distribution/docs/deploying.md

Deploying a registry server

This section explains how to deploy a Docker Registry either privately for your own company or publicly for other users. For example, your company may require a private registry to support your continuous integration (CI) system as it builds new releases or test servers. Alternatively, your company may have a large number of products or services with images you wish to serve in a branded manner.

Docker's public registry maintains a default registry image to assist you in the deployment process. This registry image is sufficient for running local tests but is insufficient for production. For production you should configure and build your own custom registry image from the docker/distribution code.

Note

: The examples on this page were written and tested using Ubuntu 14.04. If you are running Docker in a different OS, you may need to "translate" the commands to meet the requirements of your own environment.

Simple example with the official image

In this section, you create a container running Docker's official registry image. You push an image to, and then pull the same image from, this registry. This a good exercise for understanding the basic interactions a client has with a local registry.

1. Install Docker.

2. Run the hello-world image from the Docker public registry.

    $ docker run hello-world
   

   The run command automatically pulls a hello-world image from Docker's official images.

3. Start a registry on your localhost.

    $ docker run -p 5000:5000 registry:2.0
   

   This starts a registry on your DOCKER_HOST running on port 5000.

4. List your images.

     $ docker images
     REPOSITORY     TAG     IMAGE ID      CREATED       VIRTUAL SIZE
     registry       2.0     bbf0b6ffe923  3 days ago    545.1 MB
     golang         1.4     121a93c90463  5 days ago    514.9 MB
     hello-world    latest  e45a5af57b00  3 months ago  910 B
   

   Your list should include a hello-world image from the earlier run.

5. Retag the hello-world image for your local repoistory.

    $ docker tag hello-world:latest localhost:5000/hello-mine:latest
   

   The command labels a hello-world:latest using a new tag in the [REGISTRYHOST/]NAME[:TAG] format. The REGISTRYHOST is this case is localhost. In a Mac OSX environment, you'd substitute $(boot2docker ip):5000 for the localhost.

6. List your new image.

     $ docker images
     REPOSITORY                  TAG          IMAGE ID      CREATED       VIRTUAL SIZE
     registry                    2.0     bbf0b6ffe923  3 days ago    545.1 MB
     golang                      1.4     121a93c90463  5 days ago    514.9 MB
     hello-world                 latest  e45a5af57b00  3 months ago  910 B		 
     localhost:5000/hello-mine   latest  ef5a5gf57b01  3 months ago  910 B
   

   You should see your new image in your listing.

7. Push this new image to your local registry.

    $ docker push localhost:5000/hello-mine:latest
    The push refers to a repository [localhost:5000/hello-mine] (len: 1)
    e45a5af57b00: Image already exists 
    31cbccb51277: Image successfully pushed 
    511136ea3c5a: Image already exists 
    Digest: sha256:a1b13bc01783882434593119198938b9b9ef2bd32a0a246f16ac99b01383ef7a
   

8. Use the curl command and the Docker Registry API v2 to list your image in the registry:

    $ curl -v -X GET http://localhost:5000/v2/hello-mine/tags/list
    * Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
    *   Trying 127.0.0.1...
    * Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 5000 (#0)
    > GET /v2/hello-mine/tags/list HTTP/1.1
    > User-Agent: curl/7.35.0
    > Host: localhost:5000
    > Accept: */*
    > 
    < HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    < Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
    < Docker-Distribution-Api-Version: registry/2.0
    < Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2015 01:29:47 GMT
    < Content-Length: 40
    < 
    {"name":"hello-mine","tags":["latest"]}
    * Connection #0 to host localhost left intact
   

   You can also get this information by entering the http://localhost:5000/v2/hello-mine/tags/list address in your browser.

9. Remove all the unused images from your local environment:

    $ docker rmi -f $(docker images -q -a )
   

   This command is for illustrative purposes; removing the image forces any run to pull from a registry rather than a local cache. If you run docker images after this you should not see any instance of hello-world or hello-mine in your images list.

     $ docker images
     REPOSITORY      TAG      IMAGE ID      CREATED       VIRTUAL SIZE
     registry         2.0     bbf0b6ffe923  3 days ago    545.1 MB
     golang           1.4     121a93c90463  5 days ago    514.9 MB
   

10. Try running hello-mine.

     $ docker run hello-mine
     Unable to find image 'hello-mine:latest' locally
     Pulling repository hello-mine
     FATA[0001] Error: image library/hello-mine:latest not found 
    

    The run command fails because your new image doesn't exist in the Docker public registry.

