Push Docker Image to AWS Private Container Registry (ECR)

1 Objective
2 Checklist
- 2.1 Configure Cloud-Specific Credential
- 2.2 Configure Container Account
3 Git Repository Structure
4 Build Workflow
5 Project Configuration
- 5.1 Source Control
- 5.2 Project Properties
6 Target Properties
- 6.1 Topology
7 Build Execution

Objective

You have a working docker project and the source code is managed in a Git repository. The goal of this tutorial is to push a docker image to AWS private container registry.

This process will include:

Cloning the application from a Git repository
Building the docker image
Pushing the docker image to AWS private container registry

We will walk through each of the FlexDeploy features that will be created/configured to accomplish this goal and have the docker image published to the AWS private container registry in a very short amount of time.

Checklist

Checklist	Description

Checklist	Description
Docker Registry Address	AWS private container registry address
Docker Registry User	AWS IAM user ID to push images against AWS private container registry
Docker Registry Token/Password	Access Key for the above AWS IAM user ID
Docker Registry User permission	AWS IAM user ID must have relevant access to push images to AWS private container registry

Configure Cloud-Specific Credential

To configure credential details according to the cloud provider, please refer to this document: Docker Registry Setup For Cloud Providers

Configure Container Account

Configure your AWS Container Account under Topology. FlexDeploy will connect to the AWS private container registry and push the image.

Navigate to the Integrations menu
Navigate to the Containers tab
Create a new Containers account by pressing the Create button. Create a new Docker Registry account of provider type DockerRegistry

It should have a Registry Address, Registry User, and Registry Token/Password configured in it.

To push an image to AWS private container registry, the IAM user needs to at least have permission of AmazonEC2ContainerRegistryPowerUser.

Git Repository Structure

The Git repository should be a Docker-based application. A Dockerfile should be present in the application to build the image.

A sample Git repository structure is given below:

Build Workflow

Navigate to the Workflows menu and create a workflow using the button as highlighted below.

The steps of the workflow execution can be configured from the Definition tab. Below is a sample build workflow.

Step 1: Clone Project Sources

This step will clone the Git repository codebase into the Project’s execution working directory. The Git URL will be retrieved from Source Control configured under Project configuration.

Below is the Git code structure and corresponding exported codebase during execution as a result of the above step.

Git Codebase

EXPORTED CODEBASE

Step 2: Build Image

Below is the Docker plugin (buildImage operation) configuration. This step will build and push a docker image to AWS private container registry.

The plugin operation by default would look for the Docker File under TEMP directory. In case the Docker File exists in some other folder, the plugin input should specificy the relative from the TEMP directory.

Below is our Git project folder structure. Since our Dockerfile is under the DockerDemo folder in the Git repository, we had to provide the relative path accordingly.

By default, Docker image and image tag details will be retrieved from Project Properties. However, you can always provide these details as a plugin operation input in the buildImage step. Any plugin operation input will take precedence over Project Properties.

We have also marked the Push Image to Repository checkbox to ensure the created image is pushed to the AWS private container registry. The pushImage operation within the Docker plugin can also be used to push the image to the target Docker registry.

If the FlexDeploy Container is properly configured, it would push the image to Docker Registry. In our case, the image is pushed to AWS private container registry as can be observed below.

After running this build Docker image workflow, information will also be available on the Artifacts tab within the execution details.

Project Configuration

Navigate to Projects and create a Project with a logical name (PushDockerImageToAWSPrivateECR in this case)

Configure the build workflow that has been created in previous steps as shown below.

Source Control

Configure the SCM repository on the Source Control tab as shown below.

Select the Sources section for configuring your source repository
Select the appropriate Source Control Type
Configure source repository details. For more detailed steps of source control configuration, please refer to Configure Source Control in FlexDeploy

Project Properties

To configure Project-specific properties, navigate to Configuration → Properties as shown below.

Select the target Registry Account.
Docker Image Name and Docker Image Tag are essential to build the docker image.

Target Properties

Topology

Navigate to Topology. Choose a Target Group on the left, or create a new one. You will see a list of Environments on the right with colored circles representing each Target.

Color coding represents:

RED - The Endpoint is not configured
YELLOW - some of the required properties are not set,
GREEN - all required properties are set and the Endpoint is configured

Clicking the Dev environment row allows modifying the target’s Endpoint and properties.

Properties	Mandatory Field	Description
Docker Server	Optional	Docker server address. Required if Docker Unix Socket is not set.
Docker Server Port	Optional	The port to connect to on the Docker server.
Docker Unix Socket	Optional	The socket the Docker daemon listens on The default value is [/var/run/docker.sock]
Registry Account	Optional	Docker Registry account with relevant details
GIT Path	Optional	Path to the Git executable. Required only if git is not on PATH.

Below are the environment-specific values which need to be provided.

Build Execution

From here, for detailed steps on how to initiate build and push a Docker image, please refer to Build Execution through FlexDeploy for Docker Plugin

Congratulations! You have successfully completed the Push Image on Amazon Private Container Registry tutorial.

Now that you have configured FlexDeploy to push an image to AWS private container registry, it is extremely easy to replicate for other container registries as well. Simply use the Copy Project feature and a new project will be created with all of the configuration completed already. You just need to make the necessary configuration changes.