Quickstart: Create a connected registry using the Azure CLI (To be deprecated)

Article
09/19/2024

In this quickstart, you use the Azure CLI to create a connected registry resource in Azure. The connected registry feature of Azure Container Registry allows you to deploy a registry remotely or on your premises and synchronize images and other artifacts with the cloud registry.

Here you create two connected registry resources for a cloud registry: one connected registry allows read and write (artifact pull and push) functionality and one allows read-only functionality.

After creating a connected registry, you can follow other guides to deploy and use it on your on-premises or remote infrastructure.

Prerequisites

Use the Bash environment in Azure Cloud Shell. For more information, see Quickstart for Bash in Azure Cloud Shell.
If you prefer to run CLI reference commands locally, install the Azure CLI. If you're running on Windows or macOS, consider running Azure CLI in a Docker container. For more information, see How to run the Azure CLI in a Docker container.
- If you're using a local installation, sign in to the Azure CLI by using the az login command. To finish the authentication process, follow the steps displayed in your terminal. For other sign-in options, see Sign in with the Azure CLI.
- When you're prompted, install the Azure CLI extension on first use. For more information about extensions, see Use extensions with the Azure CLI.
- Run az version to find the version and dependent libraries that are installed. To upgrade to the latest version, run az upgrade.

Azure Container registry - If you don't already have a container registry, create one (Premium tier required) in a region that supports connected registries.

Enable the dedicated data endpoint for the cloud registry

Enable the dedicated data endpoint for the Azure container registry in the cloud by using the az acr update command. This step is needed for a connected registry to communicate with the cloud registry.

# Set the REGISTRY_NAME environment variable to identify the existing cloud registry
REGISTRY_NAME=<container-registry-name>

az acr update --name $REGISTRY_NAME \
  --data-endpoint-enabled

Import images to your cloud registry

Import the following container images to your cloud registry using the az acr import command. Skip this step if you already imported these images.

Connected registry image

To support nested IoT Edge scenarios, the container image for the connected registry runtime must be available in your private Azure container registry. Use the az acr import command to import the connected registry image into your private registry.

# Use the REGISTRY_NAME variable in the following Azure CLI commands to identify the registry
REGISTRY_NAME=<container-registry-name>

az acr import \
  --name $REGISTRY_NAME \
  --source mcr.microsoft.com/acr/connected-registry:0.8.0

IoT Edge and API proxy images

To support the connected registry on nested IoT Edge, you need to deploy modules for the IoT Edge and API proxy. Import these images into your private registry.

The IoT Edge API proxy module allows an IoT Edge device to expose multiple services using the HTTPS protocol on the same port such as 443.

az acr import \
  --name $REGISTRY_NAME \
  --source mcr.microsoft.com/azureiotedge-agent:1.2.4

az acr import \
  --name $REGISTRY_NAME \
  --source mcr.microsoft.com/azureiotedge-hub:1.2.4

az acr import \
  --name $REGISTRY_NAME \
  --source mcr.microsoft.com/azureiotedge-api-proxy:1.1.2

az acr import \
  --name $REGISTRY_NAME \
  --source mcr.microsoft.com/azureiotedge-diagnostics:1.2.4

Hello-world image

For testing the connected registry, import the hello-world image. This repository will be synchronized to the connected registry and pulled by the connected registry clients.

az acr import \
  --name $REGISTRY_NAME \
  --source mcr.microsoft.com/hello-world:1.1.2

Create a connected registry resource for read and write functionality

Create a connected registry using the az acr connected-registry create command. The connected registry name must start with a letter and contain only alphanumeric characters. It must be 5 to 40 characters long and unique in the hierarchy for this Azure container registry.

# Set the CONNECTED_REGISTRY_RW environment variable to provide a name for the connected registry with read/write functionality
CONNECTED_REGISTRY_RW=<connnected-registry-name>

az acr connected-registry create --registry $REGISTRY_NAME \
  --name $CONNECTED_REGISTRY_RW \
  --repository "hello-world" "acr/connected-registry" "azureiotedge-agent" "azureiotedge-hub" "azureiotedge-api-proxy"

This command creates a connected registry resource whose name is the value of $CONNECTED_REGISTRY_RW and links it to the cloud registry whose name is the value of $REGISTRY_NAME. In later quickstart guides, you learn about options to deploy the connected registry.

The specified repositories will be synchronized between the cloud registry and the connected registry once it is deployed.
Because no --mode option is specified for the connected registry, it is created in the default ReadWrite mode.
Because there is no synchronization schedule defined for this connected registry, the repositories will be synchronized between the cloud registry and the connected registry without interruptions.

Important

To support nested scenarios where lower layers have no Internet access, you must always allow synchronization of the acr/connected-registry repository. This repository contains the image for the connected registry runtime.

Create a connected registry resource for read-only functionality

You can also use the az acr connected-registry create command to create a connected registry with read-only functionality.

# Set the CONNECTED_REGISTRY_READ environment variable to provide a name for the connected registry with read-only functionality
CONNECTED_REGISTRY_RO=<connnected-registry-name>
az acr connected-registry create --registry $REGISTRY_NAME \
  --parent $CONNECTED_REGISTRY_RW \
  --name $CONNECTED_REGISTRY_RO \
  --repository "hello-world" "acr/connected-registry" "azureiotedge-agent" "azureiotedge-hub" "azureiotedge-api-proxy" \
  --mode ReadOnly

This command creates a connected registry resource whose name is the value of $CONNECTED_REGISTRY_RO and links it to the cloud registry named with the value of $REGISTRY_NAME.

The specified repositories will be synchronized between the parent registry named with the value of $CONNECTED_REGISTRY_RW and the connected registry once deployed.
This resource is created in the ReadOnly mode, which enables read-only (artifact pull) functionality once deployed.
Because there is no synchronization schedule defined for this connected registry, the repositories will be synchronized between the parent registry and the connected registry without interruptions.

Verify that the resources are created

You can use the connected registry az acr connected-registry list command to verify that the resources are created.

az acr connected-registry list \
  --registry $REGISTRY_NAME \
  --output table

You should see a response as follows. Because the connected registries are not yet deployed, the connection state of "Offline" indicates that they are currently disconnected from the cloud.

NAME                 MODE        CONNECTION STATE    PARENT               LOGIN SERVER    LAST SYNC (UTC)
-------------------  --------    ------------------  -------------------  --------------  -----------------
myconnectedregrw    ReadWrite    Offline
myconnectedregro    ReadOnly     Offline             myconnectedregrw

Next steps

In this quickstart, you used the Azure CLI to create two connected registry resources in Azure. Those new connected registry resources are tied to your cloud registry and allow synchronization of artifacts with the cloud registry.

Continue to the connected registry deployment guides to learn how to deploy and use a connected registry on your IoT Edge infrastructure.

Quickstart: Deploy connected registry on IoT Edge

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