Docker Swarm and Bamboo - build artifacts as images

Open Source Projects Swarm
1

I’m working on my first encounter of integrating Bamboo with a Docker Swarm cluster for continuous updates of an application services.

After some reading I found that inside Bamboo I can build my Docker images into files which I can pass as build artifacts. That got me wondering that I can use some good build promotion techniques to pass along an audited version between multiple environments.

However, I could not find any info in Swarm documentation if I am able to use a docker image file as a deployable image for Docker Swarm. All the info so far assumes the use of a registry. Of course I have nothing against using a registry but curiosity is getting the best of me.

So my question is: Can I use docker image files as deployable images for Docker Swarm?

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Short answer: don’t

I wouldn’t even use this approach on a single Docker Engine, where it’s quite easy to transfer an image to the host and import it into the local image cache.

But on a swarm node, where a container could be run on any node in the cluster, without an image repository the image needs to exist in each of their image caches. I highly doubt this approach is more reliable or easier than pushing the image to a repo and use it for destribution.

3

Noted. Thank-you for the feedback. I’ll be sticking with going for a separate registry server to distribute the built images.