Google Cloud Container Registry
Storing container images in GCP.
The GCP container registry is a container registry flavor that comes built-in with ZenML and uses the Google Artifact Registry.
Important Notice: Google Container Registry is being replaced by Artifact Registry. Please start using Artifact Registry for your containers. As per Google's documentation, "after May 15, 2024, Artifact Registry will host images for the gcr.io domain in Google Cloud projects without previous Container Registry usage. After March 18, 2025, Container Registry will be shut down." The terms container registry and artifact registry will be used interchangeably throughout this document.
When to use it
You should use the GCP container registry if:
one or more components of your stack need to pull or push container images.
you have access to GCP. If you're not using GCP, take a look at the other container registry flavors.
How to deploy it
Would you like to skip ahead and deploy a full ZenML cloud stack already, including a Google Artifact Registry? Check out the in-browser stack deployment wizard, the stack registration wizard, or the ZenML GCP Terraform module for a shortcut on how to deploy & register this stack component.
When using the Google Artifact Registry, you need to:
How to find the registry URI
When using the Google Artifact Registry, the GCP container registry URI should have the following format:
To figure out the URI for your registry:
Go here and select the repository that you want to use to store Docker images. If you don't have a repository yet, take a look at the deployment section.
On the top, click the copy button to copy the full repository URL.
How to use it
To use the GCP container registry, we need:
Docker installed and running.
The registry URI. Check out the previous section on the URI format and how to get the URI for your registry.
We can then register the container registry and use it in our active stack:
You also need to set up authentication required to log in to the container registry.
Authentication Methods
Integrating and using a GCP Container Registry in your pipelines is not possible without employing some form of authentication. If you're looking for a quick way to get started locally, you can use the Local Authentication method. However, the recommended way to authenticate to the GCP cloud platform is through a GCP Service Connector. This is particularly useful if you are configuring ZenML stacks that combine the GCP Container Registry with other remote stack components also running in GCP.
This method uses the Docker client authentication available in the environment where the ZenML code is running. On your local machine, this is the quickest way to configure a GCP Container Registry. You don't need to supply credentials explicitly when you register the GCP Container Registry, as it leverages the local credentials and configuration that the GCP CLI and Docker client store on your local machine. However, you will need to install and set up the GCP CLI on your machine as a prerequisite, as covered in the GCP CLI documentation, before you register the GCP Container Registry.
With the GCP CLI installed and set up with credentials, we'll need to configure Docker, so it can pull and push images:
for a Google Container Registry:
for a Google Artifact Registry:
Stacks using the GCP Container Registry set up with local authentication are not portable across environments. To make ZenML pipelines fully portable, it is recommended to use a GCP Service Connector to link your GCP Container Registry to the remote GCR registry.
For more information and a full list of configurable attributes of the GCP container registry, check out the SDK Docs .
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