Build a Lightweight Docker Registry with Registry & Docker‑Registry‑Browser

In work we sometimes need to set up a private Docker image repository; Harbor can be heavyweight, so here is a lightweight solution using registry and docker-registry-browser with visual management.

Introduction

registry

registry is the official Docker service for storing and distributing Docker images, allowing creation of private image repositories.

docker-registry-browser

docker-registry-browser is a visual management tool based on registry, enabling easy viewing and managing of images stored in registry.

Below is a screenshot of the browser interface.

mall

We will use the mall project’s image as an example. The mall project is a SpringBoot3 + Vue e‑commerce system (60K GitHub stars) with a multi‑module backend and the latest 2024 microservice architecture, deployed with Docker and K8S. It includes a front‑end shop, back‑end admin, and supports a full order flow, covering products, orders, cart, permissions, coupons, members, payments, etc.

Boot project: https://github.com/macrozheng/mall

Cloud project: https://github.com/macrozheng/mall-swarm

Video tutorials: https://www.macrozheng.com/video/

Installation

First we need to install registry and docker-registry-browser, using Docker.

registry

Pull the registry image:

<code>docker pull registry:2</code>

Run the registry container:

<code>docker run -p 5000:5000 --name registry2 \
--restart=always \
-e REGISTRY_STORAGE_DELETE_ENABLED="true" \
-d registry:2</code>

docker-registry-browser

Pull the browser image:

<code>docker pull klausmeyer/docker-registry-browser</code>

Run the browser container:

<code>docker run -p 5001:8080 --name registry-browser \
-e SECRET_KEY_BASE=123456 \
-e DOCKER_REGISTRY_URL=http://192.168.3.101:5000/v2 \
-e ENABLE_DELETE_IMAGES=true \
-d klausmeyer/docker-registry-browser</code>

After it starts, access the UI at http://192.168.3.101:5001

Usage

We now use the mall e‑commerce project's images as an example to demonstrate repository usage.

Tag the local image to point to the registry:

<code>docker tag mall/mall-admin:1.0-SNAPSHOT 192.168.3.101:5000/mall/mall-admin:1.0-SNAPSHOT</code>

Push the image to the registry:

<code>docker push 192.168.3.101:5000/mall/mall-admin:1.0-SNAPSHOT</code>

After pushing, the image appears in docker-registry-browser.

To delete an image, open its detail page in the browser and click the delete button at the bottom.

To test pulling, remove local copies and pull from the registry:

<code># Remove original local images
docker rmi 192.168.3.101:5000/mall/mall-admin:1.0-SNAPSHOT
docker rmi mall/mall-admin:1.0-SNAPSHOT
# Pull from registry
docker pull 192.168.3.101:5000/mall/mall-admin:1.0-SNAPSHOT
# Retag to original name
docker tag 192.168.3.101:5000/mall/mall-admin:1.0-SNAPSHOT mall/mall-admin:1.0-SNAPSHOT</code>

Run the mall admin backend API service:

<code>docker run -p 8080:8080 --name mall-admin \
--link mysql:db \
--link redis:redis \
-v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime \
-v /mydata/app/admin/logs:/var/logs \
-d mall/mall-admin:1.0-SNAPSHOT</code>

Run the mall front‑end portal API service:

<code>docker run -p 8085:8085 --name mall-portal \
--link mysql:db \
--link redis:redis \
--link mongo:mongo \
--link rabbitmq:rabbit \
-v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime \
-v /mydata/app/portal/logs:/var/logs \
-d mall/mall-portal:1.0-SNAPSHOT</code>

Conclusion

We have shown how to build a lightweight Docker image repository using registry and docker-registry-browser, which is simpler than the heavyweight Harbor solution.

Project Links

docker-registry-browser : https://github.com/klausmeyer/docker-registry-browser