AEM production code rollback procedures for Cloud Manager deployments
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) production deployments require different rollback methods depending on the deployment type, deployment age, and hosting model. This issue occurs because Cloud Manager supports rollback only for eligible full-stack deployments, while frontend-only deployments, older deployments, and certain AMS scenarios require alternative recovery methods. To resolve the issue, identify rollback eligibility, restore code, and validate deployment.
Description description
Environment
Adobe Experience Manager as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS)
Issue/Symptoms
- A production deployment introduces regressions and requires immediate rollback.
- The Restore Previous Code Deployed option is unavailable because the previous successful deployment is older than 30 days.
- A frontend-only deployment introduces faulty CSS or JavaScript changes and cannot be rolled back through Cloud Manager restore functionality.
- Git synchronization or branch issues prevent the redeployment of a previous commit.
- An AMS environment restore results in extended downtime during recovery.
Root cause
The issue occurs because AEM separates platform code, customer custom code, and mutable content. Only full-stack deployments generate artifacts that Cloud Manager can restore. Frontend-only deployments do not create restorable AEM images, and deployments older than 30 days are not retained for restore operations. AMS environments without blue-green deployment capabilities rely on redeployment or environment restoration, which can introduce downtime.
Resolution resolution
Follow these steps to determine the correct rollback strategy and restore production stability:
- Identify the rollback scenario by determining whether the deployment is a full-stack deployment, frontend-only deployment, AMS deployment, or an older deployment outside the supported restore window.
- Restore an eligible AEM as a Cloud Service full-stack deployment by navigating to Cloud Manager
>Environments>Production Environment>Restore>Previous Code Deployed when the previous successful deployment falls within the supported retention period. - Perform a Git-based rollback by reverting to a known-good commit and redeploying the reverted code through the production pipeline when the restore option is unavailable.
- Roll back a frontend-only deployment by reverting the frontend code in Git and rerunning the frontend deployment pipeline because Cloud Manager restore does not support frontend-only deployments.
- Restore an AEM Managed Services deployment by redeploying the previous code version or requesting an environment restore when required.
- Verify deployment completion by confirming that the pipeline finishes successfully and that the expected commit version appears as active.
- Validate the resolution by performing production smoke tests, confirming application stability, and verifying that the restored code behaves as expected.
When to escalate
- The restore option remains unavailable even though the deployment meets restore eligibility requirements.
- The deployment repeatedly fails after reverting to the previous commit.
- The rollback restores an incorrect code version or introduces additional instability.
- Repository synchronization issues prevent rollback or redeployment from Git.