As the world moves towards microservices and containerization, Docker Swarm provides a straightforward platform for orchestrating and managing containerized applications. In this blog post, we will explore how to deploy a Netflix clone web application using Docker Swarm, demonstrating its capabilities for high availability, scalability, and simplicity.

Project Overview

This project aims to deploy a Netflix clone web application on a Docker Swarm cluster. We will create Docker images for the web application and its dependencies, then deploy these images using Docker Swarm services. With Swarm’s built-in features, we can ensure the application remains highly available and scalable as demand increases.

Key Components

1. Docker Swarm

Docker Swarm is Docker’s native clustering and orchestration tool. Its features include:

• Automatic Scaling: Automatically adjusts the number of containers based on desired replicas.

• Load Balancing: Distributes traffic across containers.

• Self-Healing: Automatically restarts containers when they fail.

2. Docker

Docker is a platform for developing, shipping, and running applications in containers. For this project, we will create Docker images of the Netflix clone web application.

3. Docker Swarm Manager

In Docker Swarm, the manager node coordinates the cluster, while worker nodes run the containerized applications.

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Set Up Your Docker Swarm Environment

• Provision Nodes: Go to your AWS portal (or preferred cloud provider) and create three instances:

  • Swarm-manager

  • Swarm-worker1

  • Swarm-worker2

    

• Configure Security: For each instance, update inbound rules to allow:

  • Custom TCP — 2377 — Anywhere IPv4 (for Swarm management traffic)

  • Custom TCP — 8001 — Anywhere IPv4 (for accessing the web app)

Step 2: Install Docker

Install Docker with the Docker engine on all three nodes. Follow Docker’s installation instructions if needed.

Step 3: Initialize Docker Swarm

• On the Swarm Manager Node: Initialize Docker Swarm by running:

    sudo docker swarm init
  

  

  This will create an empty Swarm and generate a command with a join token.

• On Worker Nodes: Paste and run the join command to add them as workers in the Swarm cluster.

Step 4: Verify the Swarm Cluster

• On the manager node, check the status of all nodes in the Swarm by running:

    docker node ls
  

  

Step 6: Deploy the Application Using Docker Swarm

On the manager node, create a Swarm service to deploy the Netflix clone:

sudo docker service create --name django-app-service --replicas 3 --publish 8001:8001 trainwithshubham/react-django-app:latest

This command deploys three replicas and exposes the application on port 8001.

Step 7: Verify the Deployment

• Check Service Status: Run the following command to confirm the service is up:

    sudo docker service ls
  

  

• View Running Containers: Confirm that containers are running on all nodes:

    sudo docker ps
  

  

Step 8: Access the Application

• Retrieve Node IP: Access the application by using the IP address of any node, followed by port 8001:

    http://<any-node-ip>:8001
  

  

  

  

Conclusion

Deploying a Netflix clone web application on Docker Swarm showcases the power and flexibility of Docker's orchestration capabilities. By leveraging Docker Swarm’s features like high availability, scalability, and simplicity, you can manage containerized applications efficiently. This project provides practical insight into deploying applications using Docker Swarm in a production-ready environment.