Docker Swarm In A Nutshell
Tags: docker, programming, tutorial, devops
Published: 2022-11-04 08:02:51

[Paul Knulst](https://www.paulsblog.dev/)  in  [Docker](https://www.paulsblog.dev/tag/docker/) • Nov 24, 2021 • 4 min read

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This simple tutorial shows how a running docker swarm cluster can be created in ~15 minutes.

**I created a follow-up guide to show important services that should be used in every Docker Swarm. The guide is based on this tutorial:** [https://www.paulsblog.dev/services-you-want-to-have-in-a-swarm-environment/](https://www.paulsblog.dev/services-you-want-to-have-in-a-swarm-environment/)


1\. Introduction
----------------

> __Whenever you read “Docker Swarm” we are actually talking about “**Docker Swarm mode**”. (not the deprecated product Docker swarm)__

### 1.1 Why Docker Swarm?

[Docker Swarm](https://docs.docker.com/engine/swarm/) is the right tool to **deploy** your application stacks to **production**, in a **distributed cluster**, using the same files used by Docker Compose locally.

Additional advantages are:

*   Replicability (dev files can be used in production)
*   Robustness (fault-tolerant clusters)
*   **Simplicity and speed for development and deployment**

The main benefit of Docker Swarm is simplicity and development speed while still being able to set up a distributed cluster **ready for production** in 15 minutes.

### 1.2 Prerequisites

To follow this tutorial on Docker Swarm you need these prerequisites:

*   **Basic** familiarity with **Linux and Docker**
*   **Need access to at least 2** (I used four) **ubuntu servers** from a cloud provider on which the Docker Swarm will run
*   **A domain** that points to one of your servers

2\. Create the Docker Swarm
---------------------------

### 2.1 Installing dependencies

In a freshly installed server infrastructure, every dependency has to be installed to create the swarm cluster. These include **Updating the operating system** and **installing the docker-engine**

To update the operating system to an up-to-date version
```bash
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
```

Subsequently, `curl` can be used to download **get-docker.sh** which is a script created by [docker.com](https://docker.com/) to easily install docker on a system:
```bash
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
```

This `curl` command opens a website, reads the content, and transfers its content into the file `get-docker.sh`

Ultimately, the file has to be executed (as a root user):
```bash
sh get-docker.sh
```

This script installs everything you need to use docker on your server.

### 2.2 Initialize the Docker Swarm

After the Docker installation is done choose your Manager node. The Manager node will be the server within your cluster that does all the deployment and __managing__. The Manager node should be the server within the environment whose IP is targeted by a domain name.

On your manager execute the following command:
```bash
docker swarm init --advertise-addr X.X.X.X
```

This command activates swarm mode on the server. The `advertise-addr` has to be the internal IP from the server. (normally if you buy more than one server from the same hosting company you can put all of them into an internal network and get the internal IP).

### 2.3 Finalising the Docker Swarm

The last step is joining the docker swarm from the other servers. After executing the previous command there will be some lines printed in the end that should be executed on the remaining servers in your cluster. It will look like this:
```bash
docker swarm join --token SOME_CRYPTIC_HASH_TOKEN X.X.X.X:2377
```

Execute the command on every other server in your network which will then connect to the Worker node to your Manager.

3\. Optional enhancement
------------------------

Now that the swarm is ready to be used it is possible to deploy services.

I would suggest deploying at least [Portainer](https://github.com/portainer/portainer/blob/develop/README.md). Portainer is a container management service that could be used for managing and deploying services.

As a starting point, you can use this docker-compose.yml
```yaml
version: '3.2'

services:
  agent:
    image: portainer/agent
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - /var/lib/docker/volumes:/var/lib/docker/volumes
    networks:
      - agent_network
    deploy:
      mode: global
      placement:
        constraints: [node.platform.os == linux]

  portainer:
    image: portainer/portainer-ce
    command: -H tcp://tasks.agent:9001 --tlsskipverify
    ports:
      - "9000:9000"
      - "8000:8000"
    volumes:
      - portainer_data:/data
    networks:
      - agent_network
    deploy:
      mode: replicated
      replicas: 1
      placement:
        constraints: [node.role == manager]

networks:
  agent_network:
    driver: overlay
    attachable: true

volumes:
  portainer_data:
```

After saving this file on the Manager node it can be deployed within the Docker Swarm:
```
docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.portainer.yml portainer
```

Immediately after executing the command, Portainer can be accessed at [**__http://YOUR\_DOMAIN:9000__**](http://your_domain:9000/)

4\. Closing Notes
-----------------

Keep in mind that the example Portainer instance will be deployed **without SSL**. To achieve this you can use a load balancer like traefik. As a starting point, you can read an article that explains how to set up a traefik service within a **plain docker environment:**

{% embed https://www.paulsblog.dev/how-to-setup-traefik-with-automatic-letsencrypt-certificate-resolver/ %}

This article was originally published on my blog at [https://www.paulsblog.dev/improving-code-quality-of-android-apps-with-sonarqube-and-gradle-detekt/](https://www.paulsblog.dev/improving-code-quality-of-android-apps-with-sonarqube-and-gradle-detekt/)

Feel free to connect with me on [my personal blog](https://www.paulsblog.dev), [Medium](https://medium.knulst.de), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulknulst/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/paulknulst), and [GitHub](https://github.com/paulknulst).

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