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Container Startup Issues

Playbook: Container Won't Start

!!! info "Status" This playbook is a placeholder for the troubleshooter persona. Detailed step-by-step diagnostics coming soon.

Quick Diagnosis

When to use this playbook: The perfSONAR container fails to start or immediately exits.

Step 1: Check Container Status

# For Podman

podman ps -a | grep perfsonar

# For Docker

docker ps -a | grep perfsonar

Look for:

  • Exit code (non-zero = failure)

  • Last restart time

  • Error messages

Step 2: View Container Logs

# For Podman

podman logs perfsonar-testpoint

# For Docker

docker logs perfsonar-testpoint

Common errors:

  • OCI runtime error — host kernel/runtime issue

  • Failed to bind port — port already in use

  • No such file or directory — missing volume/mount

  • permission denied — volume permission issue

Step 3: Check Prerequisites

  • Image available: podman images | grep perfsonar

  • Volumes exist: podman volume ls | grep perfsonar

  • Ports available: ss -ltnp | grep -E '(443|5001|9000|8080)'

  • Disk space: df -h /var/lib/podman or /var/lib/docker

Step 4: Escalate

If the above doesn't resolve the issue, collect:

  • Container logs: podman logs perfsonar-testpoint > /tmp/logs.txt

  • Systemd logs: journalctl -u perfsonar-testpoint -n 50 > /tmp/systemd.txt

  • Host info: uname -a, cat /etc/os-release

Then contact:

Common Solutions

Port Already in Use

Problem: Container fails with "Address already in use"

Solution:

# Find what's using the port (e.g., 443)

ss -ltnp | grep 443

# Kill the process or change container port mapping

podman stop conflicting-container
podman rm conflicting-container

Volume Permission Denied

Problem: Container fails with "permission denied" on volume

Solution:

# Check volume ownership

ls -la /var/lib/podman/volumes/perfsonar_data/

# Fix permissions (adjust UID/GID as needed)

sudo chown -R 65534:65534 /path/to/volume

Out of Disk Space

Problem: Container fails with "no space left"

Solution:

# Check disk usage

df -h

# Clean old images/containers

podman system prune -a

# Or increase disk allocation

# (varies by host setup)

See Also