Post-Deployment Monitoring

Cased automatically monitors your deployments, performs health checks, and watches for anomalies that may have been caused by the deployment, providing continuous visibility into your application’s health.

Post-deployment monitoring is critical for catching issues that may not be immediately apparent after a deployment. Cased provides automated monitoring that scales from immediate health checks to extended observation periods, ensuring your deployments are truly successful.

How it Works

When you send a deployment event to Cased, it kicks off a comprehensive monitoring process:

1. Deployment Notification: Your CI/CD system sends a request to the Cased API to signal that a deployment has started
2. Agent Session Creation: Cased creates a dedicated agent session in Mission Control for monitoring this deployment
3. Progressive Monitoring: The agent performs checks at increasing intervals (10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes) to monitor application health
4. Real-time Updates: After each check, the agent posts status updates to Mission Control, providing visibility into deployment health
5. Extended Monitoring: Even after deployment completion, the agent continues monitoring during a “cool-down” period to catch latent issues

Monitoring Capabilities

Immediate Health Checks

• Service Availability: Verify that deployed services are responding
• Endpoint Validation: Check that critical API endpoints are functional
• Database Connectivity: Ensure database connections are working
• External Dependencies: Validate integrations with external services

Performance Monitoring

• Response Time Analysis: Monitor API response times for degradation
• Resource Utilization: Track CPU, memory, and disk usage patterns
• Error Rate Tracking: Monitor for increases in error rates
• Throughput Analysis: Ensure request processing capacity is maintained

Anomaly Detection

• Baseline Comparison: Compare current metrics against historical baselines
• Statistical Analysis: Use AI to detect unusual patterns in application behavior
• Threshold Monitoring: Alert on metrics that exceed defined thresholds
• Trend Analysis: Identify gradual degradation over time

Deployment Event API

To enable post-deployment monitoring, configure your CI/CD pipeline to send deployment events to Cased.

Endpoint: https://app.cased.com/api/v1/deployments/

Authentication: Include your API key in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

Request Parameters

Field	Type	Description
deployment_request	string	Required. Description of the deployment (e.g., “Production deploy v1.2.3”)
repository_full_name	string	Full repository name (e.g., “my-org/my-repo”). Required for multi-project organizations
status	string	Deployment status: pending, running, success, failure, or cancelled. Defaults to success
external_url	string	Optional URL linking back to your deployment system
commit_sha	string	Optional commit SHA for the deployment
commit_message	string	Optional commit message for the deployment
ref	string	Git ref being deployed (e.g., refs/heads/main)
event_metadata	object	Optional JSON object for additional deployment metadata

Example API Call

curl -X POST https://app.cased.com/api/v1/deployments/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "deployment_request": "Deploying version 2.5.1 to production",
    "repository_full_name": "your-org/your-repo",
    "status": "running",
    "external_url": "https://github.com/your-org/your-repo/actions/runs/12345",
    "commit_sha": "f2c1c6a",
    "ref": "refs/heads/main"
  }'

CI/CD Integration Examples

GitHub Actions Integration

For the easiest GitHub Actions integration, use the Cased Deploy Notification Action:

- name: Notify Cased of Deployment
  uses: cased/cased-deploy-notification-action@v1
  with:
    api_key: ${{ secrets.CASED_API_KEY }}
    event_metadata: '{"environment": "production"}'

Or use the direct API approach:

- name: Notify Cased of Deployment
  run: |
    curl -X POST https://app.cased.com/api/v1/deployments/ \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.CASED_API_KEY }}" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{
        "deployment_request": "Deploying ${{ github.sha }} to production",
        "repository_full_name": "${{ github.repository }}",
        "status": "running",
        "external_url": "${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}",
        "commit_sha": "${{ github.sha }}",
        "ref": "${{ github.ref }}"
      }'

See our GitHub Actions Integration guide for more detailed examples and configuration options.

GitLab CI Integration

notify_cased:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - |
      curl -X POST https://app.cased.com/api/v1/deployments/ \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer $CASED_API_KEY" \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -d '{
          "deployment_request": "Deploying '"$CI_COMMIT_SHA"' to production",
          "repository_full_name": "'"$CI_PROJECT_PATH"'",
          "status": "running",
          "external_url": "'"$CI_PIPELINE_URL"'",
          "commit_sha": "'"$CI_COMMIT_SHA"'",
          "ref": "'"$CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME"'"
        }'

Monitoring Dashboard

The Mission Control dashboard provides comprehensive deployment monitoring:

Real-time Status Updates

• Deployment Progress: Track the current status of ongoing deployments
• Health Check Results: View results of automated health checks
• Performance Metrics: Monitor key performance indicators
• Error Detection: Immediate alerts for detected issues

Historical Analysis

• Deployment History: Review past deployments and their outcomes
• Trend Analysis: Identify patterns in deployment success rates
• Performance Trends: Track application performance over time
• Issue Correlation: Connect deployment events with detected issues

Alert Configuration

Notification Channels

• Slack Integration: Real-time notifications to Slack channels
• Email Alerts: Critical issue notifications via email
• Webhook Integration: Custom webhook endpoints for third-party tools
• In-App Notifications: Mission Control dashboard alerts

Alert Severity Levels

• Info: Deployment started, progress updates
• Warning: Minor issues detected, performance degradation
• Critical: Significant issues, service unavailability
• Emergency: Severe problems requiring immediate attention

Best Practices

Deployment Strategy

1. Gradual Rollouts: Use canary or blue-green deployments to limit impact
2. Monitoring Duration: Allow sufficient time for extended monitoring
3. Rollback Preparation: Have rollback procedures ready for quick recovery
4. Baseline Establishment: Maintain good performance baselines for comparison

Alert Management

1. Appropriate Thresholds: Set thresholds that minimize false positives
2. Escalation Policies: Define clear escalation paths for different alert types
3. On-call Procedures: Ensure proper on-call coverage for critical deployments
4. Post-incident Reviews: Analyze deployment issues to improve monitoring

Integration Optimization

1. Consistent Metadata: Use consistent deployment metadata across all environments
2. Environment Tagging: Clearly tag deployments by environment
3. Correlation IDs: Use unique identifiers to correlate deployment events
4. Comprehensive Logging: Ensure adequate logging for troubleshooting

Post-deployment monitoring with Cased provides the confidence to deploy frequently while maintaining high reliability and rapid issue detection.