# GitLab Container Registry administration

> - [Introduced][ce-4040] in GitLab 8.8.
> - Container Registry manifest `v1` support was added in GitLab 8.9 to support
>   Docker versions earlier than 1.10.
> - This document is about the admin guide. To learn how to use GitLab Container
>   Registry [user documentation](../user/project/container_registry.md).

With the Container Registry integrated into GitLab, every project can have its
own space to store its Docker images.

You can read more about the Container Registry at
<https://docs.docker.com/registry/introduction/>.

## Enable the Container Registry

**Omnibus GitLab installations**

All you have to do is configure the domain name under which the Container
Registry will listen to. Read
[#container-registry-domain-configuration](#container-registry-domain-configuration)
and pick one of the two options that fits your case.

>**Note:**
The container registry works under HTTPS by default. Using HTTP is possible
but not recommended and out of the scope of this document.
Read the [insecure Registry documentation][docker-insecure] if you want to
implement this.

**Installations from source**

If you have installed GitLab from source:

1. You will have to [install Registry][registry-deploy] by yourself.
1. After the installation is complete, you will have to configure the Registry's
   settings in `gitlab.yml` in order to enable it.
1. Use the sample NGINX configuration file that is found under
   [`lib/support/nginx/registry-ssl`][registry-ssl] and edit it to match the
   `host`, `port` and TLS certs paths.

The contents of `gitlab.yml` are:

```
registry:
  enabled: true
  host: registry.gitlab.example.com
  port: 5005
  api_url: http://localhost:5000/
  key: config/registry.key
  path: shared/registry
  issuer: gitlab-issuer
```

where:

| Parameter | Description |
| --------- | ----------- |
| `enabled` | `true` or `false`. Enables the Registry in GitLab. By default this is `false`. |
| `host`    | The host URL under which the Registry will run and the users will be able to use. |
| `port`    | The port under which the external Registry domain will listen on. |
| `api_url` | The internal API URL under which the Registry is exposed to. It defaults to `http://localhost:5000`. |
| `key`     | The private key location that is a pair of Registry's `rootcertbundle`. Read the [token auth configuration documentation][token-config]. |
| `path`    | This should be the same directory like specified in Registry's `rootdirectory`. Read the [storage configuration documentation][storage-config]. This path needs to be readable by the GitLab user, the web-server user and the Registry user. Read more in [#container-registry-storage-path](#container-registry-storage-path). |
| `issuer`  | This should be the same value as configured in Registry's `issuer`. Read the [token auth configuration documentation][token-config]. |

>**Note:**
A Registry init file is not shipped with GitLab if you install it from source.
Hence, [restarting GitLab][restart gitlab] will not restart the Registry should
you modify its settings. Read the upstream documentation on how to achieve that.

At the **absolute** minimum, make sure your [Registry configuration][registry-auth]
has `container_registry` as the service and `https://gitlab.example.com/jwt/auth`
as the realm:

```
auth:
  token:
    realm: https://gitlab.example.com/jwt/auth
    service: container_registry
    issuer: gitlab-issuer
    rootcertbundle: /root/certs/certbundle
```

CAUTION: **Caution:**
If `auth` is not set up, users will be able to pull docker images without authentication.

## Container Registry domain configuration

There are two ways you can configure the Registry's external domain.

- Either [use the existing GitLab domain][existing-domain] where in that case
  the Registry will have to listen on a port and reuse GitLab's TLS certificate,
- or [use a completely separate domain][new-domain] with a new TLS certificate
  for that domain.

Since the container Registry requires a TLS certificate, in the end it all boils
down to how easy or pricey is to get a new one.

Please take this into consideration before configuring the Container Registry
for the first time.

### Configure Container Registry under an existing GitLab domain

If the Registry is configured to use the existing GitLab domain, you can
expose the Registry on a port so that you can reuse the existing GitLab TLS
certificate.

Assuming that the GitLab domain is `https://gitlab.example.com` and the port the
Registry is exposed to the outside world is `4567`, here is what you need to set
in `gitlab.rb` or `gitlab.yml` if you are using Omnibus GitLab or installed
GitLab from source respectively.

>**Note:**
Be careful to choose a port different than the one that Registry listens to (`5000` by default),
otherwise you will run into conflicts.

