A word of warning, this is my first posting, and I am new to docker and Kubernetes with enough knowledge to get me into trouble. I am confused about where docker container images are being stored and listing images.
To illustrate my confusion I start with the confirmation that "docker images" indicates no image for nginx is present. Next I create a pod running nginx.
kubectl run nginx --image=nginx
is succesful in pulling image "nginx" from github (or that's my assumption):
Events:
Type Reason Age From Message
---- ------ ---- ---- -------
Normal Scheduled 8s default-scheduler Successfully assigned default/nginx to minikube
Normal Pulling 8s kubelet Pulling image "nginx"
Normal Pulled 7s kubelet Successfully pulled image "nginx" in 833.30993ms
Normal Created 7s kubelet Created container nginx
Normal Started 7s kubelet Started container nginx
Even though the above output indicates the image is pulled, issuing "docker images" does not include nginx
the output.
If I understand correctly, when an image is pulled, it is being stored on my local disk. In my case (Linux) in /var/lib/docker
.
So my first question is, why doesn't docker images
list it in the output, or is the better question where does docker images
look for images?
Next if I issue a docker pull
for nginx
it is pulled from what I assume to be Github. docker images
now includes it in it's output.
Just for my clarification, nothing up to this point involves a private local registry, correct?
I purposefully create a basic local Docker Registry using the docker registry container thinking it would be clearer since that will allow me to explicitly specify a registry but this only results in another issue:
docker run -d \
-p 5000:5000 \
--restart=always \
--name registry \
-v /registry:/var/lib/registry \
registry
I tag and push the nginx
image to my newly created local registry:
docker tag nginx localhost:5000/nginx:latest
docker push localhost:5000/nginx:latest
The push refers to repository [localhost:5000/nginx]
2bed47a66c07: Pushed
82caad489ad7: Pushed
d3e1dca44e82: Pushed
c9fcd9c6ced8: Pushed
0664b7821b60: Pushed
9321ff862abb: Pushed
latest: digest: sha256:4424e31f2c366108433ecca7890ad527b243361577180dfd9a5bb36e828abf47 size: 1570
I now delete the original nginx
image:
docker rmi nginx
Untagged: nginx:latest
Untagged: nginx@sha256:9522864dd661dcadfd9958f9e0de192a1fdda2c162a35668ab6ac42b465f0603
... and the newely tagged one:
docker rmi localhost:5000/nginx
Untagged: localhost:5000/nginx:latest
Untagged: localhost:5000/nginx@sha256:4424e31f2c366108433ecca7890ad527b243361577180dfd9a5bb36e828abf47
Deleted: sha256:f652ca386ed135a4cbe356333e08ef0816f81b2ac8d0619af01e2b256837ed3e
... but from where are they being deleted?
Now the image nginx
should only be present in localhost:5000/? But docker images
doesn't show it in it's output.
Moving on, I try to create the nginx pod once more using the image pushed to localhost:5000/nginx:latest
.
kubectl run nginx --image=localhost:5000/nginx:latest --image-pull-policy=IfNotPresent
This is the new issue. The connection to localhost:5000 is refused.
Events:
Type Reason Age From Message
---- ------ ---- ---- -------
Normal Pulling 1s kubelet Pulling image "localhost:5000/nginx:latest"
Warning Failed 1s kubelet Failed to pull image "localhost:5000/nginx:latest": rpc error: code = Unknown desc = Error response from daemon: Get "http://localhost:5000/v2/": dial tcp 127.0.0.1:5000: connect: connection refused
Warning Failed 1s kubelet Error: ErrImagePull
Normal BackOff 0s kubelet Back-off pulling image "localhost:5000/nginx:latest"
Why is it I can pull and push to localhost:5000, but pod creation fails with what appears to be an authorization issue? I try logging into the registry but no matter what I use for the username and user password, login is successful. This confuses me more.
I would try creating/specifying imagePullSecret
, but based on docker login outcome, it doesn't make sense.
