Issues deploying Swarm Service with a command

shootinputin89 · February 13, 2025, 7:10am

Hello,

I am currently in the process of moving from local docker containers to Docker Swarm. I use Ansible docker modules to deploy my containers and this has worked great. I am now using the Docker Swarm Ansible modules, namely - community.docker.docker_swarm_service module. This is working fine until I need to include a command for the service. For example, with Portainer - this will work:

- name: Create portainer service
  community.docker.docker_swarm_service:
    name: '{{ portainer_defaults_name }}'
    image: '{{ portainer_defaults_image_repo }}:{{ portainer_defaults_image_tag }}'
    networks:
      - name: '{{ network_overlay }}'
    env:
      PUID: '{{ puid }}'
      PGID: '{{ pgid }}'
      TZ: '{{ timezone }}'
    labels: '{{ portainer_defaults_labels }}'
    publish:
      - target_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_http_cont }}'
        published_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_http_host }}'
        protocol: tcp
        mode: ingress
      - target_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_tcp_tunnel_cont }}'
        published_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_tcp_tunnel_host }}'
        protocol: tcp
        mode: ingress
      - target_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_webui_cont }}'
        published_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_webui_host }}'
        protocol: tcp
        mode: ingress
    mounts:
      - source: '{{ portainer_defaults_location }}'
        target: /data
        type: bind
    restart_config:
      condition: '{{ portainer_defaults_restart_policy }}'
      delay: 5s
      max_attempts: 3
      window: 120s
    mode: replicated
    replicas: 1
    placement:
      constraints: [node.role == manager]

However, if I include the command to connect to the Portainer agent:

- name: Create portainer service
  community.docker.docker_swarm_service:
    name: '{{ portainer_defaults_name }}'
    image: '{{ portainer_defaults_image_repo }}:{{ portainer_defaults_image_tag }}'
    networks:
      - name: '{{ network_overlay }}'
    command: '-H tcp://tasks.{{ portainer_agent_defaults_name }}:9001 --tlsskipverify'
    env:
      PUID: '{{ puid }}'
      PGID: '{{ pgid }}'
      TZ: '{{ timezone }}'
    labels: '{{ portainer_defaults_labels }}'
    publish:
      - target_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_http_cont }}'
        published_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_http_host }}'
        protocol: tcp
        mode: ingress
      - target_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_tcp_tunnel_cont }}'
        published_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_tcp_tunnel_host }}'
        protocol: tcp
        mode: ingress
      - target_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_webui_cont }}'
        published_port: '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_webui_host }}'
        protocol: tcp
        mode: ingress
    mounts:
      - source: '{{ portainer_defaults_location }}'
        target: /data
        type: bind
    restart_config:
      condition: '{{ portainer_defaults_restart_policy }}'
      delay: 5s
      max_attempts: 3
      window: 120s
    mode: replicated
    replicas: 1
    placement:
      constraints: [node.role == manager]

Portainer will not successfully deploy, and upon checking with ‘docker ps -a’, it will show portainer listed 4 times with the status of ‘created’. At first I thought this was a Portainer issue - but it is occurring with every service where I try to include a command. I had none of these issues with the container modules, previously.

Is there a difference in how the ‘command:’ component works for services, as opposed to containers? Is this not a Docker issue at all, and just a quirk with the Ansible docker service module? Any ideas here?

OS Version/build

Client: Docker Engine - Community
Version: 27.5.1
Context: default
Debug Mode: false
Plugins:
buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
Version: v0.20.0
Path: /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
Version: v2.32.4
Path: /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
Swarm: active
Is Manager: true
Kernel Version: 6.1.0-28-amd64
Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
OSType: linux
Architecture: x86_64

ansible [core 2.17.8]
config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
configured module search path = [‘/root/.ansible/plugins/modules’, ‘/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules’]
ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible
ansible collection location = /root/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
python version = 3.11.2 (main, Nov 30 2024, 21:22:50) [GCC 12.2.0] (/usr/bin/python3)
jinja version = 3.1.2
libyaml = True

Steps to reproduce

Deploy service without a command using the Ansible docker swarm service module
Try deploying the same service with a command using the Ansible docker swarm service module

meyay · February 13, 2025, 7:52am

To determine whether it’s a problem with the Ansible module or docker swarm itself, you should render the compose file and deploy it manually with docker stack deploy

If the problem exists on the manually deployed compose file as well, I would suggest raising an issue in the Moby GitHub project: https://github.com/moby/moby/issues.
If the problem doesn’t exist on the manual deployment, you need to find the primary support channel for the Ansible module and raise your issue there.