**Omnibus GitLab installations**

1. Your `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` should contain the Registry URL as well as the
   path to the existing TLS certificate and key used by GitLab:

   ```ruby
   registry_external_url 'https://gitlab.example.com:4567'
   ```

   Note how the `registry_external_url` is listening on HTTPS under the
   existing GitLab URL, but on a different port.

   If your TLS certificate is not in `/etc/gitlab/ssl/gitlab.example.com.crt`
   and key not in `/etc/gitlab/ssl/gitlab.example.com.key` uncomment the lines
   below:

   ```ruby
   registry_nginx['ssl_certificate'] = "/path/to/certificate.pem"
   registry_nginx['ssl_certificate_key'] = "/path/to/certificate.key"
   ```

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

1. Validate using:

   ```sh
   openssl s_client -showcerts -servername gitlab.example.com -connect gitlab.example.com:443 > cacert.pem
   ```

NOTE: **Note:**
If your certificate provider provides the CA Bundle certificates, append them to the TLS certificate file.

**Installations from source**

1. Open `/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml`, find the `registry` entry and
   configure it with the following settings:

   ```
   registry:
     enabled: true
     host: gitlab.example.com
     port: 4567
   ```

1. Save the file and [restart GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.
1. Make the relevant changes in NGINX as well (domain, port, TLS certificates path).

Users should now be able to login to the Container Registry with their GitLab
credentials using:

```bash
docker login gitlab.example.com:4567
```

### Configure Container Registry under its own domain

If the Registry is configured to use its own domain, you will need a TLS
certificate for that specific domain (e.g., `registry.example.com`) or maybe
a wildcard certificate if hosted under a subdomain of your existing GitLab
domain (e.g., `registry.gitlab.example.com`).

NOTE: **Note:**
As well as manually generated SSL certificates (explained here), certificates automatically
generated by Let's Encrypt are also [supported in Omnibus installs](https://docs.gitlab.com/omnibus/settings/ssl.html#host-services).

Let's assume that you want the container Registry to be accessible at
`https://registry.gitlab.example.com`.

**Omnibus GitLab installations**

1. Place your TLS certificate and key in
   `/etc/gitlab/ssl/registry.gitlab.example.com.crt` and
   `/etc/gitlab/ssl/registry.gitlab.example.com.key` and make sure they have
   correct permissions:

   ```bash
   chmod 600 /etc/gitlab/ssl/registry.gitlab.example.com.*
   ```

1. Once the TLS certificate is in place, edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` with:

   ```ruby
   registry_external_url 'https://registry.gitlab.example.com'
   ```

   Note how the `registry_external_url` is listening on HTTPS.

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

> **Note:**
If you have a [wildcard certificate][], you need to specify the path to the
certificate in addition to the URL, in this case `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` will
look like:
>
> ```ruby
> registry_nginx['ssl_certificate'] = "/etc/gitlab/ssl/certificate.pem"
> registry_nginx['ssl_certificate_key'] = "/etc/gitlab/ssl/certificate.key"
> ```

**Installations from source**

1. Open `/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml`, find the `registry` entry and
   configure it with the following settings:

   ```yaml
   registry:
     enabled: true
     host: registry.gitlab.example.com
   ```

1. Save the file and [restart GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.
1. Make the relevant changes in NGINX as well (domain, port, TLS certificates path).

Users should now be able to login to the Container Registry using their GitLab
credentials:

```bash
docker login registry.gitlab.example.com
```

## Disable Container Registry site-wide

>**Note:**
Disabling the Registry in the Rails GitLab application as set by the following
steps, will not remove any existing Docker images. This is handled by the
Registry application itself.

**Omnibus GitLab**

1. Open `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and set `registry['enable']` to `false`:

   ```ruby
   registry['enable'] = false
   ```

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

**Installations from source**

1. Open `/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml`, find the `registry` entry and
   set `enabled` to `false`:

   ```yaml
   registry:
     enabled: false
   ```

1. Save the file and [restart GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

## Disable Container Registry for new projects site-wide

If the Container Registry is enabled, then it will be available on all new
projects. To disable this function and let the owners of a project to enable
the Container Registry by themselves, follow the steps below.

