iptables forward port error - No chain/target/match by that name

I am trying to configure iptables on my Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server to forward port 443 to 8443.

But when I run this command:

sudo iptables -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8443

I get the following error:

iptables: No chain/target/match by that name.

My iptables current configuration:

$ sudo iptables -L

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination         
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere             tcp dpt:https
DROP       tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere             tcp dpt:http

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination         

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination 

What am I missing or doing wrong?


Because PREROUTING chain belongs to the NAT table, not the FILTER table. If you do not mention any table explicitly by -t option, then FILTER is assumed.

So, you need to mention the table type with -t nat:

sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 443 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8443

Note that, MANGLE and RAW tables also have PREROUTING chain but as you are redirecting ports only, you are presumably looking for the NAT table.


PREROUTING chain only available for nat, mangle and raw tables.
iptables assumes filter table, so you must specify one of these, eg. iptables -t nat ...


I get similar error when I run a docker command

docker run -d -p 8084:8080 knockdata/zeppelin-highcharts


d9c5d34f500d621585470b0e70b915395fcb6b3437859e0f610dbb58d51faf25
docker: Error response from daemon: driver failed programming external connectivity on endpoint elegant_jang  
(7ca0f5ad689f5443ce7533f66b4a86c34d2dbd9d076bac4812288dd3f6a76698):  
iptables failed: iptables --wait -t nat -A DOCKER -p tcp -d 0/0 --dport 8084 -j DNAT --to-destination 172.17.0.2:8080 
! -i docker0: iptables: No chain/target/match by that name.
(exit status 1).

I was able to fix it by reinstall docker-engine

apt-get remove docker-engine
apt-get install docker-engine