Docker swarm – Load balancing asp.net core Ubuntu 20.04 – Part 1
Contents
Focus
Today, we’ll learn how to host your asp.net core site for load balancing inside a Docker swarm on Ubuntu 20.04. Docker swarm, at a simplest level, is a group (cluster) of machines. The machines can be physical or virtual. Each machine is called a node. Each node can have a role of a leader or a worker. Docker swarm is a container orchestration tool just like Kubernetes. It helps you manage your containers hosted across machines.
This is Part 1 of the article. I wanted to focus on native docker capabilities to orchestrate/manage containers. Consequently, I picked up Docker swarm. I’ll be covering Kubernetes in upcoming blogs.
Note: You can promote all nodes into a leader role. But for the sake of simplicity, we’ll keep one leader and others as worker nodes. Here, I’ve created three virtual machines. First one as leader and other two as worker nodes. I use Bitvise SSH client to login into my Ubuntu Servers. You can use putty if you like. Both support great copy pasting of commands. Since I use virtual machines, Bitvise easily helps me transfer files from host to guest machines via a GUI.
The IP addresses of my machines are:
Node | Node details | IP Address | Machine Name |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Leader node | 192.168.26.128 | jupiter |
2 | Worker node 1 | 192.168.26.129 | saturn |
3 | Worker node 2 | 192.168.26.130 | neptune |
This is a first step for load balancing your site. I’ll be using the same asp.net core hello world docker container which I created in my previous article.
Pre-requisites
- Run
sudo apt-get update
on both the worker nodes. - Ensure OpenSSH server is installed on all machines while OS installation.
- Ensure that the docker service is installed on both, Worker node 1 and 2 machines. You can refer this for installation.
- You don’t need to install any other software tools or packages on Worker node 1 and 2. Just docker is enough. Don’t install dotnet core sdk or any thing else for this article. We’ll keep Worker node 1 and 2 as clean as possible.
- Remember to append
sudo
to all your commands or just typesudo -s
in the beginning to skip typingsudo
every time. - The Leader node has the asp.net core hello world web application installed. The container image originally created also resides here.
Goal
- Host an asp.net core inside a docker container on a leader node.
- Leader node will replicate your container to all worker nodes automatically.
Prepare the leader node
We’ll quickly setup Docker swarm. It just boils down to once single command to initialize the swarm. When you run docker system info
, it shows that the swarm is inactive.
Assuming this is the first time you are creating the swarm, run: docker swarm init
Swarm initialized: current node (hmvgx5st2rgqw0ybz6frw7bew) is now a manager. To add a worker to this swarm, run the following command: docker swarm join --token SWMTKN-1-289ioi145whp5tg80zpb4sd9ilc57axa3a56epra3li321a3xy-e6sj9l1zlgjdlhht8qex1hh52 192.168.26.128:2377 To add a manager to this swarm, run 'docker swarm join-token manager' and follow the instructions.
Your output will not be the same but similar. Now, you have promoted your first machine to a manager. Importantly, in the output itself you will see the command (docker swarm join) you need to run on Worker node 1 and 2. This will make the worker nodes join the swarm.
On leader node, run: docker node ls
. You will see:
ID HOSTNAME STATUS AVAILABILITY MANAGER STATUS ENGINE VERSION ofbzz2nk2o29y0epytdvaky6m * jupiter Ready Active Leader 19.03.8
As a next step, SSH into your Worker node 1 and 2 machines. Run individually:
sudo docker swarm join --token SWMTKN-1-289ioi145whp5tg80zpb4sd9ilc57axa3a56epra3li321a3xy-e6sj9l1zlgjdlhht8qex1hh52 192.168.26.128:2377
Important note: All subsequent commands should be run on the Leader node. They will not run on the Worker nodes.
It will give you a message that the node has joined the swarm. Once you have ensured that both the machines have joined the swarm, you can confirm by running:
docker node ls
ID HOSTNAME STATUS AVAILABILITY MANAGER STATUS ENGINE VERSION ofbzz2nk2o29y0epytdvaky6m * jupiter Ready Active Leader 19.03.8 29gi2dej0bk66yehy9jqm1if3 neptune Ready Active 19.03.8 gs2piolqn814eurpcj5f6qq3r saturn Ready Active 19.03.8
Now when you run, docker system info
, it shows that the swarm is active. We’ll now prepare to host the container into the swarm.
