5 exercises — the language of infrastructure and release engineering: spinning up environments, rolling out releases, cutting over to new infrastructure, and handing off incidents.
Deployment phrasal verb cluster
spin up — start a container, VM, or environment
tear down — destroy and remove an environment
roll out — deploy gradually, in stages
roll back — revert a deployment to a previous version
cut over — switch from old to new system at a specific moment
hand off — transfer responsibility (incident, on-call, task)
scale up / scale down — increase or decrease resources/replicas
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
The DevOps team says: "We need to _____ a new container for the payment service before the release." Which phrasal verb fits?
Spin up means to start a new server, container, instance, or environment — especially in cloud and containerised infrastructure. It comes from the image of a machine spinning its disks up to operating speed. "Spin up a container" = docker run ... / ECS task launch / Kubernetes pod start. Common usage: "spin up an EC2 instance", "spin up a local dev environment", "spin up 3 replicas". Opposite: "spin down" or "tear down" — stop and remove the environment. "Boot over" — not a standard phrase; "reboot" is the standard term for restart. "Fire through" — not a DevOps term; "fire off" can mean to send rapidly (fire off a request, fire off a email). "Start off" means to begin a journey or activity in general — it doesn't carry the infrastructure-specific meaning of spin up.
2 / 5
After the release is complete, the team says: "We should _____ the staging environment to save costs." Which phrasal verb is correct?
Tear down means to destroy or decommission an environment — removing containers, VMs, infrastructure resources. "Tear down the staging environment" = terraform destroy / stop all containers / delete cloud resources. Opposite: "spin up". Common usage: "tear down the test environment after the pipeline finishes", "tear down the demo stack", "teardown scripts in CI/CD". The noun form is "teardown": "Run the teardown after tests complete." In infrastructure-as-code, teardown is a standard phase in ephemeral environment management. "Turn away" means to refuse entry or send someone away — not infrastructure. "Wipe through" — not a standard technical phrase; "wipe" alone means to erase data/storage. "Shut over" — not standard; "shut down" means to turn off a system.
3 / 5
The release note says: "We will gradually _____ the new version to 10% of users, then 50%, then 100%." What is the correct phrasal verb?
Roll out means to release or deploy gradually, in stages, to a growing audience or set of servers. It's the standard term for phased/canary/blue-green deployments. "Roll out to production" = deploy incrementally, monitor, and expand. The noun form "rollout" is common in product and DevOps communication: "The rollout starts at 2AM", "a staged rollout", "rollout complete". Use "roll out" when emphasising the phased/controlled nature of a release. Compare: "deploy" is more neutral and technical — deploy can be all-at-once. "Roll out" implies care, strategy, and incremental expansion. "Push forward" means to advance a plan or timeline — not specific to deployment. "Release out" — not standard; we say "release to production" or just "release". "Deploy forward" — not a phrasal verb; "deploy" is already the technical verb.
4 / 5
During a database migration, the team says: "We will _____ traffic to the new database cluster once validation passes." Choose the correct phrasal verb.
Cut over means to switch from one system, server, or infrastructure component to another at a specific moment — often used in migrations, data centre moves, and blue/green deployments. "Cut over to the new database" = redirect all traffic/connections from old DB to new DB at the migration point. The noun form is "cutover": "Schedule the cutover for the maintenance window", "a hard cutover", "a soft cutover". Related phrases: "cut over to", "perform the cutover", "cutover plan", "cutover checklist". Compare: "roll out" (gradual) vs. "cut over" (switch at a specific moment). "Pass through" means traffic passing through a layer or network component — not a system switch. "Flip across" — not a standard technical phrase; "flip the switch" is informal for activating a feature flag. "Move behind" — not standard IT vocabulary.
5 / 5
The SRE says: "Before the on-call shift ends, please _____ the incident to the next team along with the current status."
Hand off means to transfer responsibility, a task, or an active incident to another person or team. In deployment and operations: "hand off to the on-call engineer", "hand off the deployment to ops", "hand off the escalation". The noun is "handoff" (or "hand-off"): "Include the context in the handoff notes", "a clean handoff", "async handoff via Slack". Key distinction: "hand off" implies actively transferring with context — you're not just leaving, you're making sure the next person is ready. Compare: "hand over" — similar but often used for larger, more formal transfers: "hand over the project to the new team". "Hand off" is more common in operational and agile contexts. "Pass away" means to die — clearly not appropriate here. "Send through" means to transmit a document or message — it doesn't carry the responsibility-transfer meaning. "Pass around" means to share something among multiple people in sequence.