Docker Machine vs Docker Swarm

Overview

Docker Machine

Stacks430

Followers518

Votes12

Docker Swarm

Stacks779

Followers990

Votes282

Docker Machine vs Docker Swarm: What are the differences?

Key Difference 1: Target Audience Docker Machine: Docker Machine is primarily designed for individual developers or small teams who need an easy way to provision and manage Docker hosts.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm is designed for larger organizations or enterprises that require orchestration and management of containers at scale.
Key Difference 2: Functionality Docker Machine: Docker Machine is focused on providing a way to create and manage Docker hosts on various virtualization platforms or cloud providers. It simplifies the process of setting up Docker on different environments.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm is a native clustering and orchestration solution for Docker. It allows you to create and manage a swarm of Docker nodes, enabling automatic scaling, load balancing, and high availability across a cluster of hosts.
Key Difference 3: Distributed Architecture Docker Machine: Docker Machine operates on a single Docker host, deploying containers on a single machine. It is suitable for small-scale deployments.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm operates in a distributed manner, allowing you to create a swarm of Docker nodes that can span across multiple machines or hosts. It provides the ability to schedule containers across the swarm, making it suitable for large-scale deployments.
Key Difference 4: Integration Docker Machine: Docker Machine integrates with various virtualization platforms and cloud providers, such as VirtualBox, VMware, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, etc. This allows you to easily provision Docker hosts on these platforms.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm integrates seamlessly with the Docker ecosystem, including Docker Engine, Docker Compose, and Docker CLI. It provides a unified way to manage and orchestrate containers within a swarm, using familiar Docker tools and commands.
Key Difference 5: Scalability Docker Machine: Docker Machine is not primarily focused on scalability, as it is designed for individual developers or small teams. It can provision multiple Docker hosts, but lacks the advanced scalability features of Docker Swarm.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm is built for scalability and can handle large-scale deployments. It provides features like automatic load balancing, scaling containers up or down based on demand, and adding or removing nodes from the swarm dynamically.
Key Difference 6: High Availability Docker Machine: Docker Machine does not provide built-in high availability features. If a Docker host fails, the containers running on it may become unresponsive until the host is manually restored or replaced.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm provides built-in high availability features, ensuring that containers are automatically rescheduled on other healthy nodes in case of a failure. It maintains the desired state of the swarm, ensuring high availability and failover.

In Summary, Docker Machine is a tool intended for individual developers or small teams to provision and manage Docker hosts, while Docker Swarm is a native clustering and orchestration solution for larger organizations or enterprises, providing advanced features like automatic scaling, load balancing, high availability, and seamless integration with the Docker ecosystem.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs

CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Advice on Docker Machine, Docker Swarm

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

GitHub

GitHub Pages

Markdown

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

@{GitHub}|tool:27| (incl. @{GitHub Pages}|tool:683|/@{Markdown}|tool:1147| for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
Respectively @{Git}|tool:1046| as revision control system
@{SourceTree}|tool:1599| as @{Git}|tool:1046| GUI
@{Visual Studio Code}|tool:4202| as IDE
@{CircleCI}|tool:190| for continuous integration (automatize development process)
@{Prettier}|tool:7035| / @{TSLint}|tool:5561| / @{ESLint}|tool:3337| as code linter
@{SonarQube}|tool:2638| as quality gate
@{Docker}|tool:586| as container management (incl. @{Docker Compose}|tool:3136| for multi-container application management)
@{VirtualBox}|tool:774| for operating system simulation tests
@{Kubernetes}|tool:1885| as cluster management for docker containers
@{Heroku}|tool:133| for deploying in test environments
@{nginx}|tool:1052| as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
@{SSLMate}|tool:2752| (using @{OpenSSL}|tool:3091|) for certificate management
@{Amazon EC2}|tool:18| (incl. @{Amazon S3}|tool:25|) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
@{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| as preferred database system
@{Redis}|tool:1031| as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.

