Knowledge Base

[BUG] – Cannot start Docker on Plesk server: [graphdriver] prior storage driver aufs failed: driver not supported

Symptoms

Dist-upgrade was performed from Debian 8 to 9.
Docker containers cannot be started anymore. One of the following errors can be seen on the Plesk interface:

PLESK_ERROR: Error: Docker service is not available: Connection refused

PLESK_ERROR: The Docker service is unavailable: No such file or directory
Docker daemon fails to start:

# docker
<…>
ERRO[2019-06-01T10:54:16.728849955+02:00] AUFS was not found in /proc/filesystems storage-driver=aufs
ERRO[2019-06-01T10:54:16.728884634+02:00] [graphdriver] prior storage driver aufs failed: driver not supported
Error starting daemon: error initializing graphdriver: driver not supported

Cause

This is a Docker extension bug with ID #EXTDOCKER-53 that is planned to be fixed in future updates of the Docker extension.

Resolution

Apply the following workaround:

1 . Connect to the server via SSH.

Install necessary Docker packages:

# apt-get install linux-headers-amd64 aufs-dkms

Start the Docker service:

# systemctl start docker

If Docker does not start after that it may be required to call the following commands and start the docker.service again:

# dkms autoinstall aufs modprobe aufs

If dkms autoinstall aufs fails with “Error! Your kernel headers for kernel 4.9.0-XX-amd64 cannot be found.” (where XX can be 13) install the required package and start Docker:

# apt-get install linux-headers-4.9.0-13-amd64

# systemctl start docker.service

In case the first workaround doesn’t work.

Workaround 2

Connect to the server via SSH.
Move the /var/lib/docker/aufs directory to a different location:

# mv /var/lib/docker/aufs /root

Warning: The containers will be removed.
Start the Docker daemon:

# systemctl start docker