Start the daemon using operating system utilities. On a typical installation the Docker daemon is started by a system utility, not manually by a user. This makes it easier to automatically start Docker when the machine reboots. The command to start Docker depends on your operating system. Check the correct page under Install Docker. Docker Daemon - The background service running on the host that manages building, running and distributing Docker containers. The daemon is the process that runs in the operating system which clients talk to. Docker Client - The command line tool that allows the user to interact with the daemon. More generally, there can be other forms of. $ sudo docker daemon on 9:21 AM ERRO0000 ‘overlay’ not found as a supported filesystem on this host. Please ensure kernel is new enough and has overlay support loaded.

1. Start Docker Daemon Mac Command Line
2. Daemon Tools Mac
3. Docker Start Daemon Mac Download
4. Run Docker Daemon Macos
5. Start Docker Daemon Mac Os
6. Start Docker Daemon Mac Terminal

If you're running macOS or Windows you have a few options for installing Docker. There's even a third way too, and we'll compare them here.

Quick Jump: OS and Hardware Requirements|Pros and Cons|Which One Should I Use?

If you’re on macOS or Windows you can install Docker with:

1. Docker for Mac / Windows (now known as Docker Desktop)
2. Docker Toolbox
3. Running your own Virtual Machine and installing Docker yourself

All 3 of those options have their own pros and cons and in this article we’re going to cover them. If you’re looking for a high level overview of what Docker for Mac / Windows and Docker Toolbox is, then check out this article on getting to know Docker’s ecosystem.

PS C: Users Administrator docker version Client: Version: 1.12.2-cs2-ws-beta API version: 1.25 Go version: go1.7.1. In my situation, I changed my data location of my docker engine to some folder /some/folder, and today I just changed it back to /var/lib/docker. Then did a docker system prune to remove all the volumes, overlays, images etc. After a reload of docker-daemon, and a restart of docker-engine. This problem happened.

OS and Hardware Requirements

It’s helpful to know what you can install before we compare everything, so let’s do that:

Docker for Mac (Docker Desktop)

Docker for Mac requires that you’re running Mojave 10.14+ or newer with an Intel CPU. M1 support is on its way.

You can run VirtualBox 6+ alongside Docker Desktop. This is pretty useful because you might have some legacy apps running in Vagrant / VirtualBox to deal with (I know I do!).

Docker for Windows (Docker Desktop)

As of May 27th 2020, Microsoft released Windows 10 build 2004 (Spring 2020) that allows you to run Docker Deskop on all editions of Windows 10, including Home thanks to WSL 2.

As of August 2020, Microsoft enabled WSL 2 support for Windows 10 builds 1903 + 1909.

For years prior to that you could only run it on Windows Pro, Enterprise or any edition that had Hyper-V available, but since August 2020 pretty much all supported versions of Windows 10 can use Docker Desktop.

You can also run VirtualBox 6+ alongside Docker Desktop too in case you have older projects using VirtualBox (perhaps with Vagrant too).

Docker Toolbox

Prior to mid-2020 this was still a reasonable way to run Docker on machines that couldn’t run Docker Desktop, but that’s no longer the case.

It’s now considered legacy and as of late 2020 it’s been officially deprecated.

Unless you’re using unsupported versions of Windows or have a really really ancient Mac you shouldn’t need to ever use this tool.

But if you’re in a pinch and you absolutely must use it, technically it’s still available at https://github.com/docker/toolbox/releases, but it’s no longer maintained by Docker.

Your own Virtual Machine

Docker will happily run inside of VirtualBox, VMWare Workstation or any other Type 1 / 2 Hypervisor that’s running a major distribution of Linux as a guest OS.

If for whatever reason you can’t use Docker Desktop then this solution would be better than using Docker Toolbox since you can install supported versions of Docker and you have full control over the environment.

Pros and Cons

Now for the good stuff!

Docker for Mac / Docker for Windows (Docker Desktop)

Pros

• Offers the most “native” experience, you can easily use any terminal you you want since Docker is effectively running on localhost from macOS / Windows’ POV.

• Docker is heavily developing and polishing this solution.

Cons

• On certain macOS hardware combos the volume performance can be a little slow.

• I can legit say there are not any “wow this sucks!” cons for Windows, it’s really solid.

Docker Toolbox

Pros

• Offers an “out of the box” Docker experience if you have no other choice.

Cons

• It’s deprecated by Docker and will receive no future maintenance.

• You need to either use the Docker Quickstart Terminal, or configure your own terminal to connect to the Docker Daemon running a VM.

• Not a native solution, so you’ll need to access your Docker Machine’s IP address if you’re developing web apps. Example: 192.168.99.100 instead of localhost.

• Unless you jump through hoops, your code needs to live in your Windows user directory such as C:UsersNicksrcmyapp. Otherwise Docker won’t be able to find it.

