Azure Container Registry (ACR) Overview

Azure Container Registry (ACR) is a managed, private Docker registry service based on the open-source Docker Registry 2.0. ACR allows you to store and manage your private Docker container images and related artifacts. It's built on Azure, providing high availability, security, and geo-replication to support your global development and DevOps workflows.

Key Features and Benefits

• Private Docker Registry: Securely store and manage your container images without exposing them publicly.
• Geo-Replication: Replicate your registry across multiple Azure regions to ensure low-latency access for developers and applications worldwide.
• Integration with Azure Services: Seamlessly integrates with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Container Instances (ACI), Azure App Service, and Azure DevOps for a streamlined CI/CD pipeline.
• Security: Supports Azure Active Directory authentication, role-based access control (RBAC), and image vulnerability scanning with Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
• Content Trust: Implement Docker Content Trust to ensure the integrity and authenticity of your container images using Notary.
• Webhooks: Trigger automated processes based on registry events such as image pushes or deletions.
• ACR Tasks: Automate container image builds and pushes in Azure, simplifying your CI/CD pipeline without needing a full build agent.

When to Use ACR

ACR is essential for organizations that:

• Need a secure, private repository for their container images.
• Deploy containerized applications on Azure or other cloud environments.
• Require high availability and low-latency access to images across different geographic locations.
• Are implementing CI/CD pipelines for containerized workloads.
• Need to enforce security and compliance for their container images.

Core Concepts

• Registry: A collection of repositories.
• Repository: A group of related container images, identified by a name (e.g., my-app).
• Image: A read-only template for creating containers.
• Tag: A human-readable label that points to a specific image digest (e.g., latest, v1.0).
• Manifest: A JSON file describing an image and its layers.
• ACR Task: A service that automates container image build and push operations.

Example Workflow

A typical workflow involving ACR:

1. Develop Application: Write your application code.
2. Create Dockerfile: Define the steps to build your application's container image.
3. Build Image: Use Docker to build the image locally or using ACR Tasks.
4. Push to ACR: Authenticate to your ACR instance and push the built image.
5. Deploy to Azure: Configure your Azure service (e.g., AKS, ACI) to pull images from your ACR instance.

az acr create --resource-group myResourceGroup --name myRegistry --sku Basic --admin-enabled true

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