Can't Kill Docker Main Process

Question

How do I kill the docker main process? Why does it keep crashing?

I have docker installed on Ubuntu (on AWS).

I started a cluster the other day, and let it run over night. (It appeared to start with no issues.)

Returning the next day, I did a docker ps:

Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

So I tail -f /var/log/syslog:

Jul 14 11:25:20 server01 kernel: [8107974.094867] init: docker main process (23915) terminated with status 1
Jul 14 11:25:20 server01 kernel: [8107974.094876] init: docker main process ended, respawning
Jul 14 11:25:21 server01 kernel: [8107975.451554] init: docker main process (23961) terminated with status 1
Jul 14 11:25:21 server01 kernel: [8107975.451564] init: docker main process ended, respawning

And the syslog looks like this, for hours.

And so I try me@server01:~$ sudo sysctl docker stop:

sysctl: cannot stat /proc/sys/docker: No such file or directory
sysctl: cannot stat /proc/sys/stop: No such file or directory

Then I try me@server01:~$ sudo service docker stop:

docker stop/waiting

Then sudo service docker start:

docker start/running, process 11150

And tail -f /var/log/syslog:

Jul 14 11:35:13 server01 kernel: [8108567.403154] init: docker main process (11082) terminated with status 1
Jul 14 11:36:46 server01 kernel: [8108660.693572] init: docker main process (11150) terminated with status 1
Jul 14 11:36:46 server01 kernel: [8108660.693581] init: docker main process ended, respawning
Jul 14 11:36:48 server01 kernel: [8108662.068454] init: docker main process (11200) terminated with status 1
Jul 14 11:36:48 server01 kernel: [8108662.068463] init: docker main process ended, respawning

Thinking myself clever, I sudo kill -SIGUSR1 $(cat /var/run/docker.pid) then...

sudo kill -SIGUSR1 $(cat /var/run/docker.pid)
sudo kill -SIGUSR1 $(cat /var/run/docker.pid)
sudo kill -SIGUSR1 $(cat /var/run/docker.pid)

Just for good measure... and yet:

me@server01:~$ tail -f /var/log/syslog
Jul 14 11:56:07 server01 kernel: [8109821.948151] init: docker main process (17416) terminated with status 1
Jul 14 11:56:07 server01 kernel: [8109821.948160] init: docker main process ended, respawning
Jul 14 11:56:09 server01 kernel: [8109823.340658] init: docker main process (17469) terminated with status 1
Jul 14 11:56:09 server01 kernel: [8109823.340666] init: docker main process ended, respawning

And so forth... So I'm back to where I began.

---

Unfortunately, systemctl: command not found

---

docker run hello-world:

docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?.

Solution

You want the systemctl command, not sysctl.

systemctl stop docker

If you want to stop it from starting at boot:

systemctl disable docker

Comments

[NonCreature0714]

Unfortunately systemctl: command not found

[Deathgrip]

What version of Ubuntu? You may also want to add the line DOCKER_OPTS="--debug=true --log-level=debug to /etc/default/docker.

[NonCreature0714]

Not entirely sure, but uname -a outputs: Linux server 3.13.0-91-generic #138-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 24 17:00:34 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Deathgrip]

lsb_release -a or cat /etc/os-release or cat /etc/lsb-release.

[NonCreature0714]

Excuse me, lsb_release -a tells me it's 14.04.5 LTS

[NonCreature0714]

And I went ahead and edited /etc/default/docker like you recommended

[Deathgrip]

It's using Upstart. Try initctl stop docker, although that ends up being executed when you do service docker stop. To disable at boot, echo "manual" >> /etc/init/docker.override. Once you start it again, hopefully there are debug messages in /var/log/syslog that lead you to why the process is/was constantly respawning.