Migrating from dockershim

• 1: Changing the Container Runtime on a Node from Docker Engine to containerd
• 2: Migrate Docker Engine nodes from dockershim to cri-dockerd
• 3: Find Out What Container Runtime is Used on a Node
• 4: Troubleshooting CNI plugin-related errors
• 5: Check whether dockershim removal affects you
• 6: Migrating telemetry and security agents from dockershim

1 - Changing the Container Runtime on a Node from Docker Engine to containerd

This task outlines the steps needed to update your container runtime to containerd from Docker. It is applicable for cluster operators running Kubernetes 1.23 or earlier. This also covers an example scenario for migrating from dockershim to containerd. Alternative container runtimes can be picked from this page.

Before you begin

Install containerd. For more information see containerd's installation documentation and for specific prerequisite follow the containerd guide.

Drain the node

kubectl drain <node-to-drain> --ignore-daemonsets

Replace <node-to-drain> with the name of your node you are draining.

Stop the Docker daemon

systemctl stop kubelet
systemctl disable docker.service --now

Install Containerd

Follow the guide for detailed steps to install containerd.

• Linux
• Windows (PowerShell)

Configure the kubelet to use containerd as its container runtime

Edit the file /var/lib/kubelet/kubeadm-flags.env and add the containerd runtime to the flags; --container-runtime-endpoint=unix:///run/containerd/containerd.sock.

Users using kubeadm should be aware that the kubeadm tool stores the CRI socket for each host as an annotation in the Node object for that host. To change it you can execute the following command on a machine that has the kubeadm /etc/kubernetes/admin.conf file.

kubectl edit no <node-name>

This will start a text editor where you can edit the Node object. To choose a text editor you can set the KUBE_EDITOR environment variable.

• Change the value of kubeadm.alpha.kubernetes.io/cri-socket from /var/run/dockershim.sock to the CRI socket path of your choice (for example unix:///run/containerd/containerd.sock).

  Note that new CRI socket paths must be prefixed with unix:// ideally.

• Save the changes in the text editor, which will update the Node object.

Restart the kubelet

systemctl start kubelet

Verify that the node is healthy

Run kubectl get nodes -o wide and containerd appears as the runtime for the node we just changed.

Remove Docker Engine

If the node appears healthy, remove Docker.

• CentOS
• Debian
• Fedora
• Ubuntu

sudo yum remove docker-ce docker-ce-cli

sudo apt-get purge docker-ce docker-ce-cli

sudo dnf remove docker-ce docker-ce-cli

sudo apt-get purge docker-ce docker-ce-cli

The preceding commands don't remove images, containers, volumes, or customized configuration files on your host. To delete them, follow Docker's instructions to Uninstall Docker Engine.

Uncordon the node

kubectl uncordon <node-to-uncordon>

Replace <node-to-uncordon> with the name of your node you previously drained.

2 - Migrate Docker Engine nodes from dockershim to cri-dockerd

This page shows you how to migrate your Docker Engine nodes to use cri-dockerd instead of dockershim. You should follow these steps in these scenarios:

• You want to switch away from dockershim and still use Docker Engine to run containers in Kubernetes.
• You want to upgrade to Kubernetes v1.31 and your existing cluster relies on dockershim, in which case you must migrate from dockershim and cri-dockerd is one of your options.

To learn more about the removal of dockershim, read the FAQ page.

What is cri-dockerd?

In Kubernetes 1.23 and earlier, you could use Docker Engine with Kubernetes, relying on a built-in component of Kubernetes named dockershim. The dockershim component was removed in the Kubernetes 1.24 release; however, a third-party replacement, cri-dockerd, is available. The cri-dockerd adapter lets you use Docker Engine through the Container Runtime Interface.

If you want to migrate to cri-dockerd so that you can continue using Docker Engine as your container runtime, you should do the following for each affected node:

1. Install cri-dockerd.
2. Cordon and drain the node.
3. Configure the kubelet to use cri-dockerd.
4. Restart the kubelet.
5. Verify that the node is healthy.

Test the migration on non-critical nodes first.

You should perform the following steps for each node that you want to migrate to cri-dockerd.

Before you begin

• cri-dockerd installed and started on each node.
• A network plugin.

Cordon and drain the node

1. Cordon the node to stop new Pods scheduling on it:

   kubectl cordon <NODE_NAME>
   

   Replace <NODE_NAME> with the name of the node.

2. Drain the node to safely evict running Pods:

   kubectl drain <NODE_NAME> \
       --ignore-daemonsets
   

Configure the kubelet to use cri-dockerd

The following steps apply to clusters set up using the kubeadm tool. If you use a different tool, you should modify the kubelet using the configuration instructions for that tool.

