How to increase docker-machine memory Mac

Question

I am new to Docker, and trying to go through this tutorial setting up MemSQL from a Docker image - http://docs.memsql.com/4.0/setup/docker/ . I am on a Mac, and the tutorial uses boot2docker which seems to have been deprecated.

The VM needs 4GB memory to run. The tutorial specifies how to do this with boot2docker but I cannot find a way to do this with the docker-machine/docker toolbox.

Here is the command I am using and the error I am getting just trying to go through the tutorial without altering the boot2docker config.

docker run --rm --net=host memsql/quickstart check-system
Error: MemSQL requires at least 4 GB of memory to run.

score 200 · Answer 1 · edited May 07 '20 at 16:17

200

You can do this via the command line. For example, to change the machine from the default 1cpu/2048MB RAM run:

docker-machine stop
VBoxManage modifyvm default --cpus 2
VBoxManage modifyvm default --memory 4096
docker-machine start

You can then check your settings:

VBoxManage showvminfo default | grep Memory
VBoxManage showvminfo default | grep CPU

And for docker-machine inspect to report the correct state of things, edit ~/.docker/machine/machines/default/config.json to reflect your changes.

edited May 07 '20 at 16:17

Vic Seedoubleyew

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answered May 02 '16 at 12:39

Ran Rubinstein

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This worked even when the GUI (version 5.0.16) would not. – MikeF Jan 26 '17 at 20:58
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This answer should be at the top – nakajuice Jun 06 '17 at 13:35
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Note that after the command is executed `docker-machine inspect` won't show any changes. However, if you run `docker stats` you'll see that the changes have been applied. – slovit Oct 29 '18 at 18:58
@slovit and others: You can then modify the docker-machine `config.json` file to reflect the actual size. Example: for `default`, as used in the example solution, modify the `~/.docker/machine/machines/default/config.json` file so that the `Memory` (and `CPU` if also modified) subproperty under `Driver` is changed to `4096`. Then, `docker-machine inspect` will show the proper value. – ScriptAutomate May 03 '20 at 01:35

BMW · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-11T23:06:26.480

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when you create docker machine, you can nominate the memory size:

docker-machine create -d virtualbox --virtualbox-memory 4096 default

Let me know if this helps.

edited Jan 11 '16 at 23:06

answered Sep 29 '15 at 01:52

BMW

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This definitely seems like the right place to adjust memory allocation. However, still getting the same error after restarting this VM. In the `check-system` program (https://github.com/memsql/memsql-docker-quickstart/blob/master/check-system), I am seeing these lines which would determine this error. `ONE_MB = 1024 ** 2`, `virtual_memory = psutil.virtual_memory()`, `if virtual_memory.total < ONE_MB * 3700: sys.stderr.write("Error: MemSQL requires at least 4 GB of memory to run.\n")` . – DJElbow Sep 29 '15 at 18:23
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Wasn't able to get this working by altering the config, but deleting and recreating the docker machine vm as shown above solved the issue! – DJElbow Sep 29 '15 at 20:12
Sure, I clean the second way, seems it doesn't work any more. – BMW Jan 11 '16 at 23:06

Srikar Appalaraju · Answer 3 · 2021-07-16T18:36:24.370

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For Docker version 1.12.1 (build: 12133) and higher on macOS there is an option to change CPU's and RAM from UI and restart docker. You can find the preferences from toolbar. Attaching images for clarity.

Update Aug 2020: Preferences -> Resources (thank you to @swedge218)

Old Step (probably defunct now): Preferences -> Advanced -> adjust resources -> Apply & Restart

edited Jul 16 '21 at 18:36

answered Sep 27 '16 at 08:40

Srikar Appalaraju

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This has moved to Advanced tab. Thanks for sharing this. – GabLeRoux Mar 24 '17 at 16:06
Man that was both obvious and completely unintuitive - thank you! – AlienWebguy Oct 31 '17 at 23:07
Does those changes also apply if I use dinghy with virtualbox ? Or I should only use VBoxManage to adjust mem size ? – Artur79 Feb 06 '18 at 08:48
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Is there a command line equivalent to this? I have Docker for mac but apparently docker-machine ls gives me nothing so I can't modify the default machine. – Andrea Bergonzo May 17 '18 at 16:13
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It's Preferences -> Resources as of today. – swedge218 Aug 12 '20 at 12:26

score 45 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 19 '17 at 12:55

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Docker Machine maintainer here. I don't think adjusting the config.json manually will work.

Your two options are to either create the machine with --virtualbox-memory set, or to adjust the VM's memory in the VirtualBox GUI ("Settings > System" for that VM I think). Make sure the machine is powered off and there should be a little slider that works.

EDIT: Another answer shows that you can do the in-place operation from the command line as well using VBoxManage.

edited Jan 19 '17 at 12:55

bluehallu

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answered Jan 04 '16 at 20:01

nathanleclaire

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This works but note that `docker-machine inspect` will continue to report the original amount of memory even after altering it in the VirtualBox GUI. – Tamlyn Feb 02 '16 at 19:16
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That's true, in order to have `docker-machine inspect` report the accurate amount, you _do_ have to edit `config.json` (that's where `inspect` gets its information). – nathanleclaire Mar 15 '16 at 20:54
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Doing it in Virtualbox is the simplest – Niranjan Sonachalam Aug 26 '16 at 15:33

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 07 '16 at 21:17

I couldn't get the other answers to work. The only thing that worked for me was to remove the default machine and re-create it with more memory.

docker-machine rm default
docker-machine create -d virtualbox --virtualbox-memory=4096 --virtualbox-cpu-count=2 --virtualbox-disk-size=50000 default

This fix was found here: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/jfp/entry/Using_Docker_Machine_On_Windows?lang=en

cpep · Answer 6 · 2017-09-28T09:16:01.990

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Other answers showed how to change the memory using VBoxManage:

docker-machine stop default
VBoxManage modifyvm default --memory 4096
docker-machine start default

To confirm the change from the command line:

VBoxManage showvminfo default | grep Memory

OR

docker-machine ssh default free

edited Sep 28 '17 at 09:16

answered Jun 24 '17 at 12:57

cpep

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Hi cpep, can you [edit] your answer and [format the code blocks](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/251361/how-do-i-format-my-code-blocks) properly? – TT. Sep 27 '17 at 07:56

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 23 '18 at 05:52

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fox xhyve (another virtualization under macos) you can modify ~/.docker/machine/default/config.json property Driver/Memory (default to 1024) then restart docker machine to apply changes

answered Mar 23 '18 at 05:52

dchekmarev

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I found it under `~/.docker/machine/machines/default/config.json`. Thanks – Tarek N. Elsamni Jul 02 '19 at 15:58

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 04 '22 at 10:21

APPLE SILICON

I was looking for a solution for Apple Silicon, and from what I understand docker-machine was deprecated (link), so I ended up using colima (link).

As per colima documentation one can define number of cpus and available ram like:

colima start --cpu 1 --memory 2 --disk 10

and to modify an existing VM:

colima stop
colima start --cpu 4 --memory 8

How to increase docker-machine memory Mac

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