Image configuration resources | Images | OpenShift Container Platform 4.4

Image controller configuration parameters
Configuring image settings

Use the following procedure to configure image registries.

Image controller configuration parameters

The image.config.openshift.io/cluster resource holds cluster-wide information about how to handle images. The canonical, and only valid name is cluster. Its spec offers the following configuration parameters.

Parameter Description

Parameter	Description
`allowedRegistriesForImport`	`allowedRegistriesForImport`: Limits the container image registries from which normal users may import images. Set this list to the registries that you trust to contain valid images, and that you want applications to be able to import from. Users with permission to create images or `ImageStreamMappings` from the API are not affected by this policy. Typically only cluster administrators will have the appropriate permissions. Every element of this list contains a location of the registry specified by the registry domain name. The domain name can include wildcards. `domainName`: Specifies a domain name for the registry. In case the registry uses a non-standard (80 or 443) port, the port should be included in the domain name as well. `insecure`: Insecure indicates whether the registry is secure or insecure. By default, if not otherwise specified, the registry is assumed to be secure.
`additionalTrustedCA`	`additionalTrustedCA`: A reference to a configmap containing additional CAs that should be trusted during `ImageStream import`, `pod image pull`, `openshift-image-registry pullthrough`, and builds. The namespace for this configmap is `openshift-config`. The format of the configmap is to use the registry hostname as the key, and the PEM-encoded certificate as the value, for each additional registry CA to trust.
`externalRegistryHostnames`	`externalRegistryHostnames`: Provides the hostnames for the default external image registry. The external hostname should be set only when the image registry is exposed externally. The first value is used in `publicDockerImageRepository` field in ImageStreams. The value must be in `hostname[:port]` format.
`registrySources`	`registrySources`: Contains configuration that determines how the container runtime should treat individual registries when accessing images for builds and pods. For instance, whether or not to allow insecure access. It does not contain configuration for the internal cluster registry. `insecureRegistries`: Registries which do not have a valid TLS certificate or only support HTTP connections. `blockedRegistries`: Blacklisted for image pull and push actions. All other registries are allowed. `allowedRegistries`: Whitelisted for image pull and push actions. All other registries are blocked. Either `blockedRegistries` or `allowedRegistries` can be set, but not both.

allowedRegistriesForImport

allowedRegistriesForImport: Limits the container image registries from which normal users may import images. Set this list to the registries that you trust to contain valid images, and that you want applications to be able to import from. Users with permission to create images or ImageStreamMappings from the API are not affected by this policy. Typically only cluster administrators will have the appropriate permissions.

Every element of this list contains a location of the registry specified by the registry domain name. The domain name can include wildcards.

domainName: Specifies a domain name for the registry. In case the registry uses a non-standard (80 or 443) port, the port should be included in the domain name as well.

insecure: Insecure indicates whether the registry is secure or insecure. By default, if not otherwise specified, the registry is assumed to be secure.

additionalTrustedCA

additionalTrustedCA: A reference to a configmap containing additional CAs that should be trusted during ImageStream import, pod image pull, openshift-image-registry pullthrough, and builds.

The namespace for this configmap is openshift-config. The format of the configmap is to use the registry hostname as the key, and the PEM-encoded certificate as the value, for each additional registry CA to trust.

externalRegistryHostnames

externalRegistryHostnames: Provides the hostnames for the default external image registry. The external hostname should be set only when the image registry is exposed externally. The first value is used in publicDockerImageRepository field in ImageStreams. The value must be in hostname[:port] format.

registrySources

registrySources: Contains configuration that determines how the container runtime should treat individual registries when accessing images for builds and pods. For instance, whether or not to allow insecure access. It does not contain configuration for the internal cluster registry.

insecureRegistries: Registries which do not have a valid TLS certificate or only support HTTP connections.

blockedRegistries: Blacklisted for image pull and push actions. All other registries are allowed.

allowedRegistries: Whitelisted for image pull and push actions. All other registries are blocked.

Either blockedRegistries or allowedRegistries can be set, but not both.

When the allowedRegistries parameter is defined, all registries including registry.redhat.io and quay.io are blocked unless explicitly listed. If using the parameter, declare source registries registry.redhat.io and quay.io as required by payload images within your environment, to prevent pod failure. For disconnected clusters, mirror registries should also be added.

The status field of the image.config.openshift.io/cluster resource holds observed values from the cluster.

