---
title: "Get Started, Part 3: Services"
keywords: services, replicas, scale, ports, compose, compose file, stack, networking
description: Learn how to define load-balanced and scalable service that runs containers.
---
{% include_relative nav.html selected="3" %}
## Prerequisites
- [Install Docker version 1.13 or higher](/engine/installation/index.md).
- Get [Docker Compose](/compose/overview.md). On [Docker for Mac](/docker-for-mac/index.md) and [Docker for
Windows](/docker-for-windows/index.md) it's pre-installed so you are good-to-go,
but on Linux systems you will need to [install it
directly](https://github.com/docker/compose/releases). On pre Windows 10 systems
_without Hyper-V_, use [Docker
Toolbox](https://docs.docker.com/toolbox/overview.md).
- Read the orientation in [Part 1](index.md).
- Learn how to create containers in [Part 2](part2.md).
- Make sure you have published the `friendlyhello` image you created by
[pushing it to a registry](/get-started/part2.md#share-your-image). We will be using that shared image here.
- Be sure your image works as a deployed container by running this command, and visiting `http://localhost/` (slotting in your info for `username`,
`repo`, and `tag`):
```shell
docker run -p 80:80 username/repo:tag
```
## Introduction
In part 3, we scale our application and enable load-balancing. To do this, we
must go one level up in the hierarchy of a distributed application: the
**service**.
- Stack
- **Services** (you are here)
- Container (covered in [part 2](part2.md))
## Understanding services
In a distributed application, different pieces of the app are called "services."
For example, if you imagine a video sharing site, it probably includes a service
for storing application data in a database, a service for video transcoding in
the background after a user uploads something, a service for the front-end, and
so on.
Services are really just "containers in production." A service only runs one
image, but it codifies the way that image runs—what ports it should use,
how many replicas of the container should run so the service has the capacity it
needs, and so on. Scaling a service changes the number of container instances
running that piece of software, assigning more computing resources to the
service in the process.
Luckily it's very easy to define, run, and scale services with the Docker
platform -- just write a `docker-compose.yml` file.
## Your first `docker-compose.yml` File
A `docker-compose.yml` file is a YAML file that defines how Docker containers
should behave in production.
### `docker-compose.yml`
Save this file as `docker-compose.yml` wherever you want. Be sure you have
[pushed the image](/get-started/part2.md#share-your-image) you created in [Part
2](part2.md) to a registry, and update this `.yml` by replacing
`username/repo:tag` with your image details.
```yaml
version: "3"
services:
web:
# replace username/repo:tag with your name and image details
image: username/repository:tag
deploy:
replicas: 5
resources:
limits:
cpus: "0.1"
memory: 50M
restart_policy:
condition: on-failure
ports:
- "80:80"
networks:
- webnet
networks:
webnet:
```
This `docker-compose.yml` file tells Docker to do the following:
- Pull [the image we uploaded in step 2](part2.md) from the registry.
- Run five instances of that image as a service
called `web`, limiting each one to use, at most, 10% of the CPU (across all
cores), and 50MB of RAM.
- Immediately restart containers if one fails.
- Map port 80 on the host to `web`'s port 80.
- Instruct `web`'s containers to share port 80 via a load-balanced network
called `webnet`. (Internally, the containers themselves will publish to
`web`'s port 80 at an ephemeral port.)
- Define the `webnet` network with the default settings (which is a
load-balanced overlay network).
> Wondering about Compose file versions, names, and commands?
>
Notice that set the Compose file to `version: "3"`. This essentially makes it
[swarm mode](/engine/swarm/index.md) compatible. We can make use of the [deploy
key](/compose/compose-file/index.md#deploy) (only available on [Compose file
formats version 3.x](/compose/compose-file/index.md) and up) and its sub-options
to load balance and optimize performance for each service (e.g., `web`). We can
run the file with the `docker stack deploy` command (also only supported on
Compose files version 3.x and up). You could use `docker-compose up` to run
version 3 files with _non swarm_ configurations, but we are focusing on a stack
deployment since we are building up to a swarm example.
>
You can name the Compose file anything you want to make it logically meaningful
to you; `docker-compose.yml` is simply a standard name. We could just as easily
have called this file `docker-stack.yml` or something more specific to our
project.
{: .note-vanilla}
## Run your new load-balanced app
Before we can use the `docker stack deploy` command we'll first run:
```shell
docker swarm init
```
>**Note**: We'll get into the meaning of that command in [part 4](part4.md).
> If you don't run `docker swarm init` you'll get an error that "this node is not a swarm manager."
Now let's run it. You have to give your app a name. Here, it is set to
`getstartedlab`:
```shell
docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml getstartedlab
```
See a list of the five containers you just launched:
```shell
docker stack ps getstartedlab
```
You can run `curl http://localhost` several times in a row, or go to that URL in
your browser and hit refresh a few times. Either way, you'll see the container
ID change, demonstrating the load-balancing; with each request, one of
the five replicas is chosen, in a round-robin fashion, to respond.
>**Note**: At this stage, it may take up to 30 seconds for the containers to respond to HTTP
> requests. This is not indicative of Docker or swarm performance, but rather an unmet
> Redis dependency that we will address later in the tutorial.
## Scale the app
You can scale the app by changing the `replicas` value in `docker-compose.yml`,
saving the change, and re-running the `docker stack deploy` command:
```shell
docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml getstartedlab
```
Docker will do an in-place update, no need to tear the stack down first or kill
any containers.
Now, re-run the `docker stack ps` command to see the deployed instances reconfigured. For example, if you scaled up the replicas, there will be more
running containers.
### Take down the app and the swarm
Take the app down with `docker stack rm`:
```shell
docker stack rm getstartedlab
```
This removes the app, but our one-node swarm is still up and running (as shown
by `docker node ls`). Take down the swarm with `docker swarm leave --force`.
It's as easy as that to stand up and scale your app with Docker. You've taken a
huge step towards learning how to run containers in production. Up next, you
will learn how to run this app as a bonafide swarm on a cluster of Docker
machines.
> **Note**: Compose files like this are used to define applications with Docker, and can be uploaded to cloud providers using [Docker
Cloud](/docker-cloud/), or on any hardware or cloud provider you choose with
[Docker Enterprise Edition](https://www.docker.com/enterprise-edition).
[On to "Part 4" >>](part4.md){: class="button outline-btn" style="margin-bottom: 30px"}
## Recap and cheat sheet (optional)
Here's [a terminal recording of what was covered on this page](https://asciinema.org/a/b5gai4rnflh7r0kie01fx6lip):
To recap, while typing `docker run` is simple enough, the true implementation
of a container in production is running it as a service. Services codify a
container's behavior in a Compose file, and this file can be used to scale,
limit, and redeploy our app. Changes to the service can be applied in place, as
it runs, using the same command that launched the service:
`docker stack deploy`.
Some commands to explore at this stage:
```shell
docker stack ls # List all running applications on this Docker host
docker stack deploy -c # Run the specified Compose file
docker stack services # List the services associated with an app
docker stack ps # List the running containers associated with an app
docker stack rm # Tear down an application
```