docker service create

Warning: this command is part of the Swarm management feature introduced in Docker 1.12, and might be subject to non backward-compatible changes.

Usage:  docker service create [OPTIONS] IMAGE [COMMAND] [ARG...]

Create a new service

Options:
      --constraint value               Placement constraints (default [])
      --container-label value          Service container labels (default [])
      --endpoint-mode string           Endpoint mode (vip or dnsrr)
  -e, --env value                      Set environment variables (default [])
      --help                           Print usage
  -l, --label value                    Service labels (default [])
      --limit-cpu value                Limit CPUs (default 0.000)
      --limit-memory value             Limit Memory (default 0 B)
      --log-driver string              Logging driver for service
      --log-opt value                  Logging driver options (default [])
      --mode string                    Service mode (replicated or global) (default "replicated")
      --mount value                    Attach a mount to the service
      --name string                    Service name
      --network value                  Network attachments (default [])
  -p, --publish value                  Publish a port as a node port (default [])
      --replicas value                 Number of tasks (default none)
      --reserve-cpu value              Reserve CPUs (default 0.000)
      --reserve-memory value           Reserve Memory (default 0 B)
      --restart-condition string       Restart when condition is met (none, on-failure, or any)
      --restart-delay value            Delay between restart attempts (default none)
      --restart-max-attempts value     Maximum number of restarts before giving up (default none)
      --restart-window value           Window used to evaluate the restart policy (default none)
      --stop-grace-period value        Time to wait before force killing a container (default none)
      --update-delay duration          Delay between updates
      --update-failure-action string   Action on update failure (pause|continue) (default "pause")
      --update-parallelism uint        Maximum number of tasks updated simultaneously (0 to update all at once) (default 1)
  -u, --user string                    Username or UID
      --with-registry-auth             Send registry authentication details to Swarm agents
  -w, --workdir string                 Working directory inside the container

Creates a service as described by the specified parameters. You must run this command on a manager node.

Examples

Create a service

$ docker service create --name redis redis:3.0.6
dmu1ept4cxcfe8k8lhtux3ro3

$ docker service ls
ID            NAME   REPLICAS  IMAGE        COMMAND
dmu1ept4cxcf  redis  1/1       redis:3.0.6

Create a service with 5 replica tasks (–replicas)

Use the --replicas flag to set the number of replica tasks for a replicated service. The following command creates a redis service with 5 replica tasks:

$ docker service create --name redis --replicas=5 redis:3.0.6
4cdgfyky7ozwh3htjfw0d12qv

The above command sets the desired number of tasks for the service. Even though the command returns immediately, actual scaling of the service may take some time. The REPLICAS column shows both the actual and desired number of replica tasks for the service.

In the following example the desired state is 5 replicas, but the current number of RUNNING tasks is 3:

$ docker service ls
ID            NAME    REPLICAS  IMAGE        COMMAND
4cdgfyky7ozw  redis   3/5       redis:3.0.7

Once all the tasks are created and RUNNING, the actual number of tasks is equal to the desired number:

$ docker service ls
ID            NAME    REPLICAS  IMAGE        COMMAND
4cdgfyky7ozw  redis   5/5       redis:3.0.7

Create a service with a rolling update policy

$ docker service create \
  --replicas 10 \
  --name redis \
  --update-delay 10s \
  --update-parallelism 2 \
  redis:3.0.6

When you run a service update, the scheduler updates a maximum of 2 tasks at a time, with 10s between updates. For more information, refer to the rolling updates tutorial.

Set environment variables (-e, –env)

This sets environmental variables for all tasks in a service. For example:

$ docker service create --name redis_2 --replicas 5 --env MYVAR=foo redis:3.0.6

Set metadata on a service (-l, –label)

A label is a key=value pair that applies metadata to a service. To label a service with two labels:

$ docker service create \
  --name redis_2 \
  --label com.example.foo="bar"
  --label bar=baz \
  redis:3.0.6

For more information about labels, refer to apply custom metadata.

Add bind-mounts or volumes

Docker supports two different kinds of mounts, which allow containers to read to or write from files or directories on other containers or the host operating system. These types are data volumes (often referred to simply as volumes) and bind-mounts.

A bind-mount makes a file or directory on the host available to the container it is mounted within. A bind-mount may be either read-only or read-write. For example, a container might share its host’s DNS information by means of a bind-mount of the host’s /etc/resolv.conf or a container might write logs to its host’s /var/log/myContainerLogs directory. If you use bind-mounts and your host and containers have different notions of permissions, access controls, or other such details, you will run into portability issues.

A named volume is a mechanism for decoupling persistent data needed by your container from the image used to create the container and from the host machine. Named volumes are created and managed by Docker, and a named volume persists even when no container is currently using it. Data in named volumes can be shared between a container and the host machine, as well as between multiple containers. Docker uses a volume driver to create, manage, and mount volumes. You can back up or restore volumes using Docker commands.

