Using external registry backends in Astronomer Software

Configure an external registry backend to work with the Astronomer platform.

Astronomer Software requires a Docker Registry to store the Docker Images generated every time a user pushes code or makes a configuration change to an Airflow Deployment on Astronomer.

The default storage backend for this Docker Registry is a Kubernetes Persistent Volume. While this may be sufficient for teams just getting started on Astronomer, Astronomer recommends backing the registry with an external storage solution for any team running in production.

The following are the registry backend tools supported by Astronomer:

• Google Cloud Storage
• AWS S3
• Azure Blob Storage

This document explains only how to set up a registry for hosting your Deployment images in external cloud object storage. To create a custom registry for Deployment images within your Astronomer Software cluster, see

Configure a custom image registry for Deployment images

. Or, to host all images in a high-security environment with no connections to public networks or internet, see

Install Astronomer in an airgapped environment

.

Google Cloud Storage

If you’re running Astronomer Software on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Astronomer recommends using Google Cloud Storage (GCS) as a registry backend solution.

Prerequisites

To use GCS as a registry backend solution, you’ll need:

• An existing GCS Bucket
• Your Google Cloud Platform service account JSON Key
• Permissions to create a Kubernetes Secret in your cluster

Update your values.yaml file

1. Download your GCP service account JSON key from the Google Console. Make sure the service account you use has both the Storage Legacy Bucket Owner and Storage Object Admin roles.

2. Create a Kubernetes Secret using the downloaded key:

kubectl create secret generic astronomer-gcs-keyfile --from-file astronomer-gcs-keyfile=/path/to/key.json -n <your-namespace>

3. Add the following to your values.yaml file:

astronomer:
  registry:
    gcs:
      enabled: true
      bucket: my-gcs-bucket

Example:

#################################
## Astronomer global configuration
#################################
global:
  # Base domain for all subdomains exposed through ingress
  baseDomain: astro.mydomain.com

  # Name of secret containing TLS certificate
  tlsSecret: astronomer-tls

#################################
## Nginx configuration
#################################
nginx:
  # IP address the nginx ingress should bind to
  loadBalancerIP: 0.0.0.0
  preserveSourceIP: true

#################################
## SMTP configuration
#################################
astronomer:
  houston:
    config:
      email:
        enabled: true
        smtpUrl: YOUR_URI_HERE
  registry:
    gcs:
      enabled: true
      bucket: my-gcs-bucket

4. Push the configuration change to your platform as described in Apply a config change.

AWS S3

If you’re running Astronomer Software on the Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), Astronomer recommends using AWS S3 as a registry backend solution.

Prerequisites

To use AWS S3 as a registry backend solution, you’ll need:

• An S3 bucket
• Your AWS Access Key
• Your AWS Secret Key
• Ability to create a Kubernetes Secret in your cluster

Create S3 IAM policy and user

1. Use the following definition to create a new AWS IAM policy, making sure to replace S3_BUCKET_NAME with your own S3 bucket’s name:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:ListBucket",
        "s3:GetBucketLocation",
        "s3:ListBucketMultipartUploads"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::S3_BUCKET_NAME"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:PutObject",
        "s3:GetObject",
        "s3:DeleteObject",
        "s3:ListMultipartUploadParts",
        "s3:AbortMultipartUpload"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::S3_BUCKET_NAME/*"
    }
  ]
}

2. Create a new IAM User and attach the Policy. Your access key and secret key are generated and displayed after you create the user.

3. Create Kubernetes secrets for your key credentials in your Astronomer installation:

   $ kubectl create secret generic astronomer-s3-access-key --from-literal=accesskey=<your-access-key> -n <your-namespace>
   $ kubectl create secret generic astronomer-s3-secret-key --from-literal=secretkey=<your-secret-key> -n <your-namespace>
   

4. Select one of the following options:

• To authenticate to AWS with your registry credentials, add this entry to the values.yaml file:

  astronomer:
    registry:
      s3:
        enabled: true
        region: us-east-1
        regionendpoint: <your-region-endpoint>
        bucket: <your-bucket-name>
      extraEnvVars:
        - name: REGISTRY_STORAGE_S3_REGION
          value: <your-s3-region>
        - name: REGISTRY_STORAGE_S3_ACCESSKEY
            valueFrom:
              secretKeyRef:
                name: astronomer-s3-access-key
                key: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
        - name: REGISTRY_STORAGE_S3_SECRETKEY
            valueFrom:
              secretKeyRef:
                name: astronomer-s3-secret-key
                key: AWS_ACCESS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

