Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Docker Daemon Fails After cgroup Configuration Mismatch

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Containers stop running because Docker daemon fails to start after config changes.

Environment & Reproduction

Ubuntu 24.04 with Docker Engine and custom /etc/docker/daemon.json settings.

Root Cause Analysis

Daemon cgroup driver conflicts with host systemd/cgroup v2 expectations.

Quick Triage

Check docker service logs and current cgroup mode reported by kernel.

sudo systemctl status docker -l; stat -fc %T /sys/fs/cgroup

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Validate daemon.json syntax and inspect conflicting runtime/cgroup flags in logs.

sudo dockerd --validate --config-file /etc/docker/daemon.json; sudo journalctl -u docker --since '1 hour ago'

Solution – Primary Fix

Set Docker to systemd cgroup driver and restart daemon after config validation.

sudo jq '. + {"exec-opts":["native.cgroupdriver=systemd"]}' /etc/docker/daemon.json | sudo tee /etc/docker/daemon.json >/dev/null && sudo systemctl restart docker

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Migrate workloads to containerd-managed runtime with explicit cgroup config.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

docker info shows expected cgroup driver and containers start successfully.

Rollback Plan

Restore previous daemon.json and restart docker to prior known-good state.

Prevention & Hardening

Control daemon.json through configuration management and validate pre-deploy.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related to Kubernetes kubelet cgroup driver mismatch on hybrid nodes.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

View all Ubuntu 24.04 LTS tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →

Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.

References & Further Reading

Docker daemon configuration docs and Ubuntu container stack guidance.