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  5. Docker Swarm vs Zookeeper

Docker Swarm vs Zookeeper

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Zookeeper
Zookeeper
Stacks889
Followers1.0K
Votes43
Docker Swarm
Docker Swarm
Stacks779
Followers990
Votes282

Docker Swarm vs Zookeeper: What are the differences?

Introduction

Docker Swarm and Zookeeper are two popular technologies used in the field of distributed systems and container orchestration. While both aim to provide efficient management and coordination of containerized applications, there are key differences between Docker Swarm and Zookeeper that set them apart. In this article, we will explore these differences in detail.

  1. Architecture and Purpose: Docker Swarm is a container orchestration platform that comes bundled with the Docker engine. It allows users to create and manage a cluster of Docker nodes, providing features like automatic load balancing and scaling of services. On the other hand, Zookeeper is a widely used coordination service for distributed systems. It provides primitives like distributed locks, leader election, and configuration management, making it suitable for building highly available and scalable applications.

  2. Ease of Setup and Management: Docker Swarm is relatively easier to set up and manage compared to Zookeeper. It leverages the existing Docker ecosystem and can be set up using a single Docker CLI command. Swarm Manager takes care of creating and managing the swarm cluster, simplifying the overall setup process. In contrast, Zookeeper requires manual configuration and has a steeper learning curve, making it more suitable for advanced users.

  3. Consensus Algorithm: Docker Swarm uses a simplified consensus algorithm called Raft, which ensures that the manager nodes are in sync regarding the state of the swarm cluster. This algorithm simplifies the setup and maintenance of Swarm, making it more beginner-friendly. On the other hand, Zookeeper uses the Zookeeper Atomic Broadcast (ZAB) protocol as its consensus algorithm. ZAB provides strong consistency guarantees at the cost of increased complexity.

  4. Use Cases: Docker Swarm is primarily designed for container orchestration and works well for applications that require simple scalability and load balancing. It is a good choice for smaller deployments or when working with the Docker ecosystem. On the other hand, Zookeeper is more general-purpose and can be used for distributed systems that require coordination and synchronization. It is widely adopted for building applications with high availability and fault tolerance.

  5. Community and Ecosystem: Docker Swarm benefits from the large community and ecosystem surrounding Docker. Users can leverage existing Docker images, plugins, and tools to enhance their Swarm deployments. In contrast, Zookeeper has a dedicated community and a rich set of libraries and bindings for various programming languages. It offers extensive support for building distributed systems, with a focus on consistency and synchronization.

  6. Scalability and Fault Tolerance: Docker Swarm provides built-in scaling and fault tolerance capabilities. It allows users to scale services horizontally by increasing the number of replicas, automatically distributing the workload across the nodes. Swarm also handles node failure and rescheduling of tasks to ensure high availability. On the other hand, Zookeeper is designed to be highly scalable and fault-tolerant. It provides features like leader election, data replication, and automatic failover, making it suitable for building robust distributed systems.

In summary, Docker Swarm is a container orchestration platform that simplifies the management of Docker clusters, while Zookeeper is a coordination service for building distributed systems with strong consistency guarantees. Docker Swarm offers ease of setup, simplicity, and integration with the Docker ecosystem, while Zookeeper provides advanced features like leader election and data replication for highly available applications. The choice between Docker Swarm and Zookeeper depends on the specific requirements and use cases of the application.

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Advice on Zookeeper, Docker Swarm

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.
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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Zookeeper
Zookeeper
Docker Swarm
Docker Swarm

A centralized service for maintaining configuration information, naming, providing distributed synchronization, and providing group services. All of these kinds of services are used in some form or another by distributed applications.

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
889
Stacks
779
Followers
1.0K
Followers
990
Votes
43
Votes
282
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 11
    High performance ,easy to generate node specific config
  • 8
    Java
  • 8
    Kafka support
  • 5
    Spring Boot Support
  • 3
    Supports extensive distributed IPC
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
Docker

What are some alternatives to Zookeeper, Docker Swarm?

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.

Consul

Consul

Consul is a tool for service discovery and configuration. Consul is distributed, highly available, and extremely scalable.

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.

Eureka

Eureka

Eureka is a REST (Representational State Transfer) based service that is primarily used in the AWS cloud for locating services for the purpose of load balancing and failover of middle-tier servers.

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.

etcd

etcd

etcd is a distributed key value store that provides a reliable way to store data across a cluster of machines. It’s open-source and available on GitHub. etcd gracefully handles master elections during network partitions and will tolerate machine failure, including the master.

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.

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