HashiCorp Nomad — Flexible Workload Orchestrator

What Nomad Does

• Multi-workload — Docker, raw exec, Java, Windows, QEMU
• Service discovery — Consul integration or native
• Secrets — Vault integration
• Bin packing — optimal placement algorithm
• Blue-green / canary — deploy strategies built in
• Rolling updates — with health checks
• Batch jobs — periodic, batch, system types
• Spread / affinity — placement constraints
• ACLs — fine-grained access control
• Federation — multi-region clusters

Architecture

Servers form a Raft-consensus cluster for scheduling decisions. Clients run on each node to execute tasks. Schedulers (service, batch, system, sysbatch) place workloads based on constraints and resources. Nomad is a single Go binary per role.

Self-Hosting

# server.hcl
data_dir = "/opt/nomad/data"
server {
  enabled = true
  bootstrap_expect = 3
}

# client.hcl
data_dir = "/opt/nomad/data"
client {
  enabled = true
  servers = ["nomad-server-1:4647"]
}

Key Features

• Multi-workload orchestration
• Single Go binary
• Simpler than Kubernetes
• Native Consul + Vault integration
• Rolling deploys, canary, blue-green
• Multi-region federation
• ACL system
• Spread and affinity placement
• CSI volume support

Comparison

FAQ

Q: Nomad vs Kubernetes? A: K8s is feature-complete but complex with a steep learning curve; Nomad is a single binary, simple, and can run non-container workloads. For small and medium teams, Nomad is sufficient and cheap to operate; large teams may pick K8s for the ecosystem.

Q: What is BUSL? A: Business Source License 1.1 — converts to MPL 2.0 open source after 4 years; in the meantime, commercial use that competes with Nomad is prohibited. Self-use and non-competing commercial use are fully fine.

Q: Do I need Consul? A: Not required. Nomad v1.3+ has native service discovery. But for advanced features (service mesh, KV, distributed locks), Consul is still recommended.

Sources

• Docs: https://www.nomadproject.io/docs
• GitHub: https://github.com/hashicorp/nomad
• License: BUSL 1.1