103 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
103 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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description: Setting-up a local mirror for Docker Hub images
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keywords: registry, on-prem, images, tags, repository, distribution, mirror, Hub, recipe, advanced
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title: Registry as a pull through cache
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---
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## Use-case
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If you have multiple instances of Docker running in your environment (e.g.,
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multiple physical or virtual machines, all running the Docker daemon), each time
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one of them requires an image that it doesn’t have it will go out to the
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internet and fetch it from the public Docker registry. By running a local
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registry mirror, you can keep most of the redundant image fetch traffic on your
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local network.
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### Alternatives
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Alternatively, if the set of images you are using is well delimited, you can
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simply pull them manually and push them to a simple, local, private registry.
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Furthermore, if your images are all built in-house, not using the Hub at all and
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relying entirely on your local registry is the simplest scenario.
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### Gotcha
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It's currently not possible to mirror another private registry. Only the central
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Hub can be mirrored.
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### Solution
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The Registry can be configured as a pull through cache. In this mode a Registry
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responds to all normal docker pull requests but stores all content locally.
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## How does it work?
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The first time you request an image from your local registry mirror, it pulls
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the image from the public Docker registry and stores it locally before handing
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it back to you. On subsequent requests, the local registry mirror is able to
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serve the image from its own storage.
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### What if the content changes on the Hub?
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When a pull is attempted with a tag, the Registry will check the remote to
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ensure if it has the latest version of the requested content. If it doesn't it
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will fetch the latest content and cache it.
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### What about my disk?
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In environments with high churn rates, stale data can build up in the cache.
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When running as a pull through cache the Registry will periodically remove old
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content to save disk space. Subsequent requests for removed content will cause a
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remote fetch and local re-caching.
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To ensure best performance and guarantee correctness the Registry cache should
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be configured to use the `filesystem` driver for storage.
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## Run a Registry as a pull-through cache
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The easiest way to run a registry as a pull through cache is to run the official
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Registry image.
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Multiple registry caches can be deployed over the same back-end. A single
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registry cache will ensure that concurrent requests do not pull duplicate data,
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but this property will not hold true for a registry cache cluster.
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### Configure the cache
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To configure a Registry to run as a pull through cache, the addition of a
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`proxy` section is required to the config file.
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In order to access private images on the Docker Hub, a username and password can
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be supplied.
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```yaml
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proxy:
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remoteurl: https://registry-1.docker.io
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username: [username]
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password: [password]
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```
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> **Warning**: If you specify a username and password, it's very important to
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> understand that private resources that this user has access to Docker Hub will
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> be made available on your mirror. **You must secure your mirror** by
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> implementing authentication if you expect these resources to stay private!
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> **Warning**: In order for the scheduler to clean up old entries, `delete` must
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> be enabled in the registry configuration. See
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> [Registry Configuration](/registry/configuration.md) for more details.
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### Configure the Docker daemon
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Either pass the `--registry-mirror` option when starting `dockerd` manually,
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or edit `/etc/docker/daemon.json` and add the `registry-mirrors` key and value,
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to make the change persistent.
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```json
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{
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"registry-mirrors": ["https://<my-docker-mirror-host>"]
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}
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```
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Save the file and restart Docker for the change to take effect.
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