feat(ansible): a swarm prune that keeps every image a swarm service is pinned to on every node (#6399)
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The nightly prune ran `docker system prune -a`, which deletes every image no
local container uses, so each swarm node kept only its own tasks' images.
When the other node failed or was drained, its services had to pull first:
on 2026-10-25 Traefik took 11.5 min to start on Docker03.

maintenance/swarm_prune.yml (built in) prunes stopped containers, unused
networks, dangling images and build cache, then removes only the images that
no container uses and no swarm service is pinned to, wherever that service
runs. Old digests left by redeploys still go.

- A container's image is kept by its id and by the reference it was made
  from, since on the containerd store the id alone hasn't held a tag.
- A node that can't list the swarm's services removes no images and fails
  rather than pruning blind.
- Check mode lists what would go.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-10-25 11:08:37 -04:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5
parent 74a5b26cab
commit 6f0903f548
3 changed files with 272 additions and 0 deletions
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#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Steward's swarm prune (maintenance/swarm_prune.yml), run on each node.
Removes the images on this node that no swarm service is pinned to and no
container uses (by id, or by the reference it was made from), and keeps every image a service is pinned to even when its
task runs on another node. A node then holds what it needs to take over the
other's services without a pull: the registry may be behind the node that
failed, and a digest it has since deleted can't be pulled at all.
The node must be a swarm manager, the only kind that can list services. On
one that isn't, or when Docker doesn't answer, it removes nothing and fails,
so a prune never runs blind. With --dry-run it says what it would remove.
Prints one JSON line: kept, removed, failed, freed_bytes, dry_run.
Stdlib only; shipped beside the playbook in Steward's built-in source.
"""
from __future__ import annotations
import json
import subprocess
import sys
DEADLINE_SECONDS = 300
def docker(*args: str) -> str:
done = subprocess.run(["docker", *args], capture_output=True, text=True,
timeout=DEADLINE_SECONDS)
if done.returncode != 0:
raise RuntimeError(f"docker {' '.join(args[:2])}: {done.stderr.strip()[-300:]}")
return done.stdout
def short(repo: str) -> str:
"""A repository the way Docker lists it locally: no docker.io/ or library/."""
for prefix in ("docker.io/", "index.docker.io/"):
if repo.startswith(prefix):
repo = repo[len(prefix):]
return repo[len("library/"):] if repo.startswith("library/") else repo
def wanted(service_images) -> tuple[set, set]:
"""(digests, "repo:tag" refs) the services are pinned to. A spec with a
digest is matched by it; one with a tag alone by that tag."""
digests, refs = set(), set()
for image in service_images:
ref, _, digest = (image or "").partition("@")
if digest:
digests.add(digest)
elif ref:
name = ref.rsplit("/", 1)[-1]
refs.add(short(ref if ":" in name else ref + ":latest"))
return digests, refs
def removable(images: list, digests: set, refs: set, used: set) -> list:
"""The images (`docker image inspect` rows) no container uses and no
service is pinned to."""
out = []
for im in images:
if im.get("Id") in used:
continue
held = {d.split("@", 1)[1] for d in im.get("RepoDigests") or [] if "@" in d}
tags = {short(t) for t in im.get("RepoTags") or []}
if held & digests or tags & refs:
continue
out.append(im)
return out
def label(im: dict) -> str:
names = (im.get("RepoTags") or []) + (im.get("RepoDigests") or [])
return names[0] if names else im.get("Id", "")[7:19]
def main(argv: list) -> int:
dry = "--dry-run" in argv
try:
ids = docker("service", "ls", "-q").split()
services = json.loads(docker("service", "inspect", *ids)) if ids else []
ids = docker("ps", "-aq", "--no-trunc").split()
containers = json.loads(docker("container", "inspect", *ids)) if ids else []
image_ids = sorted(set(docker("image", "ls", "-q", "--no-trunc").split()))
images = json.loads(docker("image", "inspect", *image_ids)) if image_ids else []
except (RuntimeError, ValueError, OSError, subprocess.TimeoutExpired) as exc:
print(json.dumps({"error": f"nothing removed: {exc}"}))
return 2
# A container's image is kept by its id and by the reference it was made
# from: on Docker's containerd store the id alone hasn't held a tag.
used = {c.get("Image") for c in containers}
digests, refs = wanted([s.get("Spec", {}).get("TaskTemplate", {}).get("ContainerSpec", {}).get("Image")
for s in services]
+ [c.get("Config", {}).get("Image") for c in containers])
gone = removable(images, digests, refs, used)
removed, failed, freed = [], [], 0
for im in gone:
if not dry:
try:
docker("image", "rm", "-f", im["Id"])
except (RuntimeError, subprocess.TimeoutExpired) as exc:
failed.append({"image": label(im), "error": str(exc)[-200:]})
continue
removed.append(label(im))
freed += int(im.get("Size") or 0)
print(json.dumps({"kept": len(images) - len(gone), "removed": removed, "failed": failed,
"freed_bytes": freed, "dry_run": dry}))
return 1 if failed else 0
if __name__ == "__main__":
sys.exit(main(sys.argv[1:]))
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---
# description: Reclaim disk on swarm nodes but keep every image a swarm service is pinned to, so each node can take over the others' services without pulling.
# steward:category: maintenance
# steward:confirm: true
# Run on the swarm's nodes; each must be a manager (only a manager can list
# services). On each node:
# 1. docker system prune: stopped containers, unused networks, dangling
# images, build cache (+ prune_volumes=true: unused anonymous volumes).
# 2. files/swarm_prune.py: removes every other image no container uses and
# no swarm service is pinned to, wherever that service's task runs. A
# node keeps the images for the services running elsewhere, so it can
# start them at once when the other node fails or is drained.
# A node that can't list the swarm's services removes no images and the run
# fails, rather than pruning blind. Check mode lists what would go.
- name: Swarm prune
hosts: all
gather_facts: false
become: true
vars:
prune_volumes: false
tasks:
- name: Prune stopped containers, unused networks, dangling images and build cache
ansible.builtin.command:
argv: >-
{{ ['docker', 'system', 'prune', '-f']
+ (['--volumes'] if prune_volumes | bool else []) }}
register: system_prune
changed_when: "'Total reclaimed space: 0B' not in system_prune.stdout"
- name: Remove images no container uses and no swarm service is pinned to
ansible.builtin.script:
cmd: "swarm_prune.py{{ ' --dry-run' if ansible_check_mode else '' }}"
executable: python3
check_mode: false
register: image_prune
changed_when: >-
not ansible_check_mode and (image_prune.stdout | from_json).removed | default([]) | length > 0
- name: Report what went
ansible.builtin.debug:
msg: >-
{{ (system_prune.stdout_lines | default([]) | select | list)[-1:]
+ [image_prune.stdout | from_json] }}