Once your Docker Stack is deployed and running, RunCloud provides a centralized management dashboard to help you maintain operational visibility, supervise resource health, control service lifecycles, and synchronize live container states.

Controlling the Stack Lifecycle

You can control your stack from the Global Stacks view (Stacks) or from the individual Stack Overview page (Server > Stacks > [Stack Name]).

To prevent accidental service corruption, RunCloud enforces a strict state machine model for container operations:

  • State Validation: Actions are only available when the stack is in a valid state:

    • The Stop Stack and Restart Stack options are actively disabled unless the stack status is currently “Running”.

    • The Start Stack option is enabled when the stack is currently stopped or in an error state.

  • Coordinated Actions: When you trigger a lifecycle action on a multi-container stack, RunCloud orchestrates the process across all member containers in the correct dependency order.
  • Safe Deletion: Deleting a stack tears down the running containers and internal network cleanly while safely preserving your persistent named data volumes by default.

Follow these steps to manage the state of your stack:

  1. Navigate to Stacks in the main left sidebar (or go to Server > Stacks and select your server).
  2. Click on the three-dot action menu (...) next to your stack name, or open the stack Overview page.

  3. Select your desired action:

    • To remove all containers in the stack, select Delete Stack.

    • To reload all container processes and apply fresh runtime states, select Restart.

View stacks

Monitoring Performance and Resource Usage

Resource monitoring is important for maintaining server stability and ensuring that containerized applications have sufficient computing power to perform their tasks.

Real-Time Metric Cards

RunCloud continuously samples health metrics from every running container on your server. On the Stack Overview page, four real-time metric cards provide immediate operational insight:

  • CPU Usage (%): Displays the current percentage of assigned CPU cores consumed by the stack.
  • Memory Usage (MB): Displays active RAM consumption compared to your allocated memory ceiling (for example, 256 MB / 512 MB).
  • Network In (KB/s): Displays the current volume of incoming network traffic.
  • Network Out (KB/s): Displays the current volume of outgoing network traffic.

Detailed Time-Series Charts

If you wish to analyze resource patterns over time (for example, to identify periodic traffic spikes or memory leaks):

  1. On the Stack Overview page, look under the “Containers” dropdown in the left sub-navigation menu.
  2. Click on the container you wish to examine.
  3. On the next page, you will be able to review the charts for CPU Usage, Memory Usage, Network I/O, and Container Uptime.

  4. Use the time-range toggles above the charts to adjust your inspection window:

    • Select Minute to view minute-by-minute data from the past two hours.

    • Select Hour to view hourly trends across the past 24 hours.

    • Select Day to view resource patterns across the past 30 days.

Metrics data

Synchronizing and Reconciling Container States

In server management, configuration or state drift can occur if an administrator makes manual edits on the physical host using the command line (such as running docker stop or modifying containers over SSH), or if a process exits unexpectedly.

RunCloud provides two recovery tools under the stack’s Settings menu:

1. Sync State from Server (Sync State)

The Sync State function queries the physical Docker Swarm engine on your server and reconciles the RunCloud dashboard status with the true running container state. It does not restart or alter your running containers.

Use this tool if the dashboard displays an outdated status after an unexpected server reboot or manual host adjustment.

If you notice a discrepancy between your dashboard status and your server:

  1. Navigate to Stacks and click on your target stack.
  2. In the stack sub-navigation menu, click on Settings.
  3. Locate the “Danger Zone” section.
  4. Click Sync State.
Sync state

RunCloud will poll the server, reconcile the state database, and refresh your dashboard display.

2. Force State Reset (Force State)

The Force State function overwrites stuck internal dashboard states without modifying the physical containers on the host.

Use this tool as an emergency administrative recovery step if a deployment task becomes stuck in a transitional state.

Safely Deleting a Stack

When you no longer need a stack, you can remove it safely without risking accidental data loss.

  1. Navigate to Stacks and select your stack.
  2. Click on Settings in the stack menu and scroll down to the “Danger Zone” at the bottom of the page.
  3. Click Delete Stack to open the deletion modal.
  4. Type the exact name of your stack in the confirmation field to confirm your intent.
Delete stack

  1. Review the data volume preservation option:

    • By default, RunCloud leaves the “Also delete data volumes” box unchecked. This safely preserves all persistent named storage volumes on the host file system so you can retrieve your data later.

    • If you want to permanently erase all volume data associated with this stack, check the “Also delete data volumes” box.

  2. Click Delete Stack.
Delete volumes

The stack status will briefly transition to Removing while RunCloud unbinds the reverse proxy, stops the container tasks, and cleans up the private bridge network.

If you have any other questions or need help, please feel free to get in touch with our 24/7 support team. We’re here to help!