01
Emergency Incident Response
Containers crash-looping, deploys blocked, nodes out of disk, or a registry outage stopping every rollout. A senior engineer joins a live bridge within 15 minutes with access to diagnose — not a ticket acknowledgement.
Docker Support
24/7 Docker Support with a 15-Minute Emergency SLA
Last reviewed by Scott Sternloff
AceMQ supports containerised workloads in production — OOMKilled processes that ignore their cgroup limit, registry rate limits blocking a deploy, build caches that invalidate on every commit, hosts filling with dangling layers, and secrets baked into image history. Every ticket reaches a named senior engineer.
Support quotes answered within 1 hour, by a senior engineer.
- min emergency SLA
- 15
- across Americas, EMEA, APAC
- 24/7
- enterprise customers
- 160+
- countries served
- 26+
Planning a build, upgrade or migration instead? See AceMQ Docker consulting and services.
Customers
Partners
Incident Triage
Docker problems we fix every week
These are real symptoms from real Docker production environments — and the first thing our engineers check when one comes in.
| Symptom you're seeing | What we check first | Typical resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Container killed with exit code 137, no application error logged | Whether the runtime inside the container knows about its cgroup memory limit. A JVM without container-awareness or correct MaxRAMPercentage, and Node without an explicit heap cap, will size the heap from host memory and get OOMKilled long before they think they are under pressure. | Under 1 hour |
| Deploys failing with toomanyrequests — pull rate limit reached | Which images are being pulled anonymously and how often. Unauthenticated pulls from a public registry are rate limited per source IP, so a whole NAT-ed cluster shares one budget. The fix is an authenticated pull-through cache or an internal mirror. | Under 1 hour |
| CI builds take 12 minutes when they used to take 2 | Dockerfile layer ordering. If COPY of the full source tree happens before dependency installation, every commit invalidates the cache from that line down and reinstalls everything. We reorder to copy manifests first, then install, then copy source. | 1–2 hours |
| Build hosts or nodes running out of disk with no obvious cause | Space split between images, containers, local volumes, and build cache. Build cache and dangling layers from repeated CI builds usually dominate, and no automated prune is in place. We size the reclaim before changing retention. | Under 1 hour |
| Image works locally but crashes immediately in CI or on the cluster | Architecture of the image against the host. An image built on an arm64 laptop and run on amd64 nodes fails at exec, often with an unhelpful format error. We verify the manifest and move the build to buildx multi-platform or a matching runner. | Under 1 hour |
| A secret was committed into an image and the image is already published | Image history layer by layer — a value removed in a later layer is still readable in the layer that added it. We identify every affected tag and digest, then plan credential rotation first and image rebuild second, in that order. | 1–3 hours |
| Containers restarting in a loop with no useful log output | Whether the process is PID 1 and how it handles signals. A shell-form entrypoint means the app runs as a child of sh, never receives SIGTERM, gets killed after the grace period, and loses its shutdown logging with it. | 1–2 hours |
| Application slow under load but host CPU looks under-utilised | CPU quota and throttling counters for the container's cgroup. A low CPU limit produces heavy throttling at every scheduling period while overall host utilisation stays low — the workload is stalled, not idle. | 2–4 hours |
Resolution times reflect typical Docker engagements under an active AceMQ support contract. Every P1 closes with a written root-cause analysis.
What's Included
Everything in your Docker support contract
No add-on pricing for incidents. No per-ticket charges. One contract covers the whole surface.
- 02
Root Cause Analysis
Every P1 closes with a written RCA: what failed, why, the fix applied, and the Dockerfile, runtime, or platform change that prevents recurrence. Delivered as standard, not on request.
- 03
Image & Build Optimisation
Multi-stage builds, layer ordering for cache reuse, base image selection, and BuildKit cache mounts — cutting image size and CI build time without breaking reproducibility.
- 04
Image Security & Supply Chain
Vulnerability scanning in the pipeline, base image currency, non-root users, secret handling with build secrets rather than ARGs, image signing, and SBOM generation for audit.
- 05
Registry & Distribution
Private registry operation, pull-through caching and mirroring to escape public rate limits, retention and garbage collection policy, and multi-architecture image publishing.
- 06
Resource & Runtime Tuning
Memory and CPU limits set against real workload behaviour, runtime flags so the JVM or Node process respects its cgroup, storage driver and logging driver configuration, and health check design.
