Overview

Akamai CDN uses two networks: staging for testing and production for live traffic. When you activate, you push updates to the network you select. In Delivery Manager, you activate two separate components:

Service hostname set. Groups of one or more service hostnames that serve traffic.
Environment. Holds the rules and delivery settings that determine how content is served.

During activation Akamai rolls out the changes in phased steps. This approach reduces risk and ensures the edge servers handling traffic receive updates as quickly as possible. Activation time varies based on how many edge servers are actively serving traffic.

For step-by-step instructions on how to activate an environment, service hostname set, or both together, see Activation workflows.

Independent components

In Delivery Manager, service hostname sets and environments are independent components, and each one must be activated.

Because they’re separate, you can change one without disturbing the other. This means you’re able to:

Update a service hostname set (or the service hostnames in it) while your environment configuration stays unchanged.
Modify an environment’s rules or delivery settings while service hostname sets and their routing stays unchanged.

Initial activation requires that both an environment and the service hostname set routed to it are activated together. After the first activation, you can activate new versions of each component individually.

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Environments and service hostnames need to be activated to the same network to interact. For example, a service hostname set activated to the staging network won’t work with an environment activated only to the production network.

Phases of activation

Staging

Activating service hostname sets or environments on the staging network is a faster process than on the production network for multiple reasons:

The staging network is smaller than production.
The staging network doesn’t serve end user traffic.
Activations don’t require phased rollout.

When you activate on staging, Akamai monitors the deployment to make sure all staging servers have received the new configuration version. This lets you test in a safe, non-traffic-facing context as soon as the activation finishes.

Production

Akamai uses a phased approach to push configuration changes through the production network to ensure complete safety and reliability.

Phase 1: Activate for live traffic

The first phase updates the edge servers that are currently servicing requests for your application.

When you activate a component on the production network, Akamai identifies the edge servers that are actively handling traffic for your service. Those servers are usually the ones closest to the geographical location of the requesting clients.

Akamai pushes the new configuration to this initial group of live traffic servers, and depending on how many are serving requests, Akamai may first update a smaller subset. This lets Akamai monitor the rollout before expanding it to the remaining servers, so you can see the effect of the activation as soon as possible.

Akamai continuously monitors the updated servers for error spikes, software issues, or overload. At this point, you can also check your own metrics for any inconsistencies. If a problem is detected, either you or Akamai can cancel the activation, and changes are rolled back.

The time required for Phase 1 varies with the number of live traffic servers involved. You can watch the progress in Delivery Manager, and a success message appears once Akamai has finished updating the live traffic servers. The status then changes to Pending - Full Rollout.

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If your hostnames aren't pointed to Akamai yet
If you haven't pointed your service hostnames to the edge in your DNS provider yet, there is no traffic to update yet and the activation gradually rolls out to all edge servers worldwide. Wait for the activation to fully complete before updating your DNS CNAME records.

Phase 2: Pending full rollout

The second phase expands the update to the rest of the production network.

Most live traffic is now served by the updated servers from Phase 1, while Akamai gradually pushes the new version out to every remaining edge server worldwide. Akamai monitors those servers as they're updated, to confirm the new configuration version works safely in every location.

If Akamai detects a problem that could affect your site, it automatically cancels the activation and lets you know. You can also cancel the rollout manually at any point during this phase.

The version stays locked for editing while rollout continues, and you can't start a new activation.

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Your test requests might still return the previous version
Edge servers outside the group that was identified as serving live traffic still hold the previous version. Since your own test requests are routed the same way end-user requests are, a test request can return the previous configuration even though the activation is succeeding — especially if you're in a different geographical location from most of your users.
Wait until the status reaches Pending - Monitoring before you validate your changes.
The same applies to end users routed to edge locations that haven't yet seen significant traffic. Those locations are updated as the rollout reaches them.

When every edge server has the new version, the status changes to Pending - Monitoring.

Phase 3: Monitoring

The new configuration version is now on every edge server in the production network.

Akamai continues to monitor infrastructure and performance to confirm your configuration is functioning properly. The version remains locked for editing while these additional safety checks run, and you can't start a new activation.

Now you can send test requests. Results are now consistent, because there is no edge server left holding the previous version. If you find a problem, you can still cancel the activation and revert to the last active version.

When monitoring finishes successfully, Delivery Manager displays an Active status for the component, and the version can be edited again.

What does Akamai monitor?

During the activation, Akamai monitors updated servers to make sure your configuration changes are safe. Akamai looks for things like:

Increased error rates. See HTTP error rate limit.
Changes, or any negative impacts, to status codes.
Unexpected behaviors like server unavailability or reboots.
Any other negative impacts to the overall performance that may result in customer-facing disruptions.

Cancel an activation

You can cancel an activation on both staging and production networks, but the window for cancellation can vary:

If your activation doesn't fall under exceptions, you may cancel it at any point before it fully completes. Cancelling restores the last active version on Akamai's network.
If your activation falls under exceptions, the cancel option becomes inactive after a certain number of edge servers have been updated. After that threshold is passed, the activation proceeds with the new component version and can’t be stopped. If you cancel before the threshold is reached, the process stops, and the existing version remains active.

To cancel an activation, on the activation screen in Delivery Manager, click Cancel activation while the activation is still in progress or in the pending state. Akamai stops the activation automatically and reverts to the last active version.

Edit an active component

Environments

You can’t modify an environment version that is already active on either the staging or production network. To change an active environment configuration, create a new version first:

Go to the environment’s page in Delivery Manager.
Click New version.
Confirm your new version number, and optionally add any release notes. These release notes appear in the environment’s activity feed.
Click Create version #.

The new environment version opens in draft status, allowing you to edit your configuration and follow the normal activation workflow.

Service hostname sets

When you make changes to an active service hostname set, like adding or removing a service hostname, Delivery Manager automatically generates a new version. Activate the new version to apply any changes:

Open the service hostname set from your workspace or from within an environment.
Make your changes. A new version is created automatically.
Review the changes, and follow the standard activation workflow for service hostname sets.

Service hostname set versions stay in a draft state until you activate them. Use the version selection dropdown to switch between the current draft and any previous versions.

HTTP error rate limit

For activations that don't fall under exceptions, Akamai applies an error rate limit. If the traffic for the component that’s being activated reaches the thresholds for HTTP errors, Akamai may automatically cancel the activation.

When does the limit apply?

The error rate limit check looks for extreme changes in errors and traffic and is meant to protect your site while minimizing false positives.

Akamai currently applies the rate limit and can cancel the activation if:

The ratio of successful 2xx hits to total hits drops by 90%.
The ratio of 2xx and 3xx hits to total hits drops by 90%.
The ratio of 4xx and 5xx errors to total hits increases by more than 10 times.

If the activation of a new version leads to a significant increase in 4xx and 5xx errors or a decrease in 2xx and 3xx responses, Akamai automatically rolls back to the previously active component version and notifies you about the incident.

When does the limit not apply?

Akamai does not apply the error rate limit if your site or application has fewer than 1000 hits per second on average. Lower levels of traffic are more prone to higher variations and more likely to produce false positives resulting in the activation being cancelled.