Production Deployment Checklist

Complete checklist for deploying OilPriceAPI integration to production.

Pre-Production Requirements

✅ Account Setup

[ ] Production account created at oilpriceapi.com
[ ] Email verified and account activated
[ ] Billing information added (required for paid plans)
[ ] Appropriate plan selected based on usage requirements
[ ] Company information updated in dashboard
[ ] Tax information provided (if applicable)

✅ API Key Management

[ ] Production API key generated (opa_live_*)
[ ] Key stored securely (not in code repository)

[ ] Environment variables configured

# Production environment
OILPRICE_API_KEY=opa_live_YOUR_PRODUCTION_KEY
OILPRICE_BASE_URL=https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1

[ ] Key rotation schedule established (recommended: quarterly)
[ ] Backup key generated for emergency failover
[ ] Access controls implemented (who can access keys)

Implementation Checklist

✅ Core Integration

[ ] Authentication implemented correctly

// Correct format
headers: { 'Authorization': 'Token ' + process.env.OILPRICE_API_KEY }

[ ] Base URL configured for production

const BASE_URL = 'https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1';

[ ] Response parsing handles all fields

// Correct structure
const price = data.data.WTI_USD.price;  // Not data.prices.WTI_USD.value

[ ] All commodity codes validated

✅ Error Handling

[ ] All error codes handled (see Error Codes Guide)

[ ] Retry logic implemented for transient failures

def make_request_with_retry(url, headers, max_retries=3):
    for attempt in range(max_retries):
        response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)

        if response.status_code == 429:  # Rate limited
            time.sleep(int(response.headers.get('Retry-After', 60)))
            continue
        elif response.status_code >= 500:  # Server error
            time.sleep(2 ** attempt)  # Exponential backoff
            continue

        return response
    raise Exception("Max retries exceeded")

[ ] Graceful degradation for API failures
[ ] User-friendly error messages (not raw API errors)
[ ] Circuit breaker pattern for repeated failures

✅ Rate Limiting

[ ] Rate limit headers monitored

const remaining = response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Remaining');
const resetTime = response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Reset');

[ ] Request throttling implemented if needed
[ ] Monthly quota tracking in place
[ ] Alerts configured for approaching limits
[ ] Backoff strategy for rate limit errors

✅ Performance Optimization

[ ] Response caching implemented where appropriate

const cache = new Map();
const CACHE_TTL = 300000; // 5 minutes

function getCachedPrice(commodity) {
    const cached = cache.get(commodity);
    if (cached && Date.now() - cached.timestamp < CACHE_TTL) {
        return cached.data;
    }
    return null;
}

[ ] Connection pooling configured
[ ] Request batching for multiple commodities
[ ] Unnecessary API calls eliminated
[ ] Response time monitoring in place

✅ Security

[ ] API keys not in source control
[ ] HTTPS enforced for all API calls
[ ] Input validation before API requests
[ ] Output sanitization before displaying
[ ] Rate limiting on your endpoints
[ ] API key rotation process documented
[ ] Audit logging for API usage
[ ] No sensitive data in logs

Monitoring & Observability

✅ Logging

[ ] Request logging implemented

import logging

def log_api_request(endpoint, params, response):
    logging.info({
        'timestamp': datetime.utcnow().isoformat(),
        'endpoint': endpoint,
        'params': params,
        'status': response.status_code,
        'request_id': response.headers.get('X-Request-Id'),
        'remaining': response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Remaining')
    })

[ ] Error logging with context
[ ] Performance metrics tracked
[ ] Log retention policy configured
[ ] Log analysis tools set up

✅ Monitoring

[ ] Uptime monitoring configured
[ ] Response time alerts set up
[ ] Error rate monitoring active
[ ] API quota dashboard created
[ ] Cost tracking implemented
[ ] Business metrics tracked (conversions, usage patterns)

✅ Alerting

[ ] Critical error alerts configured
- API authentication failures
- Rate limit exceeded
- Service unavailable (5xx errors)
- Quota approaching limit
[ ] Alert escalation defined
[ ] On-call rotation (if applicable)
[ ] Runbook for common issues

