Work around docker exec bug There is currently a docker exec bug in Centos/RHEL 7 that causes errors such as: # docker exec -i -t instance /bin/sh rpc error: code = 2 desc = oci runtime error: exec failed: container_linux.go:247: starting container process caused "process_linux.go:110: decoding init error from pipe caused \"read parent: connection reset by peer\"" As a work around you can use nsenter instead: PID=docker inspect --format {{.State.Pid}} <name of container> nsenter --target $PID...