Parameter Description

Parameter	Description
`internalRegistryHostname`	`internalRegistryHostname`: Set by the Image Registry Operator, which controls the `internalRegistryHostname`. It sets the hostname for the default internal image registry. The value must be in `hostname[:port]` format. For backward compatibility, you can still use the `OPENSHIFT_DEFAULT_REGISTRY` environment variable, but this setting overrides the environment variable.
`externalRegistryHostnames`	`externalRegistryHostnames`: Set by the Image Registry Operator, provides the external hostnames for the image registry when it is exposed externally. The first value is used in `publicDockerImageRepository` field in ImageStreams. The values must be in `hostname[:port]` format.

internalRegistryHostname

internalRegistryHostname: Set by the Image Registry Operator, which controls the internalRegistryHostname. It sets the hostname for the default internal image registry. The value must be in hostname[:port] format. For backward compatibility, you can still use the OPENSHIFT_DEFAULT_REGISTRY environment variable, but this setting overrides the environment variable.

externalRegistryHostnames

externalRegistryHostnames: Set by the Image Registry Operator, provides the external hostnames for the image registry when it is exposed externally. The first value is used in publicDockerImageRepository field in ImageStreams. The values must be in hostname[:port] format.

Configuring image settings

You can configure image registry settings by editing the image.config.openshift.io/cluster custom resource (CR). The Machine Config Operator (MCO) watches the image.config.openshift.io/cluster for any changes to registries and reboots the nodes when it detects changes.

Procedure

Edit the image.config.openshift.io/cluster custom resource:

$ oc edit image.config.openshift.io/cluster

The following is an example image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR:

apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: Image (1)
metadata:
  annotations:
    release.openshift.io/create-only: "true"
  creationTimestamp: "2019-05-17T13:44:26Z"
  generation: 1
  name: cluster
  resourceVersion: "8302"
  selfLink: /apis/config.openshift.io/v1/images/cluster
  uid: e34555da-78a9-11e9-b92b-06d6c7da38dc
spec:
  allowedRegistriesForImport: (2)
    - domainName: quay.io
      insecure: false
  additionalTrustedCA: (3)
    name: myconfigmap
  registrySources:(4)
    allowedRegistries:
    - example.com
    - quay.io
    - registry.redhat.io
    insecureRegistries:
    - insecure.com
status:
  internalRegistryHostname: image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000

1	`Image`: Holds cluster-wide information about how to handle images. The canonical, and only valid name is `cluster`.
2	`allowedRegistriesForImport`: Limits the container image registries from which normal users may import images. Set this list to the registries that you trust to contain valid images, and that you want applications to be able to import from. Users with permission to create images or `ImageStreamMappings` from the API are not affected by this policy. Typically only cluster administrators will have the appropriate permissions.
3	`additionalTrustedCA`: A reference to a configmap containing additional CAs that should be trusted during `ImageStream import`, `pod image pull`, `openshift-image-registry pullthrough`, and builds. The namespace for this configmap is `openshift-config`. The format of the configmap is to use the registry hostname as the key, and the PEM certificate as the value, for each additional registry CA to trust.
4	`registrySources`: Contains configuration that determines how the container runtime should treat individual registries when accessing images for builds and pods. For instance, whether or not to allow insecure access. It does not contain configuration for the internal cluster registry. This example lists `allowedRegistries`, which defines the registries that are allowed to be used. One of the registries listed is insecure.

To check that the changes are applied, list your nodes:

$ oc get nodes

Example output

NAME                                       STATUS                     ROLES    AGE   VERSION
ci-ln-j5cd0qt-f76d1-vfj5x-master-0         Ready                         master   98m   v1.19.0+7070803
ci-ln-j5cd0qt-f76d1-vfj5x-master-1         Ready,SchedulingDisabled      master   99m   v1.19.0+7070803
ci-ln-j5cd0qt-f76d1-vfj5x-master-2         Ready                         master   98m   v1.19.0+7070803
ci-ln-j5cd0qt-f76d1-vfj5x-worker-b-nsnd4   Ready                         worker   90m   v1.19.0+7070803
ci-ln-j5cd0qt-f76d1-vfj5x-worker-c-5z2gz   NotReady,SchedulingDisabled   worker   90m   v1.19.0+7070803
ci-ln-j5cd0qt-f76d1-vfj5x-worker-d-stsjv   Ready                         worker   90m   v1.19.0+7070803

Adding specific registries

You can add a list of registries that are permitted for image pull and push actions by editing the image.config.openshift.io/cluster custom resource (CR). OpenShift Container Platform applies the changes to this CR to all nodes in the cluster.

When pulling or pushing images, the container runtime searches the registries listed under the registrySources parameter in the image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR. If you created a list of registries under the allowedRegistries parameter, the container runtime searches only those registries. Registries not in the list are blocked.

