic to the new version.

🕒 Example:

Start by sending 10% of traffic to the new version
Wait 15 minutes to monitor
If everything looks good, shift the remaining 90%

✅ Use Case:

When you’re deploying risky changes or new features that could impact users.

🔵 What is a Linear Deployment?

A Linear Deployment shifts traffic to the new version gradually in equal steps over time.

🕒 Example:

Shift 10% traffic every 5 minutes

After 10 steps (50 minutes), 100% of traffic is on the new version

✅ Use Case:

When you want a smooth, predictable rollout with time to monitor each phase.

⚙️ How It Works in ECS

You can use Application Load Balancer (ALB) or ECS Service Connect for traffic routing.
ECS automatically manages the traffic shifting for you — no manual scripts needed.
Each step includes a bake time, which is a wait period before the next shift.
You can also configure CloudWatch alarms to monitor health and auto-rollback if something fails.

💡 Example JSON Configuration

Here’s how a Linear Deployment looks in ECS configuration:

"deploymentConfiguration": {
  "strategy": "LINEAR",
  "linearConfiguration": {
    "stepPercentage": 10.0,
    "stepBakeTimeInMinutes": 5
  },
  "bakeTimeInMinutes": 10
}

This example means ECS will:

Shift 10% traffic every 5 minutes
Wait for 10 minutes at the end before completing the rollout

🧩 Comparing Deployment Strategies

Strategy	Traffic Shift	Risk Level	Best Use Case
Canary	Small % first, then full	Very Low	Testing risky updates safely
Linear	Gradual equal steps	Low	Stable, controlled rollouts
Blue/Green	Instant full switch	Medium	Major version upgrades

🏁 Why It’s a Game Changer

✅ Safer deployments with minimal downtime
✅ Real-time monitoring during rollout
✅ Automatic rollback options
✅ No third-party tools needed — built right into ECS

🎯 Final Thoughts

AWS keeps making DevOps life easier!
With Linear and Canary deployment strategies in ECS, you can now deploy apps gradually, monitor safely, and avoid downtime — all natively in the AWS ecosystem.

If you’re already using ECS for production workloads, this is one feature you’ll definitely want to try next. 🚀

🌟 Thanks for reading! If this post added value, a like ❤️, follow, or share would encourage me to keep creating more content.

— Latchu | Senior DevOps & Cloud Engineer

☁️ AWS | GCP | ☸️ Kubernetes | 🔐 Security | ⚡ Automation
📌 Sharing hands-on guides, best practices & real-world cloud solutions

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