Background job queue backlog: pre-release and first 30 minutes checklists

A job change slows processing and the queue grows faster than it drains.

The pre-release checklist maps each item to a test class from the incident page. The first-30-minutes checklist covers detection, containment, the rollback decision and customer communication.

8 pre-release items · 8 first-30-minutes items · verified 2026-10-21

Pre-release checklist

PR-01After a major-version upgrade of any shared library, start a background worker in an integration environment and confirm each scheduler thread is still running after startup. integration
PR-02Add an integration test that registers a recurring job and asserts it is enqueued within one schedule interval after a worker starts. integration
PR-03List every consumer of an upgraded library, including third-party job libraries, and run each consumer's tests against the new version. integration
PR-04Run each new periodic task's query against a production-sized copy of its table and confirm it finishes before the next scheduled run. load
PR-05Run the infrastructure management workers under the expected scheduling workload after a dependency upgrade and compare task throughput with the previous release. load
PR-06Confirm in a load test that worker scaling adds workers when queue depth rises. load
PR-07Compare queue depth and the age of the oldest pending task with baseline before promoting a release past the canary step. canary
PR-08Hold the canary until every recurring job has run once within its expected interval on the new release. canary

First 30 minutes

FM-01Read queue depth and the age of the oldest pending task and compare them with the normal baseline.
FM-02Check whether recurring and scheduled work is still being enqueued, even when worker processes report healthy.
FM-03Find long-running instances of any task deployed in the release and cancel their queries.
FM-04Disable the new periodic task, or pin the upgraded library back to its previous version, whichever matches the stall.
FM-05Roll back the release if worker throughput stays below the previous release after the disable or the pin.
FM-06Scale up workers or public-facing routers by hand while the backlog drains.
FM-07Post a status update that names the delayed work, such as scheduled builds, emails or cache purges.
FM-08Keep the incident open until queue depth returns to the normal baseline.

Download the checklist

Pre-release checklist (Markdown)1.7 KB · v1.0.0
First 30 minutes checklist (Markdown)1.1 KB · v1.0.0

Only in this checklist

Every test class in this checklist also appears in at least one sibling checklist in the group; the item texts differ: After a major-version upgrade of any shared library, start a background worker in an integration environment and confirm each scheduler thread is still running after startup.

Questions

What should be checked before a release to prevent Background job queue backlog?

8 pre-release items, PR-01 to PR-08. PR-01: After a major-version upgrade of any shared library, start a background worker in an integration environment and confirm each scheduler thread is still running after startup.

Is there a rollback plan for Background job queue backlog?

The first-30-minutes checklist has 8 items. FM-01: Read queue depth and the age of the oldest pending task and compare them with the normal baseline.

What should a team do in the first 30 minutes after Background job queue backlog is detected?

The first-30-minutes checklist has 8 items. FM-01: Read queue depth and the age of the oldest pending task and compare them with the normal baseline.

Is a Background job queue backlog checklist still needed if deployment is automated?

Yes. Automation runs the steps; the checklist names what the tests must cover: integration tests, load and performance tests and canary and progressive delivery checks.

Which pipeline stages does the Background job queue backlog checklist cover?

The pre-release items map to the pre-deploy and post-deploy stages.

In what formats can the Background job queue backlog checklist be downloaded?

Both checklists download as Markdown files: /downloads/background-job-queue-backlog-pre-release.md and /downloads/background-job-queue-backlog-first-30-minutes.md, licensed CC BY 4.0.