• Suffers from typical VirtualBox edge case bugs and mount performance issues.

Your own Virtual Machine

I’m not going to bother listing a pros and cons here because I wouldn’t recommend doing this UNLESS you’re stuck on Windows 7 / 8 or an older version of Windows 10 like 1809.

But more on that in a bit.

Which One Should I Use?

If you’re interested in Docker, you’re a smart person and you probably came to the conclusion that using Docker for Mac or Docker for Windows is a good idea as long as you can run it.

My recommendation would be to try Docker for Mac / Windows first, and test it against your actual use cases. The performance issues may or may not be a concern, especially since everyone’s needs and computer specs are different.

I’ve been using Docker Desktop on Windows for full time development since late 2018 and it’s been nothing short of fantastic. Currently I use it with WSL 2, but it was really good with WSL 1 along with Hyper-V too.

Stuck on an Old Version of Windows and Like Linux?

I want to mention a “roll your own VM” solution for Windows users because I feel like there’s an even better way to run Docker on Windows if you also like Linux and are stuck not being able to use modern versions of Windows 10.

It involves running VMWare Player in a special mode called “Unity mode”. This basically allows you to run Windows and Linux together seamlessly as 1 operating system.

There’s no dual booting and Linux applications (even graphical apps) run in their own floating windows. Then you can install Docker natively on Linux inside of the VM.

The performance is excellent and the entire set up is free too.

I used this set up for about 5 years until Docker Desktop was available. It gives you the best of both worlds. For example, I run high end audio / video apps on Windows while recording courses and screencasts that cover Linux content. It all works great (even for full time development).

You can watch a video guide and see screenshots on how to do that in this post on creating an awesome Linux development environment in Windows.

Are you using the Docker Toolbox, Docker for Mac / Windows or your own VM?

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

After successfully installing and starting Docker, the dockerd daemonruns with its default configuration. This topic shows how to customizethe configuration, start the daemon manually, and troubleshoot and debug thedaemon if you run into issues.

Start the daemon using operating system utilities

On a typical installation the Docker daemon is started by a system utility,not manually by a user. This makes it easier to automatically start Docker whenthe machine reboots.

The command to start Docker depends on your operating system. Check the correctpage under Install Docker. To configure Dockerto start automatically at system boot, seeConfigure Docker to start on boot.

Start the daemon manually

If you don’t want to use a system utility to manage the Docker daemon, orjust want to test things out, you can manually run it using the dockerdcommand. You may need to use sudo, depending on your operating systemconfiguration.

When you start Docker this way, it runs in the foreground and sends its logsdirectly to your terminal.

Start Docker Daemon Mac Command Line

To stop Docker when you have started it manually, issue a Ctrl+C in yourterminal.

Configure the Docker daemon

There are two ways to configure the Docker daemon:

• Use a JSON configuration file. This is the preferred option, since it keepsall configurations in a single place.
• Use flags when starting dockerd.

You can use both of these options together as long as you don’t specify thesame option both as a flag and in the JSON file. If that happens, the Dockerdaemon won’t start and prints an error message.

Daemon Tools Mac

To configure the Docker daemon using a JSON file, create a file at/etc/docker/daemon.json on Linux systems, or C:ProgramDatadockerconfigdaemon.jsonon Windows. On MacOS go to the whale in the taskbar > Preferences > Daemon > Advanced.

Here’s what the configuration file looks like:

With this configuration the Docker daemon runs in debug mode, uses TLS, andlistens for traffic routed to 192.168.59.3 on port 2376.You can learn what configuration options are available in thedockerd reference docs

You can also start the Docker daemon manually and configure it using flags.This can be useful for troubleshooting problems.

Here’s an example of how to manually start the Docker daemon, using the sameconfigurations as above:

You can learn what configuration options are available in thedockerd reference docs, or by running:

Many specific configuration options are discussed throughout the Dockerdocumentation. Some places to go next include:

Docker daemon directory

The Docker daemon persists all data in a single directory. This tracks everythingrelated to Docker, including containers, images, volumes, service definition,and secrets.

By default this directory is:

• /var/lib/docker on Linux.
• C:ProgramDatadocker on Windows.

You can configure the Docker daemon to use a different directory, using thedata-root configuration option.

Since the state of a Docker daemon is kept on this directory, make sureyou use a dedicated directory for each daemon. If two daemons share the samedirectory, for example, an NFS share, you are going to experience errors thatare difficult to troubleshoot.

Troubleshoot the daemon

You can enable debugging on the daemon to learn about the runtime activity ofthe daemon and to aid in troubleshooting. If the daemon is completelynon-responsive, you can alsoforce a full stack trace of allthreads to be added to the daemon log by sending the SIGUSR signal to theDocker daemon.