Install Docker compose
First run, sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.25.5/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
Then give execute permissions to Docker compose,sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
Check if docker compose is correctly installed:docker-compose --version
Output will be something like: docker-compose version 1.25.5, build 8a1c60f6
Create registry to replicate containers
You need to create a registry to be able to replicate containers on all worker nodes
So run: docker service create --name registry --publish published=5000,target=5000 registry:2
wzx4cntqs5cavhd326z5w4pux overall progress: 1 out of 1 tasks 1/1: running [==================================================>] verify: Service converged
Run docker node ls
and check the output:
ID NAME MODE REPLICAS IMAGE PORTS wzx4cntqs5ca registry replicated 1/1 registry:2 *:5000->5000/tcp
Now switch to ./apps/aspnet-hw/aspnetcoreapp/
folder
We need to create a docker-compose.yml file. Type nano docker-compose.yml
and paste the following contents inside it.
version: '3' services: web: image: 127.0.0.1:5000/counter-image build: . ports: - "8000:5000"
Note: The image for the web app is built using the Dockerfile defined above. It’s also tagged with 127.0.0.1:5000 – the address of the registry created earlier. This is important when distributing the app to the swarm.
Push docker image to swarm
To distribute the web app’s image across the swarm, it needs to be pushed to the registry you set up earlier. With the help of Compose, this is very simple, run:
docker-compose push
Output: Pushing web (127.0.0.1:5000/counter-image:latest)... The push refers to repository [127.0.0.1:5000/counter-image] 2089e92f307d: Pushed d28d93422a14: Pushed 98b87267e8cd: Pushed 731d9ef100ab: Pushed 097cf5cb984a: Pushed 4c1434a6c15b: Pushed c2adabaecedb: Pushed latest: digest: sha256:cdb85f4a62aaaddbb6f32ce900fd03e8c5d10997715f0c70fcc162c3ae5b8051 size: 1792
The stack is now ready to be deployed:
docker stack deploy --compose-file docker-compose.yml counter-image
Ignoring unsupported options: build Creating network counter-image_default Creating service counter-image_web
Run docker service ls
ID NAME MODE REPLICAS IMAGE PORTS kngu8zmvnxbt counter-image_web replicated 1/1 127.0.0.1:5000/counter-image:latest *:8000->5000/tcp kug3cnpctqad registry replicated 1/1 registry:2 *:5000->5000/tcp
Replication complete
Done! Now your container will be replicated to Worker nodes 1 and 2 seamlessly. It might take a while say a minute or two. But since our container size is small, the replication would be very quick (under a minute).
Now you need to test your replication:
On Leader machine type: curl http://localhost:8000
. It will show HTML output.
On Leader machine type: curl http://192.168.26.129:8000
. It will show HTML output.
On Leader machine type: curl http://192.168.26.130:8000
. It will show HTML output.
As an alternative, on the Worker node 1 and 2 machines, you can also type: curl http://localhost:8000
and it will still show HTML output.
To check the status of your container, run: docker stack services counter-image
ID NAME MODE REPLICAS IMAGE PORTS kngu8zmvnxbt counter-image_web replicated 1/1 127.0.0.1:5000/counter-image:latest *:8000->5000/tcp
Conclusion
In the first part, we covered how to host your asp.net core site for load balancing inside a Docker swarm on Ubuntu 20.04. In the second part of this article, we will see implementing and testing load balancing.
Clean up
Remove a node from a swarm: docker node rm <machinename> --force
Leave a swarm, run this from the Worker node: sudo docker swarm leave --force
Bring down the stack, run: docker stack rm counter-image
Tear down registry, run: docker service rm registry
Destroy the swarm, run:
First, on Worker nodes: docker swarm leave --force
Last, on Leader node: docker swarm leave --force
Troubleshooting
Sometimes, when you reboot Worker nodes, they remain in “Down” status and not reachable by the swarm. In such cases, after rebooting the Worker node, just restart docker service on the worker node and things will be fine.
systemctl restart docker
If you forget the swarm joining token, just run on the Leader node:
docker swarm join-token manager
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