Why AceMQ
What you get that you don't get elsewhere
Named Engineers, Zero Cold Start
The same senior engineers stay on your account. They know your base images, your CI pipeline, and your runtime platform — so a P1 call starts with diagnosis, not twenty minutes of you explaining your build.
No Tier-1 Triage Layer
You reach a senior engineer directly by phone, email, or Slack. No help desk collecting information to pass along, and no escalation approval standing between you and someone who can actually fix it.
We Follow the Problem Out of the Container
Most container incidents are runtime, kernel, storage, or network incidents wearing a container costume. We diagnose across cgroups, the JVM or Node runtime, the storage driver, and CNI — not just the Dockerfile.
Supply Chain Taken Seriously
Base image provenance, layer-level secret exposure, signing, and SBOM output are part of normal support, not a separate security engagement bolted on after an audit finding.
Genuine Follow-the-Sun Coverage
Engineers across 26+ countries and every time zone. Your 3am incident is someone's mid-afternoon — no overnight skeleton crew, no waiting for a region to wake up.
Proactive, Not Just Reactive
Quarterly reviews of base image currency, image size and build time trends, and registry hygiene — plus alerts when a CVE lands in a base image you are actually running.
We support Docker wherever it's deployed
Cloud, Kubernetes, bare metal, hybrid, and air-gapped — including environments where you can't give us outbound network access.
- Docker Engine on Linux
- Docker Compose
- Kubernetes & OpenShift
- AWS (ECS, EKS, Fargate, ECR)
- Microsoft Azure (AKS, ACR)
- Google Cloud (GKE, Artifact Registry)
- Harbor & self-hosted registries
- containerd & CRI-O runtimes
- GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins
- Bare metal & on-premise
- Air-gapped / no outbound access
- Hybrid cloud
Escalation Path
Your first hour of a Docker outage
Every tier reaches a senior Docker engineer. There is no tier-1 triage layer to get through.
- 15 minfirst responseEmergencyProduction down, messages not flowing, queue manager failure
- 1 hourfirst responseCriticalSevere degradation, high error rates, approaching capacity
- 4 hoursfirst responseHighPerformance issues, configuration problems, non-critical failures
- Next Dayfirst responseStandardQuestions, guidance, best practices, non-urgent improvements
P1 escalation path
A replay of one P1, from the first page to the written root-cause analysis
T+Elapsed15:00
15-minute P1 response, 24/7.
A response time, not a resolution time.
- T+00:00Paged
P1 opened, on-call engineer paged
Phone, email or Slack reaches the on-call senior engineer directly, whether the incident is in RabbitMQ, Kafka, Redis, PostgreSQL or Kubernetes. No web form, no tier-1 queue.
- T+15:00Live
Senior engineer on your bridge
A senior engineer who already knows your environment joins a live bridge, so nobody has to re-explain your topology.
- T+30:00If needed
Specialists across the stack join
When an incident crosses components, the engineers who know each one join. For RabbitMQ, the path runs to the core team.
- AfterEvery P1
Written root-cause analysis
Root cause, the fix applied and the prevention steps, delivered after every P1.
Pricing
What does AceMQ Docker support cost?
AceMQ Docker support contracts typically run $24,000–72,000 a year, depending on SLA level, scope (number of clusters or nodes, and environments) and deployment (self-managed, cloud-managed or Kubernetes).
| What moves the price | How it changes the contract |
|---|---|
| SLA level | Business-hours cover costs less than 24/7 cover with a 15-minute emergency response. |
| Scope | More clusters or nodes, and more environments, make a larger contract. |
| Deployment | Self-managed, cloud-managed and Kubernetes estates need different amounts of hands-on work. |
Covering several technologies under one contract, for example RabbitMQ, Kafka and Redis, earns an aggressive discount.
Support In Practice
Docker problems we've already solved
Docker support and optimization work from AceMQ. Each card links to the full write-up: the build and runtime estate, what AceMQ diagnosed or changed, and the result.
Producer Timeouts Traced to Controller-Leader Overload
European Hosting Provider
A five-node Kafka cluster serving 60,000 customers was timing out producers under load. The cause was topology, not capacity.
Apache Kafka
Docker
Linux
Pentaho Job Failure and Data Integrity Support
Logistics and Distribution Company
Ongoing support for a Pentaho Data Integration estate that must keep running reliably while a longer-term replacement is planned.
