Performing a Release on MDOQ should be painless however there are risks. Provided you follow best-practice and this guide, you should be able to perform releases efficiently and often.
If in doubt, use Downtime!
Downtime Releases
Downtime releases are specifically when there are changes which require setup:upgrade or app:config:import. Since there will be downtime ranging from a couple of minutes to larger periods if you have large database changes being made, we would advise you work with the merchant to select a suitable time when this will cause minimal impact.
Zero-Downtime Releases
Zero Downtime releases are when you know there are code changes which do not require changes to schema, such as front-end theme changes among other things. Since MDOQ handles the build process away from production then no deployment files are produced as part of the deployment process, these are pre-prepared and switched on production to facilitate rapid deployments.
Cases where zero-downtime deployments are possible
- Changes in app/design/frontend
- Module disablement - module:disable