Job for docker.service failed because the control process exited with error code

Question

So I installed docker engine on RHEL 7

Now when I do a

service docker start

I get the following error:

Job for docker.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status docker.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

and when I go to "systemctl status docker.service" and "journalctl -xe" I get:

docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
  Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d
           └─docker.conf
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2016-09-08 22:15:53 EDT; 10s ago
     Docs: https://docs.docker.com
  Process: 13504 ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker daemon -H fd:// --mtu 1400 --exec-opt native.cgroupdriver=systemd (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
 Main PID: 13504 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: Starting Docker Application Container Engine...
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com docker[13504]: time="2016-09-08T22:15:53.227074798-04:00" level=fatal msg="no sockets found via socket activation: make sure the service ...by systemd"
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: docker.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: Failed to start Docker Application Container Engine.
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: Unit docker.service entered failed state.
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: docker.service failed.

And

--

-- The start-up result is done.
Sep 08 22:10:01 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com CROND[12753]: (root) CMD (/usr/lib64/sa/sa1 1 1)
Sep 08 22:10:01 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: Starting Session 58 of user root.
-- Subject: Unit session-58.scope has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit session-58.scope has begun starting up.
Sep 08 22:10:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com polkitd[766]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-process:12878:2674931 (system bus name :1.173 [/usr/bin/pkttyagent --notify-fd 5 --fallback], ob
Sep 08 22:10:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: Starting Docker Application Container Engine...
-- Subject: Unit docker.service has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit docker.service has begun starting up.
Sep 08 22:10:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com docker[12895]: time="2016-09-08T22:10:53.413304246-04:00" level=fatal msg="no sockets found via socket activation: make sure the service was started by
Sep 08 22:10:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: docker.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 08 22:10:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: Failed to start Docker Application Container Engine.
-- Subject: Unit docker.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit docker.service has failed.
--
-- The result is failed.
Sep 08 22:10:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: Unit docker.service entered failed state.
Sep 08 22:10:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: docker.service failed.
Sep 08 22:10:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com polkitd[766]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:12878:2674931 (system bus name :1.173, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/Authent
Sep 08 22:13:36 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com polkitd[766]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-process:13214:2691210 (system bus name :1.174 [/usr/bin/pkttyagent --notify-fd 5 --fallback], ob
Sep 08 22:13:36 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com polkitd[766]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:13214:2691210 (system bus name :1.174, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/Authent
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com polkitd[766]: Registered Authentication Agent for unix-process:13489:2704913 (system bus name :1.175 [/usr/bin/pkttyagent --notify-fd 5 --fallback], ob
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: Starting Docker Application Container Engine...
-- Subject: Unit docker.service has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit docker.service has begun starting up.
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com docker[13504]: time="2016-09-08T22:15:53.227074798-04:00" level=fatal msg="no sockets found via socket activation: make sure the service was started by
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: docker.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: Failed to start Docker Application Container Engine.
-- Subject: Unit docker.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit docker.service has failed.
--
-- The result is failed.
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: Unit docker.service entered failed state.
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com systemd[1]: docker.service failed.
Sep 08 22:15:53 app-linux2.app-netapp.lab.com polkitd[766]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:13489:2704913 (system bus name :1.175, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/Authent
lines 3473-3523/3523 (END)

I tried to search solution for this but could not find any.

Report this to Docker (https://github.com/docker/docker/issues). Also include the commands you use to install the docker daemon. — Bernard, Sep 09 '16 at 05:05

Sergey Nemchinov · Answer 1 · 2019-10-21T08:15:10.093

Check your OS logs files for warning or error messages.
Probably you have made a mistake in the config files of docker and when the service starts it gets an error.

The log's location depends on your OS. On Linux system logs are often in:

/var/log/daemon.log
/var/log/docker
/var/log/messages
/var/log/syslog
/var/log/upstart/docker.log

Some useful linux console commands to inspect docker logs:

sudo systemctl status docker.service
sudo journalctl -fu docker.service
cat /var/log/daemon.log | grep docker
cat /var/log/messages | grep docker

If you are using Windows this article might be helpful
Here are more details

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 11 '16 at 20:32

What version of Docker do you use? If you are not locked to the elder one, consider use of the most recent version (currently it's 1.12). Here's my startup options (Debian 8, /etc/systemd/system/docker.service):

[Unit]
Description=Docker Application Container Engine
Documentation=https://docs.docker.com
After=network.target docker.socket
Requires=docker.socket

[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker daemon -H fd:// --dns=10.240.116.7 --dns 8.8.8.8  --bip=172.17.42.1/24
MountFlags=slave
LimitNOFILE=1048576
LimitNPROC=1048576
LimitCORE=infinity
TimeoutStartSec=0

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Also try to start Docker in debug mode (-D) without systemd, just like if it was a common program. This will help to find out why daemon doesn't start.

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 07 '17 at 19:09

Fixing the Job for docker.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status docker.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details. problem, for me this worked:

create daemon.json in /etc/docker/
put this in it:

{
"exec-root": "/path/to/docker/run",
"storage-driver": "overlay",
"graph": "/path/to/docker/lib"
}
then try: docker daemon
reboot
docker run hello-world should succeed now

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 15 '18 at 10:19

2

Just Remove Docker Lib and restart it again with:

sudo rm -rf  /var/lib/docker

then

sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo systemctl start docker

edited Aug 15 '18 at 10:19

CertainPerformance

356,069
52
309
320

answered Aug 15 '18 at 10:04

MrTshoot

95
7

2

This deletes all the docker information. I wouldn't recommend this as a first step. – jss367 Sep 20 '19 at 02:36
sorry but you have not any chance on this situation. – MrTshoot Jan 26 '22 at 09:29

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Dec 03 '21 at 01:21

2

I came across same issue in my Linux VM(virtual machine). System details : ubuntu 18.04 I had to just delete my daemon.json and then do a service docker start this worked for me.

Note: I had put insecure registry in my daemon.json file and i didn't want that as well hence i deleted it. I don't know it's usage though.

edited Dec 03 '21 at 01:21

Peter Csala

17,736
16
35
75

answered Dec 02 '21 at 17:41

max_240758

21
4

Sathish · Answer 6 · 2018-09-22T11:20:28.860

There are many reasons for docker service failing to run. One of them that I encountered is using single quotes instead of double quotes for the key value pairs in the json file.

It fails

sudo cat > /etc/docker/daemon.json << '_EOF'
{
    'registry-mirrors': ['https://docker.io'] 
}
_EOF

It works!

sudo cat > /etc/docker/daemon.json << '_EOF'
{
    "registry-mirrors": ["https://docker.io"] 
}
_EOF

For more info see here

Job for docker.service failed because the control process exited with error code

6 Answers6