Docker: Error Response From Daemon: Failed To Create Shim

When Docker throws the error

Error response from daemon: failed to create shim: OCI runtime create

, it could stem from different reasons. It’s a common issue that often pops up due to inadequate system memory. As Docker operates heavily on your system’s resources, especially the RAM, not having enough might invoke this particular error.

Another possible root cause is incorrect Docker configuration. Configuring Docker isn’t always simple; one mouse click or command line typo could make things go south. Because Docker relies on specific kernel features, a misconfiguration in the Docker settings could feasibly trigger this error response.

Sometimes, it might not necessarily be Docker or your system acting up, but rather third-party applications interfering with Docker. There are instances where certain applications clash with Docker. This could be due to these applications using similar ports, files, or even due to incompatible application coding.

Resolving the

failed to create shim

error can be done through several approaches, heavily dependent on the exact cause. If the issue is due to lack of memory, an upgrade of your system memory would be necessary. However, if it arises from a poor Docker configuration, reassessment, and reconfiguring the docker settings would be your best bet. Finally, if a third-party program causes the turmoil, you might need to isolate or close the clashing application entirely.

Various online communities dedicate themselves to aid in troubleshooting such problems, and therefore show a promising direction for further support. Sites like Stack Overflow¹ provide answers for different Docker-related troubles where experienced coders and Docker users share their solutions. Online developer’s guide like Docker docs² also offer insights and guides on Docker usage.

There might not be a ‘one size fits all’ solution to clearing this error, always remember the golden rule – analyze, isolate, and then act. Correctly identifying the origin of the problem goes hand-in-hand in implementing the right resolution.Before we dig deeper into understanding Docker’s error message “Error Response From Daemon: Failed To Create Shim,” let’s first break down the key concepts and components of Docker. This context will be beneficial in comprehending and resolving the error.

Docker is an innovative, open-source platform that aids developers in building, packaging, and distributing applications quickly and efficiently. It packages applications into

containers

, enabling them to run smoothly across different environments (Docker Inc., n.d.).

The primary elements of Docker include:

• Docker Engine: This is runtime that runs and manages containers on a host machine. It does this by using containerization technologies like namespaces and cgroups.
• Docker Image: These are read-only templates used to create containers. Images are created with the build command, and they’ll produce a container when started with run.
• Docker Container: A container is a runnable instance of an image. You can create, start, stop, move, or delete a container using Docker API or CLI commands.
• Docker Hub: This is a registry service to store and distribute Docker images.

Now returning back to the error “Error Response From Daemon: Failed To Create Shim“. This usually appears when you try to start a new container after something went wrong in the past and the Docker engine cannot clean up properly. The ‘daemon’ refers to a background process; its failure indicates difficulty in establishing or maintaining the required operational cycle. More specifically, a ‘shim’ is a small library used to encapsulate Docker container processes from managing container-level functionalities. Hence failing to create shim could indicate issues like resource management and cleanup after previous executions (reference here).

To resolve this issue, you might want to investigate your Docker engine logs for any anomalies. Here is how you extract Docker logs:

journalctl -u docker.service

You could also consider restarting the Docker daemon:

sudo systemctl restart docker.service

Please keep in mind sometimes it requires cleaning up all the Docker resources from your machine. Be aware, this will remove all your existing Docker containers and images:

docker system prune --volumes -a

Finally, make sure you have the latest version of Docker installed as this issue has been reported frequently on earlier versions of Docker. Updating Docker could potentially rectify the problem.

Remember: As with any coding troubleshooting, isolating the issue is a crucial step before fixing. Understand the error message, gather specifics about when and where the error is triggered, then use that knowledge combined with fundamental principles such as Docker’s key concepts I described previously. This approach helps craft more targeted solutions.

It’s time to go on a deep dive into the error message: “Failed to create shim.” This particular error is common in Docker, and specifically manifests as “Error response from daemon: failed to create shim.” Whether you’ve encountered this error first hand or just want a deeper understanding of it, let’s get started on our exploration.

Understanding the Error

The error commonly surfaces when creating containers with Docker. For the uninitiated, Docker creates lightweight, stand-alone, portable, and self-sufficient “containers” that run anywhere, enabling developers to build, package, and distribute applications quickly and efficiently.

