Table Of ContentHaining Zhang
Yan Wang
The Authoritative
Guide on Harbor
Management and Practice of Cloud
Native Artifacts Such as Container
Images and Helm Charts
The Authoritative Guide on Harbor
(cid:129)
Haining Zhang Yan Wang
The Authoritative Guide
on Harbor
Management and Practice of Cloud Native
Artifacts Such as Container Images and Helm
Charts
HainingZhang YanWang
CloudNativeLab,OCTO ModernApplicationPlatform
VMwareChinaR&D VMwareChinaR&D
Beijing,China Beijing,China
ISBN978-981-19-2726-3 ISBN978-981-19-2727-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-2727-0
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“Harbor is the first CNCF project founded in China and also the first
projectinChinatoreachgraduatedstatusinCNCF.We’rethrilledto
see its community thriving globally and key enterprises leveraging it
successfully. Authoredbyitsmaintainers,TheAuthoritative Guideon
HarboristhefirstbookaboutHarbor.Itprovideskeyinsightsintothe
architecture, mechanics, configuration, and case studies based on the
latest Harbor v2.0. This book is geared towards cloud native
architects, DevOps engineers, developers, and end users of Harbor. I
hope you will enjoy reading it.”
—Priyanka Sharma, CNCF’s General Manager
“It’sbeenamazingtowatchtheprogressofHarborsinceitsinception
in 2014. It’s been equally inspiring to see the energy and passion of
the team behind Harbor. What started as a small side project in
VMware’s China R&D office is now a graduated CNCF project, with
tens of thousands of businesses leveraging Harbor’s powerful role-
based access control, image replication, vulnerability scanning, and
notary. And so this book, The Authoritative Guide on Harbor, is
timely. It’s the first book about Harbor, authored by the maintainers
andcontributors.Yougetinsightsintothearchitecture,configuration,
and customization of Harbor. Hats off to the entire Harbor team for
writing this book!”
—Kit Colbert, CTO of VMware
Formyparents,mybrotherJohnwhobrought
me into the world of computer science. And
formywifeJudywhoalwayscaresformeand
backs me up.—Haining Henry Zhang
For my Dad, I love you and miss you very
much. And for Sally, for your love, company
and support.—Yan Wang
Formyson,whobringsmealotofjoyduring
the book writing.—Wenkai Yin
ForKatherine,mylove,alwaysgivesmegreat
support! For Eddie, my cute boy, who brings
me happiness and makes me relax in my busy
schedule.—Steven Zou
Abstract:Inthecloudnativeecosystem,the
management and distribution of container
images and other cloud native artifacts is a
crucial part. This is the first book which
provides a comprehensive explanation of
Harbor, an open-source trusted cloud
native registry. It is authored by the
maintainers and contributors of Harbor.
The content covers Harbor's architecture,
principles, functions, deployment and
configuration, operation and maintenance,
customized development, and API.
The intended audience of the book include
developers and contributors of Harbor,
cloud native software development
engineers, test engineers, operational
staffs, IT architects and IT technical
managers, and college students in
computer science or related disciplines.
This book is an ideal reference for Harbor
users and developers.
Foreword
Theproliferationofopen-sourcetechnologieshasprogressedsignificantlyfollowing
the widespread adoption of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). In nowa-
days cloud computing era, developers are increasingly utilizing open-source cloud
native management tools and platforms like Docker and Kubernetes. As a result,
China has emerged as a critical contributor to the Cloud Native Computing Foun-
dation(CNCF).
Against this backdrop, cloud native technology became the most actively
engaged and contributed technology in the Chinese open-source community.
VMwarehasbeeninvolvedsinceitsoutset,andopensourcedinternalprojectslike
CloudFoundrytothecloudnativecommunityin2011.VMwarealsopioneeredthe
cloud native community in China and has been actively supporting community
activities. In 2016, for example, VMware launched the Cloud Native Forum, and
in 2018, it promoted the international cloud native conference KubeCon +
CloudNativeConinChina.
Harbor isanopen-source enterprise-graderegistry server, thatstores, signs,and
scans the cloud native artifacts, and its wide adoption demonstrates VMware’s
influence in the cloud native open-source field. Harbor was originally an internal
projectoftheCloudNativeLabatVMwareChinaR&DCenter,initiatedbyHenry
Zhang, one of the authors of this book, myself, and others in 2014, and was first
promotedtotheChineseopen-sourcecommunitysinceearly2016.Afterbeingopen
sourced, Harbor swiftly proved the pervasiveness of cloud native infrastructure
softwareandgarneredusagebydomesticusersincludingmajorInternetcompanies,
largeenterprises,andstartups.
