Container Registry Quickstart

Validated on 3 Dec 2021 • Last edited on 3 Apr 2024

The DigitalOcean Container Registry (DOCR) is a private Docker image registry with additional tooling support that enables integration with your Docker environment and DigitalOcean Kubernetes clusters. DOCR registries are private and co-located in the datacenters where DigitalOcean Kubernetes clusters are operated for secure, stable, and performant rollout of images to your clusters.

Create a Registry

To create a registry in the control panel:

  1. Visit the registry page.
  2. Enter a name for your registry. This name must:
    • Be unique across all DigitalOcean container registries.
    • Be no more than 63 characters in length.
    • Contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and/or hyphens.
    • Begin with a letter.
    • End with a letter or number.
  3. Select your datacenter region.
  4. Select your subscription plan.
  5. Click Create Registry.

To create a registry using the command-line:

  1. Install doctl and authenticate it with an API token.
  2. Use the registry create command to create your registry:
doctl registry create <my-registry-name> --region <region>

Push to Your Registry

To push a Docker image to your registry:

  1. Install doctl and authenticate it with an API token.

  2. Use the registry login command to authenticate Docker with your registry:

    doctl registry login

  3. Use the docker tag command to tag your image with the fully qualified destination path:

    docker tag <my-image> registry.digitalocean.com/<my-registry>/<my-image>

  4. Use the docker push command to upload your image:

    docker push registry.digitalocean.com/<my-registry>/<my-image>

    If you push a new image using an existing tag, the tag gets updated but the old image is still accessible by its digest and takes up space in your registry. To reduce your storage usage, you can delete the untagged images and then run garbage collection.

Note

Because image manifests are cached across different regions, pushing an image to an already-existing tag may take up to one hour to update in other regions’ caches. To avoid this delay, you can:

  • Use the :latest tag, which is intentionally never cached (as it is usually updated frequently).
  • Use a new, unique tag, such as an incrementing build number or Git SHA hash.
  • Pull specific images by manifest SHA digest, instead of by tag.
Warning
You cannot upload images over 2 GB to container registry.

Use Images in Your Registry with Kubernetes

To create containers from the images stored in your registry from the control panel:

  1. Visit the registry page and click the Settings tab.
  2. In the DigitalOcean Kubernetes integration section, click Edit to display the available Kubernetes clusters.
  3. Select the clusters and click Save.

The default service account in each of those namespaces is updated to include the secret in its image pull secret.

Use Images in Your Registry with App Platform

  1. Visit the Apps page.

  2. Click Create App if starting from scratch, or click an existing app to add your container image to it.

    • If adding an image to an existing app, click the Create button and choose Create Resources From Source Code. You can add a Web Service, Worker, Job, or Functions.

  3. Select DigitalOcean Container Registry as the source for your code, choose the image you would like to use from the Repository drop-down, and select the tag of the image you would like to deploy.

    • By default your application will be re-deployed whenever you push a new image to this tag. Uncheck the Autodeploy option to disable this feature.

  1. Configure resources for your app.

    • On the Resources page, click Edit Plan to select a plan and instance size you would like to use when a container is created from the image.
    • Click the edit icon corresponding to the resource to configure details such as HTTP routes, the run command, or the HTTP port. App Platform displays build and run commands that it detected, which you can customize as needed. Refer to the cloud-native buildpacks for instructions for specific buildpacks. For Dockerfile-based builds, entering a run command overrides the Dockerfile’s entrypoint.
    • Add new resources by expanding the Add Resource (Optional) section and selecting the Detect from Source Code option. Then, click Add. If your app needs a database, select the Database option to add a dev database or an existing managed database from your DigitalOcean account. The connection details for your database are accessible via environment variables so that you can access them in your code.

    Click Next.

  2. If you want to use resource- and app-level environment variables, on the Environment page, click Edit to supply them. Click the Encrypt checkbox to ensure a variable’s value is encrypted in the App Spec. Click Next.

  3. If you want to change the default name or project for your app, or choose the region where you would like your app to be hosted, click Edit on the Info page. Click Save and then click Next.

    • The option to select a region is not available for static sites. Static components are served on DigitalOcean’s global CDN.

  4. Review your app’s resources, environment variables and billing information on the Review page and then click Create Resources.

Once your app deploys, you can view the app at the URL at the top of the app’s Overview page.

Manage Images and Tags

To view and delete images in your registry:

  1. Navigate to Container Registry in the control panel.

    If you have a live registry and you have pushed images to it, they will be listed.

  2. Click the plus, +, next to each repository to see its image versions and each version’s tags. You can also see untagged images here, which we recommend deleting through garbage collection.

  3. Choose whether to delete digests or tags:

    • To delete digests, click the … menu to the right of an image version and select Delete Digest. Enter your registry name and click Delete to confirm.

      Deleting digests also deletes their associated tags.

    • To delete tags, click the … menu to the right of an image version and select Delete Tags. Enter your registry name and click Delete to confirm.

Deleting an image by its tag or manifest does not delete the image layers. We recommend running garbage collection to automatically delete these image layers and all untagged manifests.

Delete Your Registry

To delete your registry using the control panel:

  1. Navigate to Container Registry in the control panel.
  2. Click the Actions drop-down, and select Destroy.

To delete your registry on the command-line, use the registry delete command:

doctl registry delete
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