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lib/fly_deploy.ex
defmodule FlyDeploy do
@moduledoc """
Hot code upgrades in Elixir/OTP applications on [Fly.io](https://fly.io).
This module provides the main entry points for performing hot code upgrades
without requiring application restarts. It coordinates the entire upgrade process
including building tarballs, distributing code, and safely upgrading running processes.
## Limitations vs OTP Releases
FlyDeploy provides a simplified hot upgrade mechanism compared to OTP's `release_handler`.
It is optimized for containerized deployments where most changes are code updates and the
occasional need for cold deploy is an accpetable tradeoff.
### Not Supported
- **Supervision tree changes** - Cannot add/remove supervised children at runtime
- **Application.config_change/3** - Config changes are not detected, reloaded, or propagated
- **Multi-step upgrades** - Each upgrade is standalone (no v1→v2→v3 paths)
- **VM upgrades** - Erlang/OTP version is fixed in Docker image
- **NIFs/Ports** - Native code requires restart
For major config changes (supervision tree, network config), use a cold deploy
with `fly deploy` instead of hot upgrade.
## Application Startup
# Call this in Application.start/2 to automatically apply hot upgrades
# when machines restart
FlyDeploy.startup_reapply_current(:my_app)
## Orchestrating Upgrades
# Called by mix fly_deploy.hot to coordinate upgrades across all machines
FlyDeploy.orchestrate(app: :my_app, image_ref: "registry.fly.io/...")
## Individual Machine Upgrades
# Called via RPC from orchestrator to upgrade a running machine
FlyDeploy.hot_upgrade("https://s3.../tarball.tar.gz", :my_app)
## Configuration
### Required Environment Variables
For Application Machines:
- `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` - Tigris/S3 access key (for downloading tarballs and metadata)
- `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY` - Tigris/S3 secret key
- `FLY_IMAGE_REF` - Docker image reference (auto-set by Fly, used for version tracking)
For Orchestrator Machine:
- `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` - Tigris/S3 access key (for uploading tarballs and metadata)
- `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY` - Tigris/S3 secret key
- `FLY_API_TOKEN` - Fly API token (for listing machines and triggering RPC)
- `FLY_APP_NAME` - Application name (auto-set by Fly)
Optional:
- `AWS_BUCKET` - Override default bucket name (defaults to `<app>-releases`)
- `AWS_ENDPOINT_URL_S3` - S3 endpoint (defaults to `https://fly.storage.tigris.dev`)
- `AWS_REGION` - AWS region (defaults to `auto` for Tigris)
### Setting Up Secrets
# Required for all machines (set automatically if you run `fly storage create`)
fly secrets set AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<key> AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<secret>
# Required for orchestrator (usually auto-available)
fly secrets set FLY_API_TOKEN=$(fly tokens create machine-exec)
## How It Works Internally
### S3/Tigris Bucket Structure
The hot upgrade system stores two types of objects in S3/Tigris:
`mix release` tarballs - `releases/<app>-<version>.tar.gz`
- Contains all `.beam` files from `/app/lib/**/ebin/*.beam`
- Organized with relative paths like `lib/my_app-1.2.3/ebin/Elixir.MyModule.beam`
- Authenticated downloads using AWS SigV4
Deployment Metadata - `releases/<app>-current.json`
- Tracks current deployment state and pending hot upgrades
- Format:
```json
{
"image_ref": "registry.fly.io/my-app:deployment-01K93Q...",
"hot_upgrade": {
"version": "1.2.3",
"source_image_ref": "registry.fly.io/my-app:deployment-01K94R...",
"tarball_url": "https://fly.storage.tigris.dev/bucket/releases/my_app-1.2.3.tar.gz",
"deployed_at": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"
}
}
```
Version Tracking:
- `image_ref` - The base Docker image that machines initialize with (set on first boot)
- `source_image_ref` - The image the hot upgrade was built from
- When a new cold deploy happens, machines detect the mismatch and reset state
### Hot Upgrade Process (Running System)
When `hot_upgrade/2` is called on a running machine:
1. Download Tarball - Fetches tarball from S3 using AWS SigV4 auth
2. Extract & Copy - Extracts tarball and copies `.beam` files to currently loaded paths
- Uses `:code.which(module)` to find where each module is loaded from
- Overwrites old beam files with new versions on disk
3. Detect Changes - Uses `:code.modified_modules()` to find modules that changed
4. Suspend Processes - Calls `:sys.suspend(pid)` on all processes using changed modules
5. Load New Code - Purges old module versions and loads new ones from disk
6. Migrate State - For each process, calls `:sys.change_code(pid, module, old_vsn, extra)`
- This triggers the process's `code_change/3` callback
- Allows state schema migrations
7. Resume Processes - Calls `:sys.resume(pid)` on all processes
Total suspension time is typically < 1 second.