Testing in Production

✅ Smoke Tests

[ ] Basic connectivity test

curl -I https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/latest \
  -H "Authorization: Token $OILPRICE_API_KEY"

[ ] Key commodity prices retrievable
[ ] Error handling works as expected
[ ] Rate limiting behaves correctly
[ ] Fallback mechanisms tested

✅ Load Testing

[ ] Expected load tested
[ ] Peak load scenarios validated
[ ] Rate limit behavior under load verified
[ ] Graceful degradation confirmed
[ ] Recovery from failures tested

✅ Integration Tests

[ ] End-to-end workflows tested
[ ] Data accuracy verified
[ ] Time zone handling correct
[ ] Historical data retrieval works

Webhook Configuration (If Applicable)

✅ Webhook Setup

[ ] Webhook endpoint deployed and accessible
[ ] HTTPS enforced on webhook endpoint
[ ] Signature verification implemented (see Webhook Verification Guide)
[ ] Idempotency handled
[ ] Quick response (<5 seconds)
[ ] Async processing for heavy operations
[ ] Error handling and retries configured

Documentation & Knowledge Transfer

✅ Internal Documentation

[ ] API integration documented
[ ] Configuration guide created
[ ] Troubleshooting guide written
[ ] Runbook for common issues
[ ] Architecture diagram updated
[ ] Data flow documented

✅ Team Preparation

[ ] Team trained on API integration
[ ] Support contacts documented
[ ] Escalation path defined
[ ] Dashboard access granted to relevant team members
[ ] Monitoring access configured

Go-Live Checklist

✅ Final Verification

[ ] All tests passing in production environment
[ ] Monitoring active and verified
[ ] Alerts tested and working
[ ] Rollback plan documented and tested
[ ] Support ticket opened (if launching during business hours)
[ ] Stakeholders notified of go-live time

✅ Launch Day

[ ] Gradual rollout (if possible)
- [ ] 10% of traffic first
- [ ] Monitor for 1 hour
- [ ] 50% of traffic
- [ ] Monitor for 2 hours
- [ ] 100% of traffic
[ ] Monitor key metrics closely
- API response times
- Error rates
- Business metrics
[ ] Support team on standby
[ ] Communication channels open

✅ Post-Launch (First 24 Hours)

[ ] No critical errors observed
[ ] Performance metrics within expected range
[ ] Rate limits not exceeded
[ ] User feedback collected
[ ] Cost tracking verified
[ ] Success metrics measured

Rollback Plan

✅ Rollback Triggers

Define conditions that trigger rollback:

[ ] Error rate >5% for 5 minutes
[ ] Response time >2 seconds for 10 minutes
[ ] Authentication failures >10 per minute
[ ] Critical business function impaired

✅ Rollback Process

Immediate Actions

# Switch to fallback/previous version
kubectl rollout undo deployment/api-integration
# or
git revert HEAD && git push origin main

Notification
- Alert team via Slack/PagerDuty
- Update status page
- Notify stakeholders
Post-Rollback
- Root cause analysis
- Fix identified issues
- Plan retry with fixes

Optimization Checklist (Post-Launch)

✅ Week 1 Review

[ ] Usage patterns analyzed
[ ] Cache hit rates optimized
[ ] Unnecessary requests identified and eliminated
[ ] Error patterns reviewed
[ ] Cost optimization opportunities identified

✅ Month 1 Review

[ ] Plan adequacy assessed (upgrade needed?)
[ ] Performance benchmarks established
[ ] Integration improvements identified
[ ] Team feedback collected
[ ] Documentation updated based on learnings

Support & Escalation

Contact Information

Regular Support

Email: [email protected]
Response time: 3 business days
Include: Account email, API key prefix (first 8 chars), error details

Urgent Issues (Enterprise customers)

Contact your account manager
Include request_id from error responses

Useful Resources

Sign-off

Deployment Approval

[ ] Technical Lead approval
[ ] Security review completed
[ ] Performance testing signed off
[ ] Business stakeholder approval
[ ] Go-live date/time confirmed

Note: This checklist should be customized based on your specific requirements, architecture, and compliance needs. Not all items may apply to your implementation.