Docker Swarm vs Vault

Overview

Vault

Stacks816

Followers802

Votes71

GitHub Stars33.4K

Forks4.5K

Docker Swarm

Stacks779

Followers990

Votes282

Docker Swarm vs Vault: What are the differences?

Introduction: In the realm of containerization and security, Docker Swarm and Vault play significant roles. However, they serve different purposes and have distinct functionalities that set them apart. Below, we outline the key differences between Docker Swarm and Vault.

Container Orchestration vs. Secrets Management: Docker Swarm is a container orchestration tool that enables the management of multiple Docker containers across multiple hosts, providing scalability and ease of management. On the other hand, Vault is a secrets management tool that focuses on securely storing and controlling access to sensitive information such as passwords, API keys, and encryption keys.
Scalability and High Availability: Docker Swarm provides built-in support for high availability and scalability through its swarm mode, which allows clustering of Docker hosts. In contrast, Vault can also be set up for high availability, but it requires additional configuration and setup to achieve the same level of scalability as Docker Swarm in terms of handling large numbers of containers.
Focus on Application Deployment: Docker Swarm primarily focuses on providing a platform for deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications, making it ideal for DevOps teams and developers looking to streamline their deployment processes. Meanwhile, Vault is designed specifically for security teams and administrators who need a centralized solution to manage and secure sensitive information within an organization.
Integration with Other Tools: Docker Swarm integrates seamlessly with other Docker tools and services, creating a cohesive ecosystem for container management. Vault, on the other hand, is designed to work with a wide range of tools and platforms, making it a versatile solution for securing secrets across different environments and applications.
Community Support and Ecosystem: Docker Swarm benefits from a strong community of developers and users, offering a wealth of resources, tutorials, and plugins to extend its functionality. Vault, while also having a supportive community, is more focused on security and compliance, with a range of features tailored specifically for managing secrets and access control within organizations.

In Summary, Docker Swarm excels in container orchestration and application deployment, while Vault specializes in secure secrets management and access control within organization environments.

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Advice on Vault, Docker Swarm

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

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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.

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Detailed Comparison

Vault	Docker Swarm
Vault is a tool for securely accessing secrets. A secret is anything that you want to tightly control access to, such as API keys, passwords, certificates, and more. Vault provides a unified interface to any secret, while providing tight access control and recording a detailed audit log.	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.
Secure Secret Storage: Arbitrary key/value secrets can be stored in Vault. Vault encrypts these secrets prior to writing them to persistent storage, so gaining access to the raw storage isn't enough to access your secrets. Vault can write to disk, Consul, and more.;Dynamic Secrets: Vault can generate secrets on-demand for some systems, such as AWS or SQL databases. For example, when an application needs to access an S3 bucket, it asks Vault for credentials, and Vault will generate an AWS keypair with valid permissions on demand. After creating these dynamic secrets, Vault will also automatically revoke them after the lease is up.;Data Encryption: Vault can encrypt and decrypt data without storing it. This allows security teams to define encryption parameters and developers to store encrypted data in a location such as SQL without having to design their own encryption methods.;Leasing and Renewal: All secrets in Vault have a lease associated with it. At the end of the lease, Vault will automatically revoke that secret. Clients are able to renew leases via built-in renew APIs.;Revocation: Vault has built-in support for secret revocation. Vault can revoke not only single secrets, but a tree of secrets, for example all secrets read by a specific user, or all secrets of a particular type. Revocation assists in key rolling as well as locking down systems in the case of an intrusion.	-
Statistics
GitHub Stars 33.4K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 4.5K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 816	Stacks 779
Followers 802	Followers 990
Votes 71	Votes 282
Pros & Cons
Pros 17 Secure 13 Variety of Secret Backends 11 Very easy to set up and use 8 Dynamic secret generation 5 AuditLog	Pros 55 Docker friendly 46 Easy to setup 40 Standard Docker API 38 Easy to use 23 Native Cons 9 Low adoption
Integrations
No integrations available	Docker

What are some alternatives to Vault, 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

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