Swarm Overview

Docker Swarm overview

Docker Swarm is native clustering for Docker. It turns a pool of Docker hosts into a single, virtual Docker host. Because Docker Swarm serves the standard Docker API, any tool that already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts. Supported tools include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Dokku
• Docker Compose
• Docker Machine
• Jenkins

And of course, the Docker client itself is also supported.

Like other Docker projects, Docker Swarm follows the “swap, plug, and play” principle. As initial development settles, an API will develop to enable pluggable backends. This means you can swap out the scheduling backend Docker Swarm uses out-of-the-box with a backend you prefer. Swarm’s swappable design provides a smooth out-of-box experience for most use cases, and allows large-scale production deployments to swap for more powe