Managing Container Registries

Overview

Manage container registries across Docker Hub, AWS ECR, GCP Artifact Registry, Azure ACR, and self-hosted registries (Harbor, Nexus). Automate image tagging, lifecycle policies, cross-region replication, vulnerability scanning integration, and access control for container image storage and distribution.

Prerequisites

• Docker CLI installed and authenticated to the target registry
• Cloud provider CLI (aws, gcloud, az) for managed registries
• Registry credentials configured (docker login or credential helpers)
• Understanding of image naming conventions (registry/namespace/image:tag)
• IAM permissions for registry operations (push, pull, delete, admin)

Instructions

1. Identify the target registry type: ECR, Artifact Registry, ACR, Docker Hub, or self-hosted
2. Configure authentication: set up credential helpers for automated access (docker-credential-ecr-login, gcloud auth configure-docker)
3. Define image naming and tagging strategy: use semantic versioning for releases, git SHA for CI builds, latest only for development
4. Create repository/namespace structure organized by team, application, or environment
5. Configure lifecycle policies to auto-delete untagged images and images older than retention threshold (e.g., keep last 10 tagged images, delete untagged after 7 days)
6. Set up vulnerability scanning: enable automatic scanning on push (ECR scan-on-push, GCP Container Analysis)
7. Configure cross-region replication for disaster recovery and latency reduction
8. Implement access control: read-only for CI pull, push access for CI build agents, admin for operators
9. Generate Terraform/IaC for registry infrastructure and policies

Output

• Terraform/CloudFormation for registry creation with lifecycle and replication policies
• Docker credential helper configuration scripts