Cannot run youtrack-windows Docker image

Hello,
Stan from YouTrack Support here, I'll be glad to assist you! 

Thank you for sharing the details about your server and the docker inspect output. These lead us to the likely cause of the issue you experience. 

According to MS documentation, Windows Server containers are blocked from starting when the build number between the container host and the container image are different. However, this limitation can be overcome by running the container in hyper-v isolation mode. 

For any mismatched version, running with Hyper-V isolation provides the container with a set of matching Kernel binaries and does not depend on the version of the host.

Please try starting the container with hyper-v isolation. You just need to add the --isolation=hyperv flag to the Docker command:

docker run -it --name <youtrack-server-instance> `
-v <path to data directory>:C:/opt/youtrack/data `
-v <path to conf directory>:C:/opt/youtrack/conf `
-v <path to logs directory>:C:/opt/youtrack/logs `
-v <path to backups directory>:C:/opt/youtrack/backups `
-p <port on host>:8080 `
--isolation=hyperv `
jetbrains/youtrack-windows:<version>

If the issue persists, please submit a ticket to us at https://youtrack-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/requests/new, since we'll need to review the full logs from your installation it's best to not share those publicly. 

Have a nice day! 

Thank you for your response.

On both servers, we have:

• enabled Hyper-V via Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V
• added the --isolation=hyperv parameter

However the container still fails to start, though with a different error message:

docker: Error response from daemon: hcs::CreateComputeSystem 6eda0fd3979fe483b9df1ffda9486f0d5530aca2d8865f11e1c8d6176de228b5: The virtual machine could not be started because a required feature is not installed.

I tried looking for some logs to try to understand what this “required feature” is, but I found none.

Hi! 

Thank you for the follow-up. I'll continue testing and checking the issue this week, but a few variables outside of the YouTrack installation might affect the running of a Windows container. To help me troubleshoot this further, please perform the actions below and share the outcomes:

1. Run Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName containers –All to ensure the containers feature is enabled along with hyper-v.
2. Try running the Nano Server container with tag ltsc2019. You can find the step-by-step instructions with necessary commands here (the examples in the article use tag ltsc2022, please change it to ltsc2019). It's a lightweight container provided by Microsoft that is great for running tests like this. Please share the output if you can run this container or if you face any errors. This will indicate if the issue is specific to the YouTrack container.
3. Sometimes Windows Boot Configuration doesn't have the hypervisor set to launch at boot, even though the hypervisor itself is installed. You can check that by running bcdedit. Run bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype Auto to have it auto-launched at boot. 

Please also let me know if the Windows Server that runs Docker is a hardware server, a virtual machine on your own hardware server, or a Windows Server running in Azure/AWS. 

If it's a hardware server, please run systeminfo.exe and send me the output showing if virtualization is enabled in firmware. 

If the machine is running inside Azure/AWS, please run the command below and send me the output. This'll help to determine if your VM supports nested virtualization. 
(Get-ComputerInfo).HyperVRequirementVirtualizationFirmwareEnabled

Looking forward to hearing back from you. Have a great day! 
 

Hello.

It is definitely a Docker issue (with a reminder we have no prior experience with Docker).

As for your questions:

1. The container feature was already enabled
2. The Nano Server container fails to start with the same “missing feature” error
3. bcedit is not available

Both machines run in virtualized environments:

• Windows Server 2025 under VMWare
• Windows Server 2022 under KVM

In both cases:

• systeminfo.exe outputs this with regards to Hyper-V: Hyper-V Requirements:          A hypervisor has been detected. Features required for Hyper-V will not be displayed.
• (Get-ComputerInfo).HyperVRequirementVirtualizationFirmwareEnabled outputs nothing

I tried looking for some information, and it could be a problem with nested virtualization not being supported.

Hello! 

Thank you for sharing the details. You are correct, it's exceedingly likely that the issue is related to nested virtualization. 

As the problem originates outside of YouTrack, I can't provide definitive instructions to resolve it. Searching the knowledge bases for Broadcom (VMware owner) and Redhat (primary dev for KVM), I found the articles below, which I hope will help in determining the next steps: 

1. Expose VMware Hardware Assisted Virtualization
2. How to enable nested virtualization in VCD
3. Creating nested virtual machines in KVM

Feel free to reach out anytime if you have any questions. Have a great day! 

Thank you very much for your attention and unwarranted research. We will investigate further on our own.