page_title: Docker Swarm filters
page_description: Swarm filters
page_keywords: docker, swarm, clustering, filters
Filters
The Docker Swarm
scheduler comes with multiple filters.
The following filters are currently used to schedule containers on a subset of nodes:
You can choose the filter(s) you want to use with the --filter
flag of swarm manage
Constraint Filter
Constraints are key/value pairs associated to particular nodes. You can see them
as node tags.
When creating a container, the user can select a subset of nodes that should be
considered for scheduling by specifying one or more sets of matching key/value pairs.
This approach has several practical use cases such as:
- Selecting specific host properties (such as
storage=ssd
, in order to schedule
containers on specific hardware).
- Tagging nodes based on their physical location (
region=us-east
, to force
containers to run on a given location).
- Logical cluster partitioning (
environment=production
, to split a cluster into
sub-clusters with different properties).
To tag a node with a specific set of key/value pairs, one must pass a list of
--label
options at docker startup time.
For instance, let's start node-1
with the storage=ssd
label:
$ docker -d --label storage=ssd
$ swarm join --advertise=192.168.0.42:2375 token://XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Again, but this time node-2
with storage=disk
:
$ docker -d --label storage=disk
$ swarm join --advertise=192.168.0.43:2375 token://XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Once the nodes are registered with the cluster, the master pulls their respective
tags and will take them into account when scheduling new containers.
Let's start a MySQL server and make sure it gets good I/O performance by selecting
nodes with flash drives:
$ docker run -d -P -e constraint:storage==ssd --name db mysql
f8b693db9cd6
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NODE NAMES
f8b693db9cd6 mysql:latest "mysqld" Less than a second ago running 192.168.0.42:49178->3306/tcp node-1 db
In this case, the master selected all nodes that met the storage=ssd
constraint
and applied resource management on top of them, as discussed earlier.
node-1
was selected in this example since it's the only host running flash.
Now we want to run an Nginx frontend in our cluster. However, we don't want
flash drives since we'll mostly write logs to disk.
$ docker run -d -P -e constraint:storage==disk --name frontend nginx
963841b138d8
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NODE NAMES
963841b138d8 nginx:latest "nginx" Less than a second ago running 192.168.0.43:49177->80/tcp node-2 frontend
f8b693db9cd6 mysql:latest "mysqld" Up About a minute running 192.168.0.42:49178->3306/tcp node-1 db
The scheduler selected node-2
since it was started with the storage=disk
label.
Standard Constraints
Additionally, a standard set of constraints can be used when scheduling containers
without specifying them when starting the node. Those tags are sourced from
docker info
and currently include:
- node ID or node Name (using key "node")
- storagedriver
- executiondriver
- kernelversion
- operatingsystem
Affinity filter
You use an --affinity:<filter>
to create "attractions" between containers. For
example, you can run a container and instruct it to locate and run next to
another container based on an identifier, an image, or a label. These
attractions ensure that containers run on the same network node — without
you having to know what each node is running.
Container affinity
You can schedule a new container to run next to another based on a container
name or ID. For example, you can start a container called frontend
running
nginx
:
$ docker run -d -p 80:80 --name front nginx
87c4376856a8
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NODE NAMES
87c4376856a8 nginx:latest "nginx" Less than a second ago running 192.168.0.42:80->80/tcp node-1 front
Then, using -e affinity:container==frontend
flag schedule a second container to
locate and run next to frontend
.
$ docker run -d --name logger -e affinity:container==frontend logger
87c4376856a8
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NODE NAMES
87c4376856a8 nginx:latest "nginx" Less than a second ago running 192.168.0.42:80->80/tcp node-1 frontend
963841b138d8 logger:latest "logger" Less than a second ago running node-1 logger
Because of name affinity, the logger
container ends up on node-1
along with
the frontend
container. Instead of the frontend
name you could have supplied its
ID as follows:
docker run -d --name logger -e affinity:container==87c4376856a8`
Image affinity
You can schedule a container to run only on nodes where a specific image is already pulled.
$ docker -H node-1:2375 pull redis
$ docker -H node-2:2375 pull mysql
$ docker -H node-3:2375 pull redis
Only node-1
and node-3
have the redis
image. Specify a -e affinity:image=redis
filter to schedule several additional containers to run on
these nodes.