**Omnibus GitLab installations**

1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and add the following line:

   ```ruby
   gitlab_rails['gitlab_default_projects_features_container_registry'] = false
   ```

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

**Installations from source**

1. Open `/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml`, find the `default_projects_features`
   entry and configure it so that `container_registry` is set to `false`:

   ```yaml
   ## Default project features settings
   default_projects_features:
     issues: true
     merge_requests: true
     wiki: true
     snippets: false
     builds: true
     container_registry: false
   ```

1. Save the file and [restart GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

## Container Registry storage path

>**Note:**
For configuring storage in the cloud instead of the filesystem, see the
[storage driver configuration](#container-registry-storage-driver).

If you want to store your images on the filesystem, you can change the storage
path for the Container Registry, follow the steps below.

This path is accessible to:

- the user running the Container Registry daemon,
- the user running GitLab

> **Warning** You should confirm that all GitLab, Registry and web server users
have access to this directory.

**Omnibus GitLab installations**

The default location where images are stored in Omnibus, is
`/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/registry`. To change it:

1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:

   ```ruby
   gitlab_rails['registry_path'] = "/path/to/registry/storage"
   ```

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

**Installations from source**

The default location where images are stored in source installations, is
`/home/git/gitlab/shared/registry`. To change it:

1. Open `/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml`, find the `registry` entry and
   change the `path` setting:

   ```yaml
   registry:
     path: shared/registry
   ```

1. Save the file and [restart GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

## Container Registry storage driver

You can configure the Container Registry to use a different storage backend by
configuring a different storage driver. By default the GitLab Container Registry
is configured to use the filesystem driver, which makes use of [storage path](#container-registry-storage-path)
configuration.

NOTE: **Note:** Enabling a storage driver other than `filesystem` would mean
that your Docker client needs to be able to access the storage backend directly.
In that case, you must use an address that resolves and is accessible outside GitLab server.

The different supported drivers are:

| Driver     | Description                         |
|------------|-------------------------------------|
| filesystem | Uses a path on the local filesystem |
| azure      | Microsoft Azure Blob Storage        |
| gcs        | Google Cloud Storage                |
| s3         | Amazon Simple Storage Service. Be sure to configure your storage bucket with the correct [S3 Permission Scopes](https://docs.docker.com/registry/storage-drivers/s3/#s3-permission-scopes).       |
| swift      | OpenStack Swift Object Storage      |
| oss        | Aliyun OSS                          |

Read more about the individual driver's config options in the
[Docker Registry docs][storage-config].

CAUTION: **Warning:** GitLab will not backup Docker images that are not stored on the
filesystem. Remember to enable backups with your object storage provider if
desired.

NOTE: **Note:**
`regionendpoint` is only required when configuring an S3 compatible service such as Minio. It takes a URL such as `http://127.0.0.1:9000`.

**Omnibus GitLab installations**

To configure the `s3` storage driver in Omnibus:

1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:

   ```ruby
   registry['storage'] = {
     's3' => {
       'accesskey' => 's3-access-key',
       'secretkey' => 's3-secret-key-for-access-key',
       'bucket' => 'your-s3-bucket',
       'region' => 'your-s3-region',
       'regionendpoint' => 'your-s3-regionendpoint'
     }
   }
   ```

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

**Installations from source**

Configuring the storage driver is done in your registry config YML file created
when you [deployed your docker registry][registry-deploy].

`s3` storage driver example:

```yml
storage:
  s3:
    accesskey: 'AKIAKIAKI'
    secretkey: 'secret123'
    bucket: 'gitlab-registry-bucket-AKIAKIAKI'
    region: 'your-s3-region'
    regionendpoint: 'your-s3-regionendpoint'
  cache:
    blobdescriptor: inmemory
  delete:
    enabled: true
```

## Change the registry's internal port

> **Note:**
This is not to be confused with the port that GitLab itself uses to expose
the Registry to the world.

The Registry server listens on localhost at port `5000` by default,
which is the address for which the Registry server should accept connections.
In the examples below we set the Registry's port to `5001`.

**Omnibus GitLab**

1. Open `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and set `registry['registry_http_addr']`:

   ```ruby
   registry['registry_http_addr'] = "localhost:5001"
   ```

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

**Installations from source**

1. Open the configuration file of your Registry server and edit the
   [`http:addr`][registry-http-config] value:

   ```yaml
   http
     addr: localhost:5001
   ```

1. Save the file and restart the Registry server.

## Disable Container Registry per project

If Registry is enabled in your GitLab instance, but you don't need it for your
project, you can disable it from your project's settings. Read the user guide
on how to achieve that.