When the allowedRegistries parameter is defined, all registries including the registry.redhat.io and quay.io registries are blocked unless explicitly listed. If you use the parameter, to prevent pod failure, add registry.redhat.io and quay.io to the allowedRegistries list, as they are required by payload images within your environment. For disconnected clusters, mirror registries should also be added.

Procedure

Edit the image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR:

$ oc edit image.config.openshift.io/cluster

The following is an example image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR with an allowed list:

apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: Image
metadata:
  annotations:
    release.openshift.io/create-only: "true"
  creationTimestamp: "2019-05-17T13:44:26Z"
  generation: 1
  name: cluster
  resourceVersion: "8302"
  selfLink: /apis/config.openshift.io/v1/images/cluster
  uid: e34555da-78a9-11e9-b92b-06d6c7da38dc
spec:
  registrySources: (1)
    allowedRegistries: (2)
    - example.com
    - quay.io
    - registry.redhat.io
status:
  internalRegistryHostname: image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000

1	`registrySources`: Contains configurations that determine how the container runtime should treat individual registries when accessing images for builds and pods. It does not contain configuration for the internal cluster registry.
2	`allowedRegistries`: Registries to use for image pull and push actions. All other registries are blocked.

Either the allowedRegistries parameter or the blockedRegistries parameter can be set, but not both.

The Machine Config Operator (MCO) watches the image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR for any changes to registries and reboots the nodes when it detects changes. Changes to the allowed registries creates or updates the image signature policy in the /host/etc/containers/policy.json file on each node.

To check that the registries have been added to the policy file, use the following command on a node:

$ cat /host/etc/containers/policy.json

The following policy indicates that only images from the example.com, quay.io, and registry.redhat.io registries are permitted for image pulls and pushes:

Example image signature policy file

{
	"default": [{
		"type": "reject"
	}],
	"transports": {
		"atomic": {
			"example.com": [{
				"type": "insecureAcceptAnything"
			}],
			"quay.io": [{
				"type": "insecureAcceptAnything"
			}],
			"registry.redhat.io": [{
				"type": "insecureAcceptAnything"
			}]
		},
		"docker": {
			"example.com": [{
				"type": "insecureAcceptAnything"
			}],
			"quay.io": [{
				"type": "insecureAcceptAnything"
			}],
			"registry.redhat.io": [{
				"type": "insecureAcceptAnything"
			}]
		},
		"docker-daemon": {
			"": [{
				"type": "insecureAcceptAnything"
			}]
		}
	}
}

If your cluster uses the registrySources.insecureRegistries parameter, ensure that any insecure registries are included in the allowed list.

For example:

spec:
  registrySources:
    insecureRegistries:
    - insecure.com
    allowedRegistries:
    - example.com
    - quay.io
    - registry.redhat.io
    - insecure.com

Blocking specific registries

You can block any registry by editing the image.config.openshift.io/cluster custom resource (CR). OpenShift Container Platform applies the changes to this CR to all nodes in the cluster.

When pulling or pushing images, the container runtime searches the registries listed under the registrySources parameter in the image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR. If you created a list of registries under the blockedRegistries parameter, the container runtime does not search those registries. All other registries are allowed.

Procedure

Edit the image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR:

$ oc edit image.config.openshift.io/cluster

The following is an example image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR with a blocked list:

apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: Image
metadata:
  annotations:
    release.openshift.io/create-only: "true"
  creationTimestamp: "2019-05-17T13:44:26Z"
  generation: 1
  name: cluster
  resourceVersion: "8302"
  selfLink: /apis/config.openshift.io/v1/images/cluster
  uid: e34555da-78a9-11e9-b92b-06d6c7da38dc
spec:
  registrySources: (1)
    blockedRegistries: (2)
    - untrusted.com
status:
  internalRegistryHostname: image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000

1	`registrySources`: Contains configurations that determine how the container runtime should treat individual registries when accessing images for builds and pods. It does not contain configuration for the internal cluster registry.
2	Specify registries that should not be used for image pull and push actions. All other registries are allowed.

Either the blockedRegistries registry or the allowedRegistries registry can be set, but not both.

The Machine Config Operator (MCO) watches the image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR for any changes to registries and reboots the nodes when it detects changes. Changes to the blocked registries appear in the /etc/containers/registries.conf file on each node.

