Why does docker stop all containers after a while?

Question

We've installed Docker CE on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and it used to work as expected, but since recently, I've noticed that all running containers are stopped after a while (~ 1-2 days).

The very same containers show no problems on an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS installation, so I assume the problem lies within the OS or docker.

I've checked the docker log using

sudo journalctl -xu docker.service

but it shows me only the startup entries. There is no entry that would give a hint about why the containers have been stopped.

When I check the stopped containers using

docker ps -a

the status is: Exited (255) 36 hours ago

If I look at the container log using

docker logs <containername>

there is no problem or error reported either. The log simply ends. Only in our LDAP container, I see

613c0916 daemon: shutdown requested and initiated.
613c0916 slapd shutdown: waiting for 0 operations/tasks to finish
*** Killing all processes...

I've searched the internet for possible causes and found reports about an OS update problem in https://forums.docker.com/t/mysterious-docker-engine-shutdown/101193 and https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/containerd/+bug/1870514

I've updated Ubuntu using

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

but the problem continues to happen.

How can I find out what is going on?

Version info:

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           20.10.8
 API version:       1.40
 Go version:        go1.16.6
 Git commit:        3967b7d
 Built:             Fri Jul 30 19:54:27 2021
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Context:           default
 Experimental:      true

Server:
 Engine:
  Version:          19.03.13
  API version:      1.40 (minimum version 1.12)
  Go version:       go1.13.15
  Git commit:       bd33bbf
  Built:            Fri Feb  5 15:58:24 2021
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v1.3.7
  GitCommit:        8fba4e9a7d01810a393d5d25a3621dc101981175
 runc:
  Version:          1.0.0-rc10
  GitCommit:        
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.18.0
  GitCommit:        fec3683

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 14 '21 at 12:04

Turned out that the update would simply not cure the problem.

I had to turn off the auto-update feature:

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure unattended-upgrades

After that, I also removed the snap install of Docker, and re-installed it the "old-fashioned" way according to the Docker installation docs because of the problem described here.

Why does docker stop all containers after a while?

1 Answers1