Microservices Canary Deployments using AWS AppMesh

Step-1: What are we going to learn? What are Canary Deployments?

• We are going to deploy V2 version of Notification Service.
• We will split the traffic with 50% each between V1 and V2 version of notification service and test.
• Monitor the X-Ray console.

Step-2: Create a Virtual Node in AppMesh for V2 Version of Notification Service

• Virtual Node:
  • Virtual Node Name:notification-vnode-appv2
  • Service Discovery Method: DNS
  • DNS Hostname: notification-service-appv2.stacksimplify-dev.com
  • Backend: Nothing
  • Health Status: Nothing
  • Listener Port: 8096 Protocol: HTTP
  • Health Check: Disabled

Step-3: Update Task Definition Notification Microservice to support V2 version of Application

3.1: Discuss about Notification Microservice V2 Version

• Updated some static text in notificaiton info service which will be accessed from User Management Microservice.
• Review those changes on Spring STS IDE
• Verify the docker image for V2 notification stacksimplify/notifications-microservice:2.0.0 on Docker Hub.
• We are good to proceed with implementation after above checks.

3.2: Update Docker Image

• Docker Image Name: stacksimplify/notifications-microservice:2.0.0

3.3: Update AppMesh settings in Task Definition

• Remove Envoy container and add it again
• Service Integration
  • Enable App Mesh Integration: Checked
  • Service Integration
    • Virtual Node Name: notification-vnode-appv2
• Envoy Container Special Settings
  • ENVOY_LOG_LEVEL: trace
  • ENABLE_ENVOY_XRAY_TRACING: 1
• Proxy Congigurations
  • Egress ignored Ports: 587 VERY IMPORTANT for SES COMMUNICATION

Step-4: Create ECS Service for V2 Notification Microservice

• Configure Service
  • Launch Type: Fargate
  • Task Definition:
    • Family: notification-microservice-td
    • Version: (latest)
  • Service Name: appmesh-notification-appv2
  • Number of Tasks: 1
• Configure Network
  • VPC: ecs-vpc
  • Subnets: ap-south-1a, ap-south-1b
  • Security Groups: appmesh-ecs-inbound
    • Inbound Ports 8096, 8095
  • AutoAssign Public IP: Enabled
• Load Balancing
  • Load Balancer Type: None
  • Important Note: As we are using Service Discovery DNS name for Notification Service, this service doesnt need load balancing via ALB.
• Service Discovery
  • Enable service discovery integration: Checked
  • Namespace: create new private name space
  • Namespace Name: stacksimplify-dev.com
  • Configure service discovery service: Create new service discovery service
  • Service discovery name: notification-service-appv2
  • Enable ECS task health propagation: checked
  • Rest all defaults
• Verify in AWS Cloud Map about the newly created Namespace, Service and registered Service Instance for Notification Microservice.

Step-5: AppMesh - Create Virtual Router

• Name: notification-vrouter
• Listerner: 8096 Protocol: HTTP
• Edit Router to add Routes
  • Route Name:
  • Route Type: http
  • Route Priority:
  • Targets:
    • notification-vnode: Weight 50%
    • notification-vnode-appv2: Weight 50%

Step-6: AppMesh - Update Virtual Service

• Change the "notification-service.stacksimplify-dev.com" virtual service from Virtual Node to Virtual Router.

Step-7: Testing Canary Deployment

• Access the Notification Info API via User Management API.
• Verify the X-Ray console.

http://<ALB-URL>/usermgmt/notification-service-info

Step-8: Clean Up Resources for cost saving

• Update ECS Services (Notification, User Management) Number of Tasks to 0
• Stop RDS Database.
• If we really dont need these resources (RDS & ALB), you can even delete the RDS database and ALB.