---
title: Pull an Image from a Private Registry
content_template: templates/task
weight: 100
---

{{% capture overview %}}

This page shows how to create a Pod that uses a Secret to pull an image from a
private Docker registry or repository.

{{% /capture %}}

{{% capture prerequisites %}}

* {{< include "task-tutorial-prereqs.md" >}} {{< version-check >}}

* To do this exercise, you need a
[Docker ID](https://docs.docker.com/docker-id/) and password.

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## Log in to Docker

On your laptop, you must authenticate with a registry in order to pull a private image:

```shell
docker login
```

When prompted, enter your Docker username and password.

The login process creates or updates a `config.json` file that holds an authorization token.

View the `config.json` file:

```shell
cat ~/.docker/config.json
```

The output contains a section similar to this:

```json
{
    "auths": {
        "https://index.docker.io/v1/": {
            "auth": "c3R...zE2"
        }
    }
}
```

{{< note >}}
If you use a Docker credentials store, you won't see that `auth` entry but a `credsStore` entry with the name of the store as value.
{{< /note >}}

## Create a Secret based on existing Docker credentials {#registry-secret-existing-credentials}

A Kubernetes cluster uses the Secret of `docker-registry` type to authenticate with
a container registry to pull a private image.

If you already ran `docker login`, you can copy that credential into Kubernetes:

```shell
kubectl create secret generic regcred \
    --from-file=.dockerconfigjson=<path/to/.docker/config.json> \
    --type=kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson
```

If you need more control (for example, to set a namespace or a label on the new
secret) then you can customise the Secret before storing it.
Be sure to:

- set the name of the data item to `.dockerconfigjson`
- base64 encode the docker file and paste that string, unbroken
  as the value for field `data[".dockerconfigjson"]`
- set `type` to `kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson`

Example:

```yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: myregistrykey
  namespace: awesomeapps
data:
  .dockerconfigjson: UmVhbGx5IHJlYWxseSByZWVlZWVlZWVlZWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGx5eXl5eXl5eXl5eXl5eXl5eXl5eSBsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbG9vb29vb29vb29vb29vb29vb29vb29vb29vb25ubm5ubm5ubm5ubm5ubm5ubm5ubm5ubmdnZ2dnZ2dnZ2dnZ2dnZ2dnZ2cgYXV0aCBrZXlzCg==
type: kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson
```

If you get the error message `error: no objects passed to create`, it may mean the base64 encoded string is invalid.
If you get an error message like `Secret "myregistrykey" is invalid: data[.dockerconfigjson]: invalid value ...`, it means
the base64 encoded string in the data was successfully decoded, but could not be parsed as a `.docker/config.json` file.

## Create a Secret by providing credentials on the command line

Create this Secret, naming it `regcred`:

```shell
kubectl create secret docker-registry regcred --docker-server=<your-registry-server> --docker-username=<your-name> --docker-password=<your-pword> --docker-email=<your-email>
```

where:

* `<your-registry-server>` is your Private Docker Registry FQDN. (https://index.docker.io/v1/ for DockerHub)
* `<your-name>` is your Docker username.
* `<your-pword>` is your Docker password.
* `<your-email>` is your Docker email.

You have successfully set your Docker credentials in the cluster as a Secret called `regcred`.

{{< note >}}
Typing secrets on the command line may store them in your shell history unprotected, and
those secrets might also be visible to other users on your PC during the time that
`kubectl` is running.
{{< /note >}}


## Inspecting the Secret `regcred`

To understand the contents of the `regcred` Secret you just created, start by viewing the Secret in YAML format:

```shell
kubectl get secret regcred --output=yaml
```

The output is similar to this:

```yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  ...
  name: regcred
  ...
data:
  .dockerconfigjson: eyJodHRwczovL2luZGV4L ... J0QUl6RTIifX0=
type: kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson
```

The value of the `.dockerconfigjson` field is a base64 representation of your Docker credentials.

To understand what is in the `.dockerconfigjson` field, convert the secret data to a
readable format:

```shell
kubectl get secret regcred --output="jsonpath={.data.\.dockerconfigjson}" | base64 --decode
```

The output is similar to this:

```json
{"auths":{"your.private.registry.example.com":{"username":"janedoe","password":"xxxxxxxxxxx","email":"jdoe@example.com","auth":"c3R...zE2"}}}
```

To understand what is in the `auth` field, convert the base64-encoded data to a readable format:

```shell
echo "c3R...zE2" | base64 --decode
```

The output, username and password concatenated with a `:`, is similar to this:

```none
janedoe:xxxxxxxxxxx
```

Notice that the Secret data contains the authorization token similar to your local `~/.docker/config.json` file.

You have successfully set your Docker credentials as a Secret called `regcred` in the cluster.

## Create a Pod that uses your Secret

Here is a configuration file for a Pod that needs access to your Docker credentials in `regcred`:

{{< codenew file="pods/private-reg-pod.yaml" >}}

Download the above file:

```shell
wget -O my-private-reg-pod.yaml https://k8s.io/examples/pods/private-reg-pod.yaml
```

In file `my-private-reg-pod.yaml`, replace `<your-private-image>` with the path to an image in a private registry such as:

```none
your.private.registry.example.com/janedoe/jdoe-private:v1
```

To pull the image from the private registry, Kubernetes needs credentials.
The `imagePullSecrets` field in the configuration file specifies that Kubernetes should get the credentials from a Secret named `regcred`.

Create a Pod that uses your Secret, and verify that the Pod is running:

```shell
kubectl apply -f my-private-reg-pod.yaml
kubectl get pod private-reg
```

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{{% capture whatsnext %}}

* Learn more about [Secrets](/docs/concepts/configuration/secret/).
* Learn more about [using a private registry](/docs/concepts/containers/images/#using-a-private-registry).
* Learn more about [adding image pull secrets to a service account](/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-service-account/#add-imagepullsecrets-to-a-service-account).
* See [kubectl create secret docker-registry](/docs/reference/generated/kubectl/kubectl-commands/#-em-secret-docker-registry-em-).
* See [Secret](/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/{{< param "version" >}}/#secret-v1-core).
* See the `imagePullSecrets` field of [PodSpec](/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/{{< param "version" >}}/#podspec-v1-core).

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