12.8M views12.8M

Comments

Pavel

Jan 27, 2021

Needs adviceon

Linux

Windows

Docker

Hello, we have a bunch of local hosts (Linux and Windows) where Docker containers are running with bamboo agents on them. Currently, each container is installed as a system service. Each host is set up manually. I want to improve the system by adding some sort of orchestration software that should install, update and check for consistency in my docker containers. I don't need any clouds, all hosts are local. I'd prefer simple solutions. What orchestration system should I choose?

199k views199k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Docker Machine	Docker Swarm
Machine lets you create Docker hosts on your computer, on cloud providers, and inside your own data center. It creates servers, installs Docker on them, then configures the Docker client to talk to them.	Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.
Statistics
Stacks 430	Stacks 779
Followers 518	Followers 990
Votes 12	Votes 282
Pros & Cons
Pros 12 Easy docker hosts management	Pros 55 Docker friendly 46 Easy to setup 40 Standard Docker API 38 Easy to use 23 Native Cons 9 Low adoption
Integrations
Docker	Docker

What are some alternatives to Docker Machine, Docker Swarm?

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

CAST.AI

It is an AI-driven cloud optimization platform for Kubernetes. Instantly cut your cloud bill, prevent downtime, and 10X the power of DevOps.

k3s

Certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances. Supports something as small as a Raspberry Pi or as large as an AWS a1.4xlarge 32GiB server.

Flocker

Flocker is a data volume manager and multi-host Docker cluster management tool. With it you can control your data using the same tools you use for your stateless applications. This means that you can run your databases, queues and key-value stores in Docker and move them around as easily as the rest of your app.

Kitematic

Simple Docker App management for Mac OS X

Related Comparisons

Docker Machine vs Docker Swarm: What are the differences?

Key Difference 1: Target Audience Docker Machine: Docker Machine is primarily designed for individual developers or small teams who need an easy way to provision and manage Docker hosts.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm is designed for larger organizations or enterprises that require orchestration and management of containers at scale.
Key Difference 2: Functionality Docker Machine: Docker Machine is focused on providing a way to create and manage Docker hosts on various virtualization platforms or cloud providers. It simplifies the process of setting up Docker on different environments.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm is a native clustering and orchestration solution for Docker. It allows you to create and manage a swarm of Docker nodes, enabling automatic scaling, load balancing, and high availability across a cluster of hosts.
Key Difference 3: Distributed Architecture Docker Machine: Docker Machine operates on a single Docker host, deploying containers on a single machine. It is suitable for small-scale deployments.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm operates in a distributed manner, allowing you to create a swarm of Docker nodes that can span across multiple machines or hosts. It provides the ability to schedule containers across the swarm, making it suitable for large-scale deployments.
Key Difference 4: Integration Docker Machine: Docker Machine integrates with various virtualization platforms and cloud providers, such as VirtualBox, VMware, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, etc. This allows you to easily provision Docker hosts on these platforms.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm integrates seamlessly with the Docker ecosystem, including Docker Engine, Docker Compose, and Docker CLI. It provides a unified way to manage and orchestrate containers within a swarm, using familiar Docker tools and commands.
Key Difference 5: Scalability Docker Machine: Docker Machine is not primarily focused on scalability, as it is designed for individual developers or small teams. It can provision multiple Docker hosts, but lacks the advanced scalability features of Docker Swarm.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm is built for scalability and can handle large-scale deployments. It provides features like automatic load balancing, scaling containers up or down based on demand, and adding or removing nodes from the swarm dynamically.
Key Difference 6: High Availability Docker Machine: Docker Machine does not provide built-in high availability features. If a Docker host fails, the containers running on it may become unresponsive until the host is manually restored or replaced.

Docker Swarm: Docker Swarm provides built-in high availability features, ensuring that containers are automatically rescheduled on other healthy nodes in case of a failure. It maintains the desired state of the swarm, ensuring high availability and failover.

Docker Machine vs Docker Swarm

Overview