Upgrading Colima VM memory ends up by lost of my images

[simonfr]

Description

Hi

I recently tried to upgrade my colima VM memory from 2 to 4gb.
To do that I used the following command :
colima start --memory 4

Unfortunately, I discovered that I lost my images and containers.

Fortunately, I kept my volumes and networks.

Seems not so bad as it cleans disk space a bit but Im on an island with very slow connection so it will take soooo long to pull it again ...

I'm on Macbook Air M2.

Version

colima version 0.8.4
git commit: e2ddc15

runtime: docker
arch: aarch64
client: v28.3.3
server: v27.4.0
limactl version 1.2.1
qemu-img version 10.1.0
Copyright (c) 2003-2025 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers

Operating System

• macOS Intel <= 13 (Ventura)
• macOS Intel >= 14 (Sonoma)
• Apple Silicon <= 13 (Ventura)
• Apple Silicon >= 14 (Sonoma)
• Linux

Output of colima status

INFO[0000] colima is running using macOS Virtualization.Framework
INFO[0000] arch: aarch64
INFO[0000] runtime: docker
INFO[0000] mountType: sshfs
INFO[0000] docker socket: unix:///Users/simon/.colima/default/docker.sock
INFO[0000] containerd socket: unix:///Users/simon/.colima/default/containerd.sock

Reproduction Steps

1. Start colima with colima start
2. Pull some images
3. Stop and start colimage with colima start --memory 4

Expected behaviour

I should have a warning or have my images when the VM is recreated.

Additional context

No response

[olamilekan000]

I don't think this has to do with you extending your VM's memory. When running containers with docker, if you do not specify a restart policy the container won't be restarted when the docker process comes up.

docker run -d --restart=always --name nginxalways nginx:latest

Can you share how you initially created the VM before the memory upgrade?

By the way, I tried to reproduce this but it all worked fine on my end.

➜  kraftkit git:(staging) colima ls
PROFILE    STATUS     ARCH       CPUS    MEMORY    DISK      RUNTIME       ADDRESS
default    Running    aarch64    2       2GiB      100GiB    docker        
k8s        Running    aarch64    2       2GiB      100GiB    docker+k3s 


➜  kraftkit git:(staging) docker run -d --restart=always --name nginxalways  nginx:latest
a44c4ef55b3f8491c05619cad84be9ea99f191a351e8c683bde580618b567a8c

➜  kraftkit git:(staging) docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE          COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS         PORTS     NAMES
a44c4ef55b3f   nginx:latest   "/docker-entrypoint.…"   3 seconds ago   Up 3 seconds   80/tcp    nginxalways

➜  kraftkit git:(staging) colima stop default 
INFO[0000] stopping colima                              
INFO[0001] stopping ...                                  context=docker
INFO[0003] stopping ...                                  context=vm
INFO[0007] done      

➜  kraftkit git:(staging) colima start default
INFO[0001] starting colima                              
INFO[0001] runtime: docker                              
INFO[0004] starting ...                                  context=vm
INFO[0017] provisioning ...                              context=docker
INFO[0021] starting ...                                  context=docker
INFO[0024] done     

➜  kraftkit git:(staging) docker ps           
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE          COMMAND                  CREATED              STATUS         PORTS     NAMES
a44c4ef55b3f   nginx:latest   "/docker-entrypoint.…"   About a minute ago   Up 8 seconds   80/tcp    nginxalways

➜  kraftkit git:(staging) colima stop default 
INFO[0000] stopping colima                              
INFO[0001] stopping ...                                  context=docker
INFO[0003] stopping ...                                  context=vm
INFO[0006] done     

➜  kraftkit git:(staging) colima start default --memory 4
INFO[0001] starting colima                              
INFO[0001] runtime: docker                              
INFO[0004] starting ...                                  context=vm
INFO[0017] provisioning ...                              context=docker
INFO[0021] starting ...                                  context=docker
INFO[0024] done                
                         
➜  kraftkit git:(staging) docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE          COMMAND                  CREATED         STATUS         PORTS     NAMES
a44c4ef55b3f   nginx:latest   "/docker-entrypoint.…"   3 minutes ago   Up 7 seconds   80/tcp    nginxalways

➜  kraftkit git:(staging) colima ls
PROFILE    STATUS     ARCH       CPUS    MEMORY    DISK      RUNTIME       ADDRESS
default    Running    aarch64    2       4GiB      100GiB    docker        
k8s        Running    aarch64    2       2GiB      100GiB    docker+k3s    

➜  kraftkit git:(staging) docker ps                                                      
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE          COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS         PORTS     NAMES
a44c4ef55b3f   nginx:latest   "/docker-entrypoint.…"   12 minutes ago   Up 9 minutes   80/tcp    nginxalways