Consider a situation where your image starts a lightweight web server. You could use that image as a base image, copy in your website’s HTML files, and package that into another image. Each time your website changed, you’d need to update the new image and redeploy all of the containers serving your website. A better solution is to store the website in a named volume which is attached to each of your web server containers when they start. To update the website, you just update the named volume.

For more information about named volumes, see Data Volumes.

The following table describes options which apply to both bind-mounts and named volumes in a service:

Option	Required	Description
type		The type of mount, can be either volume, or bind. Defaults to volume if no type is specified. volume: mounts a managed volume into the container. bind: bind-mounts a directory or file from the host into the container.
src or source	for type=bind only	type=volume: src is an optional way to specify the name of the volume (for example, src=my-volume). If the named volume does not exist, it is automatically created. If no src is specified, the volume is assigned a random name which is guaranteed to be unique on the host, but may not be unique cluster-wide. A randomly-named volume has the same lifecycle as its container and is destroyed when the container is destroyed (which is upon service update, or when scaling or re-balancing the service). type=bind: src is required, and specifies an absolute path to the file or directory to bind-mount (for example, src=/path/on/host/). An error is produced if the file or directory does not exist.
dst or destination or target	yes	Mount path inside the container, for example /some/path/in/container/. If the path does not exist in the container’s filesystem, the Engine creates a directory at the specified location before mounting the volume or bind-mount.
readonly or ro		The Engine mounts binds and volumes read-write unless readonly option is given when mounting the bind or volume. true or 1 or no value: Mounts the bind or volume read-only. false or 0: Mounts the bind or volume read-write.

Bind Propagation

Bind propagation refers to whether or not mounts created within a given bind-mount or named volume can be propagated to replicas of that mount. Consider a mount point /mnt, which is also mounted on /tmp. The propagation settings control whether a mount on /tmp/a would also be available on /mnt/a. Each propagation setting has a recursive counterpoint. In the case of recursion, consider that /tmp/a is also mounted as /foo. The propagation settings control whether /mnt/a and/or /tmp/a would exist.

The bind-propagation option defaults to rprivate for both bind-mounts and volume mounts, and is only configurable for bind-mounts. In other words, named volumes do not support bind propagation.

• shared: Sub-mounts of the original mount are exposed to replica mounts, and sub-mounts of replica mounts are also propagated to the original mount.
• slave: similar to a shared mount, but only in one direction. If the original mount exposes a sub-mount, the replica mount can see it. However, if the replica mount exposes a sub-mount, the original mount cannot see it.
• private: The mount is private. Sub-mounts within it are not exposed to replica mounts, and sub-mounts of replica mounts are not exposed to the original mount.
• rshared: The same as shared, but the propagation also extends to and from mount points nested within any of the original or replica mount points.
• rslave: The same as slave, but the propagation also extends to and from mount points nested within any of the original or replica mount points.
• rprivate: The default. The same as private, meaning that no mount points anywhere within the original or replica mount points propagate in either direction.

For more information about bind propagation, see the Linux kernel documentation for shared subtree.

Options for Named Volumes

The following options can only be used for named volumes (type=volume);

Option	Description
volume-driver	Name of the volume-driver plugin to use for the volume. Defaults to "local", to use the local volume driver to create the volume if the volume does not exist.
volume-label	One or more custom metadata (“labels”) to apply to the volume upon creation. For example, volume-label=mylabel=hello-world,my-other-label=hello-mars. For more information about labels, refer to apply custom metadata.
volume-nocopy	By default, if you attach an empty volume to a container, and files or directories already existed at the mount-path in the container (dst), the Engine copies those files and directories into the volume, allowing the host to access them. Set volume-nocopy to disables copying files from the container’s filesystem to the volume and mount the empty volume. A value is optional: true or 1: Default if you do not provide a value. Disables copying. false or 0: Enables copying.
volume-opt	Options specific to a given volume driver, which will be passed to the driver when creating the volume. Options are provided as a comma-separated list of key/value pairs, for example, volume-opt=some-option=some-value,some-other-option=some-other-value. For available options for a given driver, refer to that driver’s documentation.

Differences between “–mount” and “–volume”

The --mount flag supports most options that are supported by the -v or --volume flag for docker run, with some important exceptions:

• The --mount flag allows you to specify a volume driver and volume driver options per volume, without creating the volumes in advance. In contrast, docker run allows you to specify a single volume driver which is shared by all volumes, using the --volume-driver flag.

• The --mount flag allows you to specify custom metadata (“labels”) for a volume, before the volume is created.

• When you use --mount with type=bind, the host-path must refer to an existing path on the host. The path will not be created for you and the service will fail with an error if the path does not exist.

