Cannot set memory limit: memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes: no such file or directory

[delcypher]

I'm having problems setting memory limits on my containers.

If I specify both --memory and --memory-swap then I receive an error message and the container is left behind.

$ docker run --memory=500M --memory-swap=500M -ti ubuntu:latest
Error response from daemon: Cannot start container 97e39572858eaf04f48bac465ebe4a121503700b3699ef8752d9175141bd5611: [8] System error: open /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/init.scope/system.slice/docker-97e39572858eaf04f48bac465ebe4a121503700b3699ef8752d9175141bd5611.scope/memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes: no such file or directory
$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
97e39572858e        ubuntu:latest       "/bin/bash"         8 seconds ago       Created                                 stupefied_sammet

I took a look. Inside /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/init.scope/ there is no system.slice folder.

$ ls /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/init.scope/
cgroup.clone_children  memory.kmem.failcnt             memory.kmem.tcp.limit_in_bytes      memory.max_usage_in_bytes        memory.move_charge_at_immigrate  memory.stat            tasks
cgroup.event_control   memory.kmem.limit_in_bytes      memory.kmem.tcp.max_usage_in_bytes  memory.memsw.failcnt             memory.numa_stat                 memory.swappiness
cgroup.procs           memory.kmem.max_usage_in_bytes  memory.kmem.tcp.usage_in_bytes      memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes      memory.oom_control               memory.usage_in_bytes
memory.failcnt         memory.kmem.slabinfo            memory.kmem.usage_in_bytes          memory.memsw.max_usage_in_bytes  memory.pressure_level            memory.use_hierarchy
memory.force_empty     memory.kmem.tcp.failcnt         memory.limit_in_bytes               memory.memsw.usage_in_bytes      memory.soft_limit_in_bytes       notify_on_release

there is however a system.slice folder in /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/

If I try

 $ docker run --memory=500M -ti ubuntu:latest

then the container starts but I see this warning in Docker's logs

Oct 18 15:55:48 dan-sputnik docker[7070]: time="2015-10-18T15:55:48.989117494+01:00" level=warning msg="Your kernel does not support OOM notifications: open /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/init.scope/system.slice/docker-cd0d56a244162b406f9cad46c81950643c9b8143ddb6e3410901539bab92161c.scope/memory.oom_control: no such file or directory"

Setting these memory limits used to work about 4 months ago when I was running on older version of Docker, Linux kernel and system-d. I guessing one of these has broken something.

I'm running on Arch Linux with systemd 227-1

$ cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux  root=/dev/mapper/volgroup-root resume=/dev/mapper/volgroup-swap cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1

$ uname -a
Linux dan-sputnik 4.2.3-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Oct 3 18:52:50 CEST 2015 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ docker info
docker info
Containers: 1
Images: 209
Storage Driver: overlay
 Backing Filesystem: extfs
Execution Driver: native-0.2
Logging Driver: json-file
Kernel Version: 4.2.3-1-ARCH
Operating System: Arch Linux (containerized)
CPUs: 4
Total Memory: 7.709 GiB
Name: dan-sputnik
ID: NXIH:L2RS:YWBH:2QG5:GAX2:YCYI:BHCI:4ECF:DQI3:JIPY:UXRN:TCWH
Username: delcypher
Registry: https://index.docker.io/v1/

$ docker version
Client:
 Version:      1.8.3
 API version:  1.20
 Go version:   go1.5.1
 Git commit:   f4bf5c7-dirty
 Built:        Wed Oct 14 11:17:02 UTC 2015
 OS/Arch:      linux/amd64

Server:
 Version:      1.8.3
 API version:  1.20
 Go version:   go1.5.1
 Git commit:   f4bf5c7-dirty
 Built:        Wed Oct 14 11:17:02 UTC 2015
 OS/Arch:      linux/amd64

[runcom]

Dup of #16256, thanks for the report, it's probably the new systemd that's causing this :(

[delcypher]

@runcom Thanks for the fast reply. Downgrading to systemd 225 seems to have fixed this for now.