How to Set Up a 3-Node Docker Swarm in VirtualBox

🚀 Build your own DevOps lab at home! In this step-by-step tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a 3-node Docker Swarm cluster using VirtualBox and Ubuntu Server.

Docker Swarm is Docker’s native container orchestration tool—perfect for learning the fundamentals of high availability and application scaling before jumping into Kubernetes.

In this video, we’ll not only install Docker, but also configure a private network in VirtualBox to simulate a real production environment.

📋 What you’ll learn in this tutorial:
✅ How to configure “Host-Only” networks in VirtualBox for private communication
✅ Installation and basic setup of Ubuntu Server 22.04
✅ Cloning virtual machines to save time
✅ Installing Docker Engine across multiple nodes
✅ Initializing the cluster (Manager Node)
✅ Joining worker nodes to the cluster
✅ Testing the setup with Routing Mesh and an Nginx service

🔗 RESOURCES & COMMANDS FROM THE VIDEO:
You can find the full written guide, step-by-step commands, and network configurations in my GitHub repository:
👉 https://github.com/josuecarrera/Docke...

Download VirtualBox: [https://www.virtualbox.org/](https://www.virtualbox.org/)
Download Ubuntu Server: [https://ubuntu.com/download/server](https://ubuntu.com/download/server)

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Timestamps:
0:00 Creating the Manager VM (Ubuntu)
6:04 Cloning the Worker Nodes
15:30 Installing Docker Engine
17:57 Initializing Docker Swarm (Manager)
19:45 Joining Workers to the Cluster
21:00 Final Test: Deploying an Nginx service

#docker #dockerswarm #devops #virtualbox #ubuntu #linux #containers #tutorial #homelab