Automation failures happen. Your ability to recover determines impact severity.
Configuration backup: Backup running config before changes. Store backups in version control.
Git-based rollback:
git revert HEAD
git push
This creates a commit that undoes the previous change. Pipeline deploys the reverted state.
Device rollback: Some devices support automatic rollback if commit fails. NETCONF candidate configuration enables this.
Blast radius limitation: Deploy to small groups first. Stop pipeline if initial deployments fail.