Docker machine timeout - how to fix without destroying the machine?

Question

I'm having a recurring problem with Docker Machine - every few days it decides to timeout and I am unable to recover it once this happens.

Example

docker-machine ls
NAME      ACTIVE   DRIVER       STATE     URL   SWARM   DOCKER   ERRORS
default            virtualbox   Timeout

Environment Info

uname -a                 Darwin ColeyMBPR 15.4.0 Darwin Kernel Version 15.4.0: Fri Feb 26 22:08:05 PST 2016; root:xnu-3248.40.184~3/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64
docker version           1.11.0
docker-machine version   0.7.0
vboxmanage --version     5.0.20r106931

Attempted Solutions

I've tried the following things in no particular order:

• Restarting the docker machine.
• Running eval "$(docker-machine env default)"
• Regenerating the certificates docker-machine regenerate-certs default
• Restarting my host box.
• Upgrading Docker.
• Reinstalling Docker.
• Upgrading VirtualBox.
• Removing all VirtualBox host-only network devices.

Hack

The only thing that's working for me right now is destroying the docker machine and recreating it. This destroys all my images and containers, and it's incredibly time consuming to set it up again.

docker-machine rm -y default && docker-machine create -d virtualbox default && eval $(docker-machine env)

Is there anything I can try? Thanks!

---

Update: 9th May (Steps to Reproduce)

I can reliably reproduce this problem with the following steps:

1. Start with a freshly created Docker machine.
2. Use docker-compose up to build some containers.
3. Shutdown the computer with the containers running.
4. After reboot the Docker CLI doesn't work due to the Docker machine timing out.

Answer 1

This command worked for me with the digitalocean driver:

docker-machine ls -t 20

It seems as though the default timeout of 10 seconds was too short.

Answer 2

This is usually a problem related to the way you start and stop your machine.

You can solve it using

1. $ docker-machine stop default
2. $ docker-machine start default
3. $ docker-machine regenerate-certs default

Do not use docker-machine restart default because it will not refresh your networking configs.

Answer 3

I had the same issue with Docker version 1.11.2, build b9f10c9

This worked for me - my docker machine is back to the Running state

1. $ docker-machine restart
2. $ eval $(docker-machine env)

Answer 4

So far I have a bit of a hacky solution - this fixes the docker machine but destroys all containers and images.

Script: rebuild-machine.sh

docker-machine rm -y default
docker-machine create -d virtualbox default
docker-machine stop default
VBoxManage modifyvm "default" --natpf1 "Forwarding App 1,tcp,127.0.0.1,3000,,3000"
VBoxManage modifyvm "default" --natpf1 "Forwarding App 2,tcp,127.0.0.1,3001,,3001"
VBoxManage modifyvm "default" --natpf1 "Forwarding App 3,tcp,127.0.0.1,3004,,3004"
VBoxManage modifyvm "default" --natpf1 "Forwarding App 4,tcp,127.0.0.1,3005,,3005"
VBoxManage modifyvm "default" --natpf1 "Forwarding App 5,tcp,127.0.0.1,3006,,3006"
VBoxManage modifyvm "default" --natpf1 "Forwarding App 6,tcp,127.0.0.1,8081,,8081"
docker-machine start default
eval $(docker-machine env)

Explanation

• Destroys the default docker machine, containers and images.
• Creates a new docker machine on VirtualBox and stops it so we can modify VirtualBox.
• Adds port forwarding for various applications on VirtualBox.
• Starts the docker machine.
• Ensures the Terminal is setup for the new IP address of the docker machine.

Answer 5

My problem was very simple. I was blocking port 2376 with my ufw firewall. Docker-machine needs this port open to connect to the remote.

I found the answer to my problem in on this page:

Answer 6

I have opened virtualbox and closed and start all vm manually/. State is running again

Answer 7

This worked for me and my containers were not destroyed:

1. Opened Oracle virtual box and paused the VM
2. Restarted the VM on docker machine

$ docker-machine restart default

• docker version: 1.12.3
• docker-machine version: 0.8.2, build e18a919

Answer 8

My problem was very trivial - I did the docker machine ls command right after restarting a docker machine, so it was not running yet, and that caused a timeout.