### Startup Reapply Process (Machine Restart)
When `startup_reapply_current/1` is called during app boot:
1. Check Image Ref - Reads `FLY_IMAGE_REF` to identify which image this machine booted from
2. Fetch Metadata - Downloads `releases/<app>-current.json` from S3
3. Compare Refs - Compares machine's image ref with metadata's `image_ref`
- Match - Same generation, check for hot upgrade and apply if present
- Mismatch - New cold deploy happened, reset state and skip upgrade
4. Download Tarball - If hot upgrade exists, downloads from `tarball_url`
5. Copy Beams - Extracts and copies beam files to loaded paths (same as hot upgrade)
6. Load Modules - Uses `:c.lm()` to detect and load all modified modules
- No suspend/resume needed (processes haven't started yet)
- Simply loads new code before supervision tree starts
This ensures machines that restart after crashes, scaling, or deploys remain consistent
with the hot-upgraded code running on other machines.
## Usage Example
# In your Application.start/2
def start(_type, _args) do
# Check for and apply any pending hot upgrades
:ok = FlyDeploy.startup_reapply_current(:my_app)
# Start your supervision tree
children = [...]
Supervisor.start_link(children, strategy: :one_for_one)
end
"""
require Logger
@doc """
Reapplies the current hot upgrade on application startup.
This should be called early in `Application.start/2`, after HTTP clients
are available but before starting the main supervision tree. It checks S3
for pending hot upgrades matching the current Docker image and reapplies
them if found.
Returns:
- `:ok` - Successfully applied hot upgrade, or no upgrade needed (ie new cold deploy)
- `{:error, reason}` - Check failed, app continues with current code
## Example
def start(_type, _args) do
:ok = FlyDeploy.startup_reapply_current(:my_app)
# ... start supervision tree
end
## Safety
- Non-blocking - Won't prevent app from starting if check fails
- Graceful degradation - Logs errors but doesn't crash
- Detects new cold deploys and resets state automatically
"""
def startup_reapply_current(app) do
my_image_ref = System.get_env("FLY_IMAGE_REF")
if is_nil(my_image_ref) do
Logger.info("[FlyDeploy] No FLY_IMAGE_REF found (dev environment?), skipping")
:ok
else
Logger.info("[FlyDeploy] Machine starting with image: #{my_image_ref}")
case fetch_current_state(app) do
{:ok, current} ->
handle_current_state(app, my_image_ref, current)
{:error, :not_found} ->
Logger.info("[FlyDeploy] First boot, initializing current state")
initialize_current_state(app, my_image_ref)
:noop
{:error, reason} ->
Logger.warning("[FlyDeploy] Failed to fetch current state: #{inspect(reason)}")
{:error, reason}
end
end
rescue
e ->
Logger.error(
"[FlyDeploy] Unexpected error during startup check: #{Exception.format(:error, e, __STACKTRACE__)}"
)
{:error, e}
end
@doc """
Orchestrates a hot upgrade across all machines in the application.
This is typically called by `mix fly_deploy.hot` on a temporary orchestrator machine.
It builds a tarball of all `.beam` files, uploads to S3, updates deployment
metadata, and triggers upgrades on all running machines via RPC.
## Options
- `:app` - The OTP application name (required)
- `:image_ref` - The Docker image reference for this deployment (required)
## Example
# Usually called by mix fly_deploy.hot
FlyDeploy.orchestrate(
app: :my_app,
image_ref: "registry.fly.io/my_app:deployment-01K93Q..."
)
## Process
1. Build tarball from `/app/lib/**/ebin/*.beam`
2. Upload to S3 at `releases/<app>-<version>.tar.gz`
3. Update metadata at `releases/<app>-current.json`
4. Get list of running machines from Fly API
5. Trigger `hot_upgrade/2` on each machine via RPC
6. Wait for all machines to complete
"""
def orchestrate(opts) do
FlyDeploy.Orchestrator.run(opts)
end
@doc """
Performs a hot upgrade on a running machine.