Harbor’simpacthassteadilyspreadfromChinatotherestoftheworld,gaining
unanimousrecognitionfromglobalcloudnativecommunity.Harborbecamethefirst
CNCF project originated from China and was the first donation to CNCF by
VMware in July 2018. It has received over 15,000 stars on GitHub and attracted
morethan200codecontributorsfrom80+businessesglobally,includingAnchore,
NetEaseCloud,CaicloudTechnology,TencentCloud,andOVHcloud,andhasover
30,000monthlydownloadsasofSeptember2021.
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xii Foreword
At the same time, Project Harbor established several community-led working
groups,suchastheRemoteReplicationWorkingGroup,P2PDistributionWorking
Group,andImageScanningWorkingGroup.Theyformulateanddeveloproadmap
for each specific feature of Harbor. The community’s participation has greatly
enrichedandimprovedthefunctionalityofHarbor.
Based on the success of Project Harbor, VMware China joined hands with
innovationdepartmentsofleadingcompaniesinvariousindustries,startups,univer-
sities,andresearchinstitutionstolaunchtheVMwareInnovationNetwork(VIN),to
build an open, diverse, and symbiotic ecosystem covering cloud native, edge
computing, machine learning, cloud networking, cloud data analytics, and other
technologyareas.
In June 2020, Harbor became the first graduated CNCF project originated from
China and the 11th worldwide; other graduated projects include Kubernetes, Pro-
metheus,andHelm.Thisbookisoneofthemostauthoritativepublicationsoncloud
nativetechnologyinChina,anditsreleasearrivedatjusttherighttime.Authorsare
the original developers and hardcore community maintainers of Project Harbor,
including Henry Zhang, Steven Zou, Steven Ren, Daniel Jiang, Wenkai Yin, Yan
Wang,MingmingPei,etc.Readerswillgetacomprehensiveunderstandingofcloud
nativetechnologies,particularlytheprinciples,features,andpracticalapproachesof
managingcloudnativeartifactslikecontainerimages.
“Ifyouwanttogofast,goalone.Ifyouwanttogofar,gotogether.”Ibelievethis
book will bring readers new beginnings and gains, and I hope more users and
developerswilljointhecloudnativecommunityandinnovatetogether!
AlanRen
GeneralManager,VMwareChinaR&DCenter,Beijing,China
Co-founderofProjectHarbor,Beijing,China
Preface
Why We Wrote This Book
After its release in 2013, Docker achieved the unprecedented success and became
one of the most popular development tools in history. In addition to Docker’s
simplicity and ease of use, the container image technology is its core, including
theinnovativeimageformatandtheregistryserviceforimagedistribution.Docker’s
famous slogan “Build, Ship and Run” summarizes the essence of the application
development.Thesloganimpliesthattheapplicationlifecyclemanagementisimage
centric.Itcanbeseenthatimageisakeytechnologyforcontainerizedapplications,
and a series of management tasks surrounding images become one of the top
prioritiesintheactualoperationandmaintenance.
When we first came into contact with Docker, we were shocked by its smooth
userexperienceandtheexcellentcontainersolutions.Wedeeplyfeltthatthiswould
beagamechangerinapplicationdevelopment.Afterdoingsomeresearch,wefound
that container images are the lifeblood of Docker. However, there were not many
good image management tools at that time. At technical conferences, many users
complainedaboutthedifficultiesincontainerimagemanagement.
Therefore, to tackle the pain points of image management, we led a team in
VMwareR&DChinatodevelopacontainerimagemanagementsoftware.Wewere
dogfoodingthesoftwareinsidethecompanyandachievedsomegoodresults.This
softwarebecametheprototypeofHarbor.
Harbor was open sourced in 2016 and its popularity far exceeded our expecta-
tions. Harbor met the key points of container management and won the favor of a
largenumberofusersinChina.ThenumberofdeveloperscontributingtotheHarbor
open-sourceprojectwasincreasingdaybyday.
In 2018, VMware donated Harbor to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation
(CNCF). Harbor and the global cloud native community have cooperated more
closely ever since. In 2020, CNCF announced Harbor was a graduation project,
whichwasalsothefirstgraduatedCNCFprojectoriginatedinChina.
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