Mirroring images to a private container registry

IBM Cloud Pak® for Data images are accessible from the IBM® Entitled Registry. In most situations, it is strongly recommended that you mirror the necessary software images from the IBM Entitled Registry to a private container registry.

Installation phase

Setting up a client workstation

Collecting required information

Preparing your cluster

Installing the Cloud Pak for Data platform and services

Who needs to complete this task?

A cluster administrator and private container registry administrator must work together to mirror images to the private container registry.

When do you need to complete this task?

If you want to mirror images to a private container registry, you must complete this task in the following situations:

Before you install Cloud Pak for Data for the first time.
Before you upgrade to a newer release of Cloud Pak for Data

If you do not want to mirror images to a private container registry, go to Installing the IBM Cloud Pak for Data platform and services.

Before you begin

Ensure that your private container registry meets the Private container registry requirements.

About this task

Important:

You must mirror the necessary images to your private container registry in the following situations:

Your cluster is air-gapped (also called an offline or disconnected cluster)
Your cluster uses an allowlist to permit direct access by specific sites and the allowlist does not include the IBM Entitled Registry
Your cluster uses a blocklist to prevent direct access by specific sites and the blocklist includes the IBM Entitled Registry

Even if these situations do not apply to your environment, you should consider using a private container registry if you want to:

Run security scans against the software images before you install them on your cluster
Ensure that you have the same images available for multiple deployments, such as development or test environments and production environments

The only situation in which you might consider pulling images directly from the IBM Entitled Registry is when your cluster is not air-gapped, your network is extremely reliable, and latency is not a concern. However, for predictable and reliable performance, you should mirror the images to a private container registry.

There are several ways that you can mirror images from the IBM Entitled Registry to your private container registry. Choose the most appropriate method for your environment by answering the following question:

Can you set up a client workstation that can connect to the internet and the private container registry?

Yes

You can mirror the images directly from the IBM Entitled Registry to the private container registry.

No, the private container registry is in a restricted network

You must mirror the images to an intermediary container registry before you can mirror the images to the private container registry.

The

cpd-cli
manage
mirror-images

command automatically sets up an intermediary container registry on the client workstation. You must be able to move the intermediary container registry behind your firewall. For example, you can use:

Options	Details
Use a portable compute device, such as a laptop, that you can move behind your firewall.	You can use the same device to: Mirror images from the IBM Entitled Registry to the intermediary container registry. Mirror images from the intermediary container registry to the private container registry.
Use a portable storage device, such as a USB drive, that you can move behind your firewall.	You must set up two client workstations: A workstation that can connect to the internet. From this workstation, you can mirror the images from the IBM Entitled Registry to the intermediary container registry on the portable storage device. A workstation that can connect to the private container registry. After you move the portable storage device to this workstation, you can mirror the images from the intermediary container registry to the private container registry.
Use a file transfer protocol, such as `scp` or `sftp`, to move images behind your firewall.	You must set up two client workstations: A workstation that can connect to the internet. From this workstation, you can mirror the images from the IBM Entitled Registry to the intermediary container registry. A workstation that can connect to the private container registry. After you transfer the intermediary container registry to this workstation, you can mirror the images from the intermediary container registry to the private container registry.

Procedure

Complete the appropriate task to mirror images to your private container registry:
- Mirroring images directly to the private container registry
- Mirroring images using an intermediary container registry
Complete Configuring an image content source policy.