Add nodes to the swarm

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Once you’ve created a swarm with a manager node, you’re ready to add worker nodes.

Open a terminal and ssh into the machine where you want to run a worker node. This tutorial uses the name worker1.

Run the command produced by the docker swarm init output from the Create a swarm tutorial step to create a worker node joined to the existing swarm:

$ docker swarm join \
  --token  SWMTKN-1-49nj1cmql0jkz5s954yi3oex3nedyz0fb0xx14ie39trti4wxv-8vxv8rssmk743ojnwacrr2e7c \
  192.168.99.100:2377

This node joined a swarm as a worker.

If you don’t have the command available, you can run the following command on a manager node to retrieve the join command for a worker:

$ docker swarm join-token worker

To add a worker to this swarm, run the following command:

    docker swarm join \
    --token SWMTKN-1-49nj1cmql0jkz5s954yi3oex3nedyz0fb0xx14ie39trti4wxv-8vxv8rssmk743ojnwacrr2e7c \
    192.168.99.100:2377

Open a terminal and ssh into the machine where you want to run a second worker node. This tutorial uses the name worker2.

Run the command produced by the docker swarm init output from the Create a swarm tutorial step to create a second worker node joined to the existing swarm:

$ docker swarm join \
  --token SWMTKN-1-49nj1cmql0jkz5s954yi3oex3nedyz0fb0xx14ie39trti4wxv-8vxv8rssmk743ojnwacrr2e7c \
  192.168.99.100:2377

This node joined a swarm as a worker.

Open a terminal and ssh into the machine where the manager node runs and run the docker node ls command to see the worker nodes:
```
ID                           HOSTNAME  STATUS  AVAILABILITY  MANAGER STATUS
03g1y59jwfg7cf99w4lt0f662    worker2   Ready   Active
9j68exjopxe7wfl6yuxml7a7j    worker1   Ready   Active
dxn1zf6l61qsb1josjja83ngz *  manager1  Ready   Active        Leader
```
The MANAGER column identifies the manager nodes in the swarm. The empty status in this column for worker1 and worker2 identifies them as worker nodes.

Swarm management commands like docker node ls only work on manager nodes.

What’s next?

Now your swarm consists of a manager and two worker nodes. In the next step of the tutorial, you deploy a service to the swarm.

Feedback? Suggestions? Can't find something in the docs?
Edit this page ● Request docs changes ● Get support
Rate this page:

On this page:

What’s next?