When running a container using docker

run

command or trying to restart a container that was previously stopped, you may encounter something like this:

docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS                          PORTS               NAMES
4c01db0b339c        ubuntu:12.04        bash                17 seconds ago      Exited (0) 16 seconds ago                           crazy_yalow
docker start 4c01db0b339c
Error response from daemon: failed to create shim: OCI runtime state failed: Container ID cannot be empty: unknown .
Error: failed to start containers: 4c01db0b339c 

This “failed to create shim” can consequently prevent the creation or startup of your Docker containers, disrupting your workflow and development process.

Delving Into The Cause

The error mainly stems from Docker’s containerd interface codebase conflicts with the system calls implemented by the underlying Host OS or Linux Kernel. As Docker’s operation is heavily reliant on low-level system infrastructure for container orchestration, discrepancies in their operations translate directly to failures in Docker services—i.e., issues with spawning new containers.

Docker utilizes ‘shims’ for the functioning of containers. Shims are small libraries that essentially transpose function parameters and return values between environments with different ABIs. They allow for transparent interoperation. Now, if Docker fails to create these shims due to inconsistent or incompatible system interfaces, the said error occurs.

Possible Solutions

• • Flush Docker Installation: If the host environment settings seem incompatible with Docker, try uninstalling and reinstalling Docker on your host machine. Doing so reinstalls Docker’s dependencies, including containerd, runc, and necessary shim files. It eliminates any conflicting binaries causing the problem. Here’s how to flush and reinstall Docker:

sudo service docker stop
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker
sudo apt-get purge -y docker-engine docker docker.io docker-ce
sudo apt-get autoremove -y --purge docker-engine docker docker.io docker-ce
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker

• • Upgrade Docker Engine: Updating Docker to its latest version mitigates this problem if the error arises from a known bug present in older Docker versions. Here’s how you can do this:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get remove docker docker-engine docker.io
sudo apt get install docker.io

• • Upgrade Linux Kernel: If the cause of the issue lies in the incompatibility between the Host’s Linux kernel and Docker’s containerd codebase, upgrading the Linux Kernel might provide the solution. Here’s an example of how to do that on Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt dist-upgrade 

Conclusion

‘Failed to create shim’ is indeed one of the pesky errors that disrupt the smooth operationality of Docker. However, by maintaining up-to-date versions of Docker engine and underlying system packages alongside regular system maintenance, such hurdles can be avoided significantly.

When working with Docker, you might encounter an error message that reads: “Error response from daemon: Failed to create shim”. This error typically denotes an issue with the Docker daemon. It’s important to understand what this error means so as to fix it effectively.

The Docker daemon is a service that runs in the background on your host machine, managing Docker objects (like images, containers, networks etc.). Now, let’s look into some of the reasons behind such Docker daemon errors:

1. Docker Version Incompatibility: You might be using a version of Docker not fully compatible with your operating system or Kernel version.
2. Corrupted Docker Configuration Files: Misconfigured or corrupted files are a common cause of Docker daemon errors.
3. Insufficient System Resources: If your system doesn’t have enough CPU, memory, or disk space, Docker may fail to start running containers.
4. Permission Issues: The Docker daemon needs specific permissions to access certain resources, especially on Linux systems.

Having pinpointed these potential causes, we need methods to address them and get our Docker daemon back up and running. Here’s an insight into some solutions:

How to Fix Docker Daemon Errors?

1. Update Docker: Sometimes, all you need to do is update Docker. With every new release, numerous bugs are fixed, so updating Docker might solve the problem. Use the command below to update Docker:

   sudo apt-get upgrade docker 
   

2. Check Docker Configuration: Look for any misconfigurations in your Docker files. It’s also possible that a Docker file got corrupted due to abrupt system shutdowns, etc. So going through these files can help identify any corruption issues.
3. Free Up System Resources: Monitor your system resource usage if you’re dealing with memory-related problems. Freeing up some CPU, memory, or disk space could remedy the issue.
4. Check Permissions: On a Unix system, Docker needs root user privileges. So make sure you run Docker commands with sudo, or add your user to the Docker group by using:

      sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}
   

There you go! With a better understanding of the potential causes of Docker daemon errors and their probable solutions, you should now be equipped to prevent and resolve such issues. Don’t forget that deterrence is better than cure, so ensure you regularly maintain your Docker configurations to avoid running into daemon problems.

