Step‑by‑Step Guide to Install and Configure Harbor Private Docker Registry on Ubuntu

This article explains how to set up an enterprise‑grade private Docker registry using Harbor on an Ubuntu 17.04 x64 server.

Harbor, an open‑source project from VMware, extends the basic Docker Registry with a web UI, role‑based access control, LDAP/AD integration, and audit logging, providing better performance and security for container images.

Environment preparation : the host requires Ubuntu 17.04, Docker 17.12.0‑ce, Docker Compose, Python 3, a static IP (198.13.48.154) and a DNS‑resolved domain such as hub.ymq.io.

Install Docker CE using the official repository:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -

sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable"

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install docker-ce

sudo docker run hello-world

Install Docker Compose by downloading the binary and making it executable:

sudo curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.18.0/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m) -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

docker-compose --version

Generate TLS certificates with acme.sh (replace the domain with your own):

curl https://get.acme.sh | sh

cd ~/.acme.sh/

sudo apt-get install socat

sh acme.sh --issue -d hub.ymq.io --standalone

The generated fullchain.cer and hub.ymq.io.key are stored under /root/.acme.sh/hub.ymq.io/.

Download and extract Harbor (latest version V1.3.0 at the time of writing):

wget https://storage.googleapis.com/harbor-online-installer/harbor-online-installer-v1.3.0.tgz

tar -zxvf harbor-online-installer-v1.3.0.tgz

Configure Harbor by editing harbor.cfg (set your hostname and TLS files):

hostname = hub.ymq.io

ui_url_protocol = https

customize_crt = off

ssl_cert = /opt/certs/fullchain.cer

ssl_cert_key = /opt/certs/hub.ymq.io.key

Install Harbor with the provided script: sudo ./install.sh Access the UI at https://hub.ymq.io using the default credentials admin/Harbor12345, create a project (e.g., myproject), and log in from the command line: docker login hub.ymq.io Push an image (example with Ubuntu 16.04):

docker pull ubuntu:16.04

docker tag ubuntu:16.04 hub.ymq.io/myproject/my-ubuntu

docker push hub.ymq.io/myproject/my-ubuntu

Pull the image back to verify the registry works:

docker image rm ubuntu:16.04 hub.ymq.io/myproject/my-ubuntu

docker pull hub.ymq.io/myproject/my-ubuntu

The article also shows how to view images, delete them, and check operation logs in the Harbor UI, and points to the official installation guide at

https://github.com/vmware/harbor/blob/master/docs/installation_guide.md

.