PentahoSQL Server
PostgreSQLDockerPentaho Carte Cluster Stability Remediation
Industrial Products Manufacturer
Resolving Carte slave server instability where long-running clustered transformations hung, leaked memory, and left orphaned carte sessions.
PentahoPostgreSQLDocker
Kubernetes
Kong 502 and Upstream Health Check Remediation
Digital Commerce Platform
Tracing intermittent 502s at the Kong gateway to misconfigured active health checks and stale DNS resolution of upstream service names.
KongKubernetes
NGINXPostgreSQLDocker
Apigee Proxy Latency and Policy Chain Support
Telecommunications Provider
Debugging proxy-level latency and policy execution problems in Apigee that sit outside what the platform vendor's support will investigate.
ApigeeKubernetesDockerKongApigee Proxy Estate and Shared Flow Redesign Assessment
Consumer Financial Services Company
Assessing a sprawling Apigee proxy estate and designing a shared flow architecture that removes duplicated policy logic across hundreds of proxies.
ApigeeKongKubernetesDocker
Support options
Four tiers of Docker support.
AceMQ offers Docker support in four tiers, each handing more of the day-to-day work to AceMQ: 24/7 support and incident management for hosts and pipelines your team runs, proactive monitoring that catches stale base images, cache growth and registry limits first, managed container builds on your own infrastructure, and fully managed builds and registry on AceMQ infrastructure. Image, runtime and registry work is covered in all four, on the current Docker Engine release and the five end-of-life release lines before it.
- Tier 1
Docker 24/7 Support & Incident Management
You run it, we back you up
- 15-minute P1 response, 24/7, by phone, email or Slack
- Named senior engineers, no first-line triage layer
- Written root-cause analysis after every P1
Best for: Teams that run their own Docker builds and hosts and need senior cover when a release is blocked.
- Tier 2
Docker 24/7 Support with Proactive Monitoring
You run it, we watch it with you
- Base-image inventory with age, CVE exposure and patch path
- Build time and image size trends, with a layer-cache review
- Registry retention, mirroring and pull-limit headroom
Best for: Teams that want the failing scan or the full disk found in a review, not in a blocked release.
- Tier 3
Managed Docker on Your Infrastructure
We run it in your cloud or data centre
- AceMQ runs day-2 operations and holds the pager
- Runs in your cloud account, data centre or air-gapped site
- Patching, upgrades and capacity managed to an agreed plan
Best for: Regulated and air-gapped estates that must keep builds and registries inside their own boundary.
- Tier 4
Fully Managed Docker on AceMQ Infrastructure
We host it and run it, as a service
- Hosted and operated by AceMQ, sized to your workload
- High availability, backups and upgrades included
- 24/7 on-call with the same 15-minute emergency response
Best for: Teams that want current, scanned images without running build infrastructure.
| Who does what | Tier 1 24/7 support | Tier 2 Proactive monitoring | Tier 3 Managed, your infrastructure | Tier 4 Fully managed by AceMQ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs Docker day to day? | Your team | Your team, with AceMQ reviews | AceMQ | AceMQ |
| Where does it run? | Your infrastructure | Your infrastructure | Your cloud account or data centre | AceMQ infrastructure |
| 24/7 incident response | 15-minute P1 response | 15-minute P1 response | 15-minute P1 response | 15-minute P1 response |
| Health checks and CVE alerts | On request | Scheduled | Included | Included |
| Patching and upgrades | Your team, AceMQ advises | Planned with AceMQ | Done by AceMQ | Done by AceMQ |
| Monitoring and on-call | Your team | Your team | AceMQ | AceMQ |
| Data, keys and accounts | Yours | Yours | Yours | Your data, hosted by AceMQ |
Every Tier can start as an ad hoc engagement or an annual partnership, and you can move up or down a Tier as your team changes.
One partner for Docker
Everything else AceMQ does for Docker.
Support is one part of what AceMQ does for Docker. The same engineers deliver consulting, health checks, migrations and end-of-life cover, and support the systems that usually run next to it.