• To authenticate to AWS without providing your registry credentials, add this entry to the values.yaml file:

  astronomer:
    registry:
      s3:
        enabled: true
        region: us-east-1
        regionendpoint: <your-region-endpoint>
        bucket: <your-bucket-name>
      extraEnvVars:
        - name: REGISTRY_STORAGE_S3_REGION
          value: <your-s3-region>

4. Push the configuration change to your platform. See Apply a config change.

Enable encryption (Optional)

1. Create a key in AWS Key Management Service (KMS). During the key creation process you’ll be asked to add “key users”. Add the user created above as a “key user”.

2. Create Kubernetes secrets for your key credentials:

   $ kubectl create secret generic astronomer-s3-access-key --from-literal=accesskey=<your-access-key> -n <your-namespace>
   $ kubectl create secret generic astronomer-s3-secret-key --from-literal=secretkey=<your-secret-key> -n <your-namespace>
   

3. Add the following values to your values.yaml file to enable encryption:

astronomer:
  registry:
    s3:
      enabled: true
      region: us-east-1
      bucket: my-s3-bucket
      encrypt: true
      keyid: my-kms-key-id
    extraEnvVars:
      - name: REGISTRY_STORAGE_S3_REGION
        value: <your-s3-region>
      - name: REGISTRY_STORAGE_S3_ACCESSKEY
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: astronomer-s3-access-key
              key: accesskey
      - name: REGISTRY_STORAGE_S3_SECRETKEY
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: astronomer-s3-secret-key
              key: secretkey

3. Push the configuration change to your platform. See Apply a config change.

Authorize Astronomer to a registry backend using IAM roles (Optional)

To avoid hardcoding credentials for your registry backend, add the following configuration to your values.yaml file:

registry:
    serviceAccount:
      # Specifies whether a service account should be created
      create: true
      # Annotations to add to the service account
      annotations:
        eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn: arn:aws:iam::xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:role/<your-iam-role>
    s3:
      enabled: true
      region: <your-region>
      bucket: <your-registry-backend>

Then, push the configuration change to your platform. See Apply a config change.

Azure Blob Storage

If you’re running Astronomer Software on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Astronomer recommends using Azure Blob Storage as a registry backend solution.

Prerequisites

To use Azure Blog Storage as a registry backend solution, you’ll need:

• Azure Storage Account Name
• Azure Account Access Key
• Azure Container Name

Configure the registry backend

1. Create Kubernetes secrets for your key credentials:

   $ kubectl create secret generic astronomer-azure-access-key --from-literal=accountname=<your-account-name> -n <your-namespace>
   $ kubectl create secret generic astronomer-azure-secret-key --from-literal=accountkey=<your-account-key> -n <your-namespace>
   

2. Add the following to your values.yaml file:

astronomer:
  registry:
    azure:
      enabled: true
      accountname: my-account-name
      accountkey: my-account-key
      container: my-container-name
      realm: core.windows.net
    extraEnvVars:
      - name: REGISTRY_STORAGE_AZURE_REGION
        value: <your-azure-region>
      - name: REGISTRY_STORAGE_AZURE_ACCOUNTNAME
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: astronomer-azure-access-key
              key: accountname
      - name: REGISTRY_STORAGE_AZURE_ACCOUNTKEY
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: astronomer-azure-secret-key
              key: accountkey

If you use Software version 0.37.2 and have to force push images to use Registry V3 with Azure blob storage, you can rollback to Registry V2 to resolve the issue with the following configurations in your values.yaml file.

Houston registry configuration:

astronomer:
  houston:
    config:
      registry:
        version: 2

Images registry configuration:

astronomer:
   images:
       registry:
          repository: quay.io/astronomer/ap-registry
          tag: 3.21.3-2

3. Push the configuration change to your platform as described in Apply a config change.