Kubernetes vs Docker Swarm

[Sai Hegde]

Why should one go for Kubernetes over Docker Swarm for deploying/clustering containers or could it be a mix of both from a redundancy perspective?

[Deepak Vohra]

A FAQ is how do Kubernetes and Docker Swarm compare.

A post by brendan, a lead engineer on Kubernetes, on Stackflow would be
relevant.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27640633/docker-swarm-kubernetes-mesos-core-os-fleet

For performance comparison refer
https://blog.docker.com/2016/03/swarmweek-docker-swarm-exceeds-kubernetes-scale/

For comparison of features refer
http://containerjournal.com/2016/04/07/kubernetes-vs-swarm-container-orchestrator-best/

[Deepak Vohra]

In the April 2016 survey:
What container and PaaS tools are used to manage OpenStack applications?

Kubernetes is ranked 1st. Swarm is 6th.
http://www.openstack.org/assets/survey/April-2016-User-Survey-Report.pdf

[Sai Hegde]

Thanks for all the resources.

So in summary, there is a lot of mixed opinions based on where that information is coming from.

[Deepak Vohra]

Having used both Swarm and Kubernetes, Docker Swarm is a cluster manager for Docker hosts and exposes a pool of hosts (nodes) as a single “virtual” host. These nodes are not to be accessed directly. The swarm cluster may be accessed via a single Swarm Manager on the <swarm_ip:swarm_port>.

In contrast a Kubernetes cluster exposes multiple endpoints for the multiple Pods in the cluster, which could be running on a single or multiple nodes. Multiple endpoints could be accessed by multiple clients.

Which to use, Swarm or Kubernetes depends on the use case. If a multinode cluster is to be managed as a single node use Swarm. If a single/multi node cluster of Docker containers/Pods being accessed by multiple clients is to managed, use Kubernetes.