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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Container Registry
  4. Container Tools
  5. Docker Swarm vs Harbor

Docker Swarm vs Harbor

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Docker Swarm
Docker Swarm
Stacks779
Followers990
Votes282
Harbor
Harbor
Stacks183
Followers185
Votes11
GitHub Stars26.8K
Forks5.0K

Docker Swarm vs Harbor: What are the differences?

Differences Between Docker Swarm and Harbor

Docker Swarm and Harbor are both popular tools in the DevOps world, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features. Here are the key differences between Docker Swarm and Harbor:

1. Clustering and Orchestration: Docker Swarm focuses on clustering and orchestration of Docker containers, allowing for easy deployment and management of containerized applications across multiple hosts. It provides features like load balancing, scaling, and container replication to ensure high availability and fault tolerance. On the other hand, Harbor is a container registry that enables users to store, distribute, and manage container images. It acts as a centralized repository for storing and sharing container images across a cluster of Docker hosts.

2. High Availability and Fault Tolerance: While both Docker Swarm and Harbor prioritize high availability and fault tolerance, they achieve it in different ways. Docker Swarm ensures high availability by distributing containers across multiple nodes and using load balancing to handle traffic efficiently. It automatically reschedules containers on different hosts if a node fails. In contrast, Harbor achieves high availability by supporting replication of its storage and database components. It utilizes a multi-master architecture to eliminate single points of failure and ensures continuous access to container images.

3. Security and Access Control: Docker Swarm and Harbor both focus on security and access control, but they have different approaches. Docker Swarm supports secure communication between its components by using Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption. It also provides role-based access control (RBAC) to manage user permissions. Harbor, on the other hand, offers fine-grained access control with support for LDAP and Active Directory integration. It allows administrators to define user roles and permissions for accessing repositories, projects, and individual images.

4. Container Image Management: Docker Swarm primarily focuses on the deployment and management of containers, whereas Harbor emphasizes container image management. Harbor provides advanced features like vulnerability scanning, image replication, and image promotion across different environments. It also supports vulnerability database integration to identify and mitigate security risks in container images. Docker Swarm, though it can pull container images from a registry like Harbor, does not provide as many image management capabilities.

5. Scalability: Docker Swarm and Harbor have different approaches to scalability. Docker Swarm allows users to scale their services horizontally by adding more replicas on different nodes. It uses a routing mesh to distribute incoming requests to the appropriate containers. Harbor, on the other hand, focuses on scalability at the registry level. It supports the deployment of multiple Harbor instances configured in a replication mode, allowing users to distribute the load across multiple instances.

6. Community Support and Ecosystem: Docker Swarm benefits from being a part of the larger Docker ecosystem. It has a vast community of developers and users, providing extensive documentation, tutorials, and support. Docker Swarm integrates well with other Docker tools and services, making it easy to incorporate into existing workflows. Harbor, while it has its own community, is more focused on container image management and might have a smaller user base compared to Docker Swarm.

In summary, Docker Swarm is an orchestration tool for managing Docker containers across multiple hosts, providing clustering, scaling, and high availability features. Harbor, on the other hand, is a container registry that focuses on container image management, with advanced features like vulnerability scanning and replication.

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Advice on Docker Swarm, Harbor

Simon
Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

DecidedonGitHubGitHubGitHub PagesGitHub PagesMarkdownMarkdown

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

Detailed Comparison

Docker Swarm
Docker Swarm
Harbor
Harbor

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.

Harbor is an open source cloud native registry that stores, signs, and scans container images for vulnerabilities. Harbor solves common challenges by delivering trust, compliance, performance, and interoperability. It fills a gap for organ

-
Multi-tenant content signing and validation;Image replication between instances;Extensible API and graphical UI;Security and vulnerability analysis;Identity integration and role-based access control;Internationalization
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
26.8K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
5.0K
Stacks
779
Stacks
183
Followers
990
Followers
185
Votes
282
Votes
11
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 55
    Docker friendly
  • 46
    Easy to setup
  • 40
    Standard Docker API
  • 38
    Easy to use
  • 23
    Native
Cons
  • 9
    Low adoption
Pros
  • 4
    Good on-premises container registry
  • 1
    Container Replication
  • 1
    Nice UI
  • 1
    Vulnerability Scanner
  • 1
    Supports LDAP/Active Directory
Integrations
Docker
Docker
Docker
Docker
Kubernetes
Kubernetes
Helm
Helm

What are some alternatives to Docker Swarm, Harbor?

Kubernetes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kitematic

Simple Docker App management for Mac OS X

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