The Challenge
Deploying application updates is often a balancing act between delivering changes quickly and minimizing disruption to users.
Many organizations prefer to perform deployments during off-hours, such as evenings, weekends, or maintenance windows, when system usage is low. However, deployment teams frequently need to be available at those times to manually execute the deployment process.
For environments containing multiple web engines, servlets, and servers, coordinating deployments across all components can become time-consuming and increase the risk of human error.
What's New
Rocket Modern Experience now includes Deployment Scheduling within the Access and Connectivity Hub.
This new capability allows administrators to schedule deployments of:
- Rocket MX Web applications to engines and servlets
- Rocket API libraries to servers
Deployments can be scheduled for a specific date and time and executed automatically without requiring manual intervention.
Scheduling can be configured for:
- Individual engines
- Individual servlets
- Individual servers
- An entire environment
When scheduling a deployment at the environment level, all associated engines, servlets, and servers within that environment are automatically updated at the planned time.
How It Works
The process is straightforward:
- Select the application or API library to deploy.
- Choose the target engine, servlet, server, or complete environment.
- Select Schedule Deployment.
- Define the desired deployment date and time.
- Save the deployment schedule.
At the scheduled moment, Rocket MX automatically performs the deployment to the selected targets.
This allows teams to prepare deployments during regular working hours while ensuring production updates occur during approved maintenance windows.
Why It Matters
Scheduled deployments provide several operational benefits:
Reduced Operational Overhead
Teams no longer need to stay online during late-night deployment windows.
Improved Consistency
Environment-level scheduling ensures all related deployment targets are updated together, reducing the chance of version mismatches.
Better Change Management
Deployments can be aligned with maintenance schedules, change approval processes, and organizational release calendars.
Less User Impact
Updates can be performed during periods of low activity, helping minimize disruption to business operations.
Greater Flexibility
Whether deploying to a single server or an entire environment, administrators can choose the deployment scope that best fits their release strategy.
See It in Action 🎥
Watch the demonstration video to see:
- How to schedule a deployment for a specific date and time
- Scheduling deployments for individual engines, servlets, and servers
- Deploying an entire environment with a single scheduling action
- How automatic deployment execution helps support after-hours release strategies
Closing Thought
Deployment scheduling is a simple enhancement that can have a significant impact on release management. By allowing deployments to be planned in advance and executed automatically, Rocket MX helps teams reduce manual effort, improve deployment consistency, and deliver updates when it makes the most sense for the business.
If your organization regularly performs deployments during evenings, weekends, or other maintenance windows, this feature can make the process considerably easier while giving administrators more flexibility and control.
