What is the difference between docker service and stack?
The docker service
is used when managing individual service on a docker swarm cluster. It is the client command line to access the docker swarm manager.
The docker stack
can be used to manage a multi-service application. It also moves many of the options you would enter on the docker service
into the .yml file
(such as docker-cloud.yml or docker-compose.yml) for easier reuse. It works as a front end "script" on top of the docker swarm manager used by docker swarm cluster, so you can do everything docker stack
does with docker service
.
Last but not least, you can consider the docker service
vs docker stack
is the same as docker run
vs docker compose
, but in the docker swarm cluster.
A Service defines one or more instances of a single image deployed on one or more machines (described by one entry in the services part of the docker-compose.yaml files).
A Stack defines a group of heterogeneous services (described by the whole yaml file).