1. Open /var/lib/kubelet/kubeadm-flags.env on each affected node.
2. Modify the --container-runtime-endpoint flag to unix:///var/run/cri-dockerd.sock.
3. Modify the --container-runtime flag to remote (unavailable in Kubernetes v1.27 and later).

The kubeadm tool stores the node's socket as an annotation on the Node object in the control plane. To modify this socket for each affected node:

1. Edit the YAML representation of the Node object:

   KUBECONFIG=/path/to/admin.conf kubectl edit no <NODE_NAME>
   

   Replace the following:

   • /path/to/admin.conf: the path to the kubectl configuration file, admin.conf.
   • <NODE_NAME>: the name of the node you want to modify.

2. Change kubeadm.alpha.kubernetes.io/cri-socket from /var/run/dockershim.sock to unix:///var/run/cri-dockerd.sock.

3. Save the changes. The Node object is updated on save.

Restart the kubelet

systemctl restart kubelet

Verify that the node is healthy

To check whether the node uses the cri-dockerd endpoint, follow the instructions in Find out which runtime you use. The --container-runtime-endpoint flag for the kubelet should be unix:///var/run/cri-dockerd.sock.

Uncordon the node

Uncordon the node to let Pods schedule on it:

kubectl uncordon <NODE_NAME>

What's next

• Read the dockershim removal FAQ.
• Learn how to migrate from Docker Engine with dockershim to containerd.

3 - Find Out What Container Runtime is Used on a Node

This page outlines steps to find out what container runtime the nodes in your cluster use.

Depending on the way you run your cluster, the container runtime for the nodes may have been pre-configured or you need to configure it. If you're using a managed Kubernetes service, there might be vendor-specific ways to check what container runtime is configured for the nodes. The method described on this page should work whenever the execution of kubectl is allowed.

Before you begin

Install and configure kubectl. See Install Tools section for details.

Find out the container runtime used on a Node

Use kubectl to fetch and show node information:

kubectl get nodes -o wide

The output is similar to the following. The column CONTAINER-RUNTIME outputs the runtime and its version.

For Docker Engine, the output is similar to this:

NAME         STATUS   VERSION    CONTAINER-RUNTIME
node-1       Ready    v1.16.15   docker://19.3.1
node-2       Ready    v1.16.15   docker://19.3.1
node-3       Ready    v1.16.15   docker://19.3.1

If your runtime shows as Docker Engine, you still might not be affected by the removal of dockershim in Kubernetes v1.24. Check the runtime endpoint to see if you use dockershim. If you don't use dockershim, you aren't affected.

For containerd, the output is similar to this:

NAME         STATUS   VERSION   CONTAINER-RUNTIME
node-1       Ready    v1.19.6   containerd://1.4.1
node-2       Ready    v1.19.6   containerd://1.4.1
node-3       Ready    v1.19.6   containerd://1.4.1

Find out more information about container runtimes on Container Runtimes page.

Find out what container runtime endpoint you use

The container runtime talks to the kubelet over a Unix socket using the CRI protocol, which is based on the gRPC framework. The kubelet acts as a client, and the runtime acts as the server. In some cases, you might find it useful to know which socket your nodes use. For example, with the removal of dockershim in Kubernetes v1.24 and later, you might want to know whether you use Docker Engine with dockershim.

You can check which socket you use by checking the kubelet configuration on your nodes.

1. Read the starting commands for the kubelet process:

   tr \\0 ' ' < /proc/"$(pgrep kubelet)"/cmdline
   

   If you don't have tr or pgrep, check the command line for the kubelet process manually.

2. In the output, look for the --container-runtime flag and the --container-runtime-endpoint flag.

   • If your nodes use Kubernetes v1.23 and earlier and these flags aren't present or if the --container-runtime flag is not remote, you use the dockershim socket with Docker Engine. The --container-runtime command line argument is not available in Kubernetes v1.27 and later.
   • If the --container-runtime-endpoint flag is present, check the socket name to find out which runtime you use. For example, unix:///run/containerd/containerd.sock is the containerd endpoint.

If you want to change the Container Runtime on a Node from Docker Engine to containerd, you can find out more information on migrating from Docker Engine to containerd, or, if you want to continue using Docker Engine in Kubernetes v1.24 and later, migrate to a CRI-compatible adapter like cri-dockerd.

4 - Troubleshooting CNI plugin-related errors

To avoid CNI plugin-related errors, verify that you are using or upgrading to a container runtime that has been tested to work correctly with your version of Kubernetes.

