Using Storage Volumes with Docker Swarm

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Using Storage Volumes with Docker Swarm

Storage volumes provide a powerful and flexible way to add persistent storage to your containers, but what if you need to share storage volumes across multiple Docker hosts, such as a Swarm cluster? In this lab, you will have the opportunity to work with a simple method of creating shared volumes usable across multiple swarm nodes using the `sshfs` volume driver.

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Sep 18, 2025

Duration

45m

Challenge

Set up the external storage location.
1. On the storage server, create the storage directory.
```
sudo mkdir -p /etc/docker/storage
sudo chown cloud_user:cloud_user /etc/docker/storage
```
1. Copy the nginx configuration file into the storage directory.
```
cp /home/cloud_user/nginx.conf /etc/docker/storage
```
Challenge

Install the vieux/sshfs plugin.
1. Install the vieux/sshfs plugin on the swarm manager and worker node.
```
docker plugin install --grant-all-permissions vieux/sshfs
```
Challenge

Create the nginx service that uses the shared volume.
1. Create the nginx-web service.
Create the container. Be sure to replace <cloud_user password> with the actual password.
```
docker service create -d 
   --replicas=3 
   --name nginx-web 
   -p 8080:9773 
   --mount volume-driver=vieux/sshfs,source=nginx-config-vol,target=/etc/nginx/,[email protected]:/etc/docker/storage,volume-opt=password="<cloud_user password>" nginx:latest
```
1. Verify that the service is working properly.
```
curl localhost:8080
```
If everything is set up correctly, you should see HTML from the nginx Welcome page.

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