Deployment

Production deployment guides for SmartFall.

Deployment Options

Vercel Deployment

Easiest deployment for Next.js applications.

Best for: Quick deployment, serverless, low maintenance

Requirements:

• Vercel account
• GitHub repository
• Environment variables configured

Docker Deployment

Self-hosted containerized deployment.

Best for: Full control, on-premises, custom infrastructure

Requirements:

• Docker installation
• Server/VPS
• PostgreSQL database

Pre-Deployment Checklist

Environment Configuration

• Environment variables set
• Database configured
• Authentication secrets generated
• API endpoints verified
• CORS origins configured

Security

• HTTPS/TLS certificates ready
• Secrets not in code
• Rate limiting configured
• Security headers set
• Input validation enabled

Database

• Schema migrations applied
• Backups configured
• Connection pooling enabled
• Indexes created
• Test data removed

Testing

• Unit tests pass
• Integration tests pass
• End-to-end tests pass
• Load testing completed
• Security scanning done

Deployment Checklist

# 1. Build application
npm run build

# 2. Run tests
npm run test

# 3. Check for errors
npm run lint

# 4. Deploy
# (See Vercel or Docker guide)

# 5. Verify deployment
curl https://your-domain.com/api/health

Environment Variables (Production)

NODE_ENV=production
DATABASE_PROVIDER=prisma
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/smartfall
JWT_SECRET=<strong_random_secret_min_32_chars>
SESSION_DURATION=24
ALLOWED_ORIGINS=https://smartfall.example.com
RATE_LIMIT_MAX_REQUESTS=1000
LOG_LEVEL=info
REQUEST_LOGGING=false
DEBUG=false

Monitoring & Logging

Application Monitoring

• Monitor uptime and response times
• Track error rates
• Monitor API performance
• Alert on failures

Logging Strategy

• Application logs to file/service
• Database query logging (slow queries)
• Access logs
• Error tracking (Sentry, etc.)

Backup Strategy

Database Backups

# Daily automated backups
0 2 * * * pg_dump smartfall | gzip > /backups/smartfall-$(date +\%Y\%m\%d).sql.gz

# Monthly full backup to S3
0 3 1 * * pg_dump smartfall | gzip | aws s3 cp - s3://backups/smartfall-full-$(date +\%Y\%m).sql.gz

Data Retention

• Daily: 7 days
• Weekly: 4 weeks
• Monthly: 12 months

Performance Optimization

Frontend

• Minify/compress assets
• Enable gzip compression
• Use CDN for static assets
• Optimize images
• Lazy load components

Backend

• Database connection pooling
• Query optimization with indexes
• Caching strategies
• API rate limiting
• Request compression

Infrastructure

• Use reverse proxy (nginx)
• Enable HTTP/2
• Configure HTTPS/TLS
• Use load balancing for scaling

Scaling Considerations

Vertical Scaling

Increase server resources as load grows.

Horizontal Scaling

Deploy multiple instances behind a load balancer.

Rollback Plan

If deployment fails:

1. Monitor error rates post-deployment
2. If issues detected, rollback to previous version
3. Investigate root cause
4. Fix and re-deploy

# Rollback to previous version
git revert HEAD
npm run build
# Re-deploy

Post-Deployment

After successful deployment:

1. Verify all endpoints respond
2. Test critical user flows
3. Monitor error logs
4. Check performance metrics
5. Notify team of deployment

Related Documentation

• Vercel Deployment
• Docker Deployment
• Getting Started