To check that the registries have been added to the policy file, use the following command on a node:
```
$ cat /host/etc/containers/registries.conf
```
The following example indicates that images from the untrusted.com registry are prevented for image pulls and pushes:
Example output
```
unqualified-search-registries = ["registry.access.redhat.com", "docker.io"]

[[registry]]
  prefix = ""
  location = "untrusted.com"
  blocked = true
```

Allowing insecure registries

You can add insecure registries by editing the image.config.openshift.io/cluster custom resource (CR). OpenShift Container Platform applies the changes to this CR to all nodes in the cluster.

Registries that do not use valid SSL certificates or do not require HTTPS connections are considered insecure.

Insecure external registries should be avoided to reduce possible security risks.

Procedure

Edit the image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR:

$ oc edit image.config.openshift.io/cluster

The following is an example image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR with an insecure registries list:

apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: Image
metadata:
  annotations:
    release.openshift.io/create-only: "true"
  creationTimestamp: "2019-05-17T13:44:26Z"
  generation: 1
  name: cluster
  resourceVersion: "8302"
  selfLink: /apis/config.openshift.io/v1/images/cluster
  uid: e34555da-78a9-11e9-b92b-06d6c7da38dc
spec:
  registrySources: (1)
    insecureRegistries: (2)
    - insecure.com
    allowedRegistries:
    - example.com
    - quay.io
    - registry.redhat.io
    - insecure.com (3)
status:
  internalRegistryHostname: image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000

1	`registrySources`: Contains configurations that determine how the container runtime should treat individual registries when accessing images for builds and pods. It does not contain configuration for the internal cluster registry.
2	Specify an insecure registry.
3	Ensure that any insecure registries are included in the `allowedRegistries` list.

The Machine Config Operator (MCO) watches the image.config.openshift.io/cluster CR for any changes to registries and reboots the nodes when it detects changes. Changes to the insecure and blocked registries appear in the /etc/containers/registries.conf file on each node.

To check that the registries have been added to the policy file, use the following command on a node:
```
$ cat /host/etc/containers/registries.conf
```
The following example indicates that images from the insecure.com registry is insecure and is allowed for image pulls and pushes.
Example output
```
unqualified-search-registries = ["registry.access.redhat.com", "docker.io"]

[[registry]]
  prefix = ""
  location = "insecure.com"
  insecure = true
```

Configuring additional trust stores for image registry access

The image.config.openshift.io/cluster custom resource can contain a reference to a configmap that contains additional certificate authorities to be trusted during image registry access.

Prerequisites

The CAs must be PEM-encoded.

Procedure

You can create a configmap in the openshift-config namespace and use its name in AdditionalTrustedCA in the image.config.openshift.io custom resource to provide additional CAs that should be trusted when contacting external registries.

The configmap key is the host name of a registry with the port for which this CA is to be trusted, and the base64-encoded certificate is the value, for each additional registry CA to trust.

Image registry CA configmap example

apiVersion: v1
kind: configmap
metadata:
  name: my-registry-ca
data:
  registry.example.com: |
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    ...
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----
  registry-with-port.example.com..5000: | (1)
    -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    ...
    -----END CERTIFICATE-----

1	If the registry has the port, such as `registry-with-port.example.com:5000`, `:` should be replaced with `..`.

You can configure additional CAs with the following procedure.

To configure an additional CA:

$ oc create configmap registry-config --from-file=<external_registry_address>=ca.crt -n openshift-config
$ oc edit image.config.openshift.io cluster
spec:
  additionalTrustedCA:
    name: registry-config

Configuring image registry repository mirroring

Setting up container registry repository mirroring enables you to:

configure your OpenShift Container Platform cluster to redirect requests to pull images from a repository on a source image registry and have it resolved by a repository on a mirrored image registry
identify multiple mirrored repositories for each target repository, to make sure that if one mirror is down, another can be used

The attributes of repository mirroring in OpenShift Container Platform include:

Image pulls are resilient to registry downtimes.
Clusters in restricted networks can pull images from critical locations (such as quay.io) and have registries behind a company firewall provide the requested images.
A particular order of registries is tried when an image pull request is made, with the permanent registry typically being the last one tried.
The mirror information you enter is added to the /etc/containers/registries.conf file on every node in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
When a node makes a request for an image from the source repository, it tries each mirrored repository in turn until it finds the requested content. If all mirrors fail, the cluster tries the source repository. Upon success, the image is pulled to the node.

Setting up repository mirroring can be done in the following ways:

At OpenShift Container Platform installation: By pulling container images needed by OpenShift Container Platform and then bringing those images behind your company’s firewall, you can install OpenShift Container Platform into a datacenter that is in a restricted network. See Mirroring the OpenShift Container Platform image repository for details.
After OpenShift Container Platform installation: Even if you don’t configure mirroring during OpenShift Container Platform installation, you can do so later using the ImageContentSourcePolicy object.

