By default, Watchtower will clean up other instances and won't allow multiple instances running on the same Docker host or swarm. It is possible to override this behavior by defining a [scope](https://containrrr.github.io/watchtower/arguments/#filter_by_scope) to each running instance.
By default, Watchtower will clean up other instances and won't allow multiple instances running on the same Docker host or swarm. It is possible to override this behavior by defining a [scope](https://containrrr.github.io/watchtower/arguments/#filter_by_scope) to each running instance.
Notice that:
!!! note
- Multiple instances can't run with the same scope;
- Multiple instances can't run with the same scope;
- An instance without a scope will clean up other running instances, even if they have a defined scope;
- An instance without a scope will clean up other running instances, even if they have a defined scope;
- Supplying `none` as the scope will treat `com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.scope=none`, `com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.scope=` and the lack of a `com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.scope` label as the scope `none`. This effectly enables you to run both scoped and unscoped watchtower instances on the same machine.
To define an instance monitoring scope, use the `--scope` argument or the `WATCHTOWER_SCOPE` environment variable on startup and set the _com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.scope_ label with the same value for the containers you want to include in this instance's scope (including the instance itself).
To define an instance monitoring scope, use the `--scope` argument or the `WATCHTOWER_SCOPE` environment variable on startup and set the `com.centurylinklabs.watchtower.scope` label with the same value for the containers you want to include in this instance's scope (including the instance itself).
For example, in a Docker Compose config file:
For example, in a Docker Compose config file:
@ -12,16 +13,29 @@ For example, in a Docker Compose config file: