A few weeks ago I posted Step by step: ASP.NET Core on Docker were I showed how to build and run a Docker image with an ASP.NET Core application.

Today I bring you: Step by step: Scale ASP.NET Core with Docker Swarm so you can scale out or in the same application.

Assuming you have Docker 1.12 or later installed and running, follow this steps:

Create a dockerfile

On your Docker box create a dockerfile with the following contents

 1    # We use the microsoft/dotnet image as a starting point.
 2    FROM microsoft/dotnet
 3
 4    # Install git
 5    RUN apt-get install git -y
 6
 7    # Create a folder to clone our source code 
 8    RUN mkdir repositories
 9
10    # Set our working folder
11    WORKDIR repositories
12
13    # Clone the source code
14    RUN git clone https://github.com/cmendible/aspnet-core-helloworld.git
15
16    # Set our working folder
17    WORKDIR aspnet-core-helloworld/src/dotnetstarter
18
19    # Expose port 5000 for the application.    
20    EXPOSE 5000
21
22    # Restore nuget packages
23    RUN dotnet restore
24
25    # Start the application using dotnet!!!
26    ENTRYPOINT dotnet run

Create a Docker image

With the dockerfile in place run the following command

1sudo docker build -t hello_world .

Now you have an image named hello_world with all the dependencies and code needed to run the sample.

Initialize a Swarm

Initialize Docker Swarm.

1docker swarm init

Create a Docker Service

Now that you have setup everything use the following command to create a service named hello_service based on the hello_world image and start it

1docker service create --name hello_service --publish 5000:5000 hello_world

Wait a few seconds and navigate to http://localhost:5000 and you should be able to reach the web application.

If you want to learn more about Docker services, start here: Service Create/

Scale up your application

Let’s scale your service up to 3 instances with the following command

1docker service scale hello_service=3

If you want to see how many replicas your service is running issue the following command:

1docker service ls

Note that it takes some seconds before all new replicas start.

Scale down your application

Let’s scale your service down to 1 instance with the following command

1docker service scale hello_service=1

Optional: Remove the service

If you are don’t want the service anymore, remove it from the Swarm with the following command

1docker service rm hello_service

You can get a copy of the docker file here: https://github.com/cmendible/dotnetcore.samples/tree/main/docker.helloworld

Hope it helps!