The following procedure provides a post-installation mirror configuration, where you create an ImageContentSourcePolicy object that identifies:

the source of the container image repository you want to mirror
a separate entry for each mirror repository you want to offer the content requested from the source repository.

Prerequisites

Access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.

Procedure

Configure mirrored repositories, by either:
- Setting up a mirrored repository with Red Hat Quay, as described in Red Hat Quay Repository Mirroring. Using Red Hat Quay allows you to copy images from one repository to another and also automatically sync those repositories repeatedly over time.
- Using a tool such as skopeo to copy images manually from the source directory to the mirrored repository.
  
  For example, after installing the skopeo RPM package on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 7 or RHEL 8) system, use the skopeo command as shown in this example:
  $ skopeo copy \ docker://registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi-minimal@sha256:5cfbaf45ca96806917830c183e9f37df2e913b187adb32e89fd83fa455ebaa6 \ docker://example.io/example/ubi-minimal
  In this example, you have a container image registry that is named example.io with an image repository named example to which you want to copy the ubi8/ubi-minimal image from registry.access.redhat.com. After you create the registry, you can configure your OpenShift Container Platform cluster to redirect requests made of the source repository to the mirrored repository.
Log in to your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Create an ImageContentSourcePolicy file (for example, registryrepomirror.yaml), replacing the source and mirrors with your own registry and repository pairs and images:

apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1alpha1
kind: ImageContentSourcePolicy
metadata:
  name: ubi8repo
spec:
  repositoryDigestMirrors:
  - mirrors:
    - example.io/example/ubi-minimal (1)
    source: registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi-minimal (2)
  - mirrors:
    - example.com/example/ubi-minimal
    source: registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi-minimal

1	Indicates the name of the image registry and repository
2	Indicates the registry and repository containing the content that is mirrored

Create the new ImageContentSourcePolicy object:
```
$ oc create -f registryrepomirror.yaml
```
After the ImageContentSourcePolicy object is created, the new settings are deployed to each node and the cluster starts using the mirrored repository for requests to the source repository.

To check that the mirrored configuration settings, are applied, do the following on one of the nodes.

List your nodes:

$ oc get node

Example output

NAME                           STATUS                     ROLES    AGE  VERSION
ip-10-0-137-44.ec2.internal    Ready                      worker   7m   v1.17.1
ip-10-0-138-148.ec2.internal   Ready                      master   11m  v1.17.1
ip-10-0-139-122.ec2.internal   Ready                      master   11m  v1.17.1
ip-10-0-147-35.ec2.internal    Ready,SchedulingDisabled   worker   7m   v1.17.1
ip-10-0-153-12.ec2.internal    Ready                      worker   7m   v1.17.1
ip-10-0-154-10.ec2.internal    Ready                      master   11m  v1.17.1

You can see that scheduling on each worker node is disabled as the change is being applied.

Start the debugging process to access the node:

$ oc debug node/ip-10-0-147-35.ec2.internal

Example output

Starting pod/ip-10-0-147-35ec2internal-debug ...
To use host binaries, run `chroot /host`

Access the node’s files:
```
sh-4.2# chroot /host
```

Check the /etc/containers/registries.conf file to make sure the changes were made:

sh-4.2# cat /etc/containers/registries.conf

Example output

unqualified-search-registries = ["registry.access.redhat.com", "docker.io"]
[[registry]]
  location = "registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/"
  insecure = false
  blocked = false
  mirror-by-digest-only = true
  prefix = ""

  [[registry.mirror]]
    location = "example.io/example/ubi8-minimal"
    insecure = false

  [[registry.mirror]]
    location = "example.com/example/ubi8-minimal"
    insecure = false

Pull an image digest to the node from the source and check if it is resolved by the mirror. ImageContentSourcePolicy objects support image digests only, not image tags.
```
sh-4.2# podman pull --log-level=debug registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi-minimal@sha256:5cfbaf45ca96806917830c183e9f37df2e913b187adb32e89fd83fa455ebaa6
```

Troubleshooting repository mirroring

If the repository mirroring procedure does not work as described, use the following information about how repository mirroring works to help troubleshoot the problem.

The first working mirror is used to supply the pulled image.
The main registry will only be used if no other mirror works.
From the system context, the Insecure flags are used as fallback.
The format of the /etc/containers/registries file has changed recently. It is now version 2 and in TOML format.