## Disable Container Registry but use GitLab as an auth endpoint

**Omnibus GitLab**

You can use GitLab as an auth endpoint and use a non-bundled Container Registry.

1. Open `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb` and set necessary configurations:

   ```ruby
   gitlab_rails['registry_enabled'] = true
   gitlab_rails['registry_host'] = "registry.gitlab.example.com"
   gitlab_rails['registry_port'] = "5005"
   gitlab_rails['registry_api_url'] = "http://localhost:5000"
   gitlab_rails['registry_path'] = "/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/registry"
   gitlab_rails['registry_issuer'] = "omnibus-gitlab-issuer"
   ```

1. A certificate keypair is required for GitLab and the Container Registry to
   communicate securely.  By default Omnibus GitLab will generate one keypair,
   which is saved to `/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/etc/gitlab-registry.key`.
   When using a non-bundled Container Registry, you will need to supply a
   custom certificate key. To do that, add the following to
   `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`

   ```ruby
   gitlab_rails['registry_key_path'] = "/custom/path/to/registry-key.key"
   # registry['internal_key'] should contain the contents of the custom key
   # file. Line breaks in the key file should be marked using `\n` character
   # Example:
   registry['internal_key'] = "---BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY---\nMIIEpQIBAA\n"
   ```

   **Note:** The file specified at `registry_key_path` gets populated with the
   content specified by `internal_key`, each time reconfigure is executed. If
   no file is specified, Omnibus GitLab will default it to
   `/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/etc/gitlab-registry.key` and will populate
   it.

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

**Installations from source**

1. Open `/home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml`, and edit the configuration settings under `registry`:

   ```yaml
   ## Container Registry

   registry:
     enabled: true
     host: "registry.gitlab.example.com"
     port: "5005"
     api_url: "http://localhost:5000"
     path: /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/registry
     key: /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/certificate.key
     issuer: omnibus-gitlab-issuer
   ```

1. Save the file and [restart GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

## Storage limitations

Currently, there is no storage limitation, which means a user can upload an
infinite amount of Docker images with arbitrary sizes. This setting will be
configurable in future releases.

## Configure Container Registry notifications

You can configure the Container Registry to send webhook notifications in
response to events happening within the registry.

Read more about the Container Registry notifications config options in the
[Docker Registry notifications documentation][notifications-config].

>**Note:**
Multiple endpoints can be configured for the Container Registry.

**Omnibus GitLab installations**

To configure a notification endpoint in Omnibus:

1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:

   ```ruby
   registry['notifications'] = [
     {
       'name' => 'test_endpoint',
       'url' => 'https://gitlab.example.com/notify',
       'timeout' => '500ms',
       'threshold' => 5,
       'backoff' => '1s',
       'headers' => {
         "Authorization" => ["AUTHORIZATION_EXAMPLE_TOKEN"]
       }
     }
   ]
   ```

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

**Installations from source**

Configuring the notification endpoint is done in your registry config YML file created
when you [deployed your docker registry][registry-deploy].

Example:

```
notifications:
  endpoints:
    - name: alistener
      disabled: false
      url: https://my.listener.com/event
      headers: <http.Header>
      timeout: 500
      threshold: 5
      backoff: 1000
```

## Troubleshooting

### Using self-signed certificates with Container Registry

If you're using a self-signed certificate with your Container Registry, you
might encounter issues during the CI jobs like the following:

```
Error response from daemon: Get registry.example.com/v1/users/: x509: certificate signed by unknown authority
```

The Docker daemon running the command expects a cert signed by a recognized CA,
thus the error above.

While GitLab doesn't support using self-signed certificates with Container Registry out of the box, it is possible to make it work by [instructing the docker-daemon to trust the self-signed certificates][docker-insecure-self-signed], mounting the docker-daemon and setting `privileged = false` in the runner's `config.toml`. Setting `privileged = true` takes precedence over the docker-daemon.

```
  [runners.docker]
    image = "ruby:2.1"
    privileged = false
    volumes = ["/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock", "/cache"]
```

Additional information about this: [issue 18239][ce-18239].

