I’ve been using OVH’s dedicated server range recently. When ever I tried to use docker with the Ubuntu latest LTS I ended up with an error failed to register layer: devmapper:. The solution is rather simple, OVH dedicated servers use rather old and unsupported kernel versions. The solution is upgrade linux kernel.

Step 1. Install the latest kernel, tools, and extra stuff.

apt-get install linux-image-4.8.0-34-generic linux-tools-4.8.0-34-generic linux-image-extra-4.8.0-34-generic

Step 2. Move the old kernel out of the /boot directory. mv bzImage-3.14.32-xxxx-grs-ipv6-64 /root/

Step 3. Run grub update so it boots into the new kernel. update-grub

Step 4. Reboot so it uses the new kernel. reboot