Dozzle Deployment Modes

Dozzle offers multiple deployment modes to support a variety of architectures—from single-host setups to distributed multi-node clusters. Depending on your environment, you can run Dozzle in one of the following modes:

Standard Mode (default) – Local logs from the Docker engine
Agent Mode – Remote hosts exposed securely via TLS
Swarm Mode – Distributed mesh network for Docker Swarm clusters
Hybrid (Swarm + Standalone Agents) – Combine both for maximum flexibility

This section explains how each mode works and provides production-ready deployment examples.

1. Agent Mode

Agent mode allows a Dozzle instance to expose its host’s container logs to other Dozzle servers over a secure TLS-encrypted channel. This is ideal for:

Managing multiple remote Docker hosts
Viewing logs from distributed machines in a single Dozzle UI
Secure cross-host communication without VPNs

In agent mode, Dozzle runs with the agent subcommand and listens for remote connections.

Deploying a Dozzle Agent

services:
  dozzle-agent:
    image: amir20/dozzle:latest
    command: agent
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
    ports:
      - 7007:7007

Customizing Agent Identity

Agents can be assigned human-readable names using the DOZZLE_HOSTNAME variable:

environment:
  - DOZZLE_HOSTNAME=my-special-name

Connecting a Dozzle Instance to One or More Agents

Define the remote agents in the DOZZLE_REMOTE_AGENT variable. Multiple agents should be comma-separated.

services:
  dozzle:
    image: amir20/dozzle:latest
    environment:
      - DOZZLE_REMOTE_AGENT=agent1:7007,agent2:7007
    ports:
      - 8080:8080

Once launched, the UI will display the remote agent hosts alongside local containers.

2. Swarm Mode

Dozzle supports a special Swarm Mode designed for distributed Docker Swarm environments. When enabled, Dozzle automatically forms a secure, fully encrypted mTLS mesh network between all Dozzle nodes in the cluster.

Key features of Swarm Mode

Automatic discovery of all Dozzle instances
Encrypted communication using mTLS
Support for grouping logs by:
- Docker stacks (com.docker.stack.namespace)
- Docker Compose projects (com.docker.compose.project)
- Swarm services (com.docker.swarm.service.name)

Swarm Mode is the recommended deployment method for multi-node clusters.

Deploying Dozzle in Swarm Mode

Use mode: global to deploy Dozzle on every node:

services:
  dozzle:
    image: amir20/dozzle:latest
    environment:
      - DOZZLE_MODE=swarm
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
    networks:
      - dozzle
    deploy:
      mode: global
networks:
  dozzle:
    driver: overlay

Important:

Swarm mode cannot use Docker socket-proxy. This is a Docker limitation—Swarm services cannot directly access individual proxy instances, and Dozzle requires that direct access.

3. Adding Standalone Agents to Swarm Mode (v8.8.x+)

Starting with v8.8.x, Dozzle allows you to mix standalone agents with a Swarm-mode deployment. Remote agents will appear as additional nodes in the Dozzle UI.

Example configuration:

services:
  dozzle:
    image: amir20/dozzle:latest
    environment:
      - DOZZLE_MODE=swarm
      - DOZZLE_REMOTE_AGENT=agent:7007
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
    ports:
      - 8080:8080
    networks:
      - dozzle
    deploy:
      mode: global
networks:
  dozzle:
    driver: overlay

This hybrid approach is ideal when part of your infrastructure runs in Swarm and other nodes run standalone Docker.

Summary

Mode	Best For	Key Features
Standard	Single-host setups	Local logs, simplest deployment
Agent Mode	Remote nodes, non-Swarm clusters	TLS-secured remote access
Swarm Mode	Multi-node Swarm clusters	mTLS mesh networking, auto-discovery
Hybrid (Swarm + Agents)	Mixed environments	Combine Swarm nodes + remote agents

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