Docker Engine Stops Working When Trying to Run Docker Desktop Not as "Local System"

Docker Desktop
1

Hello fellow docker users! Am here to sincerely seek your assistance on a Docker Desktop issue that my organization is facing.

  • Before carrying on, here are the specs of the azure Windows virtual machine that we are using:
  • OS Name: Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Datacenter
  • Version: 10.0.17763 Build 17763
  • System Type: x64-based PC

  • We were able to download Docker Desktop (version 4.22.0) and deploy our containers successfully. With that done, we now need to ensure that our applications (docker containers) are to be constantly running 24/7 to ensure our end-users always have access to them.

  • However, we face an issue. As we all know, Docker Desktop is not a service, and it requires that the user running it is logged on in order for the docker containers to be live. However, for no apparent reason (even when we have tried removing 'Remote Desktop Connectivity" timeout settings), the azure VM “shuts off” itself, and thereby logging out the user, which causes Docker Desktop and the containers to stop working, after a period of time upon us disconnecting from the RDP session.

  • So, currently the workaround that we have agreed on is to run Docker Desktop using a (non-interactive) service account. We can tell that at that moment (before changing to a service account), the account running Docker Desktop appeared to be “Local System” on Windows Services application. And with Docker Desktop running with this account, Docker Desktop and the Docker containers are all working fine.

  • After which, we changed the account running Docker Desktop to our service account, and restarted Docker Desktop via the Windows Services application. However, to our surprise, when the Docker Desktop UI opened up, all it showed was a message saying the Docker Engine has stopped:

Docker Engine Stopped Image
Docker Engine Stopped Image1918×857 47.3 KB

if you are wondering, our service account is already in the “docker-users” group.

****So, this is where we are stuck right now. To us, it seems that the service account, unlike “Local System”, is unable to start up the Docker Engine (daemon).
Does anyone have any inputs? Your help will be greatly appreciated :pray: :pray:

P.S. Feel free to let me know if you need any other details/screenshots. I will get back to you at the soonest!