Rollbacktoknowngood

Rollbacktoknowngood is a term used in software development and system administration to describe a strategy for restoring a system or application to a previously known stable state. This known good state is often identified as a version of the software or configuration that was confirmed to be working correctly and without issues. The primary goal of a rollbacktoknowngood operation is to quickly resolve problems caused by a recent change, such as a software update, configuration modification, or deployment, that has introduced instability or critical errors.

The process typically involves identifying the last known good version, then reverting the system to that specific version. This might entail uninstalling the problematic update and reinstalling the previous stable version, or selectively reverting specific configuration files. In some cases, it can involve restoring from a backup that was taken when the system was known to be in a good state. This approach prioritizes immediate system availability and stability over the potential loss of very recent data or minor features introduced by the faulty change.

Rollbacktoknowngood is a reactive measure, often employed when automated testing or pre-deployment checks fail to catch a critical issue. While effective for restoring service quickly, it is generally considered a temporary solution. Once the system is stable, further investigation is usually required to understand why the problematic change failed and to implement a permanent fix before attempting to reintroduce the intended functionality. This might involve debugging the code, correcting the configuration, or improving the testing and deployment processes.