Azure Container Registry Setup and Management

To set up an Azure Container Registry, you'll need to create a container registry instance. This can be done through the Azure portal or using the Azure CLI.

The registry instance will serve as a central location for storing and managing your container images. You can create a new registry instance by selecting "Container Registry" from the Azure Marketplace.

To manage your container registry, you'll need to create a resource group. A resource group is a logical container that holds related resources for an Azure solution. You can create a new resource group by going to the Azure portal and clicking on "Resource groups".

You can also manage access to your registry by creating a user-assigned managed identity. This allows you to grant permissions to specific users or services to push and pull images from the registry.

You can authenticate with an Azure container registry in two primary scenarios: individual authentication and service (or "headless") authentication.

Broaden your view: Azure Auth Json Website Azure Ad Authentication

The recommended method for individual identity authentication is to use the az acr login command.

Service principals are the recommended method for headless/service identity authentication.

You can use role-based access control to assign permissions to different users, service principals, or other identities that perform different registry operations.

Here's a breakdown of the two authentication scenarios:

To login to your Azure Container Registry instance from the Docker CLI, you can use the az acr login command.

You can also pass the client_secret directly to the docker login command, but keep in mind that both client_id and client_secret will be visible in your bash history.

To sign in to your Azure Container Registry instance, use the az acr login command and provide the unique name you chose for the container registry when you created it.

The command returns Login Succeeded once completed.

You can build and push container images to your Azure Container Registry (ACR) using the Azure CLI command `az acr build`. This command allows you to build and push images to your ACR instance without having to manually upload them.

Recommended read: Github Actions Push to Azure Container Registry

To list the images in your ACR instance, you can use the `az acr repository list` command or the `Get-AzContainerRegistryRepository` cmdlet. Both commands will display the available images in your registry.

Here are some common image management tasks in ACR:

To list images in your Azure Container Registry, you can use the az acr repository list command or the Get-AzContainerRegistryRepository cmdlet. The az acr repository list command is used to view the images in your ACR instance, while the Get-AzContainerRegistryRepository cmdlet is used to get a list of repositories in your registry.

You can run the az acr repository list command with the --name and --output options to get a table listing the available images in your registry. For example, az acr repository list --name $ACRNAME --output table will display the available images in your registry.

Alternatively, you can use the Get-AzContainerRegistryRepository cmdlet to get a list of repositories in your registry. The cmdlet returns a list of repository names, such as aks-store-demo/product-service, aks-store-demo/order-service, and aks-store-demo/store-front.

Consider reading: What Is Azure Used for

Here are the ways to list images in your Azure Container Registry:

Some examples of output from these commands include:

* Result

aks-store-demo/product-service

aks-store-demo/order-service

aks-store-demo/store-front

* aks-store-demo/productservice

aks-store-demo/orderservice

aks-store-demo/storefront

Here's an interesting read: Azure Web App Container

Managing the size of your container registry is crucial to avoid running out of storage space. You can use the Azure CLI command az acr show-usage to display the current consumption of storage and other resources in your registry.

The registry's storage usage is also displayed in the Overview of your registry in the Azure portal. In a geo-replicated registry, storage usage is shown for the home region, so be sure to multiply by the number of replications to get the total registry storage consumed.

To manage your registry's size, you should periodically delete unused content. This will help prevent your registry from growing too large and running out of storage space.

Check this out: Azure Storage Container

Configuring ACR involves setting up a namespace, which is a way to organize your container images.

You can create a namespace by using the Azure CLI or Azure portal.

To set up a namespace, you need to specify a unique name and choose a location for your registry.

When working with container registries, it's a good idea to keep them in their own resource group. This helps prevent accidental deletion of the image collection when you're done with the container instance.

Container registries are used across multiple container hosts, so it makes sense to give them their own dedicated resource group. This way, you can easily manage and maintain the collection of images without worrying about them being deleted along with the container instance.

You might experiment with a specific host type, like Azure Container Instances, but it's likely you'll want to delete the container instance when you're done. By keeping the registry in its own resource group, you minimize the risk of deleting the image collection by mistake.