### AWS S3 with the GitLab registry error when pushing large images

When using AWS S3 with the GitLab registry, an error may occur when pushing
large images. Look in the Registry log for the following error:

```
level=error msg="response completed with error" err.code=unknown err.detail="unexpected EOF" err.message="unknown error"
```

To resolve the error specify a `chunksize` value in the Registry configuration.
Start with a value between `25000000` (25MB) and `50000000` (50MB).

**For Omnibus installations**

1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:

   ```ruby
   registry['storage'] = {
     's3' => {
       'accesskey' => 'AKIAKIAKI',
       'secretkey' => 'secret123',
       'bucket'    => 'gitlab-registry-bucket-AKIAKIAKI',
       'chunksize' => 25000000
     }
   }
   ```

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

**For installations from source**

1. Edit `config/gitlab.yml`:

   ```yaml
   storage:
     s3:
       accesskey: 'AKIAKIAKI'
       secretkey: 'secret123'
       bucket:    'gitlab-registry-bucket-AKIAKIAKI'
       chunksize: 25000000
   ```

1. Save the file and [restart GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

### Supporting older Docker clients

As of GitLab 11.9, we began shipping version 2.7.1 of the Docker container registry, which disables the schema1 manifest by default. If you are still using older Docker clients (1.9 or older), you may experience an error pushing images. See [omnibus-4145](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/issues/4145) for more details.

You can add a configuration option for backwards compatibility.

**For Omnibus installations**

1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:

   ```ruby
   registry['compatibility_schema1_enabled'] = true
   ```

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

**For installations from source**

1. Edit the YML configuration file you created when you [deployed the registry][registry-deploy]. Add the following snippet:

   ```yaml
   compatibility:
       schema1:
           enabled: true
   ```

1. Restart the registry for the changes to take affect.

### Docker connection error

A Docker connection error can occur when there are special characters in either the group,
project or branch name. Special characters can include:

- Leading underscore
- Trailing hyphen/dash
- Double hyphen/dash

To get around this, you can [change the group path](../user/group/index.md#changing-a-groups-path),
[change the project path](../user/project/settings/index.md#renaming-a-repository) or change the
branch name. Another option is to create a [push rule](../push_rules/push_rules.html) to prevent
this at the instance level.

### Image push errors

When getting errors or "retrying" loops in an attempt to push an image but `docker login` works fine,
there is likely an issue with the headers forwarded to the registry by NGINX. The default recommended
NGINX configurations should handle this, but it might occur in custom setups where the SSL is
offloaded to a third party reverse proxy.

This problem was discussed in a [docker project issue][docker-image-push-issue] and a simple solution
would be to enable relative urls in the registry.

**For Omnibus installations**

1. Edit `/etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb`:

   ```ruby
   registry['env'] = {
     "REGISTRY_HTTP_RELATIVEURLS" => true
   }
   ```

1. Save the file and [reconfigure GitLab][] for the changes to take effect.

**For installations from source**

1. Edit the YML configuration file you created when you [deployed the registry][registry-deploy]. Add the following snippet:

   ```yaml
   http:
       relativeurls: true
   ```

1. Restart the registry for the changes to take affect.

[ce-18239]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/18239
[docker-insecure-self-signed]: https://docs.docker.com/registry/insecure/#use-self-signed-certificates
[reconfigure gitlab]: restart_gitlab.md#omnibus-gitlab-reconfigure
[restart gitlab]: restart_gitlab.md#installations-from-source
[wildcard certificate]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcard_certificate
[ce-4040]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/4040
[docker-insecure]: https://docs.docker.com/registry/insecure/
[registry-deploy]: https://docs.docker.com/registry/deploying/
[storage-config]: https://docs.docker.com/registry/configuration/#storage
[registry-http-config]: https://docs.docker.com/registry/configuration/#http
[registry-auth]: https://docs.docker.com/registry/configuration/#auth
[token-config]: https://docs.docker.com/registry/configuration/#token
[8-8-docs]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/8-8-stable/doc/administration/container_registry.md
[registry-ssl]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/blob/master/lib/support/nginx/registry-ssl
[existing-domain]: #configure-container-registry-under-an-existing-gitlab-domain
[new-domain]: #configure-container-registry-under-its-own-domain
[notifications-config]: https://docs.docker.com/registry/notifications/
[registry-notifications-config]: https://docs.docker.com/registry/configuration/#notifications
[docker-image-push-issue]: https://github.com/docker/distribution/issues/970