Downloads a tarball from S3, extracts and copies beam files to disk,
then safely upgrades all running processes.
This is typically invoked via RPC from the orchestrator machine.
## Parameters
- `tarball_url` - S3 URL of the tarball containing new beam files
- `app` - OTP application name
## Process
1. Download tarball from S3 (with AWS SigV4 auth)
2. Extract and copy beam files to loaded paths
3. Suspend all processes using changed modules
4. Load new code
5. Call `code_change/3` on each process
6. Resume all processes
## Safety
- Processes are suspended during upgrade (typically < 1 second)
- State is preserved via `code_change/3` callbacks
- Errors are caught and logged without crashing
"""
def hot_upgrade(tarball_url, app) do
FlyDeploy.ReloadScript.hot_upgrade(tarball_url, app)
end
# Private helper functions for startup_reapply_current
defp s3_endpoint do
System.get_env("AWS_ENDPOINT_URL_S3", "https://fly.storage.tigris.dev")
end
defp handle_current_state(app, my_image_ref, current) do
current_image_ref = Map.get(current, "image_ref")
if current_image_ref == my_image_ref do
case Map.get(current, "hot_upgrade") do
nil ->
Logger.info("[FlyDeploy] No hot upgrade available for this generation")
:ok
upgrade ->
Logger.info("[FlyDeploy] Applying hot upgrade v#{upgrade["version"]}")
apply_hot_upgrade(upgrade["tarball_url"], app)
end
else
Logger.info(
"[FlyDeploy] New cold deploy detected (was: #{current_image_ref}, now: #{my_image_ref}), resetting state"
)
initialize_current_state(app, my_image_ref)
:ok
end
end
defp fetch_current_state(app) do
bucket = System.get_env("AWS_BUCKET") || "#{app}-releases"
url = "#{s3_endpoint()}/#{bucket}/releases/#{app}-current.json"
case Req.get(url,
receive_timeout: 10_000,
connect_options: [timeout: 10_000],
aws_sigv4: [
access_key_id: System.fetch_env!("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"),
secret_access_key: System.fetch_env!("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"),
service: "s3",
region: "auto"
]
) do
{:ok, %{status: 200, body: body}} when is_map(body) ->
{:ok, body}
{:ok, %{status: 404}} ->
{:error, :not_found}
{:ok, %{status: status}} ->
{:error, {:unexpected_status, status}}
{:error, reason} ->
{:error, reason}
end
end
defp initialize_current_state(app, image_ref) do
state = %{
"image_ref" => image_ref,
"set_at" => DateTime.utc_now() |> DateTime.to_iso8601(),
"hot_upgrade" => nil
}
write_current_state(app, state)
end
defp write_current_state(app, state) do
bucket = System.get_env("AWS_BUCKET") || "#{app}-releases"
url = "#{s3_endpoint()}/#{bucket}/releases/#{app}-current.json"
case Req.put(url,
receive_timeout: 10_000,
connect_options: [timeout: 10_000],
json: state,
headers: [{"content-type", "application/json"}],
aws_sigv4: [
access_key_id: System.fetch_env!("AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"),
secret_access_key: System.fetch_env!("AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"),
service: "s3",
region: "auto"
]
) do
{:ok, %{status: status}} when status in 200..299 ->
Logger.debug("[FlyDeploy] Current state written successfully")
:ok
{:ok, %{status: status}} ->
Logger.warning("[FlyDeploy] Failed to write state (status #{status})")
{:error, {:write_failed, status}}
{:error, reason} ->
Logger.warning("[FlyDeploy] Failed to write state: #{inspect(reason)}")
{:error, reason}
end
end
defp apply_hot_upgrade(tarball_url, app) do
Logger.info("[FlyDeploy] Downloading and applying #{tarball_url}...")
# Use the startup-specific replay function which uses :c.lm()
FlyDeploy.ReloadScript.replay_upgrade_startup(tarball_url, app)
Logger.info("[FlyDeploy] ✅ Hot upgrade applied successfully")
:ok
rescue
e ->
Logger.error(
"[FlyDeploy] Failed to apply startup hot upgrade: #{Exception.format(:error, e, __STACKTRACE__)}"
)
{:error, e}
end
end