About the "Incompatible CNI versions" and "Failed to destroy network for sandbox" errors

Service issues exist for pod CNI network setup and tear down in containerd v1.6.0-v1.6.3 when the CNI plugins have not been upgraded and/or the CNI config version is not declared in the CNI config files. The containerd team reports, "these issues are resolved in containerd v1.6.4."

With containerd v1.6.0-v1.6.3, if you do not upgrade the CNI plugins and/or declare the CNI config version, you might encounter the following "Incompatible CNI versions" or "Failed to destroy network for sandbox" error conditions.

Incompatible CNI versions error

If the version of your CNI plugin does not correctly match the plugin version in the config because the config version is later than the plugin version, the containerd log will likely show an error message on startup of a pod similar to:

incompatible CNI versions; config is \"1.0.0\", plugin supports [\"0.1.0\" \"0.2.0\" \"0.3.0\" \"0.3.1\" \"0.4.0\"]"

To fix this issue, update your CNI plugins and CNI config files.

Failed to destroy network for sandbox error

If the version of the plugin is missing in the CNI plugin config, the pod may run. However, stopping the pod generates an error similar to:

ERROR[2022-04-26T00:43:24.518165483Z] StopPodSandbox for "b" failed
error="failed to destroy network for sandbox \"bbc85f891eaf060c5a879e27bba9b6b06450210161dfdecfbb2732959fb6500a\": invalid version \"\": the version is empty"

This error leaves the pod in the not-ready state with a network namespace still attached. To recover from this problem, edit the CNI config file to add the missing version information. The next attempt to stop the pod should be successful.

Updating your CNI plugins and CNI config files

If you're using containerd v1.6.0-v1.6.3 and encountered "Incompatible CNI versions" or "Failed to destroy network for sandbox" errors, consider updating your CNI plugins and editing the CNI config files.

Here's an overview of the typical steps for each node:

1. Safely drain and cordon the node.
2. After stopping your container runtime and kubelet services, perform the following upgrade operations:

• If you're running CNI plugins, upgrade them to the latest version.
• If you're using non-CNI plugins, replace them with CNI plugins. Use the latest version of the plugins.
• Update the plugin configuration file to specify or match a version of the CNI specification that the plugin supports, as shown in the following "An example containerd configuration file" section.
• For containerd, ensure that you have installed the latest version (v1.0.0 or later) of the CNI loopback plugin.
• Upgrade node components (for example, the kubelet) to Kubernetes v1.24
• Upgrade to or install the most current version of the container runtime.

3. Bring the node back into your cluster by restarting your container runtime and kubelet. Uncordon the node (kubectl uncordon <nodename>).

An example containerd configuration file

The following example shows a configuration for containerd runtime v1.6.x, which supports a recent version of the CNI specification (v1.0.0).

Please see the documentation from your plugin and networking provider for further instructions on configuring your system.

On Kubernetes, containerd runtime adds a loopback interface, lo, to pods as a default behavior. The containerd runtime configures the loopback interface via a CNI plugin, loopback. The loopback plugin is distributed as part of the containerd release packages that have the cni designation. containerd v1.6.0 and later includes a CNI v1.0.0-compatible loopback plugin as well as other default CNI plugins. The configuration for the loopback plugin is done internally by containerd, and is set to use CNI v1.0.0. This also means that the version of the loopback plugin must be v1.0.0 or later when this newer version containerd is started.

The following bash command generates an example CNI config. Here, the 1.0.0 value for the config version is assigned to the cniVersion field for use when containerd invokes the CNI bridge plugin.

cat << EOF | tee /etc/cni/net.d/10-containerd-net.conflist
{
 "cniVersion": "1.0.0",
 "name": "containerd-net",
 "plugins": [
   {
     "type": "bridge",
     "bridge": "cni0",
     "isGateway": true,
     "ipMasq": true,
     "promiscMode": true,
     "ipam": {
       "type": "host-local",
       "ranges": [
         [{
           "subnet": "10.88.0.0/16"
         }],
         [{
           "subnet": "2001:db8:4860::/64"
         }]
       ],
       "routes": [
         { "dst": "0.0.0.0/0" },
         { "dst": "::/0" }
       ]
     }
   },
   {
     "type": "portmap",
     "capabilities": {"portMappings": true},
     "externalSetMarkChain": "KUBE-MARK-MASQ"
   }
 ]
}
EOF

Update the IP address ranges in the preceding example with ones that are based on your use case and network addressing plan.

5 - Check whether dockershim removal affects you

The dockershim component of Kubernetes allows the use of Docker as a Kubernetes's container runtime. Kubernetes' built-in dockershim component was removed in release v1.24.

