Azure Container Registry is a managed, private Docker registry service for storing and managing your Docker container images. It allows you to store, manage, and deploy Docker images in your Azure environment, as well as integrate with other Azure services.
With Azure Container Registry, you can store and manage your own private Docker images, as well as share them across your team. You can also integrate with other Azure services, such as Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), to easily deploy your images to a Kubernetes cluster.
Using Azure Container Registry, you can:
- Store and manage Docker images in a private registry.
- Securely manage access to your images with Azure Active Directory.
- Integrate with other Azure services, such as AKS, for seamless deployment of your images.
- Use built-in tools for managing and organizing your images, such as tagging and versioning.
Azure Container Registry is a fully managed service, which means that Microsoft handles the infrastructure and maintenance for you. This allows you to focus on building and deploying your applications, without worrying about managing the underlying infrastructure.
To set up Azure Container Registry, you will need to have an Azure account and be logged in to the Azure portal. From there, you can follow these steps:
- In the Azure portal, search for “Container Registry” in the top search bar and select the “Container Registry” service from the search results.
- Click the “Add” button to create a new Azure Container Registry.
- On the “Create container registry” blade, provide a name for your registry and select the subscription, resource group, and location where you want to create the registry.
- Select the SKU (Standard or Premium) for your registry. Standard is recommended for most use cases, while Premium offers additional features such as geo-replication and advanced security.
- Click the “Create” button to create the registry.
- Once the registry has been created, you can access it by clicking on its name in the list of registries in the Azure portal. From the registry’s overview page, you can manage the registry’s settings, configure access control, and view the registry’s usage metrics.
- To use the registry, you will need to create a service principal and grant it access to the registry. You can do this by clicking on the “Access keys” link in the left-hand menu of the registry’s overview page.
- On the “Access keys” blade, click the “Add” button to create a new service principal. Provide a name for the service principal and select the roles you want to grant it access to. Click the “Save” button to create the service principal.
- Once the service principal has been created, you can use its credentials to authenticate to the registry from your application or deployment pipeline.
You can find more detailed instructions and information about Azure Container Registry in the Azure documentation.
Azure Container Registry pricing example
As an example, let’s say you want to use Azure Container Registry to store and manage Docker images for a medium-sized application with a moderate amount of traffic. You decide to use the Standard tier, which includes local storage, image retention policies, and webhooks.
Based on the pricing information on the Azure Container Registry pricing page, you can expect to pay the following:
- Storage: $0.10 per GB per month
- Data transfer: $0.001 per operation
Assuming your application uses 100 GB of storage and performs 10,000 data transfer operations per month, your estimated monthly costs would be $10 for storage and $10 for data transfer, for a total of $20 per month.
Keep in mind that this is just an example, and your actual costs will depend on the specific details of your application and usage of Azure Container Registry. It’s always a good idea to use the pricing calculator on the Azure Container Registry pricing page to estimate your costs based on your specific usage.
