Automatically start containers As of Docker 1.2, restart policies are the built-in Docker mechanism for restarting containers when they exit. If set, restart policies will be used when the Docker daemon starts up, as typically happens after a system boot. Restart policies will ensure that linked containers are started in the correct order. If restart policies don’t suit your needs (i.e., you have non-Docker processes that depend on Docker containers), you can use a process manager like upstart,