This page explains how your cluster could be using Docker as a container runtime, provides details on the role that dockershim plays when in use, and shows steps you can take to check whether any workloads could be affected by dockershim removal.

Finding if your app has a dependencies on Docker

If you are using Docker for building your application containers, you can still run these containers on any container runtime. This use of Docker does not count as a dependency on Docker as a container runtime.

When alternative container runtime is used, executing Docker commands may either not work or yield unexpected output. This is how you can find whether you have a dependency on Docker:

1. Make sure no privileged Pods execute Docker commands (like docker ps), restart the Docker service (commands such as systemctl restart docker.service), or modify Docker-specific files such as /etc/docker/daemon.json.
2. Check for any private registries or image mirror settings in the Docker configuration file (like /etc/docker/daemon.json). Those typically need to be reconfigured for another container runtime.
3. Check that scripts and apps running on nodes outside of your Kubernetes infrastructure do not execute Docker commands. It might be:
   • SSH to nodes to troubleshoot;
   • Node startup scripts;
   • Monitoring and security agents installed on nodes directly.
4. Third-party tools that perform above mentioned privileged operations. See Migrating telemetry and security agents from dockershim for more information.
5. Make sure there are no indirect dependencies on dockershim behavior. This is an edge case and unlikely to affect your application. Some tooling may be configured to react to Docker-specific behaviors, for example, raise alert on specific metrics or search for a specific log message as part of troubleshooting instructions. If you have such tooling configured, test the behavior on a test cluster before migration.

Dependency on Docker explained

A container runtime is software that can execute the containers that make up a Kubernetes pod. Kubernetes is responsible for orchestration and scheduling of Pods; on each node, the kubelet uses the container runtime interface as an abstraction so that you can use any compatible container runtime.

In its earliest releases, Kubernetes offered compatibility with one container runtime: Docker. Later in the Kubernetes project's history, cluster operators wanted to adopt additional container runtimes. The CRI was designed to allow this kind of flexibility - and the kubelet began supporting CRI. However, because Docker existed before the CRI specification was invented, the Kubernetes project created an adapter component, dockershim. The dockershim adapter allows the kubelet to interact with Docker as if Docker were a CRI compatible runtime.

You can read about it in Kubernetes Containerd integration goes GA blog post.

Switching to Containerd as a container runtime eliminates the middleman. All the same containers can be run by container runtimes like Containerd as before. But now, since containers schedule directly with the container runtime, they are not visible to Docker. So any Docker tooling or fancy UI you might have used before to check on these containers is no longer available.

You cannot get container information using docker ps or docker inspect commands. As you cannot list containers, you cannot get logs, stop containers, or execute something inside a container using docker exec.

You can still pull images or build them using docker build command. But images built or pulled by Docker would not be visible to container runtime and Kubernetes. They needed to be pushed to some registry to allow them to be used by Kubernetes.

Known issues

Some filesystem metrics are missing and the metrics format is different

The Kubelet /metrics/cadvisor endpoint provides Prometheus metrics, as documented in Metrics for Kubernetes system components. If you install a metrics collector that depends on that endpoint, you might see the following issues:

• The metrics format on the Docker node is k8s_<container-name>_<pod-name>_<namespace>_<pod-uid>_<restart-count> but the format on other runtime is different. For example, on containerd node it is <container-id>.
• Some filesystem metrics are missing, as follows:

  container_fs_inodes_free
  container_fs_inodes_total
  container_fs_io_current
  container_fs_io_time_seconds_total
  container_fs_io_time_weighted_seconds_total
  container_fs_limit_bytes
  container_fs_read_seconds_total
  container_fs_reads_merged_total
  container_fs_sector_reads_total
  container_fs_sector_writes_total
  container_fs_usage_bytes
  container_fs_write_seconds_total
  container_fs_writes_merged_total
  

Workaround

You can mitigate this issue by using cAdvisor as a standalone daemonset.

1. Find the latest cAdvisor release with the name pattern vX.Y.Z-containerd-cri (for example, v0.42.0-containerd-cri).
2. Follow the steps in cAdvisor Kubernetes Daemonset to create the daemonset.
3. Point the installed metrics collector to use the cAdvisor /metrics endpoint which provides the full set of Prometheus container metrics.

Alternatives:

• Use alternative third party metrics collection solution.
• Collect metrics from the Kubelet summary API that is served at /stats/summary.

What's next

• Read Migrating from dockershim to understand your next steps
• Read the dockershim deprecation FAQ article for more information.

