@@ -1190,6 +1190,12 @@ func (daemon *Daemon) initCgroupsPath(path string) error {

 		return nil

 	}

+	if daemon.configStore.CPURealtimePeriod == 0 && daemon.configStore.CPURealtimeRuntime == 0 {

+		return nil

+	}

+

+	// Recursively create cgroup to ensure that the system and all parent cgroups have values set

+	// for the period and runtime as this limits what the children can be set to.

 	daemon.initCgroupsPath(filepath.Dir(path))

 	_, root, err := cgroups.FindCgroupMountpointAndRoot("cpu")

@@ -1199,15 +1205,18 @@ func (daemon *Daemon) initCgroupsPath(path string) error {

 	path = filepath.Join(root, path)

 	sysinfo := sysinfo.New(true)

-	if err := os.MkdirAll(path, 0755); err != nil && !os.IsExist(err) {

-		return err

-	}

 	if sysinfo.CPURealtimePeriod && daemon.configStore.CPURealtimePeriod != 0 {

+		if err := os.MkdirAll(path, 0755); err != nil && !os.IsExist(err) {

+			return err

+		}

 		if err := ioutil.WriteFile(filepath.Join(path, "cpu.rt_period_us"), []byte(strconv.FormatInt(daemon.configStore.CPURealtimePeriod, 10)), 0700); err != nil {

 			return err

 		}

 	}

 	if sysinfo.CPURealtimeRuntime && daemon.configStore.CPURealtimeRuntime != 0 {

+		if err := os.MkdirAll(path, 0755); err != nil && !os.IsExist(err) {

+			return err

+		}

 		if err := ioutil.WriteFile(filepath.Join(path, "cpu.rt_runtime_us"), []byte(strconv.FormatInt(daemon.configStore.CPURealtimeRuntime, 10)), 0700); err != nil {

 			return err

 		}