$ docker run -d --name redis1 -e affinity:image==redis redis
$ docker run -d --name redis2 -e affinity:image==redis redis
$ docker run -d --name redis3 -e affinity:image==redis redis
$ docker run -d --name redis4 -e affinity:image==redis redis
$ docker run -d --name redis5 -e affinity:image==redis redis
$ docker run -d --name redis6 -e affinity:image==redis redis
$ docker run -d --name redis7 -e affinity:image==redis redis
$ docker run -d --name redis8 -e affinity:image==redis redis
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NODE NAMES
87c4376856a8 redis:latest "redis" Less than a second ago running node-1 redis1
1212386856a8 redis:latest "redis" Less than a second ago running node-1 redis2
87c4376639a8 redis:latest "redis" Less than a second ago running node-3 redis3
1234376856a8 redis:latest "redis" Less than a second ago running node-1 redis4
86c2136253a8 redis:latest "redis" Less than a second ago running node-3 redis5
87c3236856a8 redis:latest "redis" Less than a second ago running node-3 redis6
87c4376856a8 redis:latest "redis" Less than a second ago running node-3 redis7
963841b138d8 redis:latest "redis" Less than a second ago running node-1 redis8
As you can see here, the containers were only scheduled on nodes that had the
redis
image. Instead of the image name, you could have specified the image ID.
$ docker images
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED VIRTUAL SIZE
redis latest 06a1f75304ba 2 days ago 111.1 MB
$ docker run -d --name redis1 -e affinity:image==06a1f75304ba redis
Label affinity
Label affinity allows you to set up an attraction based on a container's label.
For example, you can run a nginx
container with the com.example.type=frontend
label.
$ docker run -d -p 80:80 --label com.example.type=frontend nginx
87c4376856a8
$ docker ps --filter "label=com.example.type=front"
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NODE NAMES
87c4376856a8 nginx:latest "nginx" Less than a second ago running 192.168.0.42:80->80/tcp node-1 trusting_yonath
Then, use -e affinity:com.example.type==frontend
to schedule a container next to
the container with the com.example.type==frontend
label.
$ docker run -d -e affinity:com.example.type==frontend logger
87c4376856a8
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NODE NAMES
87c4376856a8 nginx:latest "nginx" Less than a second ago running 192.168.0.42:80->80/tcp node-1 trusting_yonath
963841b138d8 logger:latest "logger" Less than a second ago running node-1 happy_hawking
The logger
container ends up on node-1
because its affinity with the com.example.type==frontend
label.
Expression Syntax
An affinity or a constraint expression consists of a key
and a value
.
A key
must conform the alpha-numeric pattern, with the leading alphabet or underscore.
A value
must be one of the following:
- An alpha-numeric string, dots, hyphens, and underscores.
- A globbing pattern, i.e.,
abc*
.
- A regular expression in the form of
/regexp/
. We support the Go's regular expression syntax.
Currently Swarm supports the following affinity/constraint operators: ==
and !=
.
For example,
constraint:node==node1
will match node node1
.
constraint:node!=node1
will match all nodes, except node1
.
constraint:region!=us*
will match all nodes outside the regions prefixed with us
.
constraint:node==/node[12]/
will match nodes node1
and node2
.
constraint:node==/node\d/
will match all nodes with node
+ 1 digit.
constraint:node!=/node-[01]/
will match all nodes, except node-0
and node-1
.
constraint:node!=/foo\[bar\]/
will match all nodes, except foo[bar]
. You can see the use of escape characters here.
constraint:node==/(?i)node1/
will match node node1
case-insensitive. So NoDe1
or NODE1
will also match.
Soft Affinities/Constraints
By default, affinities and constraints are hard enforced. If an affinity or
constraint is not met, the container won't be scheduled. With soft
affinities/constraints the scheduler will try to meet the rule. If it is not
met, the scheduler will discard the filter and schedule the container according
to the scheduler's strategy.
Soft affinities/constraints are expressed with a ~ in the
expression, for example:
$ docker run -d --name redis1 -e affinity:image==~redis redis
If none of the nodes in the cluster has the image redis
, the scheduler will
discard the affinity and schedule according to the strategy.
$ docker run -d --name redis2 -e constraint:region==~us* redis
If none of the nodes in the cluster belongs to the us
region, the scheduler will
discard the constraint and schedule according to the strategy.
$ docker run -d --name redis5 -e affinity:container!=~redis* redis
The affinity filter will be used to schedule a new redis5
container to a
different node that doesn't have a container with the name that satisfies
redis*
. If each node in the cluster has a redis*
container, the scheduler
will discard the affinity rule and schedule according to the strategy.
