🚀 Create a Multi-Service Multi-Node Web App with Docker Swarm

June 26, 2025

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by SOVANNARO

Hey there, fellow dev!
Have you ever dreamed of running a real-world web app that can scale across multiple servers, with different services working together like a perfect orchestra? Well, today is your lucky day!

In this post, we’ll show you how to build a multi-service, multi-node web app using Docker Swarm. You’ll learn how to:

Set up multiple nodes (servers)
Create multiple services (like web and database)
Let them talk to each other
Scale like a pro!

Ready? Let’s dive in!

What You’ll Build

We’ll create a mini web app with two main services:

Frontend (web): A simple Nginx server serving a website
Backend (database): A Redis server (our example backend)

These services will run across multiple nodes in a Docker Swarm cluster — meaning they can survive crashes, scale easily, and balance traffic smartly!

Step 1: Create a Swarm Cluster

First, you need at least 3 machines (real or virtual). You can use:

3 VMs (VirtualBox, EC2, DigitalOcean, etc.)
Or 3 Docker containers with Swarm support

Example:

Let’s say we have:

manager-node
worker-node-1
worker-node-2

On the manager node:

docker swarm init --advertise-addr <MANAGER-IP>

Copy the join command Docker gives you.

On worker nodes:

docker swarm join --token <TOKEN> <MANAGER-IP>:2377

Boom! You’ve got a 3-node Swarm cluster!

Step 2: Create a Docker Compose File

Now, let’s define our multi-service app.

Create a file called docker-compose.yml:

version: "3.9"

services:
  web:
    image: nginx
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    deploy:
      replicas: 3
      placement:
        constraints: [node.role == worker]

  redis:
    image: redis
    deploy:
      replicas: 1
      placement:
        constraints: [node.role == worker]

What this does:

Spins up 3 Nginx web servers
Runs 1 Redis server
Deploys them only on worker nodes

Step 3: Deploy the Stack

Copy the docker-compose.yml to your manager node.

Then deploy it using:

docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml myapp

Docker Swarm will magically:

Schedule your containers across available nodes
Connect them with an overlay network
Handle load balancing and failure recovery

You can check the status with:

docker stack services myapp

Or see where containers are running:

docker service ps myapp_web

Step 4: Scale Like a Boss

Want to handle more traffic?

Just scale your services!

docker service scale myapp_web=5

Boom — now you have 5 web servers working together, across multiple machines!

Bonus: Test It!

Visit your server’s IP at port 8080:

http://<ANY_NODE_IP>:8080

You should see the Nginx welcome page. Docker Swarm will balance traffic to all replicas for you.

Clean Up

To remove the stack:

docker stack rm myapp

Final Thoughts

You just built a multi-service, multi-node web app like a pro!
With Docker Swarm, it’s easy to:

Create scalable apps
Run across multiple servers
Keep everything connected and balanced

Whether you’re building a blog, an e-commerce app, or a microservice monster — this is your foundation.

Enjoyed this?

If this helped you, share it with your dev friends and don’t forget to explore more Docker magic!

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by SOVANNARO

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