MobyLinuxVM defaults to aufs instead of overlay

Expected behavior

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> & 'C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\resources\bin\docker.exe' info

Should display:

Storage Driver: overlay
 Backing Filesystem: extfs

Actual behavior

It actually displays:

Storage Driver: aufs
 Root Dir: /var/lib/docker/aufs
 Backing Filesystem: extfs
 Dirs: 0
 Dirperm1 Supported: true

Information

Using Docker for Windows Beta 13.

Steps to reproduce the behavior

  1. Install Docker for Windows
  2. ???
  3. Notice it uses aufs instead of overlay.
2 Likes

Don’t know why they haven’t changed the default storage driver from aufs to overlay2. They’re using a 4.x kernel so it is supported. FYI I filed https://github.com/docker/for-mac/issues/516 to change the default on Docker for Mac, or to at least let it be configured.

We have been testing overlay2 for while to see if the various problems with overlay have been resolved, and it appears to be good in recent releases, although one very recent kernel would crash. It has been fine for the last three weeks or so, so will probably look to switch over for new installs and factory resets on the beta channel soon. There are still outstanding kernel issues with overlay, as well as aufs, so the decision is not simple. Is aufs actually causing you problems?

Thanks, okay that makes sense. Glad overlay2 is rolling into beta.

Aufs has been fine for me on Docker for Mac, I’d just like to use overlay2 since that works in other environments and I’m trying to reduce variables.

Aufs has caused me a lot of problems building and running on docker servers with Ubuntu 16.04. Sorry don’t remember specifics, some centos / systemd issues, some problems with docker-compose restarts. I reinitialized docker with overlay2 and problems went away.