Could not do a head request

[gregeeh]

Hi all,

Suddenly started getting emails with the following"

Could not do a head request for "docker.io/lscr.io/linuxserver/heimdall:latest", falling back to regular pull.
Reason: registry responded to head request with "401 Unauthorized", auth: "Bearer realm=\"https://auth.docker.io/token\",service=\"registry.docker.io\",scope=\"repository:lscr.io/linuxserver/heimdall:pull\",error=\"insufficient_scope\""

Logs show the following:

time="2022-03-24T11:13:54+11:00" level=info msg="Watchtower 1.4.0"
time="2022-03-24T11:13:54+11:00" level=info msg="Using notifications: smtp"
time="2022-03-24T11:13:54+11:00" level=info msg="Checking all containers (except explicitly disabled with label)"
time="2022-03-24T11:13:54+11:00" level=info msg="Scheduling first run: 2022-03-25 04:00:00 +1100 AEDT"
time="2022-03-24T11:13:54+11:00" level=info msg="Note that the first check will be performed in 16 hours, 46 minutes, 5 seconds"
time="2022-03-25T04:00:35+11:00" level=info msg="Session done" Failed=0 Scanned=4 Updated=0 notify=no
time="2022-03-26T04:01:39+11:00" level=info msg="Found new lscr.io/linuxserver/heimdall:latest image (223506f157a9)"
time="2022-03-26T04:01:49+11:00" level=info msg="Stopping /heimdall (7fc7e99773bf) with SIGTERM"
time="2022-03-26T04:02:27+11:00" level=info msg="Creating /heimdall"
time="2022-03-26T04:02:44+11:00" level=info msg="Removing image e927ad2c576f"
time="2022-03-26T04:02:55+11:00" level=info msg="Session done" Failed=0 Scanned=4 Updated=1 notify=no
time="2022-03-27T04:00:32+11:00" level=info msg="Session done" Failed=0 Scanned=4 Updated=0 notify=no
time="2022-03-27T09:16:19+11:00" level=info msg="Waiting for running update to be finished..."
time="2022-03-27T09:28:44+11:00" level=info msg="Watchtower 1.4.0"
time="2022-03-27T09:28:44+11:00" level=info msg="Using notifications: smtp"
time="2022-03-27T09:28:44+11:00" level=info msg="Checking all containers (except explicitly disabled with label)"
time="2022-03-27T09:28:44+11:00" level=info msg="Scheduling first run: 2022-03-28 04:00:00 +1100 AEDT"
time="2022-03-27T09:28:44+11:00" level=info msg="Note that the first check will be performed in 18 hours, 31 minutes, 15 seconds"
time="2022-03-28T04:00:26+11:00" level=info msg="Found new lscr.io/linuxserver/heimdall:latest image (1130e5469f5a)"
time="2022-03-28T04:01:33+11:00" level=info msg="Stopping /heimdall (dba484e10849) with SIGTERM"
time="2022-03-28T04:02:48+11:00" level=info msg="Creating /heimdall"
time="2022-03-28T04:03:06+11:00" level=info msg="Removing image 223506f157a9"
time="2022-03-28T04:03:08+11:00" level=info msg="Session done" Failed=0 Scanned=4 Updated=1 notify=no
time="2022-03-28T09:04:20+11:00" level=info msg="Waiting for running update to be finished..."
time="2022-03-28T09:06:54+11:00" level=info msg="Watchtower 1.4.0"
time="2022-03-28T09:06:54+11:00" level=info msg="Using notifications: smtp"
time="2022-03-28T09:06:54+11:00" level=info msg="Checking all containers (except explicitly disabled with label)"
time="2022-03-28T09:06:54+11:00" level=info msg="Scheduling first run: 2022-03-29 04:00:00 +1100 AEDT"
time="2022-03-28T09:06:54+11:00" level=info msg="Note that the first check will be performed in 18 hours, 53 minutes, 5 seconds"
time="2022-03-29T04:00:25+11:00" level=info msg="Session done" Failed=0 Scanned=4 Updated=0 notify=no
time="2022-03-30T04:00:19+11:00" level=warning msg="Could not do a head request for \"docker.io/lscr.io/linuxserver/heimdall:latest\", falling back to regular pull." container=/heimdall image="docker.io/lscr.io/linuxserver/heimdall:latest"
time="2022-03-30T04:00:19+11:00" level=warning msg="Reason: registry responded to head request with \"401 Unauthorized\", auth: \"Bearer realm=\\\"https://auth.docker.io/token\\\",service=\\\"registry.docker.io\\\",scope=\\\"repository:lscr.io/linuxserver/heimdall:pull\\\",error=\\\"insufficient_scope\\\"\"" container=/heimdall image="docker.io/lscr.io/linuxserver/heimdall:latest"
time="2022-03-30T04:01:14+11:00" level=info msg="Session done" Failed=0 Scanned=5 Updated=0 notify=no

[~] # docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                 COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS          PORTS                                                                       NAMES
7fc16c88aabb   portainer/portainer-ce:2.11.1         "/portainer"             20 hours ago     Up 20 hours     0.0.0.0:49164->8000/tcp, 0.0.0.0:49163->9000/tcp, 0.0.0.0:49162->9443/tcp   portainer
6e9bc56c4a25   lscr.io/linuxserver/heimdall:latest   "/init"                  24 hours ago     Up 24 hours     0.0.0.0:49153->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:49154->443/tcp                               heimdall
c78701df97ce   containrrr/watchtower:latest          "/watchtower --clean…"   6 days ago       Up 2 days       8080/tcp                                                                    watchtower
e8dd66c7eb2e   lscr.io/linuxserver/tvheadend         "/init"                  6 days ago       Up 2 days                                                                                   tvheadend

Any ideas what might be happening would be appreciated.

TIA

[jasong97]

Did you ever figure out what is happening? I just setup watchtower and I seeing the same messages.

[jasong97]

I just found this setting to disable the warning. WATCHTOWER_WARN_ON_HEAD_FAILURE=never

#1529 (reply in thread)

[piksel]

Note: I'm adding this here, since it comes up when searching for the warning message:

This is warning. But as it mentions:

falling back to regular pull

It still checks if the container is updated, but it uses docker pull, which uses up the rate limit imposed by docker hub. If you have a really small interval, let's say 5 minutes, this will lead you to reach the limit after a while and prevents watchtower from working until the limit is renewed (every 6 hours).
See https://www.docker.com/increase-rate-limits/ for more information about the limits.

What can I do to solve it?

You can disable the warning using WATCHTOWER_WARN_ON_HEAD_FAILURE=never or --warn-on-head-failure never.
But note that you might not be able to check using a really short interval (multiple times per hour).