Production readiness checklist
Use this checklist to verify that your Apache APISIX deployment is ready for production traffic.
Review and check each item before promoting an APISIX deployment to production. Items marked [TODO] require owner validation.
Authentication and access control
- Default Admin API key has been rotated. (Admin API key)
- Admin API is not exposed to the public internet or unbounded networks. (IP restriction)
- TLS or mTLS is enabled for downstream and upstream traffic where required.
Secrets and encryption
- etcd TLS and authentication are enabled. (mTLS between APISIX and etcd)
- A secret provider or vault integration is configured for sensitive values. (Secrets)
- Data encryption with a keyring is enabled. (Data encryption)
etcd and configuration storage
- etcd is deployed as a 3- or 5-node cluster with nodes across failure domains.
- etcd backup and restore procedures have been tested. (etcd backup and restore)
Resource limits and scheduling
- Resource requests and limits are set for APISIX and etcd pods.
- PodDisruptionBudget is configured for APISIX data plane and etcd.
- Topology spread constraints or anti-affinity rules are in place for multi-zone resilience.
Observability
- Prometheus, Datadog, or another metrics backend is configured. (Prometheus)
- Alerting rules cover 5xx rate, latency, and configuration sync errors.
- Log aggregation and tracing are enabled.
Backup and recovery
- Configuration backup and restore have been tested.
- A rollback procedure is documented for upgrades.