01- Harbor Installation Prerequisites

Hardware

The following table lists the minimum and recommended hardware configurations for deploying Harbor.

Software

The following table lists the software versions that must be installed on the target host.

Network ports

Harbor requires that the following ports be open on the target host.

For Opening Network ports , we use ufw :

Then we enable the ufw :

we should an output like following output :

02- Configure DNS Records

Part 1 : DNS Records

We should config and set DNS Records for our domain.
My main domain is : developerhub.blog
I need a subdomain for Harbor : harbor.developerhub.blog

Also I have IPV4 and IPV6 on my VPS . So we have

⚠️ Change IPV4 and IPV6 in following tutorial to your VPS IP .

A Records (IPv4):

@ (or developerhub.blog): This record maps the root domain to your server’s IPv4 address. TTL: 3600 (1 hour)

www.developerhub.blog: This record maps the www subdomain to your server’s IPv4 address. TTL: 3600 (1 hour)

harbor.developerhub.blog: This record maps the harbor subdomain to your server’s IPv4 address. TTL: 3600 (1 hour)

AAAA Records (IPv6):

@ (or developerhub.blog): This record maps the root domain to your server’s IPv6 address. TTL: 3600 (1 hour)

www.developerhub.blog: This record maps the www subdomain to your server’s IPv6 address. TTL: 3600 (1 hour)

harbor.developerhub.blog: This record maps the harbor subdomain to your server’s IPv6 address. TTL: 3600 (1 hour)

CNAME Record:

harbor.developerhub.blog: This record is an alias or a canonical name record that points the harbor subdomain to another domain name. TTL: 3600 (1 hour)

MX Record:

@ (or developerhub.blog): This record specifies the mail server(s) responsible for handling email for your domain. TTL: 86400 (24 hours)

TXT Records:

@ (or developerhub.blog): TXT records are used for various purposes, such as verifying domain ownership, configuring email security (SPF, DKIM), or providing additional information about your domain. TTL: 3600 (1 hour)

Here’s an example of how your DNS records might look like with TTL values:

The TTL (Time to Live) value specifies the amount of time (in seconds) that a DNS record can be cached by other DNS servers and clients before it needs to be refreshed. A lower TTL value means that changes to your DNS records will propagate faster, but it also increases the load on your DNS server. A higher TTL value reduces the load on your DNS server but may cause delays in propagating changes.

The recommended TTL values can vary based on your specific use case and requirements. For example, MX records generally have a higher TTL value (e.g., 24 hours) since they don’t change frequently, while A and AAAA records may have a lower TTL value (e.g., 1 hour) to facilitate faster updates in case of IP address changes.

⚠️ We need to configure SSL Certificate for this domain and subdomain .
Also We should set DNS Records for SSL.

Part 2 : Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate

Installing certbot

Debian

Red-Hat

Obtain SSL Certificate using Certbot

Create a TXT Record for Domain Ownership Verification

For developerhub.blog

For harbor.developerhub.blog

⚠️ Warning : The acme-challenge-value for domain and subdomain is different !

You can check DNS Records and acme-challenge-value in the following website :

Dig (DNS lookup)

Part 3 – Convert SSL Certificates

If you want to upload you SSL certificate into your domain Provider , it is better to do following steps :

Go to SSL directory

Convert privkey.pem to privkey.key

Convert cert.pem to cert.crt

Copy cert.crt to docker directory

Then copy cert.crt to docker directory :

Restart docker

03- Harbor Installation Process

The process of installing Harbor involves several steps, which are all essential to ensure a smooth and successful installation.

Step 1 – Download the Harbor Installer

The first step is to download the Harbor installer from the official GitHub repository. It’s important to select the appropriate installer that corresponds to your operating system. This is to ensure compatibility and prevent potential installation issues.

Harbor Release URL : https://github.com/goharbor/harbor/releases

In this tutorial , I’ve used offline installer

Step 2 – Unzip the Installer

Once the download process is complete, the next step is to unzip the installer. This can be done using any standard unzipping tool. When unzipped, the installer files should be readily accessible.

Step 3 – Configure the harbor.yml File

Next, it’s time to configure the harbor.yml file. This configuration file is crucial as it contains various settings and parameters that Harbor will use during and after the installation. It’s important to carefully review and update this file according to your specific requirements.

Then we should edit the harbor.yml :
We just edit hostname , http port , https certificate and private_key .
The remain config is default .

Step 4 – Run install.sh Script

Finally, once the harbor.yml file has been configured to your liking, the last step is to run the install.sh script. This script will initiate the installation process of Harbor. You’ll need to wait for some time as the script installs all necessary components and sets up Harbor on your system.

⚠️ After Installation , you can check docker-compose ps in the harbor directory to ensure harbor images are running and up !

04- Harbor UI login

We can login to Harbor UI using the hostname url in harbor.yml

harbor.developerhub.blog

Credentials for login (Default ) :

05- Managing Users

From Users Tab , we can add new users to Harbor

06- Working with Projects

For creating docker private registry , we need to create new projects to able to push new docker images to Harbor .
So we create a new project name : reg

In the client ( Where we want to push images from ) , first we should login to our docker private registry using following command

Then docker asks username and password

If the credentials is true , you should see this message :

Then you are able to push new images to your docker registry !

For pushing images , you should do following steps :

list docker images to see the IMAGE ID

Select the image you want to push and copy the IMAGE ID. Then change the image tag like the following structure

Then push this docker image