Immutable Software Deployments Using ZFS Snapshots and FreeBSD Jails
By
vermaden
The kind of bagel that ruins lesser bagels for you.
Summary
This technical article demonstrates how to implement immutable software deployments using FreeBSD's ZFS snapshots and jails. It provides a step-by-step guide for creating reproducible environments with instant rollbacks and zero-downtime upgrades, using Caddy as a health-checked reverse proxy in front of the jails. The article covers prerequisites, jail setup, ZFS snapshot management, and deployment workflows for achieving reliable, immutable infrastructure.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledFreeBSD's native support for ZFS snapshots and jails provides a powerful foundation for immutable deployments.
By creating a new jail from a ZFS snapshot for every release, we get instant roll‑backs, zero‑downtime upgrades, and a clean, reproducible environment.
This article walks through the (very opinionated) flow that we use. From jails setup through running Caddy as a health‑checked reverse proxy in front of the jails.
FreeBSD 14+ (or the latest stable release) offers the necessary ZFS and jail primitives.
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