6 - Migrating telemetry and security agents from dockershim

Kubernetes' support for direct integration with Docker Engine is deprecated and has been removed. Most apps do not have a direct dependency on runtime hosting containers. However, there are still a lot of telemetry and monitoring agents that have a dependency on Docker to collect containers metadata, logs, and metrics. This document aggregates information on how to detect these dependencies as well as links on how to migrate these agents to use generic tools or alternative runtimes.

Telemetry and security agents

Within a Kubernetes cluster there are a few different ways to run telemetry or security agents. Some agents have a direct dependency on Docker Engine when they run as DaemonSets or directly on nodes.

Why do some telemetry agents communicate with Docker Engine?

Historically, Kubernetes was written to work specifically with Docker Engine. Kubernetes took care of networking and scheduling, relying on Docker Engine for launching and running containers (within Pods) on a node. Some information that is relevant to telemetry, such as a pod name, is only available from Kubernetes components. Other data, such as container metrics, is not the responsibility of the container runtime. Early telemetry agents needed to query the container runtime and Kubernetes to report an accurate picture. Over time, Kubernetes gained the ability to support multiple runtimes, and now supports any runtime that is compatible with the container runtime interface.

Some telemetry agents rely specifically on Docker Engine tooling. For example, an agent might run a command such as docker ps or docker top to list containers and processes or docker logs to receive streamed logs. If nodes in your existing cluster use Docker Engine, and you switch to a different container runtime, these commands will not work any longer.

Identify DaemonSets that depend on Docker Engine

If a pod wants to make calls to the dockerd running on the node, the pod must either:

• mount the filesystem containing the Docker daemon's privileged socket, as a volume; or
• mount the specific path of the Docker daemon's privileged socket directly, also as a volume.

For example: on COS images, Docker exposes its Unix domain socket at /var/run/docker.sock This means that the pod spec will include a hostPath volume mount of /var/run/docker.sock.

Here's a sample shell script to find Pods that have a mount directly mapping the Docker socket. This script outputs the namespace and name of the pod. You can remove the grep '/var/run/docker.sock' to review other mounts.

kubectl get pods --all-namespaces \
-o=jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{"\n"}{.metadata.namespace}{":\t"}{.metadata.name}{":\t"}{range .spec.volumes[*]}{.hostPath.path}{", "}{end}{end}' \
| sort \
| grep '/var/run/docker.sock'

Detecting Docker dependency from node agents

If your cluster nodes are customized and install additional security and telemetry agents on the node, check with the agent vendor to verify whether it has any dependency on Docker.

Telemetry and security agent vendors

This section is intended to aggregate information about various telemetry and security agents that may have a dependency on container runtimes.

We keep the work in progress version of migration instructions for various telemetry and security agent vendors in Google doc. Please contact the vendor to get up to date instructions for migrating from dockershim.

Migration from dockershim

Aqua

No changes are needed: everything should work seamlessly on the runtime switch.

Datadog

How to migrate: Docker deprecation in Kubernetes The pod that accesses Docker Engine may have a name containing any of:

• datadog-agent
• datadog
• dd-agent

Dynatrace

How to migrate: Migrating from Docker-only to generic container metrics in Dynatrace

Containerd support announcement: Get automated full-stack visibility into containerd-based Kubernetes environments

CRI-O support announcement: Get automated full-stack visibility into your CRI-O Kubernetes containers (Beta)

The pod accessing Docker may have name containing:

• dynatrace-oneagent

Falco

How to migrate:

Migrate Falco from dockershim Falco supports any CRI-compatible runtime (containerd is used in the default configuration); the documentation explains all details. The pod accessing Docker may have name containing:

• falco

Prisma Cloud Compute

Check documentation for Prisma Cloud, under the "Install Prisma Cloud on a CRI (non-Docker) cluster" section. The pod accessing Docker may be named like:

• twistlock-defender-ds

SignalFx (Splunk)

The SignalFx Smart Agent (deprecated) uses several different monitors for Kubernetes including kubernetes-cluster, kubelet-stats/kubelet-metrics, and docker-container-stats. The kubelet-stats monitor was previously deprecated by the vendor, in favor of kubelet-metrics. The docker-container-stats monitor is the one affected by dockershim removal. Do not use the docker-container-stats with container runtimes other than Docker Engine.

How to migrate from dockershim-dependent agent:

1. Remove docker-container-stats from the list of configured monitors. Note, keeping this monitor enabled with non-dockershim runtime will result in incorrect metrics being reported when docker is installed on node and no metrics when docker is not installed.
2. Enable and configure kubelet-metrics monitor.

The Pod accessing Docker may be named something like:

• signalfx-agent

Yahoo Kubectl Flame

Flame does not support container runtimes other than Docker. See https://github.com/yahoo/kubectl-flame/issues/51