Introduction to Docker Stacks

Deploying and managing cloud-native microservices applications at scale is hard. Fortunately, Docker stacks are here to help.

The TLDR

Docker stacks combine Compose and Swarm to create a platform for easy deployment and management of complex multi-container apps on secure, highly available infrastructure.

You build a swarm, define your apps in Compose files, and deploy and manage them with the docker stack command. From an architecture perspective, stacks are at the top of the Docker application hierarchy—they build on top of services, which in turn build on top of containers, and they only run on swarms.