Unable to Start Docker Service with Error "Failed to Start Docker. Service: Unit Not Found."
I Have Installed Docker with Yum Install Docker: $ Uname -a Linux Caspgval4 3.10.0-229.20.1. El7. X86_64 #1 Smp Wed Nov 4 10:08:36 Cst 2015 X86_64 X86_64...
I have installed Docker with yum install docker:
$ uname -a
Linux caspgval4 3.10.0-229.20.1.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Nov 4 10:08:36 CST 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ docker --version
Docker version 1.12.6, build 3a094bd/1.12.6
$ docker info
Cannot connect to the Docker daemon. Is the docker daemon running on this host?
$ sudo systemctl status docker
● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
Docs:
I am trying to install and run Docker, but it is giving an error as below:
$ sudo service docker start
Redirecting to /bin/systemctl start docker.service
Failed to start docker.service: Unit not found.
How do I resolve this issue? I tried the following commands, but no luck:
$ sudo systemctl start docker
Failed to start docker.service: Unit not found.
Extra information:
$ journalctl -u docker
No journal files were found.
-- No entries --
$ cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service
[Unit]
Description=Docker Application Container Engine
Documentation=
After=network.target
Wants=docker-storage-setup.service
Requires=rhel-push-plugin.socket
Requires=docker-cleanup.timer
[Service]
Type=notify
NotifyAccess=all
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/sysconfig/docker
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/sysconfig/docker-storage
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/sysconfig/docker-network
Environment=GOTRACEBACK=crash
Environment=DOCKER_HTTP_HOST_COMPAT=1
Environment=PATH=/usr/libexec/docker:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd-current \
--add-runtime docker-runc=/usr/libexec/docker/docker-runc-current \
--default-runtime=docker-runc \
--authorization-plugin=rhel-push-plugin \
--exec-opt native.cgroupdriver=systemd \
--userland-proxy-path=/usr/libexec/docker/docker-proxy-current \
$OPTIONS \
$DOCKER_STORAGE_OPTIONS \
$DOCKER_NETWORK_OPTIONS \
$ADD_REGISTRY \
$BLOCK_REGISTRY \
$INSECURE_REGISTRY
ExecReload=/bin/kill -s HUP $MAINPID
LimitNOFILE=1048576
LimitNPROC=1048576
LimitCORE=infinity
TimeoutStartSec=0
Restart=on-abnormal
MountFlags=slave
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
I tried the following:
$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl start docker
Failed to start docker.service: Unit not found.
$ sudo journalctl -u docker
-- No entries --
More debug information:
$ sudo systemctl status network.target
● network.target - Network
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/network.target; static; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active since Mon 2017-01-23 02:54:39 PST; 2 months 29 days ago
Docs: man:systemd.special(7)
Jan 23 02:54:39 mymachine systemd[1]: Starting Network.
Jan 23 02:54:39 mymachine systemd[1]: Reached target Network.
$ sudo systemctl status docker-storage-setup.service
● docker-storage-setup.service - Docker Storage Setup
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/docker-storage-setup.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
$ sudo systemctl status rhel-push-plugin.socket
Unit rhel-push-plugin.socket could not be found.
$ sudo systemctl status docker-cleanup.timer
● docker-cleanup.timer - Run docker-cleanup every hour
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/docker-cleanup.timer; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
7 Answers
In case someone has installed docker using snap, they can start the service using
sudo snap status docker #check the status
sudo snap start docker # start the service
It looks like you're missing the rhel-push-plugin.socket unit which is presumably part of a rhel-push-plugin package. You can try fixing that install, or you can install the upstream Docker package directly from Docker with the following as root:
curl -sSL | sh
Or more appropriately following the CentOS install guide from Docker. (The CentOS install tends to work on even a RHEL system when you have a supported version, which until the recent 20.10 release did not include CentOS 8 or RHEL 8.)
The upstream Docker install will be a more recent version of Docker, but it will not have the various RHEL modifications like the rhel-push-plugin.
Run this command to list all the services:
sudo systemctl list-units --type=service
Look for the correct Docker service name (in my case it is snap.docker.dockerd.service) then run:
sudo systemctl restart snap.docker.dockerd.service
Use the following command if your OS is Ubuntu, it will install Docker successfully:
apt install docker.io
if you have installed docker with snap you can check the status of the daemon like this:
sudo snap services docker
If the current column shows inactive then it's not running. Try starting it with this:
sudo snap start docker
Check the service again, if it's still not running after that you can check the logs:
sudo snap logs docker
which might give more hints on what's stopping it from running
For me, I had an error saying that docker could not create a symlink in /etc/docker/ because another file was in the way. Emptying the directory was not enough due to a known bug in the docker snap. The work-around was to delete the directory then refresh the snap (see )
sudo rm -rf /etc/docker
sudo snap refresh
Note
In some cases, you may need to reboot your instance to provide permissions for the ec2-user to access the Docker daemon. Try rebooting your instance if you see the following error:
Try installing Docker as root (sudo):
sudo yum install docker
Marcus Vance is a cybersecurity auditor and technology writer dedicated to educating the public about online safety, data privacy regulations, enterprise security, and emerging cyber threats.