Port Filter
With this filter, ports
are considered unique resources.
$ docker run -d -p 80:80 nginx
87c4376856a8
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND PORTS NODE NAMES
87c4376856a8 nginx:latest "nginx" 192.168.0.42:80->80/tcp node-1 prickly_engelbart
Docker cluster selects a node where the public 80
port is available and schedules
a container on it, in this case node-1
.
Attempting to run another container with the public 80
port will result in
the cluster selecting a different node, since that port is already occupied on node-1
:
$ docker run -d -p 80:80 nginx
963841b138d8
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND PORTS NODE NAMES
963841b138d8 nginx:latest "nginx" 192.168.0.43:80->80/tcp node-2 dreamy_turing
87c4376856a8 nginx:latest "nginx" 192.168.0.42:80->80/tcp node-1 prickly_engelbart
Again, repeating the same command will result in the selection of node-3
, since
port 80
is neither available on node-1
nor node-2
:
$ docker run -d -p 80:80 nginx
963841b138d8
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND PORTS NODE NAMES
f8b693db9cd6 nginx:latest "nginx" 192.168.0.44:80->80/tcp node-3 stoic_albattani
963841b138d8 nginx:latest "nginx" 192.168.0.43:80->80/tcp node-2 dreamy_turing
87c4376856a8 nginx:latest "nginx" 192.168.0.42:80->80/tcp node-1 prickly_engelbart
Finally, Docker Swarm will refuse to run another container that requires port
80
since not a single node in the cluster has it available:
$ docker run -d -p 80:80 nginx
2014/10/29 00:33:20 Error response from daemon: no resources available to schedule container
Port filter in Host Mode
Docker in the host mode, running with --net=host
, differs from the
default bridge
mode as the host
mode does not perform any port
binding. So, it require that you explicitly expose one or more port numbers
(using EXPOSE
in the Dockerfile
or --expose
on the command line).
Swarm makes use of this information in conjunction with the host
mode to choose an available node for a new container.
For example, the following commands start nginx
on 3-node cluster.
$ docker run -d --expose=80 --net=host nginx
640297cb29a7
$ docker run -d --expose=80 --net=host nginx
7ecf562b1b3f
$ docker run -d --expose=80 --net=host nginx
09a92f582bc2
Port binding information will not be available through the docker ps
command because all the nodes are started in the host
mode.
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
640297cb29a7 nginx:1 "nginx -g 'daemon of Less than a second ago Up 30 seconds box3/furious_heisenberg
7ecf562b1b3f nginx:1 "nginx -g 'daemon of Less than a second ago Up 28 seconds box2/ecstatic_meitner
09a92f582bc2 nginx:1 "nginx -g 'daemon of 46 seconds ago Up 27 seconds box1/mad_goldstine
The swarm will refuse the operation when trying to instantiate the 4th container.
$ docker run -d --expose=80 --net=host nginx
FATA[0000] Error response from daemon: unable to find a node with port 80/tcp available in the Host mode
However port binding to the different value, e.g. 81
, is still allowed.
$ docker run -d -p 81:80 nginx:latest
832f42819adc
$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
832f42819adc nginx:1 "nginx -g 'daemon of Less than a second ago Up Less than a second 443/tcp, 192.168.136.136:81->80/tcp box3/thirsty_hawking
640297cb29a7 nginx:1 "nginx -g 'daemon of 8 seconds ago Up About a minute box3/furious_heisenberg
7ecf562b1b3f nginx:1 "nginx -g 'daemon of 13 seconds ago Up About a minute box2/ecstatic_meitner
09a92f582bc2 nginx:1 "nginx -g 'daemon of About a minute ago Up About a minute box1/mad_goldstine
Dependency Filter
This filter co-schedules dependent containers on the same node.
Currently, dependencies are declared as follows:
- Shared volumes:
--volumes-from=dependency
- Links:
--link=dependency:alias
- Shared network stack:
--net=container:dependency
Swarm will attempt to co-locate the dependent container on the same node. If it
cannot be done (because the dependent container doesn't exist, or because the
node doesn't have enough resources), it will prevent the container creation.
The combination of multiple dependencies will be honored if possible. For
instance, --volumes-from=A --net=container:B
will attempt to co-locate the
container on the same node as A
and B
. If those containers are running on
different nodes, Swarm will prevent you from scheduling the container.
Health Filter
This filter will prevent scheduling containers on unhealthy nodes.
Docker Swarm documentation index