Docker Swarm vs LXC

Overview

Docker Swarm

Stacks779

Followers990

Votes282

LXC

Stacks116

Followers223

Votes19

GitHub Stars5.0K

Forks1.2K

Docker Swarm vs LXC: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Docker Swarm and LXC

Introduction:

Docker Swarm and LXC are both containerization technologies that aim to provide efficient and lightweight virtualization solutions. However, there are several key differences between the two.

Orchestration Capability: One of the main differences between Docker Swarm and LXC is their orchestration capability. Docker Swarm is designed specifically for orchestration and management of Docker containers. It allows users to create and manage a cluster of Docker nodes, enabling the deployment and scalability of applications across multiple containers. On the other hand, LXC is a lightweight virtualization technology that focuses on isolating processes within a single Linux kernel. While LXC can be used together with other tools for orchestration, it does not provide native built-in orchestration capabilities like Docker Swarm.
Operating System Support: Another significant difference between Docker Swarm and LXC is their operating system support. Docker Swarm is designed to work with a wide range of operating systems, including Linux, Windows, and macOS. It provides a consistent interface for managing containers across different operating systems. In contrast, LXC is primarily designed for Linux-based systems. It relies on features provided by the Linux kernel for containerization, making it less suitable for use with other operating systems.
Containerization Approach: Docker Swarm and LXC also differ in their containerization approach. Docker Swarm uses a higher-level abstraction called containers. Containers are isolated environments that can bundle an application with its dependencies, making it easy to deploy and run applications consistently across different environments. LXC, on the other hand, uses a lower-level approach called operating system-level virtualization. It leverages the Linux kernel namespaces and control groups to provide lightweight process isolation. LXC containers are more similar to traditional virtual machines, as they have their own filesystem, networking, and process space.
Community Ecosystem: Docker Swarm and LXC have different community ecosystems. Docker Swarm is backed by a large and active community and has a vast library of prebuilt Docker images available on Docker Hub. This makes it easier to find and use existing containers for various applications. In contrast, LXC has a smaller community compared to Docker Swarm. While there are still many prebuilt LXC images available, the selection might be more limited compared to Docker Swarm.
Security Model: Docker Swarm and LXC have different security models. Docker Swarm provides a higher level of security by default, with features such as content trust and image verification. It also supports fine-grained access controls and network segmentation. LXC, on the other hand, relies on the security features provided by the Linux kernel, such as user namespaces and SELinux. While it is possible to harden and secure LXC containers, Docker Swarm provides a more streamlined and comprehensive security model.
Ease of Use: Lastly, Docker Swarm and LXC differ in terms of ease of use. Docker Swarm is known for its simplicity and user-friendly interface. It provides a comprehensive command-line interface (CLI) and graphical user interface (GUI) for managing containers and clusters. Docker Swarm also offers built-in tools for container discovery, load balancing, and service discovery. LXC, on the other hand, requires a deeper understanding of Linux and the command line interface. While it provides extensive control over the container environment, it may have a steeper learning curve for beginners.

In Summary, Docker Swarm is a container orchestration tool that provides native built-in orchestration capabilities, supports multiple operating systems, uses higher-level containerization, has a large community ecosystem, offers enhanced security features, and is relatively easier to use compared to LXC, which is a lightweight virtualization technology focused on Linux-based systems, relies on lower-level operating system-level virtualization, has a smaller community ecosystem, provides security features based on the Linux kernel, and may have a steeper learning curve.

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 Swarm, LXC

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

Detailed Comparison

Docker Swarm	LXC
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.	LXC is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 5.0K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 1.2K
Stacks 779	Stacks 116
Followers 990	Followers 223
Votes 282	Votes 19
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 5 Easy to use 4 Lightweight 3 Simple and powerful 3 Good security 2 LGPL
Integrations
Docker	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Docker Swarm, LXC?

Docker

The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere

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.

LXD

LXD isn't a rewrite of LXC, in fact it's building on top of LXC to provide a new, better user experience. Under the hood, LXD uses LXC through liblxc and its Go binding to create and manage the containers. It's basically an alternative to LXC's tools and distribution template system with the added features that come from being controllable over the network.

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.

Related Comparisons

Docker Swarm vs LXC: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Docker Swarm and LXC

Introduction:

Docker Swarm and LXC are both containerization technologies that aim to provide efficient and lightweight virtualization solutions. However, there are several key differences between the two.

Orchestration Capability: One of the main differences between Docker Swarm and LXC is their orchestration capability. Docker Swarm is designed specifically for orchestration and management of Docker containers. It allows users to create and manage a cluster of Docker nodes, enabling the deployment and scalability of applications across multiple containers. On the other hand, LXC is a lightweight virtualization technology that focuses on isolating processes within a single Linux kernel. While LXC can be used together with other tools for orchestration, it does not provide native built-in orchestration capabilities like Docker Swarm.
Operating System Support: Another significant difference between Docker Swarm and LXC is their operating system support. Docker Swarm is designed to work with a wide range of operating systems, including Linux, Windows, and macOS. It provides a consistent interface for managing containers across different operating systems. In contrast, LXC is primarily designed for Linux-based systems. It relies on features provided by the Linux kernel for containerization, making it less suitable for use with other operating systems.
Containerization Approach: Docker Swarm and LXC also differ in their containerization approach. Docker Swarm uses a higher-level abstraction called containers. Containers are isolated environments that can bundle an application with its dependencies, making it easy to deploy and run applications consistently across different environments. LXC, on the other hand, uses a lower-level approach called operating system-level virtualization. It leverages the Linux kernel namespaces and control groups to provide lightweight process isolation. LXC containers are more similar to traditional virtual machines, as they have their own filesystem, networking, and process space.
Community Ecosystem: Docker Swarm and LXC have different community ecosystems. Docker Swarm is backed by a large and active community and has a vast library of prebuilt Docker images available on Docker Hub. This makes it easier to find and use existing containers for various applications. In contrast, LXC has a smaller community compared to Docker Swarm. While there are still many prebuilt LXC images available, the selection might be more limited compared to Docker Swarm.
Security Model: Docker Swarm and LXC have different security models. Docker Swarm provides a higher level of security by default, with features such as content trust and image verification. It also supports fine-grained access controls and network segmentation. LXC, on the other hand, relies on the security features provided by the Linux kernel, such as user namespaces and SELinux. While it is possible to harden and secure LXC containers, Docker Swarm provides a more streamlined and comprehensive security model.
Ease of Use: Lastly, Docker Swarm and LXC differ in terms of ease of use. Docker Swarm is known for its simplicity and user-friendly interface. It provides a comprehensive command-line interface (CLI) and graphical user interface (GUI) for managing containers and clusters. Docker Swarm also offers built-in tools for container discovery, load balancing, and service discovery. LXC, on the other hand, requires a deeper understanding of Linux and the command line interface. While it provides extensive control over the container environment, it may have a steeper learning curve for beginners.

Docker Swarm vs LXC

Overview

Docker Swarm vs LXC: What are the differences?