Introduction

In our previous exploration, we streamlined deployments with Google Cloud Deploy. These deployment pipelines rely on outputs from your CI/CD process, typically build artifacts like container images, packages, or other distributable files. This is where Artifact Registry enters the picture.

Before artifact registry, container registries were the primary way to provide centralized management but as the name suggests, they only stored container images. In 2020, Google's Container Registry evolved into Artifact Registry, expanding its capabilities well beyond just containers.

While container registries were born out of the necessity to reliably store and manage container images (Docker, etc.), modern development workflows often involve various other artifact types:

• Language-Specific Packages: Maven packages (Java), npm packages (Node.js), Python packages (pip) – a plethora of dependencies that your CI/CD pipelines produce.

• Generic Files: Build outputs might include configuration files, binaries, or even compressed archives containing custom deployment assets.

What is Artifact registry?

Artifact registry is a fully integrated cloud tool that acts as a single location to manage container images and language packages providing a secure and centralized home for managing artifacts within your Google Cloud environment.

Artifact registry provides a wider scope than its predecessor, container registry. Think of it as a versatile storage solution for the various outputs of your CI/CD pipelines. It recognizes that modern applications are built upon a variety of packages and dependencies, not just container images.

Why use Artifact Registry?

1. Centralized Hub: A single source of truth for all your build outputs ensures consistency and reliability in your pipelines.

2. Versioning: Track the evolution of your artifacts, enabling easy rollbacks or parallel development tracks if needed.

3. Security and Access Control: Granular permissions (powered by GCP's IAM) protect sensitive artifacts and enforce governance.

4. CI/CD Integration: Seamless integration with tools like Cloud Build and Cloud Deploy smooths your development processes.

5. Flexibility in Locations: Create repositories at either regional or multi-regional levels. Choose what best suits your project's geographic distribution and performance requirements.

6. GCP Integration: The Heart of the Advantage

   • Cloud Build: Push artifacts directly from your build pipelines.

   • Cloud Deploy: Pull artifacts seamlessly for deployment processes.

   • IAM: Leverage GCP's Identity and Access Management for fine-grained permissions on who can access or modify your artifacts.

7. Vulnerability Scanning: Built-in scanning for known vulnerabilities in certain types of container images and packages, enhancing the security of your CI/CD workflows.

Artifact Registry Demo: A Simple Container Workflow

Scenario: You have a containerized application and want to set up a CI/CD pipeline to automate builds and store images.

Steps

1. Cloud Build Builds the Image: Your cloudbuild.yamlconfigures Cloud Build to create a container image based on your Dockerfile.

2. Pushing to Artifact Registry: Upon successful build completion, the container image is directly pushed to a designated Artifact Registry repository.

3. Vulnerability Scanning: Artifact Registry automatically scans supported container images for known vulnerabilities. Results are available in the GCP console, providing insights to address potential security issues.

4. Cloud Deploy Pulls the Image: Your Cloud Deploy pipeline specifies the image location within Artifact Registry. During deployment, Cloud Deploy pulls the latest (or a specific version) of the image.

Best Practices for Artifact Registry

1. Repository Organization:

   • Consider a logical structure based on projects, teams, or environments (dev/staging/prod).

   • Utilize labels for additional metadata and flexible filtering.

2. IAM for Access Control

   • Follow the principle of least privilege. Grant fine-grained permissions to specific users, groups, or service accounts as needed.

   • Regularly audit permissions to maintain control.

3. Vulnerability Scanning Integration

   • Incorporate scan results into your deployment decision-making.

   • Set thresholds for acceptable vulnerability severity levels.

   • Proactively update container base images or libraries to address security issues.

Additional resources

1. Official documentation: https://cloud.google.com/artifact-registry

2. Intro to Artifact registry: https://youtu.be/712Y0KpeHok?si=a2cI8AsC_MsAxgGE

3. Building from scratch with artifact registry: https://youtu.be/rFwTEYSVdNM?si=A7GS8ZEKgAaqvKSj

Next up: Streamlining CI/CD for Serverless Applications

You've harnessed Cloud Build and Cloud Deploy to automate workflows. Now let's go serverless! Discover how to build robust CI/CD pipelines tailored to the unique characteristics of Cloud Functions and Cloud Run. Get ready to streamline development and deployment of your event-driven and lightweight services.