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Writer's pictureALIF Consulting

Azure Container Registry

Updated: Jul 29

What is a Container Registry?

A Container Registry is essentially a repository that stores and manages container images. Think of it as a library for your containerized applications. It provides a centralized location to store, organize, and distribute container images efficiently. Developers can push their built container images to the registry, and other teams or environments can pull them from there for deployment.

This process streamlines the software development lifecycle by promoting code reusability, collaboration, and faster deployment times. A Container Registry acts as a crucial component in the DevOps pipeline, facilitating efficient container image management throughout the development and production stages.


Types of Container Registries

Container registries are available in various versions to accommodate different organizational needs and security requirements. Let's delve into the primary types:


Public Container Registries

These registries are freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. They often host a vast collection of open-source container images, making them a popular choice for developers getting started with containerization. Examples include Docker Hub and Google Container Registry. While convenient, public registries might not offer the level of security and control required for enterprise-grade applications.


Private Container Registries

As the name suggests, private container registries are exclusive to a specific organization or team. They provide a higher level of security and control over container images, ensuring that sensitive data and intellectual property remain protected. Organizations typically host private registries on their infrastructure or utilize cloud-based registry services. This type of registry is ideal for enterprises handling critical applications and adhering to strict compliance standards.


Hybrid Container Registries

Striking a balance between public and private registries, hybrid container registries offer a combination of both worlds. They allow organizations to leverage the benefits of public registries for open-source components while maintaining strict control over proprietary container images. This approach provides flexibility and efficiency in managing container images across different environments.


Enterprise Container Registries

Tailored to the specific needs of large enterprises, enterprise container registries offer advanced features and capabilities. They often include robust security measures, integration with enterprise identity management systems, and support for large-scale deployments. These registries are designed to handle the demanding requirements of complex IT environments, ensuring high availability, performance, and scalability.


What is Azure Container Registry?

Azure Container Registry is a managed, private Docker registry service based on the open-source Docker Registry 2.0. Create and maintain Azure container registries to store and manage your private Docker container images and related artifacts.

Use Azure container registries with your existing container development and deployment pipelines, or use Azure Container Registry Tasks to build container images in Azure. Build on-demand or fully automate builds with triggers such as source code commits and base image updates.


Azure Container Registry

Azure Container Registry Use Cases

Pull images from an Azure container registry to various deployment targets:

  • Scalable orchestration systems that manage containerized applications across clusters of hosts, including Kubernetes, DC/OS, and Docker Swarm.

  • Azure services that support building and running applications at scale, including Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), App Service, Batch, Service Fabric, and others.


Azure ACR and AKS Integration

Run ACR in a Hybrid Environment

Run ACR in Hybrid Environment

Azure Container Registry Key Features

  • Registry service tiers

  • Security and Access

  • Supported images and artifacts

  • Automated image builds

  • Multi-step tasks


Registry Service Tiers

ACR offers tiered service plans to cater to diverse storage and performance needs. Here's a breakdown of each tier:

Basic Tier

Ideal for getting started with ACR or for smaller projects with limited image storage requirements and lower image transfer volumes. This tier provides a cost-effective entry point to explore ACR's core functionalities.


Standard Tier

Strikes a balance between cost and performance. This tier offers increased storage capacity and throughput compared to Basic, making it suitable for most development and testing environments.


Premium Tier

The top-tier option is designed for large-scale deployments and demanding workloads. Premium boasts the highest storage capacity and throughput, ensuring seamless handling of high image transfer volumes and complex containerized applications.


Balancing Security and Access

ACR prioritizes robust security measures while offering granular access control. Here's how:

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

As mentioned earlier, RBAC empowers you to assign specific permissions (read, write, delete) to users and groups within your organization. This ensures that only authorized personnel can access and manage images in your registry, preventing unauthorized modifications or deployments.


Azure Active Directory (AAD) Integration

ACR integrates seamlessly with Azure Active Directory (AAD), your central identity and access management service for Azure resources. This allows you to leverage existing user identities and access controls within AAD for your ACR registry, simplifying permission management.


Private Endpoints with Azure Private Link

ACR integrates with Azure Private Link for enhanced security. This enables you to configure private endpoints for your registry, restricting access entirely within your Azure virtual network. This eliminates public internet exposure, adding an extra layer of protection for your critical container images.


Supported Images and Artifacts

ACR isn't confined to just Docker container images. It serves as a central hub for various containerization needs:

Helm Charts

Managing containerized applications often involves Helm charts, which package entire applications for deployment in Kubernetes environments. ACR allows you to store and manage Helm charts alongside your container images, providing a unified location for all your containerization resources.


Open Container Initiative (OCI) Artifacts

The Open Container Initiative (OCI) defines open standards for container formats and runtime. ACR adheres to these standards, allowing you to store and manage various OCI artifacts alongside your container images. This could include container configuration files or other related artifacts essential for your containerized applications.


Automated Image Builds

ACR empowers you to automate the image-building process, streamlining your development workflows:

Build Tasks

ACR allows you to define build tasks that automatically build container images from your source code. These tasks can be triggered by various events, such as a push to a Git repository or a scheduled timer. This eliminates the need for manual image building, saving development time and ensuring consistent builds.


Task Customization

You can customize build tasks to tailor the image-building process to your specific needs. This includes specifying the Dockerfile location, environment variables, and additional build steps required for your application.


Integration with Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions

ACR seamlessly integrates with popular CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery) tools like Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions. This allows you to incorporate automated image builds within your existing CI/CD pipelines, creating a streamlined workflow from code commits to running containerized applications.


Multi-step Tasks

For intricate containerization scenarios, ACR offers multi-step tasks:

Sequential Steps

Multi-step tasks enable you to define a sequence of steps to be executed during the image build process. This allows you to perform various operations within a single task, such as building base images, copying application code, and running tests – all in a single automated workflow.


Enhanced Flexibility

Multi-step tasks provide greater flexibility in your build process. You can chain together different steps, including building multiple container images or running scripts to configure your application environment.


Improved Efficiency

By automating complex workflows with multi-step tasks, you can streamline your development process and ensure consistency in building and deploying your containerized applications.


Azure Container Registry SKUs

Azure Container Registry is available in multiple service tiers (also known as SKUs). These tiers provide predictable pricing and several options for aligning to the capacity and usage patterns of your private Docker registry in Azure.


ACR SKUs

ACR Authentication

There are several ways to authenticate with an Azure container registry, each of which is applicable to one or more registry usage scenarios.


Recommended ways include

· Authenticate to a registry directly via individual log-in


· Applications and container orchestrators can perform unattended, or "headless," authentication by using an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) service principal


Azure Container Registry Cost

ACR have multiple SKUs, and all of them have their own pricing.


ACR Cost

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