Troubleshoot conflicts between the daemon.json and startup scripts

If you use a daemon.json file and also pass options to the dockerdcommand manually or using start-up scripts, and these options conflict,Docker fails to start with an error such as:

If you see an error similar to this one and you are starting the daemon manually with flags,you may need to adjust your flags or the daemon.json to remove the conflict.

Note: If you see this specific error, continue to thenext section for a workaround.

If you are starting Docker using your operating system’s init scripts, you mayneed to override the defaults in these scripts in ways that are specific to theoperating system.

Use the hosts key in daemon.json with systemd

One notable example of a configuration conflict that is difficult to troubleshootis when you want to specify a different daemon address fromthe default. Docker listens on a socket by default. On Debian and Ubuntu systems using systemd,this means that a host flag -H is always used when starting dockerd. If you specify ahosts entry in the daemon.json, this causes a configuration conflict (as in the above message)and Docker fails to start.

To work around this problem, create a new file /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d/docker.conf withthe following contents, to remove the -H argument that is used when starting the daemon by default.

There are other times when you might need to configure systemd with Docker, such asconfiguring a HTTP or HTTPS proxy.

Note: If you override this option and then do not specify a hosts entry in the daemon.jsonor a -H flag when starting Docker manually, Docker fails to start.

Run sudo systemctl daemon-reload before attempting to start Docker. If Docker startssuccessfully, it is now listening on the IP address specified in the hosts key of thedaemon.json instead of a socket.

Important: Setting hosts in the daemon.json is not supported on Docker Desktop for Windowsor Docker Desktop for Mac.

Out Of Memory Exceptions (OOME)

If your containers attempt to use more memory than the system has available,you may experience an Out Of Memory Exception (OOME) and a container, or theDocker daemon, might be killed by the kernel OOM killer. To prevent this fromhappening, ensure that your application runs on hosts with adequate memory andseeUnderstand the risks of running out of memory.

Read the logs

The daemon logs may help you diagnose problems. The logs may be saved in one ofa few locations, depending on the operating system configuration and the loggingsubsystem used:

Enable debugging

There are two ways to enable debugging. The recommended approach is to set thedebug key to true in the daemon.json file. This method works for everyDocker platform.

1. Edit the daemon.json file, which is usually located in /etc/docker/.You may need to create this file, if it does not yet exist. On macOS orWindows, do not edit the file directly. Instead, go toPreferences / Daemon / Advanced.

2. If the file is empty, add the following:

   If the file already contains JSON, just add the key 'debug': true, beingcareful to add a comma to the end of the line if it is not the last linebefore the closing bracket. Also verify that if the log-level key is set,it is set to either info or debug. info is the default, and possiblevalues are debug, info, warn, error, fatal.

3. Send a HUP signal to the daemon to cause it to reload its configuration.On Linux hosts, use the following command.

   On Windows hosts, restart Docker.

Instead of following this procedure, you can also stop the Docker daemon andrestart it manually with the debug flag -D. However, this may result in Dockerrestarting with a different environment than the one the hosts’ startup scriptscreate, and this may make debugging more difficult.

Force a stack trace to be logged

If the daemon is unresponsive, you can force a full stack trace to be loggedby sending a SIGUSR1 signal to the daemon.

• Linux:

• Windows Server:

  Download docker-signal.

  Get the process ID of dockerd Get-Process dockerd.

  Run the executable with the flag --pid=<PID of daemon>.

This forces a stack trace to be logged but does not stop the daemon.Daemon logs show the stack trace or the path to a file containing thestack trace if it was logged to a file.

Docker Start Daemon Mac Download

The daemon continues operating after handling the SIGUSR1 signal anddumping the stack traces to the log. The stack traces can be used to determinethe state of all goroutines and threads within the daemon.

View stack traces

The Docker daemon log can be viewed by using one of the following methods:

Run Docker Daemon Macos

• By running journalctl -u docker.service on Linux systems using systemctl
• /var/log/messages, /var/log/daemon.log, or /var/log/docker.log on olderLinux systems

Note: It is not possible to manually generate a stack trace on Docker Desktop forMac or Docker Desktop for Windows. However, you can click the Docker taskbar icon andchoose Diagnose and feedback to send information to Docker if you run intoissues.

Look in the Docker logs for a message like the following:

The locations where Docker saves these stack traces and dumps depends on youroperating system and configuration. You can sometimes get useful diagnosticinformation straight from the stack traces and dumps. Otherwise, you can providethis information to Docker for help diagnosing the problem.

Start Docker Daemon Mac Os

Check whether Docker is running

Start Docker Daemon Mac Terminal

The operating-system independent way to check whether Docker is running is toask Docker, using the docker info command.

You can also use operating system utilities, such assudo systemctl is-active docker or sudo status docker orsudo service docker status, or checking the service status using Windowsutilities.

Finally, you can check in the process list for the dockerd process, usingcommands like ps or top.