• The --mount flag does not allow you to relabel a volume with Z or z flags, which are used for selinux labeling.

Create a service using a named volume

The following example creates a service that uses a named volume:

$ docker service create \
  --name my-service \
  --replicas 3 \
  --mount type=volume,source=my-volume,destination=/path/in/container,volume-label="color=red",volume-label="shape=round" \
  nginx:alpine

For each replica of the service, the engine requests a volume named “my-volume” from the default (“local”) volume driver where the task is deployed. If the volume does not exist, the engine creates a new volume and applies the “color” and “shape” labels.

When the task is started, the volume is mounted on /path/in/container/ inside the container.

Be aware that the default (“local”) volume is a locally scoped volume driver. This means that depending on where a task is deployed, either that task gets a new volume named “my-volume”, or shares the same “my-volume” with other tasks of the same service. Multiple containers writing to a single shared volume can cause data corruption if the software running inside the container is not designed to handle concurrent processes writing to the same location. Also take into account that containers can be re-scheduled by the Swarm orchestrator and be deployed on a different node.

Create a service that uses an anonymous volume

The following command creates a service with three replicas with an anonymous volume on /path/in/container:

$ docker service create \
  --name my-service \
  --replicas 3 \
  --mount type=volume,destination=/path/in/container \
  nginx:alpine

In this example, no name (source) is specified for the volume, so a new volume is created for each task. This guarantees that each task gets its own volume, and volumes are not shared between tasks. Anonymous volumes are removed after the task using them is complete.

Create a service that uses a bind-mounted host directory

The following example bind-mounts a host directory at /path/in/container in the containers backing the service:

$ docker service create \
  --name my-service \
  --mount type=bind,source=/path/on/host,destination=/path/in/container \
  nginx:alpine

Set service mode (–mode)

The service mode determines whether this is a replicated service or a global service. A replicated service runs as many tasks as specified, while a global service runs on each active node in the swarm.

The following command creates a global service:

$ docker service create \
 --name redis_2 \
 --mode global \
 redis:3.0.6

Specify service constraints (–constraint)

You can limit the set of nodes where a task can be scheduled by defining constraint expressions. Multiple constraints find nodes that satisfy every expression (AND match). Constraints can match node or Docker Engine labels as follows:

node attribute	matches	example
node.id	node ID	node.id == 2ivku8v2gvtg4
node.hostname	node hostname	node.hostname != node-2
node.role	node role: manager	node.role == manager
node.labels	user defined node labels	node.labels.security == high
engine.labels	Docker Engine’s labels	engine.labels.operatingsystem == ubuntu 14.04

engine.labels apply to Docker Engine labels like operating system, drivers, etc. Swarm administrators add node.labels for operational purposes by using the docker node update command.

For example, the following limits tasks for the redis service to nodes where the node type label equals queue:

$ docker service create \
  --name redis_2 \
  --constraint 'node.labels.type == queue' \
  redis:3.0.6

Attach a service to an existing network (–network)

You can use overlay networks to connect one or more services within the swarm.

First, create an overlay network on a manager node the docker network create command:

$ docker network create --driver overlay my-network

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After you create an overlay network in swarm mode, all manager nodes have access to the network.

When you create a service and pass the –network flag to attach the service to the overlay network:

$ docker service create \
  --replicas 3 \
  --network my-network \
  --name my-web \
  nginx

716thylsndqma81j6kkkb5aus

The swarm extends my-network to each node running the service.

Containers on the same network can access each other using service discovery.

Publish service ports externally to the swarm (-p, –publish)

You can publish service ports to make them available externally to the swarm using the --publish flag:

$ docker service create --publish <TARGET-PORT>:<SERVICE-PORT> nginx

For example:

$ docker service create --name my_web --replicas 3 --publish 8080:80 nginx

When you publish a service port, the swarm routing mesh makes the service accessible at the target port on every node regardless if there is a task for the service running on the node. For more information refer to Use swarm mode routing mesh.

Publish a port for TCP only or UCP only

By default, when you publish a port, it is a TCP port. You can specifically publish a UDP port instead of or in addition to a TCP port. When you publish both TCP and UDP ports, Docker 1.12.2 and earlier require you to add the suffix /tcp for TCP ports. Otherwise it is optional.

TCP only

The following two commands are equivalent.

$ docker service create --name dns-cache -p 53:53 dns-cache

$ docker service create --name dns-cache -p 53:53/tcp dns-cache

TCP and UDP

$ docker service create --name dns-cache -p 53:53/tcp -p 53:53/udp dns-cache

UDP only

$ docker service create --name dns-cache -p 53:53/udp dns-cache

Related information

• service inspect
• service ls
• service rm
• service scale
• service ps
• service update