For more details about Docker and its troubleshooting, I would recommend checking out the official Docker documentation here.Developing intricate and practical solutions to a ‘docker: error response from daemon’ issue involves identifying the source of the problem, creating effective fixes, and applying them appropriately to manage Docker’s functionalities. The term ‘failed to create shim’ suggests that there might be an issue with a system or container resource being incorrectly configured or unavailable, which could be due to various reasons such as compatibility, connectivity, or resource issues.

Enforcing strategies such as Docker daemon configuration verification, software version updates, connection settings validation and cleaning resources can yield immediate results. Furthermore, it is important to take into account that analyzing logs and debugging procedures need to be performed before executing any kind of solution.

1. Configuration Verification: Make sure you haven’t changed the default settings of Docker daemon without appropriate reasons. If changes have been made, verify their correctness. You can access daemon configuration on Linux at

See also

Linux

Error: Enospc: System Limit For Number Of File Watchers Reached Angular

/etc/docker/daemon.json

. Refer to the official Docker documentation for more information here.

2. Software Version Updates: Compatibility issues might sometimes be a cause, so ensure your Docker client and Docker engine are compatible and up-to-date:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade docker-ce

3. Connections Settings Validation: You may face connection related errors if the Docker daemon can’t resolve the address of the image repositories. Ensure your machine has the correct network configurations and running internet.

4. Clean Docker Resources: Accumulation of Docker containers, images, volumes etc. over time could lead to resource exhaustion. It’s likely that Docker may encounter resource-related issues due to this buildup, causing the ‘failed to create shim’ error:

To remove unused data:

docker system prune   

Keep in mind that all stopped containers, all networks not used by at least one container, all dangling images, and all build caches will be removed.

Ideally, consider using ‘

--filter

‘ flag with `

docker system prune

` to provide more control on what’s deleted.

Developing, deploying and running distributed services with Docker is an enterprise-grade task that requires efficient problem-solving skills, especially when faced with errors like ‘Error Response From Daemon: Failed To Create Shim’. Through rigorous application of these practical solutions, professional coders should be able to navigate and resolve this error seamlessly.Indeed, the “Docker: Error Response From Daemon: Failed To Create Shim” issue is a common concern among developers working with Docker. This error typically appears when there’s an underlying problem with your container runtime. Addressing this issue requires understanding its causes and implementing effective solutions.

Primarily, this error can be attributed to various causes which include:

• Problems related to Docker daemon
• Issues with containerd service
• Runc being unresponsive
• Overlapping subnets in relation to IPAM configurations

Let’s delve deeper into these causes and their subsequent solutions.

systemctl status docker

This command checks if Docker daemon is running correctly. Further checks can be performed by restarting the docker daemon:

systemctl restart docker

Should you find issues related specifically to containerd service, inspect its status as follows:

systemctl status containerd

And troubleshoot potential problems by restarting it too:

systemctl restart containerd

If the issue still persists, another aspect to examine could be runc. If it becomes unresponsive or crashes, it’ll need a forceful kill to rectify the situation as shown in the command below:

pkill -9 runc

Sometimes managing multiple Docker services across similar subnets may result in network conflicts and cause the error in question. As such, cross-check existing subnets are not overlapping using the following command:

docker network ls

In case of any overlaps, eliminate them by removing conflicting networks. The Documentation on how to remove Docker networks provides further insights on this.

Noteworthy is this Github discussion where similar challenges were tackled, forming a valuable resource.

It’s important to direct our efforts towards enhancing the overall developer experience with Docker. Overcoming obstacles like “Docker: Error Response From Daemon: Failed To Create Shim” is a definite step forward. With continued exploration of Docker’s vast capabilities, we make strides in simplifying processes, while maximizing efficiency and productivity in software development.