Datadog Release Agent

Cardinal's Datadog Release Agent is an intelligent release monitoring agent that validates deployments by comparing Datadog logs, metrics, and APM data before vs. after a release to detect anomalies, identify regressions, and provide clear pass/fail assessments.

Invoke the release check workflow via a simple HTTP webhook as part of your GitHub Actions, or any other CI/CD pipeline, to validate your deployments, and get a release report in Slack.

Capabilities

Runs analyses automatically on every release via a simple webhook integration
Compares logs to detect material error pattern increases, new error patterns, and expected logs that stopped unexpectedly
Compares system, custom, and APM RED (Request, Error, Duration) metrics to detect anomalies
Finds relevant dashboard charts, and looks for anomalies
Checks for any new alerts that triggered post-release for the deployed service, or any of its dependencies
Sends a report to Slack, with a clear pass/fail assessment, and evidence in the form of inline charts, and links to alerts and dashboards

Get Started

1. Set Up Workspace

If this is your first time using Cardinal Desktop Application, follow the Get Started guide to sign up for a free Cardinal account, and set up your team's workspace.

2. Add Datadog Connector

In the Cardinal Desktop Application, select the Connectors tab from the sidebar.
In the Browse Connectors tab, click the Connect button on the Datadog connector.

Add Datadog Connector

Refer to the Datadog Connector guide for detailed instructions on how to configure the Datadog Connector.

3. Add Slack Connector

In the Cardinal Desktop Application, select the Connectors tab from the sidebar.
In the Browse Connectors tab, click the Connect button on the Slack connector.

Add Slack Connector

Refer to the Slack Connector guide for detailed instructions on how to configure the Slack Connector.

4. Import the Datadog Release Agent

In the Cardinal Desktop Application, select the Agents tab from the sidebar.
From the Agent Templates section, select the datadog-release-agent template, and give it a name to import it into your workspace.

Import Agent

5. Launch Agent

We're now ready to launch the Datadog Release Agent to your cloud environment, so that it can start monitoring your deployments.

Follow the steps in the Launch Agents guide to complete this step.

6. Update GitHub Actions

Once the Agent is launched, you can update your GitHub Actions that deploy your service to invoke the release check workflow via a HTTP webhook. If you use a different CI/CD tool, adapt these instructions accordingly.

In your GitHub Action yaml file, add a step after your deployment step to invoke the Agent's release check workflow.

  release-check:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: deploy-step
    steps:
      - name: Trigger Cardinal Datadog Release Agent
        run: |
          DEPLOY_TIME=$(TZ="America/Los_Angeles" date +"%B %-d, %Y at %-I:%M %p PST")
          curl -X POST "https://{your-agent-url}/invoke" \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            -d @- <<EOF
          {
            "agentName": "datadog-release-agent",
            "message": "Execute the check-release workflow for paymentservice, deployed to the test environment on ${DEPLOY_TIME}. Check +/- 15 mins from the deploy time. Send the results to #alerts-demo via Slack.",
            "delayInMinutes": 15
          }
          EOF

Replace {your-agent-url} with the HTTP webhook URL for your Agent, which is displayed in the Launch Status card, as outlined in the Launch Agents guide.
Update the message to include the name of the service that was deployed, the environment it was deployed to, and any other context that is relevant to the release check.
Set the delayInMinutes to the number of minutes to delay the task execution so that sufficient post-deployment telemetry data is available in Datadog. We recommend setting this to at least 15 minutes, depending on the traffic patterns of your service.

7. Get Slack Notifications

Invite the Cardinal Slack bot to the channel where you want to receive notifications from the Datadog Release Agent.

When the release check is executed downstream of your GitHub Action or CI/CD pipeline, you will receive a notification in Slack with the results of the release check.

Slack Notification 1