Clearly I not getting it. Someone please have pity on me and show where I have lost my way.
I will try to bring some clarity to you despite the fact your question already contains about 1000 questions (and you'll probably have 1000 more after my answer :D)
Before you can begin to understand any of this, you need to learn a few basic things:
Docker produces images which are used by containers - it similar to Virtual Machine, but more lightweight (I'm oversimplifying, but the TL;DR is pretty much that).
Kubernetes is an orchestration tool - it is responsible for starting containers (by using already built images) and tracking their state (i.e. if this container has crashed it should be restarted, or if it's not started it should be started, etc)
Docker can run on any machine. To be able to start a container
you need to build an image first. The image is essentially a lightweight mini OS (i.e. alpine, ubuntu, windows, etc) which is configured with only those dependencies you need to run your application. This image is then pushed to a public repository/registry (hub.docker.com) or to a private one. And afterwards it's used for starting containers.
Kubernetes builds on top of this and adds the "automation" layer which is responsible for scheduling and monitoring the containers. For example, you have a group of 10 servers all running nginx
. One of those servers restarts - the nginx
container will be automatically started by k8s.
A kubernetes cluster is the group of physical machines that are dedicated to the mentioned logical cluster. These machines have labels
or tags
which define the purpose of physical node and work as a constraint for where a container will be scheduled.
Now that I have explained the minimum basics in an oversimplified way I can move with answering your questions.
When you do docker run nginx
- you are instructing docker to pull the nginx
image from https://hub.docker.com/_/nginx and then start it on the machine you executed the command on (usually your local machine).
When you do kubectl run nginx --image=nginx
- you are instructing Kubernetes to do something similar to 1.
but in a cluster. The container will be deployed to a random
machine somewhere in the cluster unless you put a nodeSelector or configure affinity. If you put a nodeSelector
this container (called Pod in K8S) will be placed on that specific node
.
You have started a private registry
server on your local machine. It is crucial to know that localhost
inside a container
will point to the container
itself.
It is worth mentioning that some of the kubernetes
commands will create their own container
for the execution phase of the command. (remember this!)
When you run kubectl run nginx --image=nginx
everything works fine, because it is downloading the image from https://hub.docker.com/_/nginx
.
When you run kubectl run nginx --image=localhost:5000/nginx
you are telling kubernetes to instruct docker to look for the image at localhost
which is ambiguous because you have multiple layers of containers
running (check 4.). This means the command that will do docker pull localhost:5000/nginx
also runs in a docker container -- so there is no service running at port :5000
(the registry is running in a completely different isolated container!) :D
And this is why you are getting Error: ErrImagePull
- it can't resolve localhost
as it points to itslef.
As for the docker rmi nginx
and docker rmi localhost:5000/nginx
commands - by running them you removed your local copy
of the nginx
images.
If you run docker run localhost:5000/nginx
on the machine where you started docker run registry
you should get a running nginx container.
You should definitely read the Docker Guide BEFORE you try to dig into Kubernetes or nothing will ever make sense.
Your head will stop hurting after that I promise... :D
docker images
lists images stored in the docker daemon's data root, by default /var/lib/docker
.
You're deploying images to Kubernetes, the images are pulled onto the node on which the pod is scheduled. For example, using Kubernetes in Docker:
kind create cluster
kubectl run nginx --image=nginx
docker exec -it $(kubectl get pod nginx -o jsonpath={.spec.nodeName}) crictl images
crictl
is a command-line interface for CRI-compatible container runtimes.
Docker images are pulled from Docker Hub by default, not Github. When using a local docker registry
, images are stored in the registry
's data volume. The docker registry
storage may be customized, by default data is stored in (storage.filesystem.rootdirectory
) /var/lib/registry
.
You can use tools like skopeo
to list images stored in a docker registry
, for example:
skopeo list-tags docker://localhost:5000/nginx --tls-verify=false