11. Now, try running the image but specifying the image's registry:

    $ docker run localhost:5000/hello-mine
    

    If you run docker images after this you'll fine a hello-mine instance.

Making Docker's official registry image production ready

Docker's official image is for simple tests or debugging. Its configuration is unsuitable for most production instances. For example, any client with access to the server's IP can push and pull images to it. See the next section for information on making this image production ready.

Understand production deployment

The Docker Registry 2.0 only accepts connections from a Docker client that is version 1.6.0 or newer. This means, for example, if you are deploying in a environment with 1.5.X clients you'll need to either upgrade them or deploy an older version of the Docker Registry to support them. For information on how to do this, see Configure Nginx with a v1 and v2 registry on this page.

When deploying a registry for a production deployment you should consider these key factors:

backend storage	Where should you store the images?
access and/or authentication	Should users have full or controlled access? This can depend on whether you are serving images to the public or internally to your company only.
debugging	When problems or issues arise, do you have the means of solving them. Logs are useful as is reporting to see trends.
caching	Quickly retrieving images can be crucial if you are relying on images for tests, builds, or other automated systems.

You can configure your registry features to adjust for these factors. You do this by specifying options on the command line or, more typically, by writing a registry configuration file. The configuration file is in YAML format.

Docker's official repository image is preconfigured using the following configuration file:

version: 0.1
log:
  level: debug
  fields:
    service: registry
    environment: development
storage:
  cache:
      blobdescriptor: inmemory
  filesystem:
      rootdirectory: /tmp/registry-dev
  maintenance:
		uploadpurging:
			enabled: false
http:
  addr: :5000
  secret: asecretforlocaldevelopment
  debug:
      addr: localhost:5001
redis:
  addr: localhost:6379
  pool:
    maxidle: 16
    maxactive: 64
    idletimeout: 300s
  dialtimeout: 10ms
  readtimeout: 10ms
  writetimeout: 10ms
notifications:
  endpoints:
      - name: local-8082
        url: http://localhost:5003/callback
        headers:
           Authorization: [Bearer <an example token>]
        timeout: 1s
        threshold: 10
        backoff: 1s
        disabled: true
      - name: local-8083
        url: http://localhost:8083/callback
        timeout: 1s
        threshold: 10
        backoff: 1s
        disabled: true

This configuration is very basic and you can see it would present some problems in a production environment. For example, the http section details the configuration for the HTTP server that hosts the registry. The server is not using even the most minimal transport layer security (TLS). Let's configure that in the next section.

Configure TLS on a registry server

In this section, you configure TLS on the server to enable communication through the https protocol. Enabling TLS on the server is the minimum layer of security recommended for running a registry behind a corporate firewall. One way to do this is to build your own registry image.

Download the source and generate certificates

1. Download the registry source.

   Alternatively, use the git clone command if you are more comfortable with that.

2. Unpack the the downloaded package into a local directory.

   The package creates a distribution directory.

3. Change to the root of the new distribution directory.

    $ cd distribution
   

4. Make a certs subdirectory.

    $ mkdir certs
   

5. Use SSL to generate some self-signed certificates.

    $ openssl req \
    		 -newkey rsa:4096 -nodes -sha256 -keyout certs/domain.key \
    		 -x509 -days 365 -out certs/domain.crt
   

   This command prompts you for basic information it needs to create the certificates.

6. List the contents of the certs directory.

    $ ls certs
    domain.crt  domain.key
   

   When you build this container, the certs directory and its contents automatically get copied also.

Add TLS to the configuration

The distribution repo includes sample registry configurations in the cmd subdirectory. In this section, you edit one of these configurations to add TLS support.

1. Edit the ./cmd/registry/config.yml file.

    $ vi ./cmd/registry/config.yml 
   

2. Locate the http block.

    http:
    		addr: :5000
    		secret: asecretforlocaldevelopment
    		debug:
    				addr: localhost:5001
   

3. Add a tls block for the server's self-signed certificates:

    http:
    		addr: :5000
    		secret: asecretforlocaldevelopment
    		debug:
    				addr: localhost:5001
    		tls:
    			certificate: /go/src/github.com/docker/distribution/certs/domain.crt
    			key: /go/src/github.com/docker/distribution/certs/domain.key	
   

   You provide the paths to the certificates in the container. If you want two-way authentication across the layer, you can add an optional clientcas section.

