Building a Docker Application Stack

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Building a Docker Application Stack

Stacks are one of the most powerful orchestration features available in Docker Swarm. They allow you to easily manage complex applications consisting of multiple interdependent components running in separate containers. In this lab, you will have the opportunity to work with Docker stacks by building a multi-component application as a Docker stack. You will also learn how to manage existing stacks by scaling a stack's services after it has already been deployed. This will give you some hands-on insight into Docker stacks.

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Jul 12, 2025

Duration

1h 0m

Challenge

Build and deploy the application stack.
1. Create an empty project directory with a Docker compose YAML file inside.
```
cd ~/
mkdir produce
cd produce
vi produce.yml
```
1. Build a stack definition in produce.yml to meet the provided specifications.
```
version: '3'
services:
  fruit:
    image: linuxacademycontent/fruit-service:1.0.1
  vegetables:
    image: linuxacademycontent/vegetable-service:1.0.0
  all_products:
    image: linuxacademycontent/all-products:1.0.0
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    environment:
      - FRUIT_HOST=fruit
      - FRUIT_PORT=80
      - VEGETABLE_HOST=vegetables
      - VEGETABLE_PORT=80
```
1. Deploy the stack using the compose file.
```
docker stack deploy -c produce.yml produce
```
1. Verify that the stack is working.
```
curl localhost:8080
```
Note that after deploying, it may take a few moments for the stack to become responsive. You can check the status of the services with docker stack services produce. Once the services are up and running, you should get some JSON data containing a combined list of fruits and vegetables.

Challenge

Scale the Fruit and Vegetable services in the stack.

Set the number of replicas to 3 for the Fruit and Vegetable services in the compose file.

vi produce.yml

version: '3'
services:
  fruit:
    image: linuxacademycontent/fruit-service:1.0.1
    deploy:
      replicas: 3
  vegetables:
    image: linuxacademycontent/vegetable-service:1.0.0
    deploy:
      replicas: 3
  all_products:
    image: linuxacademycontent/all-products:1.0.0
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    environment:
      - FRUIT_HOST=fruit
      - FRUIT_PORT=80
      - VEGETABLE_HOST=vegetables
      - VEGETABLE_PORT=80

Redeploy the stack using the compose file.

docker stack deploy -c produce.yml produce

Verify that the stack is still working.

curl localhost:8080

You should get some JSON data containing a combined list of fruits and vegetables.

Use docker stack services produce to see that the number of replicas for the Fruit and Vegetable services is now 3.

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