Docker applications fail to start with "uncompressed layer size exceeds quota" or "disk limit is smaller than volume size"

Products

• VMware Tanzu Platform Core

Issue/Introduction

When pushing a Docker application in TAS, one of the following errors appears in the app logs:

• uncompressed layer size exceeds quota. E.g:

2026-02-23T16:20:43.62+0100 [CELL/0] ERR Cell ########-####-####-####-############ failed to create container for instance ########-####-####-####-####: running image plugin create: pulling the image: streaming blob sha256:##########################: writing blob to tempfile: uncompressed layer size exceeds quota

 

• disk limit is smaller than volume size.E.g:

2026-02-24T15:23:08.13+0100 [CELL/0] ERR Cell ########-####-####-####-############  failed to create container for instance ########-####-####-####-####: running image plugin create: making image: creating image: applying disk limits: disk limit is smaller than volume size

 

 

 

Environment

TAS/ERT with diego_docker feature enabled 

Cause

The application disk quota is smaller than the size required by the Docker image.

Two different errors appear depending on when the failure occurs:

• During image pull/unpack → uncompressed layer size exceeds quota

• During container creation → disk limit is smaller than volume size

Both indicate that the Docker image requires more disk space than allocated.

Resolution

 

1. Increase disk quota in manifest or in cf push command. Eg
   

   cf push myapp --disk <new disk capacity>

   
   

   applications:
   - name: myapp
     disk_quota: <new disk capacity>

   
   
   
2. If higher quota is required than allowed then change 

• Ops Manager → TAS/ERT Tile → App Developer Controls → Maximum disk quota per app

Additional Information

The default disk quota is defined in

• Ops Manager → TAS/ERT Tile → App Developer Controls → Default disk quota per app  (min: 512, max: 20480)