This article explains how to secure a Docker Swarm cluster using auto-lock for key management.
Docker Swarm automatically stores two critical keys in the manager’s in-memory keystore by default:
Raft Encryption Key: Encrypts on-disk Raft logs
TLS Key: Secures communication between Swarm nodes
Enabling auto-lock moves key management out of the daemon’s memory. This lets you store keys in a hardware security module (HSM) or a dedicated key management service (KMS).
When you enable auto-lock, Swarm generates a one-time unlock key. Store it in a secure password manager—without it, you cannot unlock your manager after a restart.
You can turn on auto-lock either during cluster initialization or on an existing Swarm:
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# Initialize a new Swarm with auto-lock enableddocker swarm init --autolock=true# Enable auto-lock on an existing Swarmdocker swarm update --autolock=true
Example output:
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Swarm updated.To unlock a swarm manager after it restarts, run the `docker swarm unlock` command and provide the following key:SWMKEY-1-7K9wg5n85QeC4Zh7rZ0vSV0b5MteDsUvpVhG/lQnbl0Please remember to store this key in a password manager, since without it you will not be able to restart the manager.
After a manager restart, the Swarm remains locked. Any attempt to run Swarm commands will result in an error:
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$ docker node lsError response from daemon: Swarm is encrypted and needs to be unlocked before it can be used.Please use "docker swarm unlock" to unlock it.