4. Save and close the file.

Build and run your registry image

1. Build your registry image.

    $ docker build -t secure_registry .
   

2. Run your new image.

    $ docker run -p 5000:5000 secure_registry:latest
    time="2015-04-12T03:06:18.616502588Z" level=info msg="endpoint local-8082 disabled, skipping" environment=development instance.id=bf33c9dc-2564-406b-97c3-6ee69dc20ec6 service=registry 
    time="2015-04-12T03:06:18.617012948Z" level=info msg="endpoint local-8083 disabled, skipping" environment=development instance.id=bf33c9dc-2564-406b-97c3-6ee69dc20ec6 service=registry 
    time="2015-04-12T03:06:18.617190113Z" level=info msg="using inmemory blob descriptor cache" environment=development instance.id=bf33c9dc-2564-406b-97c3-6ee69dc20ec6 service=registry 
    time="2015-04-12T03:06:18.617349067Z" level=info msg="listening on :5000, tls" environment=development instance.id=bf33c9dc-2564-406b-97c3-6ee69dc20ec6 service=registry 
    time="2015-04-12T03:06:18.628589577Z" level=info msg="debug server listening localhost:5001" 
    2015/04/12 03:06:28 http: TLS handshake error from 172.17.42.1:44261: remote error: unknown certificate authority
   
    Watch the messages at startup. You should see that `tls` is running.
   

3. Use curl to verify that you can connect over https.

    $ curl -v https://localhost:5000
    * Rebuilt URL to: https://localhost:5000/
    * Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
    *   Trying 127.0.0.1...
    * Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 5000 (#0)
    * successfully set certificate verify locations:
    *   CAfile: none
    	CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
    * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
    * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
    * SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11):
    * SSLv3, TLS alert, Server hello (2):
    * SSL certificate problem: self signed certificate
    * Closing connection 0
    curl: (60) SSL certificate problem: self signed certificate
    More details here: http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html
   

Configure Nginx with a v1 and v2 registry

This sections describes how to user docker-compose to run a combined version 1 and version 2.0 registry behind an nginx proxy. The combined registry is accessed at localhost:5000. If a docker client has a version less than 1.6, Nginx will route its requests to the 1.0 registry. Requests from newer clients will route to the 2.0 registry.

This procedure uses the same distribution directory you created in the last procedure. The directory includes an example compose configuration.

Install Docker Compose

1. Open a new terminal on the host with your distribution directory.

2. Get the docker-compose binary.

    $ sudo wget https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.1.0/docker-compose-`uname  -s`-`uname -m` -O /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
   

   This command installs the binary in the /usr/local/bin directory.

3. Add executable permissions to the binary.

    $  sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
   

Do some housekeeping

1. Remove any previous images.

    $ docker rmi -f $(docker images -q -a )
   

   This step is a house keeping step. It prevents you from mistakenly picking up an old image as you work through this example.

2. Edit the distribution/cmd/registry/config.yml file and remove the tls block.

   If you worked through the previous example, you'll have a tls block.

3. Save any changes and close the file.

Configure SSL

1. Change to the distribution/contrib/compose/nginx directory.

   This directory contains configuration files for Nginx and both registries.

2. Use SSL to generate some self-signed certificates.

    $ openssl req \
    		 -newkey rsa:4096 -nodes -sha256 -keyout domain.key \
    		 -x509 -days 365 -out domain.crt
   

   This command prompts you for basic information it needs to create certificates.

3. Edit the Dockerfileand add the following lines.

    COPY domain.crt /etc/nginx/domain.crt
    COPY domain.key /etc/nginx/domain.key
   

   When you are done, the file looks like the following.

    FROM nginx:1.7
   
    COPY nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    COPY registry.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/registry.conf
    COPY docker-registry.conf /etc/nginx/docker-registry.conf
    COPY docker-registry-v2.conf /etc/nginx/docker-registry-v2.conf
    COPY domain.crt /etc/nginx/domain.crt
    COPY domain.key /etc/nginx/domain.key
   

4. Save and close the Dockerfile file.

5. Edit the registry.conf file and add the following configuration.

     ssl on;
    	ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/domain.crt;
    	ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/domain.key;
   

   This is an nginx configuration file.

