Swarm volumes
This article refers to Platform v3.1.0. The current Platform version is v3.2.0.
Overview
Volumes in Docker Swarm are persistent storage units that can be shared and managed across the nodes in a Swarm cluster. Unlike standard Docker volumes, which are typically local to a single Docker host, Swarm volumes are designed to work in a distributed environment, allowing applications running on different nodes to access shared data reliably.
This documentation explains how to monitor, create, and manage volumes within a Swarm cluster, highlighting the differences between Swarm volumes and traditional Docker volumes, such as their scope, usage, and lifecycle management.
Volumes Card
The Volumes Card provides a comprehensive overview of the volumes defined within the Swarm cluster. It displays the total number of volumes and indicates how many are currently in use by applications and containers.
Users can view detailed information about each volume in use, including the associated applications and containers, as well as the size of each volume on the node. This helps in understanding storage consumption and volume utilization across the cluster.
The interface also allows users to delete volumes that are not currently in use, either individually or in bulk, helping to free up storage space efficiently.
Additionally, users can manually create new volumes by specifying a name. These manually created volumes are external volumes, which differ from internal volumes in their management and usage characteristics.
Volumes created manually through this interface are considered external volumes. They are managed outside the scope of internal Swarm volume orchestration and can be used by various applications as needed. External volumes provide flexibility but require manual handling for lifecycle and cleanup.
Volumes Card showing total volumes, usage status, and detailed volume list with sizes and creation times
Dialog for adding a new volume by specifying its name.