- ConsultingDocker consulting and services
- LifecycleEnd-of-life software support
- Enterprise supportOpen source support across your whole stack
- GuideDocker guide
Support for the rest of your stack
Messaging & Streaming
- RabbitMQ supportMessaging & Streaming
- Apache Kafka supportMessaging & Streaming
- IBM MQ supportMessaging & Streaming
- ActiveMQ supportMessaging & Streaming
- Azure Service Bus supportMessaging & Streaming
- Amazon SQS supportMessaging & Streaming
- Google Cloud Pub/Sub supportMessaging & Streaming
- Redpanda supportMessaging & Streaming
- Apache Pulsar supportMessaging & Streaming
- Message Queuing supportMessaging & Streaming
Databases & Caching
Search & Analytics
Lakehouse & Compute
Observability & Monitoring
Data Integration
Cloud & Containers
API Management
See support for all 51 technologiesShow fewer
Related services
What does AceMQ Docker support include?
Our Docker support covers 24/7 emergency incident response with a 15-minute SLA, root cause analysis on every P1, image and build optimisation, registry operation, image security and supply chain work, and runtime resource tuning. Every ticket is handled by a named senior engineer assigned to your account — there is no tier-1 triage layer and no per-incident charge.
Why does our container get OOMKilled when the app says it has memory free?
Because the process is sizing itself from host memory rather than its cgroup limit. A JVM without container support or a sensible MaxRAMPercentage will pick a heap based on the whole machine; Node will do the same with its default old-space size. The process happily grows past the container limit, the kernel kills it, and the application never gets a chance to log anything — you just see exit code 137. The fix is setting runtime memory flags relative to the container limit, with headroom for non-heap memory.
Can you help us escape public registry pull rate limits?
Yes. Anonymous pulls from public registries are rate limited per source IP, so an entire NAT-ed cluster or CI fleet shares a single budget and hits it during any large rollout. We set up authenticated pulls, a pull-through cache or internal mirror, and pin the base images you depend on, so a public registry throttle or outage stops being able to block your deploys.
Our CI builds got slow. Is that fixable without changing the application?
Usually yes, and entirely in the Dockerfile. The dominant cause is copying the whole source tree before installing dependencies, which invalidates the cache on every commit and reinstalls the full dependency set each build. Copying manifests first, installing, then copying source restores cache reuse. Multi-stage builds and BuildKit cache mounts for package manager directories usually take the rest.
Do you support Docker in Kubernetes environments?
Yes, and that is where most of our container work lives. Kubernetes replaced Docker as the node runtime with containerd or CRI-O, but the images, Dockerfiles, registries, and build pipelines are unchanged — and so are the failure modes. We support the image and build layer alongside the orchestration layer rather than treating them as different engagements.
We found credentials baked into a published image. What now?
Treat the credential as compromised and rotate it first — a value deleted in a later layer is still readable in the layer that introduced it, and anyone who pulled the image has it. We help identify every affected tag and digest, rotate the credential, rebuild using build secrets or a secret manager rather than build arguments, and add a pipeline check so the same class of mistake fails the build next time.
Can we work with AceMQ on Docker without a long contract?
Yes. AceMQ works on Docker in two ways: ad hoc engagements for a defined piece of work, such as a health check, an upgrade or an incident, or an annual partner engagement that covers 24/7 support, proactive reviews and named engineers. Many teams start ad hoc and move to an annual partnership once the first engagement is done.
How much does AceMQ Docker support or consulting cost?
Every AceMQ proposal is tailored to your requirements: your Docker environment, the SLA you need, the hours of cover and the scope of work. Most contracts run $24,000–72,000 a year, depending on the SLA, the scope and how Docker is deployed, with aggressive discounts when several technologies share one contract. Request a quote and AceMQ replies within 1 hour.
Let's talk
A Broken Image Pipeline Stops Every Deploy You Have
Reactive cover, proactive reviews, or AceMQ running Docker for you on your infrastructure or ours. A senior engineer scopes it with you, and quote requests are answered within 1 hour.
A senior Docker engineer, not a sales queueQuote requests answered within 1 hourAd hoc engagements or an annual partnership
Production incident right now?Email a Docker Architect
Get in Touch
Talk to a Docker Expert
Send us a message and we'll follow up within 1 hour — or book a free 30-min consultation directly.
305-204-2607info@acemq.com66 W. Flagler St. 9th Floor
Miami, FL 33130
Miami, FL 33130
Prefer to talk now? Call us directly or use the consultation tab to find a time that works.