IBM Cloud Code Engine (serverless) Application setup with a private registry — Step by Step Guide

The aim of the use case presented here is to provide a simplified step-by-step guide to deploy applications (any kind of application type eg. Batch, Job or Applications) from a private code repository (example here is using a private GitHub repo) to a private container image registry hosted on IBM Cloud.

This document assumes working with a private GitHub repository.

Create a Private Container Image Registry on IBM Cloud

The documentation: https://cloud.ibm.com/registry/start

Install, Set Up, and Log In

• Install the IBM Cloud CLI.

• Install the Docker CLI.

• Podman with Docker compatibility could be used as well

  Podman Desktop can replace Docker desktop with a 100% compatibility mode

• Install the Container Registry plug-in (assuming IBM Cloud CLI is already installed)
  

  ibmcloud plugin install container-registry -r 'IBM Cloud'

• Log in to your IBM Cloud account

  ibmcloud login -a https://cloud.ibm.com

If you have a federated ID, use ibmcloud login --sso to log in to the IBM Cloud CLI.

ibmcloud login --sso

• Ensure that you're targeting the correct IBM Cloud Container Registry region. Hereafter the region is set to Frankfurt

  ibmcloud cr region-set eu-central
  '''
  The region is set to 'eu-central', the registry is 'de.icr.io'.

• Choose a name for your first namespace, and create that namespace. Use this namespace for the rest of the Quick Start.

  ibmcloud cr namespace-add <my_namespace>
  '''
  ibmcloud cr namespace-add xxx_namespace
  Adding namespace 'xxx_namespace' in resource group 'default' for account XYZ's Account in registry de.icr.io...

### Push the image to your private registry (Testing the working with your registry)

• Log your local Docker daemon into the IBM Cloud Container Registry.

  ibmcloud cr login

• Pull a test image from Docker Hub

  docker pull hello-world
  '''
  Using default tag: latest
  c1ec31eb5944: Download complete
  d2c94e258dcb: Download complete
  docker.io/library/hello-world:latest

• Choose a repository and tag by which you can identify the image. Use the same repository and tag for the rest of this Quick Start

  docker tag hello-world de.icr.io/xxx_namespace/xxx_repository:my_tag

• Push the image

  docker push de.icr.io/xxx_namespace/xxx_repository:1
  '''
  docker push de.icr.io/xxx_namespace/xxx_repository:1                                                     
  The push refers to repository [de.icr.io/xxx_namespace/xxx_repository:1]
  1: digest: sha256:5c2d1c82f9ecc3c3f3b3a4a50f6db9d09cdddb301f3eff37ff2116aa3a65ae10 size: 861

• Verify that your image is in your private registry

  ibmcloud cr image-list
  '''
  Listing images...

  Repository                               Tag   Digest         Namespace       Created         Size     Security status
  de.icr.io/xxx_namespace/aam_repository   1     5c2d1c82f9ec   xxx_namespace   10 months ago   2.5 kB   -

Create a Project in Code Engine

• Select Code Engine in the left side menu in the IBM Cloud resources dashboard (https://cloud.ibm.com/codeengine/overview)

• Select Projects in the left side menu, select the Location and Resource group, optionally set Tags and hit the Create button

• Once the project is created, enter the project

Create an application from a private GitHub repository

• Inside the Project click on Application on left side menu

• In the application creation settings dialog box, set the values and hit the Specily build details button

• The URL of a private repository is not HTTPS but GIT! The documentation could be found at: https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/getting-started-with-git/managing-remote-repositories

• Specify the details as in the example below
  • The Code repo URL (private repo name provided in the previous step)
  • The Code repo access (How to create a SSH Key for yoru GitHub account) (or a good article on how to set-up a SSH Key for GitHub: https://leangaurav.medium.com/setup-ssh-key-with-git-github-clone-private-repo-using-ssh-d983ab7bb956)
  • Hit Next

• Specify the build details and hit Next

• You see the Registry server. You can either let Code Engine generate a secret for the registry or build your own secret (refer to IAM documentation on IBM Cloud). Choose the right Namespace for your application deployment and you can let Code Engine manage the Repository (image name). Hit the Done button to start building your application.

• Once your application is deployed and running you can access it through the interface! You're done, congrats!!!

Links and helpers

• Code Engine documentation: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/codeengine
• Install IBM Cloud Code Engine CLI: https://cloud.ibm.com/codeengine/cli
• Creating API Keys on IBM Cloud: https://cloud.ibm.com/iam/apikeys