Filebeat: Error watching for docker events: context deadline exceeded

[ChrsMark]

The following error has been reported:

{
  "stream": "stderr",
  "caller": "docker/watcher.go:303",
  "level": "error",
  "message": "Error watching for docker events: context deadline exceeded"
}

Since this is something that comes from

beats/libbeat/common/docker/watcher.go

Line 247 in 24c1e59

ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(w.ctx, dockerWatchRequestTimeout)

and most probably because Docker API takes to long to respond for events at the point of reaching timeout, we should consider of handling this "error" explicitly at

beats/libbeat/common/docker/watcher.go

Line 311 in 24c1e59

logp.Err("Error watching for docker events: %v", err)

and log a friendlier message.

This will avoid creating confusion.

discuss: https://discuss.elastic.co/t/filebeat-error-watching-for-docker-events-context-deadline-exceeded/211113

[mattschoch]

Just updated to filebeat 7.5.0 and now I'm getting this error every hour, I wasn't getting it before on 7.2.0. Is there a known workaround, or any idea why this is seeming to happen now when it wasn't previously?

[jacobmw]

I am on filebeat 7.5.1 and get this message four times, at the same time, every hour. Seems to be at the same minute as when I started the service.