When you want to search for container images in registry.k8s.io using a browser
What is registry.k8s.io
registry.k8s.io is the official Kubernetes container image registry with the following features.
Overview
- A production OCI registry service for Kubernetes container image artifacts
- Designed like a CDN (Content Delivery Network), distributing load across multiple regions and cloud providers
- Load is distributed between Google and Amazon, with plans to include other providers in the future
Target Images
- Container images for Kubernetes core and all subprojects
- Includes Kubernetes DNS, Ingress NGINX Controller, and others
Migration History
- The old registry k8s.gcr.io was hosted on Google Container Registry, but its single-provider dependency was a challenge
- March 20, 2023: Traffic forwarding from k8s.gcr.io to registry.k8s.io began
- April 3, 2023: Freezing of the old registry k8s.gcr.io (stopping new pushes)
- Officially adopted in Kubernetes 1.25 and later
- Kubernetes container images are not published to k8s.gcr.io in Kubernetes 1.27 and later
Main Benefits
- Cost reduction: Reduces egress traffic costs from non-GoogleCloud users
- Multi-cloud support: Reduces dependency on a single company and provides a fast download experience to many users
- Sustainability: Reduces cost burden as the project grows
registry.k8s.io does not have an official search interface
Unfortunately, registry.k8s.io does not provide a Docker Hub-like official browser-based search interface.
Alternative Solution: Using explore.ggcr.dev
Instead, you can use the following site to search for images within registry.k8s.io:
On this site, you can:
- View a list of available images
- Check detailed image information
- Reference tag information
Searching the entire registry.k8s.io
As you'll see when you access it, this is not a site that searches only within registry.k8s.io images, but can search images from other repositories as well. When searching for images within registry.k8s.io, enter registry.k8s.io in the public repository field and submit it as shown below. (It's unclear why we put the registry name in the public repository field...)
Or access https://explore.ggcr.dev/?repo=registry.k8s.io directly.
A list of images will be displayed, so proceed to the link for the image you're looking for.
### Searching for Target Repositories in registry.k8s.io
Please enter registry.k8s.io plus your target repository name in the public repository field mentioned earlier and submit. Example: registry.k8s.io/kustomize
On the next screen, you can check images for each tag through the links under child.
Summary
For searching images in registry.k8s.io, use explore.ggcr.dev instead of an official interface (which doesn't exist).