By placing your registry in its own resource group, you can keep your images safe and avoid any potential headaches.

A fresh viewpoint: Run Docker Image from Azure Container Registry

Configuring Kubernetes with ACR involves specifying a custom docker registry in your Kubernetes object configuration. This can be done by referencing a Kubernetes Secret, which decouples the k8s object from the registry configuration.

To create a Kubernetes Secret, you'll need to store your registry credentials securely. You can use the `read -s` command to prevent your client_secret from being stored in bash history.

In your Kubernetes configuration, specify the custom docker registry by referencing the Secret by its name. This allows you to change the registry configuration without modifying the k8s object.

Kubernetes will try to use docker images stored locally or pull them from the public docker hub by default. However, by specifying the custom docker registry, you can change this behavior and use your ACR instead.

Repository namespaces are a key feature of Azure Container Registry (ACR) that allow you to share a single registry across multiple groups within your organization.

By using repository namespaces, you can easily organize your container images and allow different teams to use the same registry. This makes it easier to manage and maintain your container images.

For example, you can use nested namespaces to create a hierarchy of repositories, such as contoso.azurecr.io/products/widget/web:1, where "products" is a namespace and "widget" is a sub-namespace.

You can place images that are used corporate-wide, like aspnetcore, in the root namespace, and container images owned by specific groups in their own namespaces.

Here are some examples of container image tags using repository namespaces:

Each repository is managed independently, even if it's part of a nested namespace, so you don't have to worry about dependencies between repositories.

Deploying and Scaling is a breeze with Azure Container Registry. You can create Pods, Replica Sets, and Deployments using the Secret, thanks to the spec.imagePullSecrets configuration value.

To deploy a pod, save the configuration to a local file like pod-sample.yaml and use kubectl to deploy it. This is exactly what we did in our previous example.

With ACR, you can easily bring Secrets into consideration when creating Kubernetes objects. This makes deployment and scaling a streamlined process.

If this caught your attention, see: Deploy to Azure Container Apps

To deploy Docker Self-Hosted, you'll need to download the Docker Desktop installer from the official Docker website. This is a straightforward process that takes just a few minutes.

Docker Self-Hosted is a feature that allows you to run Docker on your local machine, without relying on a cloud provider. This means you have full control over your environment and can scale as needed.

You can deploy Docker Self-Hosted on Windows, macOS, or Linux, making it a versatile option for developers. Just be sure to check the system requirements to ensure your machine meets the necessary specs.

The Docker Desktop installer will guide you through the installation process, which typically takes around 10-15 minutes to complete.

Deploying your container registry in the same Azure region as your container hosts can lower latency and cost. This is a key benefit of using a private container registry.

Having a private registry close to your deployment minimizes network latency, which is especially important for large Docker images that can add up to multiple gigabytes.

Geo-replicate multi-region deployments by using Azure Container Registry's geo-replication feature, which simplifies registry management and minimizes latency for global customers.

Geo-replication is available with Premium registries, making it a cost-effective solution for companies with multiple regions.

You can configure regional webhooks to notify you of events in specific replicas, such as when images are pushed, keeping you informed and up-to-date.

To learn how to use geo-replication, check out the three-part tutorial, Geo-replication in Azure Container Registry.

To create a resource group, you need to use the az group create command, specifying a name and location. In this tutorial, we'll use myResourceGroup as a placeholder, but you can replace it with your own name.

The location for your resource group is also important, as it determines where your resources will be deployed. In this example, we're using eastus.

To create a resource group, run the following command: az group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus

Once your resource group is created, you can move on to creating an Azure container registry.

Here are the steps to create an Azure container registry:

Alternatively, you can use the New-AzContainerRegistry cmdlet to create an ACR instance. This cmdlet requires a unique registry name, a resource group name, and a location.

Here's an example of how to create an ACR instance using the New-AzContainerRegistry cmdlet:

$rand=New-Object System.Random

$RAND=$rand.Next()

$ACRNAME="myregistry$RAND" # Or replace with your own name

New-AzContainerRegistry -ResourceGroupName myResourceGroup -Name $ACRNAME -Location eastus -Sku Basic