Cluster Mode
Cluster mode is Miabi's optional orchestration layer for running workloads across multiple nodes. It is built on auto-detected Docker Swarm, and gives you encrypted overlay networking, service-based deployments, and automatic rescheduling — while keeping the single-node experience trivial for everyone who doesn't need it.
Single-node default vs cluster
By default, Miabi runs your nodes as standalone Docker hosts and deploys plain containers. This is the right choice for one server or a small set of independent hosts — there's nothing to configure and nothing extra to operate.
Cluster mode is for when you want your nodes to act as one fabric: services that span hosts, encrypted communication between them, and the orchestrator handling placement and recovery.
Enabling cluster mode
Cluster mode is a platform-admin action (see Platform Administration):
- Open Nodes → Cluster in the console.
- Choose Enable cluster mode. Miabi initializes (or detects an existing) Docker Swarm and promotes the control-plane node as a manager.
- Existing connected nodes join the swarm as workers. New nodes added afterward join automatically.
Miabi auto-detects Swarm state, so if a host is already part of a swarm it is recognized rather than reinitialized.
What cluster mode gives you
- Encrypted overlay networks. Cross-node service traffic runs over overlay networks with encryption enabled, so workloads on different hosts communicate securely.
- Service deployments. Applications deploy as swarm services rather than single containers, enabling replicas, rolling updates, and rescheduling across nodes.
- Self-healing placement. If a node goes away, the orchestrator reschedules eligible services onto healthy nodes.
Stateful workloads (databases, volumes) remain bound to the node holding their data. Cluster mode improves placement and networking for stateless and replicated services; it does not automatically move persistent data.
When to use it
| Use cluster mode when… | Stay single-node when… |
|---|---|
| You run multiple nodes that should share workloads | You have one server or independent hosts |
| You need replicas and rolling, cross-node updates | Plain containers per host are enough |
| Services on different hosts must talk securely | Workloads don't need cross-host networking |
| You want automatic rescheduling on node failure | Simplicity matters more than orchestration |
Start single-node. Adopt cluster mode only when you actually have multiple nodes that need to cooperate — you can enable it later without rebuilding your apps.