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.