CPU ISA level is lower than required

Docker Engine General
1

I get the following error when installing Docker on an AlmaLinux 10 VPS:

[root@nb ~]# sudo journalctl -u docker.service -n 50 --no-pager
Sep 27 21:48:47 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: Starting docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine...
Sep 27 21:48:47 nb.servutech.com dockerd[773]: /usr/bin/dockerd: CPU ISA level is lower than required
Sep 27 21:48:47 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: docker.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=127/n/a
Sep 27 21:48:47 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: docker.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 27 21:48:47 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: Failed to start docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine.
Sep 27 21:48:49 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: docker.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
Sep 27 21:48:49 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: Starting docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine...
Sep 27 21:48:49 nb.servutech.com dockerd[850]: /usr/bin/dockerd: CPU ISA level is lower than required
Sep 27 21:48:49 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: docker.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=127/n/a
Sep 27 21:48:49 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: docker.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 27 21:48:49 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: Failed to start docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine.
Sep 27 21:48:51 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: docker.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 2.
Sep 27 21:48:51 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: Starting docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine...
Sep 27 21:48:51 nb.servutech.com dockerd[897]: /usr/bin/dockerd: CPU ISA level is lower than required
Sep 27 21:48:51 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: docker.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=127/n/a
Sep 27 21:48:51 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: docker.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 27 21:48:51 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: Failed to start docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine.
Sep 27 21:48:53 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: docker.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.
Sep 27 21:48:53 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: docker.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Sep 27 21:48:53 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: docker.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Sep 27 21:48:53 nb.servutech.com systemd[1]: Failed to start docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine.

Is this due to old hardware or the image provided by the VPS provider?

I’ve installed Docker on several other AlmaLinux VPS’s (different providers) and never encountered this issue.

Below are the CPU specs:

[root@nb ~]# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 62
model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz
stepping        : 4
microcode       : 0x1
cpu MHz         : 2800.024
cache size      : 16384 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 1
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 1
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon rep_good nopl xtopology cpuid tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq ssse3 cx16 pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm cpuid_fault pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp fsgsbase tsc_adjust smep erms xsaveopt arat umip md_clear arch_capabilities
bugs            : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds swapgs itlb_multihit bhi ibpb_no_ret spectre_v2_user its
bogomips        : 5600.04
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor       : 1
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 62
model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz
stepping        : 4
microcode       : 0x1
cpu MHz         : 2800.024
cache size      : 16384 KB
physical id     : 1
siblings        : 1
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 1
apicid          : 1
initial apicid  : 1
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon rep_good nopl xtopology cpuid tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq ssse3 cx16 pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm cpuid_fault pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp fsgsbase tsc_adjust smep erms xsaveopt arat umip md_clear arch_capabilities
bugs            : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds swapgs itlb_multihit bhi ibpb_no_ret spectre_v2_user its
bogomips        : 5600.04
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

[root@nb ~]# lscpu
Architecture:                x86_64
  CPU op-mode(s):            32-bit, 64-bit
  Address sizes:             46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
  Byte Order:                Little Endian
CPU(s):                      2
  On-line CPU(s) list:       0,1
Vendor ID:                   GenuineIntel
  BIOS Vendor ID:            Red Hat
  Model name:                Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v2 @ 2.80GHz
    BIOS Model name:         RHEL 7.6.0 PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996)  CPU @ 2.0GHz
    BIOS CPU family:         1
    CPU family:              6
    Model:                   62
    Thread(s) per core:      1
    Core(s) per socket:      1
    Socket(s):               2
    Stepping:                4
    BogoMIPS:                5600.04
    Flags:                   fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon rep_good nopl xtopology cpuid tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq ssse3 cx
                             16 pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm cpuid_fault pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp fsgsbase tsc_adjust smep erms xsaveopt arat umip md_clear arch_capabilities
Virtualization features:
  Hypervisor vendor:         KVM
  Virtualization type:       full
Caches (sum of all):
  L1d:                       64 KiB (2 instances)
  L1i:                       64 KiB (2 instances)
  L2:                        8 MiB (2 instances)
  L3:                        32 MiB (2 instances)
NUMA:
  NUMA node(s):              1
  NUMA node0 CPU(s):         0,1
Vulnerabilities:
  Gather data sampling:      Not affected
  Indirect target selection: Mitigation; Aligned branch/return thunks
  Itlb multihit:             KVM: Mitigation: VMX unsupported
  L1tf:                      Mitigation; PTE Inversion
  Mds:                       Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT Host state unknown
  Meltdown:                  Mitigation; PTI
  Mmio stale data:           Not affected
  Old microcode:             Not affected
  Reg file data sampling:    Not affected
  Retbleed:                  Not affected
  Spec rstack overflow:      Not affected
  Spec store bypass:         Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Spectre v1:                Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Spectre v2:                Mitigation; Retpolines; IBPB conditional; IBRS_FW; STIBP disabled; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS Not affected; BHI Retpoline
  Srbds:                     Not affected
  Tsa:                       Not affected
  Tsx async abort:           Not affected
  Vmscape:                   Not affected
2

It looks like an old or incompatible CPU. In some cases, when it is about virtual CPUs, it can be fixed on the virtalization side, but I am not sure about this one. This error happened with containerd as well

https://www.rosehosting.com/blog/how-to-install-docker-on-almalinux-10/

Although the website indicates Docker built for newer CPUs, I also had similar problems with different cpu-related error messages when using a Docker image that was built on top of a RedHat-based image and those base images included newer libraries not compatible with the CPU, even though some people would say the CPU is not actually too old.

AlmaLinux is not officially supported, so if there is anything in AlmaLinux not compatible with Docker, you could try a different host OS like those mentioned here: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/

This list also includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux, so this might not be your problem as Docker must have been tested on supported operating system, but I also don’t know what is added or removedin AlmaLinux if anything.

But these are my two guesses. Operating system compatibility or CPU compatibility.

3

Thank you!

I finally found a post on the Internet that indicates that SSE needs to be above 4.2 for AlmaLinux 10. What’s strange to me is that AlmaLinux 10 installed and seems to be perfectly functioning other wise.

The CPU on the this server supports SSE 4.2 which should support AlmaLinux 9. I think I will try installing AlmaLinux 9 and keep my eye open for a VPS deal from another provider with more up to date hardware.