Upate: my bad, I missed that you are not deploying a stack. You directly schedule swarm services. You would create the command mnaully run the command in the terminal to check whether it works, instead of rendering a compose file and deploying it with stack deploy.

shootinputin89 · February 13, 2025, 10:36am

Hi meyay, thanks for the prompt reply. I’ve formatted it for a service create terminal command:

docker service create \
  --name portainer \
  --replicas 1 \
  --constraint node.role==manager \
  --network overlay \
  --env PUID=1000 \
  --env PGID=1000 \
  --env TZ=Australia/Melbourne \
  --publish published=9000,target=9000,protocol=tcp,mode=ingress \
  --publish published=8000,target=8000,protocol=tcp,mode=ingress \
  --publish published=9443,target=9443,protocol=tcp,mode=ingress \
  --mount type=bind,source=/opt/portainer,destination=/data \
  --restart-condition on-failure \
  portainer/portainer-ce

It loads fine and the webui is accessible. But I’m not even sure how to add the command via this method? I didn’t see a command section in the docker service create | Docker Docs page. I’m just trying to add the ‘-H tcp://tasks.agent:9001 --tlsskipverify’ command.

I’ve used a similar command with the Portainer (non-swarm) container in the past before without issue:

- name: Create portainer container
  community.docker.docker_container:
    name: '{{ portainer_defaults_name }}'
    image: '{{ portainer_defaults_image_repo }}:{{ portainer_defaults_image_tag }}'
    networks:
      - name: '{{ network_backend }}'
      - name: '{{ traefik_network }}'
    command: '-H {{ socket_proxy_endpoint }}'
    env:
      PUID: '{{ puid }}'
      PGID: '{{ pgid }}'
      TZ: '{{ timezone }}'
    labels: '{{ portainer_defaults_labels }}'
    ports:
      - '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_http_host }}:{{ portainer_defaults_ports_http_cont }}'
      - '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_tcp_tunnel_host }}:{{ portainer_defaults_ports_tcp_tunnel_cont }}'
      - '{{ portainer_defaults_ports_webui_host }}:{{ portainer_defaults_ports_webui_cont }}'
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - '{{ portainer_defaults_location }}:/data'
    restart_policy: '{{ portainer_defaults_restart_policy }}'

Thanks

meyay · February 13, 2025, 11:55am

It should be docker service create [OPTIONS] IMAGE [COMMAND] [ARG...].

docker service create \
  --name portainer \
  --replicas 1 \
  --constraint node.role==manager \
  --network overlay \
  --env PUID=1000 \
  --env PGID=1000 \
  --env TZ=Australia/Melbourne \
  --publish published=9000,target=9000,protocol=tcp,mode=ingress \
  --publish published=8000,target=8000,protocol=tcp,mode=ingress \
  --publish published=9443,target=9443,protocol=tcp,mode=ingress \
  --mount type=bind,source=/opt/portainer,destination=/data \
  --restart-condition on-failure \
  portainer/portainer-ce \
  -H tcp://tasks.agent:9001 --tlsskipverify

This should work as long as the agent service uses --name agent --network overlay.

shootinputin89 · February 13, 2025, 12:45pm

Worked fine, thank you. I’ll go and suss out a support channel for this Ansible module. Otherwise, I’ll just put the services in compose files and use the community.docker.docker_compose_v2 module.

meyay · February 13, 2025, 5:48pm

This one should be a better fit, as it deploys swarm services, instead of plain containers on a single node:
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/docker/docker_stack_module.html

shootinputin89 · February 15, 2025, 5:03am

Thanks. But yeah, I want to avoid Compose/Swarm stacks altogether. I have 1 Ansible role per app with everything required (apart from group_vars/host_vars/pre_tasks) inside the role. Hence why I deploy as individual apps (services). I simply uncomment a line in the Ansible playbook to deploy app/apps.Pre_tasks exist to set up all the required shared volumes, overlay network, themes, and others during the playbook run.

pre_task for Swarm (on manager), for example:

- name: Check if Swarm is already initialised
  ansible.builtin.command:
    cmd: docker info
  register: swarm_check
  changed_when: false

- name: Initialise Docker Swarm
  ansible.builtin.command:
    cmd: docker swarm init --advertise-addr {{ pvr_machine_address }}
  when: '"Swarm: inactive" in swarm_check.stdout'
  register: swarm_init
  changed_when: swarm_init.rc == 0

- name: Join manager to Swarm
  ansible.builtin.command:
    cmd: docker swarm join --token {{ swarm_manager_token }} {{ pvr_machine_address }}:2377
  when: '"Is Manager: false" in swarm_check.stdout'
  register: swarm_join
  changed_when: '"This node joined a swarm as a manager" in swarm_join.stdout'

I’ve reached out for support on the Ansible community github, so hopefully I can get it sorted.

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Issues deploying Swarm Service with a command

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