6. Save and close the registry.conf file.

Build and run

1. Go up to the distribution/contrib/compose directory

   This directory includes a single docker-compose.yml configuration.

    nginx:
    	build: "nginx"
    	ports:
    		- "5000:5000"
    	links:
    		- registryv1:registryv1
    		- registryv2:registryv2
    registryv1:
    	image: registry
    	ports:
    		- "5000"
    registryv2:
    	build: "../../"
    	ports:
    		- "5000"
   

This configuration builds a new nginx image as specified by the nginx/Dockerfile file. The 1.0 registry comes from Docker's official public image. Finally, the registry 2.0 image is built from the distribution/Dockerfile you've used previously.

2. Get a registry 1.0 image.

    $ docker pull registry:0.9.1 
   

   The Compose configuration looks for this image locally. If you don't do this step, later steps can fail.

3. Build nginx, the registry 2.0 image, and

    $ docker-compose build
    registryv1 uses an image, skipping
    Building registryv2...
    Step 0 : FROM golang:1.4
   
    ...
   
    Removing intermediate container 9f5f5068c3f3
    Step 4 : COPY docker-registry-v2.conf /etc/nginx/docker-registry-v2.conf
     ---> 74acc70fa106
    Removing intermediate container edb84c2b40cb
    Successfully built 74acc70fa106
   

   The commmand outputs its progress until it completes.

4. Start your configuration with compose.

    $ docker-compose up
    Recreating compose_registryv1_1...
    Recreating compose_registryv2_1...
    Recreating compose_nginx_1...
    Attaching to compose_registryv1_1, compose_registryv2_1, compose_nginx_1
    ...
   

5. In another terminal, display the running configuration.

    $ docker ps
    CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                       COMMAND                CREATED             STATUS              PORTS                                     NAMES
    a81ad2557702        compose_nginx:latest        "nginx -g 'daemon of   8 minutes ago       Up 8 minutes        80/tcp, 443/tcp, 0.0.0.0:5000->5000/tcp   compose_nginx_1        
    0618437450dd        compose_registryv2:latest   "registry cmd/regist   8 minutes ago       Up 8 minutes        0.0.0.0:32777->5000/tcp                   compose_registryv2_1   
    aa82b1ed8e61        registry:latest             "docker-registry"      8 minutes ago       Up 8 minutes        0.0.0.0:32776->5000/tcp                   compose_registryv1_1   
   

Explore a bit

1. Check for TLS on your nginx server.

    $ curl -v https://localhost:5000
    * Rebuilt URL to: https://localhost:5000/
    * Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
    *   Trying 127.0.0.1...
    * Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 5000 (#0)
    * successfully set certificate verify locations:
    *   CAfile: none
    	CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
    * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
    * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
    * SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11):
    * SSLv3, TLS alert, Server hello (2):
    * SSL certificate problem: self signed certificate
    * Closing connection 0
    curl: (60) SSL certificate problem: self signed certificate
    More details here: http://curl.haxx.se/docs/sslcerts.html
   

2. Tag the v1 registry image.

     $ docker tag registry:latest localhost:5000/registry_one:latest
   

3. Push it to the localhost.

     $ docker push localhost:5000/registry_one:latest
   

   If you are using the 1.6 Docker client, this pushes the image the v2 registry.

4. Use curl to list the image in the registry.

    	$ curl -v -X GET http://localhost:32777/v2/registry_one/tags/list
    	* Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
    	*   Trying 127.0.0.1...
    	* Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 32777 (#0)
    	> GET /v2/registry_one/tags/list HTTP/1.1
    	> User-Agent: curl/7.36.0
    	> Host: localhost:32777
    	> Accept: */*
    	> 
    	< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    	< Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
    	< Docker-Distribution-Api-Version: registry/2.0
    	< Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2015 22:34:13 GMT
    	< Content-Length: 39
    	< 
    	{"name":"registry1","tags":["latest"]}
    	* Connection #0 to host localhost left intact
   

   This example refers to the specific port assigned to the 2.0 registry. You saw this port earlier, when you used docker ps to show your running containers.