A Rolling Update is a Kubernetes deployment strategy that gradually replaces old application instances with new ones, ensuring continuous availability during updates. It updates pods incrementally rather than all at once. Also known as a rolling deployment, it is the default and most commonly used Kubernetes update strategy.
Downtime during deployments directly impacts users and business outcomes. Rolling updates reduce deployment risk by ensuring services remain available while changes are rolled out, making them ideal for frequent, incremental releases in production.
When a new version is deployed, Kubernetes gradually spins up new pods and routes traffic to them while shutting down old pods. Health checks ensure only ready pods receive traffic, and the process continues until the update is complete.
BuildPiper standardises rolling updates by enforcing consistent rollout policies, health checks, and observability. It provides visibility into update progress and impact, enabling teams to confidently deploy changes using rolling strategies.
Yes. Rolling update is the default deployment strategy for Kubernetes Deployments.
Rolling updates may not be suitable for applications that require strict version consistency across instances or for certain stateful workloads without careful handling.
BuildPiper enhances rolling updates by adding governance, rollout visibility, and deployment health insights, helping teams detect issues early and roll back safely.