Nomad

Simple, flexible orchestrator for containers, legacy apps, and VMs

Nomad deploys and manages Docker, Podman, executable, Java, and QEMU workloads across on-prem and cloud environments, offering high-availability, GPU support, and seamless integration with Terraform, Consul, and Vault.

Overview

Nomad is a single‑binary workload orchestrator that lets you run Docker, Podman, native executables, Java jobs, and QEMU virtual machines on the same cluster. It operates on Linux, Windows, and macOS and can manage resources across on‑prem data centers and public clouds.

Capabilities

The platform combines resource management and scheduling, offering built‑in high availability through leader election and state replication. Device plugins expose GPUs, FPGAs, and TPUs for AI workloads, while federation enables multi‑region, multi‑cloud deployments. Integration with Terraform, Consul, and Vault provides seamless provisioning, service discovery, and secret handling.

Deployment

Getting started is as simple as downloading the binary and launching a local dev cluster; production‑grade clusters follow the reference architecture documented on the Nomad site. The system scales to 10k+ nodes and supports both single‑binary operation and enterprise extensions for advanced governance.

Highlights

Unified orchestration of containers, legacy binaries, and VMs

Single-binary, self-contained design with built-in HA

Native GPU, FPGA, and TPU device plugin support

Multi-region federation for multi-cloud deployments

Pros

Runs as a single binary, simplifying operations
Supports both containerized and non-containerized workloads
Proven scalability to 10k+ nodes
Tight integration with Terraform, Consul, and Vault

Considerations

Enterprise‑only features require a paid edition
Limited graphical UI compared with some competitors
Advanced federation setup can have a learning curve
Community support may be less extensive than larger ecosystems

Managed products teams compare with

When teams consider Nomad, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)

Fully managed Kubernetes service for running containerized applications on AWS and on-premises

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Managed Kubernetes service that simplifies deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications on Azure

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

Managed Kubernetes for deploying and scaling containers

Looking for a hosted option? These are the services engineering teams benchmark against before choosing open source.

Fit guide

Great for

Teams needing a single orchestrator for mixed workloads
Organizations operating across multiple clouds or regions
Workloads requiring GPU or other accelerator access
Enterprises already using Terraform, Consul, or Vault

Not ideal when

Projects that rely solely on Kubernetes APIs
Small teams preferring fully managed SaaS orchestration
Environments where a rich graphical dashboard is mandatory
Use cases demanding extensive built-in service mesh features

How teams use it

Hybrid microservice and batch processing

Run Docker‑based microservices alongside legacy batch jobs on the same cluster, sharing resources and scheduling policies.

GPU‑accelerated machine learning training

Deploy TensorFlow jobs that automatically schedule onto nodes with available GPUs via device plugins.

Multi‑cloud disaster‑recovery

Federate clusters across AWS and Azure, enabling seamless failover and workload migration.

VM‑based legacy application hosting

Launch QEMU virtual machines for monolithic applications while co‑locating container workloads, simplifying infrastructure footprint.

Tech snapshot

Go71%

MDX14%

JavaScript10%

Handlebars2%

HCL2%

SCSS1%

Frequently asked questions

What languages or runtimes does Nomad support?

Nomad uses task drivers; out‑of‑the‑box drivers include Docker, Podman, exec (any binary), Java, and QEMU for VMs.

Is a separate database required for state storage?

No. Nomad stores state internally using a built‑in consensus layer; no external database is needed.

How does Nomad achieve high availability?

Nomad forms a leader‑elected cluster with state replication; if a node fails, workloads are rescheduled automatically.

Can Nomad integrate with existing HashiCorp tools?

Yes. It integrates with Terraform for provisioning, Consul for service discovery, and Vault for secrets management.

What is the maximum cluster size Nomad can handle?

Nomad has been demonstrated in production with clusters exceeding 10,000 nodes.

Project at a glance

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