Seamlessly Migrate Harbor Registry Storage to MinIO: Step‑by‑Step Guide

In the fast‑evolving cloud‑native era, containerized applications and micro‑service architectures are becoming mainstream. Harbor, a widely used private registry, ensures secure storage and efficient distribution of container images. When business scale grows, the default storage may no longer meet performance and scalability requirements, making MinIO an ideal high‑performance object storage alternative.

Migration Steps

Set Harbor to read‑only (requires Harbor 2.1+). This mode allows only image pulls and prevents pushes.

Migrate Harbor images to MinIO using rclone to sync data.

Configure Harbor to use MinIO storage by updating the harbor-value.yml file.

Cancel Harbor read‑only mode after migration.

Validate the service by pushing an image.

Set Harbor Read‑Only (Page Method)

Navigate to System Settings → Configuration Management → System Settings, check "Repository read‑only" and save.

Set Harbor Read‑Only (API Method)

$ curl -X PUT -k -u admin https://172.139.20.100/api/v2.0/configurations \
-H "Host: core.jiaxzeng.com" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"read_only": true}'
Enter host password for user 'admin':

Transfer Images with rclone

Download and install rclone:

$ wget https://downloads.rclone.org/v1.68.2/rclone-v1.68.2-linux-amd64.zip
$ unzip rclone-v1.68.2-linux-amd64.zip

Configure rclone to connect to MinIO:

$ cat ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf
[minio]
type = s3
provider = Minio
access_key_id = 4oMdyyLC88OkxfMtIJ2S
secret_access_key = y0f7toxKPoAV6LanDawXGcQwkoiA8yvyI56mUQXw
endpoint = https://s3.jiaxzeng.com
acl = private
upload_cutoff = 5Gi

Verify the connection:

$ ./rclone tree minio:/test --no-check-certificate
/

Sync data from Harbor to MinIO:

$ ./rclone sync /data/harbor minio:/test --no-check-certificate
Transferred: 5.031 GiB / 5.031 GiB, 100%

Configure Harbor to Use MinIO

$ cat /etc/kubernetes/addons/harbor-value.yml
persistence:
  imageChartStorage:
    type: s3
    disableredirect: true
    s3:
      bucket: harbor
      accesskey: ahnGo5qpakYnMXIq5zjf
      secretkey: LulZqwHbtFS7UIF55F77w9R1lwetaYK5HnXT6gIC
      regionendpoint: http://minio.kube-system.svc:9000

Upgrade Harbor with the new configuration:

$ helm -n harbor upgrade harbor -f /etc/kubernetes/addons/harbor-value.yml /etc/kubernetes/addons/harbor
Release "harbor" has been upgraded. Happy Helming!

Cancel Read‑Only Mode

$ curl -X PUT -k -u admin https://172.139.20.100/api/v2.0/configurations \
-H "Host: core.jiaxzeng.com" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"read_only": false}'
Enter host password for user 'admin':

Validate the Service

$ sudo docker push core.jiaxzeng.com/library/tools:v1.1
The push refers to repository [core.jiaxzeng.com/library/tools]
... digest: sha256:fde527bff0c89d6cefbf8fac19e7c6e8266766641f4a8610e4f7c2154ca86252 size: 741

By switching Harbor's backend storage to MinIO, you gain better performance, scalability, and simplified management, enhancing the flexibility of your IT architecture to meet evolving business demands.