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core/DEPLOYMENT.md

🚀 Deploying Core Service with Docker Swarm

The core/ backend service is deployed on a self-managed VPS using Docker Swarm — a lightweight alternative to Kubernetes.
This guide explains the rationale, setup steps, and deployment process using docker stack.

🧠 Why Docker Swarm?

While Kubernetes is a full-featured orchestration system, it's often overkill for small-scale or single-node production apps.
Docker Swarm was chosen because:
  • •⚡ Lightweight and simple
  • •💸 Lower resource usage than Kubernetes
  • •🌐 Easily deployable on a single VPS
  • •🔁 Supports rolling updates, blue-green deployment, and automatic rollback
  • •🧱 Uses docker stack — similar to docker-compose but production-ready

📦 VPS Setup

Before deploying, we followed secure VPS setup practices including:
  • •SSH hardening
  • •Firewall setup
  • •User creation with limited privileges
📄 Refer to this guide: zenstats VPS Setup Docs

🐳 Docker Swarm Deployment Steps

1️⃣ Add Docker Context

Using docker context, you can run remote Docker commands from your local machine:
bash
docker context create devx --docker "host=ssh://parth@api.devx.parthkapoor.me"
docker context use devx
You can now use Docker CLI commands on the VPS as if running locally.

2️⃣ Initialize Swarm

On your main manager node (your VPS):
bash
docker swarm init
ℹ️ If you want to add more nodes, Docker will provide a token and command to join them.

3️⃣ Initialize Swarm

Add Secrets using docker secrets
bash
docker secret create spaces_access_key ./secrets/spaces_access_key.txt
docker secret create spaces_secret_key ./secrets/spaces_secret_key.txt
docker secret create redis_url ./secrets/redis_url.txt
docker secret create github_client_id ./secrets/github_client_id.txt
docker secret create github_client_secret ./secrets/github_client_secret.txt
docker secret create session_secret ./secrets/session_secret.txt
docker secret create kubeconfig_file ./secrets/kubeconfig.yaml
ℹ️ If you want to add more nodes, Docker will provide a token and command to join them.

4️⃣ Deploy Stack

Deploy your service using the docker-stack.yaml file:
bash
docker stack deploy -c docker-stack.yaml devex
This will spin up the defined services under the stack name devex.

5️⃣ Monitor Services

To list running services:
bash
docker service ls
To inspect tasks of a specific service:
bash
docker service ps devex_core
Replace core with your specific service name from the docker-stack.yaml.

📄 Stack File: docker-stack.yaml

Your stack file describes:
  • •Services (e.g., core)
  • •Volumes
  • •Environment variables
  • •Deployment strategies (e.g., rolling updates)
  • •Port mapping
  • •Secrets (optional)
📄 View full file → core/docker-stack.yaml

✅ Benefits of docker stack over docker-compose

Featuredocker-composedocker stack
Multi-host support❌✅
Rolling updates❌✅
Health checks + restart policies🔄 Limited✅
Secrets + configs✅ (limited)✅
Built-in orchestration❌✅
Scalable replicas❌✅
Auto rollback on failure❌✅

🧹 Cleanup

To remove the stack:
bash
docker stack rm devex
To leave swarm mode:
bash
docker swarm leave --force

📬 Notes

  • •You can deploy multiple services via docker-stack.yaml, and manage them together.
  • •Add load balancer (e.g., NGINX) if exposing to public internet with TLS (check k8s/cert-manager for ideas).
  • •Future enhancement: integrate with GitHub Actions for CI/CD to auto-deploy on push.