Let’s explore the troubleshooting tips for the error, “docker.socket failed with result service-start-limit-hit” in this article. At Bobcares, with our Docker Hosting Support Services, we can handle your Docker issues.

The “docker.socket failed with result service-start-limit-hit” Error

An incorrect /etc/docker/daemon.json file is one of the most common causes of “docker.socket failed with result service-start-limit-hit.” If this file doesn’t contain proper JSON, trying to restart the Docker daemon will fail.

However, it won’t reveal the precise nature of the issue. We can only see the error message stating that it was unable to restart and advise looking at the system logs. The error looks like this:

However, the system logs don’t provide any additional help with the issue. They will merely claim that the daemon reached its maximum on restarts. Let’s see a simple troubleshooting tip for the issue.

How to troubleshoot it?

1. We see the daemon.json file as follows:

"insecure-registries" : ["<my gitlab server>:5005"]

Firstly, when we observe the error, we don’t find any issue. However, when cross-checking it, we may find that it’s not a valid JSON. JSON objects need to be wrapped in curly braces (if they’re an object) or square brackets (if they’re a list).

Here, it is a key-value declaration. In order to fix it, wrap it in curly braces. So now the daemon.json look like this:

{
"insecure-registries" : ["<my gitlab server>:5005"]
}

Now restart the Docker daemon again with sudo systemctl restart docker. Mostly, this will fix the error. We can now look into some other troubleshooting tips.

2. When the docker installer uses iptables for NAT, we may see the error. This is because Debian uses nftables. Here, convert the entries over to nftables or just set up Debian to use the legacy iptables.

sudo update-alternatives --set iptables /usr/sbin/iptables-legacy
sudo update-alternatives --set ip6tables /usr/sbin/ip6tables-legacy

After switching to legacy iptables, dockerd should run without any issues.

3. Sometimes, the JSON file will be empty. Then deleting it is a simple solution to fix the error.

If we are absolutely certain that the daemon.json file is accurate, another Docker configuration file may be the issue.

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Conclusion

In this article, we have provided some simple steps to fix the error, “docker.socket failed with result service-start-limit-hit”.