Production Considerations: What Makes Production Different
Development is easy. Production is hard. Development works on your machine. Production needs to work for everyone. Always. That's the difference.
🎯 The Big Picture​
Think of production like a restaurant opening. Development is cooking at home (works for you). Production is opening a restaurant (works for everyone, always). Different standards. Different requirements. Different everything.
Production considerations are what make production work. Reliability. Scalability. Monitoring. Security. Everything that matters when it's real.
Development vs Production​
Development:
- Works on your machine
- Can break, it's okay
- Manual processes
- Basic security
- Simple setup
Production:
- Works for everyone
- Can't break
- Automated processes
- Full security
- Complex setup
The difference: Development is forgiving. Production is not.
Key Production Considerations​
1. Reliability​
Production must be reliable:
What it means:
- High availability
- Automatic recovery
- Health checks
- Graceful degradation
How to achieve:
services:
app:
restart: unless-stopped
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost/health"]
interval: 30s
timeout: 10s
retries: 3
deploy:
replicas: 3 # Multiple instances
update_config:
parallelism: 1
delay: 10s
failure_action: rollback
Think of it as: Restaurant must be open. Always. Even if one chef is sick. Others cover.
2. Scalability​
Production must scale:
What it means:
- Handle traffic spikes
- Scale up and down
- Resource efficient
- Load distribution
How to achieve:
services:
app:
deploy:
replicas: 3
resources:
limits:
cpus: '1.0'
memory: 512M
update_config:
parallelism: 1
delay: 10s
Think of it as: Restaurant must handle rush hour. More staff when busy. Fewer when quiet.
3. Monitoring​
Production must be monitored:
What it means:
- Know what's happening
- Alert on problems
- Track metrics
- Log everything
How to achieve:
services:
app:
logging:
driver: "json-file"
options:
max-size: "10m"
max-file: "3"
labels:
- "monitoring.enabled=true"
- "monitoring.port=3000"
Think of it as: Restaurant has security cameras. Know what's happening. All the time.
4. Security​
Production must be secure:
What it means:
- Hardened containers
- Secrets management
- Network isolation
- Regular updates
How to achieve:
services:
app:
user: "1001:1001"
read_only: true
secrets:
- db_password
networks:
- backend
Think of it as: Restaurant has security. Locks. Alarms. Access control.
5. Backup and Recovery​
Production must be recoverable:
What it means:
- Regular backups
- Tested recovery
- Disaster recovery plan
- Data persistence
How to achieve:
services:
db:
volumes:
- postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
# Backup script runs daily
Think of it as: Restaurant has insurance. Backups. Recovery plan.
The Restaurant Opening Analogy​
Think of production like opening a restaurant:
Development: Cooking at home
- Works for you
- Can experiment
- Simple setup
Production: Opening restaurant
- Works for everyone
- Must be consistent
- Complex setup
- Health inspections
- Insurance
- Staff training
- Quality control
Once you see it this way, production considerations make perfect sense.
Production Checklist​
Before going to production:
✅ Reliability
- Health checks configured
- Restart policies set
- Multiple replicas
- Graceful shutdown
✅ Scalability
- Resource limits set
- Auto-scaling configured
- Load balancing setup
- Performance tested
✅ Monitoring
- Logging configured
- Metrics collected
- Alerts set up
- Dashboards created
✅ Security
- Non-root users
- Secrets managed
- Images scanned
- Network isolated
✅ Backup
- Backups automated
- Recovery tested
- Disaster plan ready
- Data persisted
✅ Documentation
- Runbooks created
- Procedures documented
- Contacts listed
- On-call rotation
Real-World Example: Production Setup​
Complete production setup:
services:
# Application
app:
build:
context: .
dockerfile: Dockerfile.prod
image: registry.example.com/my-app:1.0.0
# Reliability
restart: unless-stopped
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:3000/health"]
interval: 30s
timeout: 10s
retries: 3
start_period: 40s
# Scalability
deploy:
replicas: 3
update_config:
parallelism: 1
delay: 10s
failure_action: rollback
resources:
limits:
cpus: '1.0'
memory: 512M
# Security
user: "1001:1001"
read_only: true
tmpfs:
- /tmp
secrets:
- db_password
networks:
- backend
# Monitoring
logging:
driver: "json-file"
options:
max-size: "10m"
max-file: "3"
labels:
- "monitoring.enabled=true"
# Environment
environment:
NODE_ENV: production
LOG_LEVEL: info
# Database
db:
image: postgres:16-alpine
restart: unless-stopped
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready"]
interval: 10s
volumes:
- postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
secrets:
- db_password
networks:
- backend
deploy:
resources:
limits:
memory: 2G
volumes:
postgres-data:
driver: local
secrets:
db_password:
file: ./secrets/db_password.txt
networks:
backend:
driver: bridge
internal: true
What this includes:
- Reliability (health checks, restarts, replicas)
- Scalability (resource limits, replicas)
- Security (non-root, secrets, isolation)
- Monitoring (logging, labels)
- Backup (persistent volumes)
Production-ready. Complete.
My Take: Production Strategy​
Here's what I do for production:
Before deployment:
- Complete security checklist
- Performance testing
- Load testing
- Disaster recovery test
- Documentation review
During deployment:
- Blue-green deployment
- Gradual rollout
- Monitor closely
- Rollback plan ready
After deployment:
- Monitor metrics
- Watch logs
- Check alerts
- Verify functionality
The key: Production is different. Plan for it. Test for it. Monitor it. Never assume it works.
Memory Tip: The Restaurant Opening Analogy​
Production = Restaurant opening
Development: Cooking at home Production: Opening restaurant Considerations: Health, insurance, staff, quality
Once you see it this way, production makes perfect sense.
Common Mistakes​
- Assuming development = production: They're different
- No monitoring: Flying blind
- No backups: Can't recover
- No health checks: Don't know when unhealthy
- No documentation: Can't maintain
Key Takeaways​
- Production is different - Higher standards, more requirements
- Reliability is essential - Must work always
- Monitor everything - Know what's happening
- Security is critical - Protect everything
- Plan for failure - Backups, recovery, rollback
- Document everything - Runbooks, procedures
What's Next?​
Now that you understand production considerations, let's learn about monitoring containers. Next: Monitoring Containers.
Remember: Production is like opening a restaurant. Different standards. Different requirements. Plan for it. Test for it. Monitor it. Never assume.