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Swarmprom is an open-source starter kit for monitoring Docker Swarm with Prometheus and related tools. Its original GitHub repository has been archived since May 6, 2021, so treat its stack and deployment instructions as historical reference material—not as a maintained, ready-to-run solution. You can still learn from its architecture, but current deployments should follow the latest Docker and Prometheus documentation.
What Swarmprom includes
The archived Swarmprom README describes a monitoring stack built around Prometheus, Grafana, cAdvisor, Node Exporter, Alertmanager, Unsee, and a Docker daemon exporter. The roles differ: Prometheus collects and stores metrics for querying; Grafana displays them; Node Exporter provides host metrics; cAdvisor provides container metrics; and Alertmanager routes alerts. Unsee was included as a dashboard for Alertmanager. This is the original project’s component list, not a statement that its image versions or integrations remain current. See the archived Swarmprom repository.
Is Swarmprom still maintained?
No. GitHub records that the repository owner archived Swarmprom on May 6, 2021. An archived repository is useful for understanding the project’s original design, but its instructions, image tags, and integrations should not be read as a current support commitment. Verify component configuration against the current official documentation before adapting it.
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How Prometheus discovers Docker Swarm targets
Prometheus’s Docker Swarm integration distinguishes three discovery roles. The choice determines what Prometheus sees and therefore what the scrape configuration can target. The official guide notes that discovery applies only to tasks and services exposing ports, and generally recommends the tasks role over services for service-level scraping. Read the Prometheus Docker Swarm guide.
| Role | What it discovers | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| nodes | Swarm nodes, which are the hosts in the cluster. | Host- or daemon-level targets reachable on nodes. |
| services | Swarm services and their published service ports. | Service-level discovery when that target model suits the scrape configuration. |
| tasks | Individual tasks—the containers running as parts of services. | Scraping per-container endpoints; the Prometheus guide says this is usually preferable to the services role. |
Discovery is not the same as a working scrape: the target must expose a port, be reachable from Prometheus, and serve metrics in a format Prometheus can scrape. The Prometheus guide demonstrates using the nodes role for Docker daemon metrics and the tasks role for container metrics such as cAdvisor. These targets answer different questions: host or daemon metrics do not replace per-container metrics.
Docker daemon metrics are a separate target
Docker can expose its own metrics endpoint independently of application and container metrics. Docker’s official instructions use port 9323 and show a Linux daemon configuration using the metrics-addr setting; the daemon must be restarted for a configuration change to take effect. Consult Docker’s Prometheus metrics guide.
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Choose the bind address based on which Prometheus server needs access. Docker’s example uses loopback; binding to 0.0.0.0 makes the endpoint available on all network interfaces and can expose it to a wider network. Do not use a wildcard address without controlling network reachability and access. The correct choice depends on the host, network, and where collection runs.
Using Swarmprom as a reference, not a deployment recipe
The archived README presents Swarmprom as a starting point for a custom monitoring solution. Its production-oriented advice includes controlling and publishing the images you use, avoiding the mutable latest tag in continuous deployments, and considering redundancy or remote metrics storage. It also notes that monitoring hosted outside production can remain useful when the production environment has a major failure. These remain design considerations, but the repository’s old component versions and named integrations should not be treated as current recommendations. Check each component’s current documentation and support status before building a system around it.
Rank #3
- ✔ Built for 24/7 Performance: ideal for home servers, NAS, Docker, Pi-hole, and self-hosting projects with stable, reliable operation
- ✔ Official Active Cooler Included: prevents thermal throttling and keeps your Raspberry Pi 5 running at peak performance under load
- ✔ 27 W USB-C Power Supply: stable 5.1 V / 5 A output for demanding peripherals and continuous use
- ✔ Official 32 GB A2 microSD Card: fast boot times and optimized storage for Raspberry Pi OS and server applications
- ✔ Ready-to-use Kit: includes all the essential accessories to start your Raspberry Pi 5 projects right away
- Image control: Pin and manage the images used by your deployment rather than relying on an unchanging interpretation of
latest. - Resilience: Decide whether Prometheus and Alertmanager need redundancy, and where metrics should be retained if a node or cluster fails.
- Failure independence: Consider whether a monitoring system inside the same production environment will still be reachable during an environment-wide outage.
- Configuration ownership: Plan to maintain scrape configuration, access controls, storage, upgrades, and alert routing; a starter stack does not remove these operational responsibilities.
Should you use Swarmprom or another approach?
For an existing Swarm operator, the archived project can help explain how Prometheus, Grafana, exporters, and alerting fit together. For a new deployment, decide first what you need to observe and who will operate the monitoring system. A self-hosted Prometheus installation keeps collection and storage under your control; remote-write or managed storage can move some retention and availability concerns outside the cluster, but requires evaluating the provider, data path, and operational terms. The sources establish no benchmark or universal winner between these approaches.
A separate repository, swarmlibs/promstack, lists Grafana, Prometheus, cAdvisor, Node Exporter, and Blackbox exporter. It describes itself as work in progress and not ready for production, so it should not be assumed to be a maintained replacement for Stefan Prodan’s archived Swarmprom.
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