How to use this image

All examples in this guide use the public image. If you’ve mirrored the repository for your own use (for example, to your Docker Hub namespace), update your commands to reference the mirrored image instead of the public one.

For example:

• Public image: dhi.io/<repository>:<tag>
• Mirrored image: <your-namespace>/dhi-<repository>:<tag>

For the examples, you must first use docker login dhi.io to authenticate to the registry to pull the images.

What's included in this harbor-portal Hardened image

This image contains the Harbor Portal, which provides the web-based user interface for Harbor registry management. The Harbor Portal is a frontend application built with Angular and served by nginx, offering an intuitive graphical interface for:

• Managing container registries and repositories
• Configuring security policies and access controls
• Monitoring replication and vulnerability scanning
• Administering users, projects, and system settings
• Viewing logs and system health metrics

The portal works in conjunction with other Harbor components like harbor-core (API server) to deliver a complete container registry management experience.

Start a harbor-portal instance

Run the following command and replace <tag> with the image variant you want to run.

Important: The Harbor Portal requires a backend Harbor Core server to handle API requests. The default nginx configuration includes a placeholder proxy_pass directive that must be configured for your environment.

Configure the backend server

The nginx configuration at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf proxies API requests to the Harbor Core backend. You must override this configuration to point to your Harbor Core server.

Mount a custom nginx configuration file

Create a custom nginx.conf with your Harbor Core backend URL:

# custom-nginx.conf
worker_processes auto;
pid /tmp/nginx.pid;

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}

http {
    client_body_temp_path /tmp/client_body_temp;
    proxy_temp_path /tmp/proxy_temp;
    fastcgi_temp_path /tmp/fastcgi_temp;
    uwsgi_temp_path /tmp/uwsgi_temp;
    scgi_temp_path /tmp/scgi_temp;

    server {
        listen 8080;
        server_name  localhost;

        root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
        index  index.html index.htm;
        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;

        gzip on;
        gzip_min_length 1000;
        gzip_proxied expired no-cache no-store private auth;
        gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript application/x-javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

        location /devcenter-api-2.0 {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /swagger-ui-index.html;
        }

        location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
        }

        location = /index.html {
            add_header Cache-Control "no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate";
        }

        # Replace with your Harbor Core backend URL
        location ~ ^/(api|c|chartrepo)/ {
            proxy_pass http://harbor-core:8080;
        }
    }
}

Then mount the configuration when running the container:

docker run -d --name harbor-portal \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v $(pwd)/custom-nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro \
  dhi.io/harbor-portal:<tag>

Verify the portal is running

docker run --rm -it dhi.io/harbor-portal:<tag> -h

Visit http://localhost:8080⁠ to see the Harbor login page. Note that login and other functionality requires a working connection to the Harbor Core backend.

Common harbor-portal use cases

Available harbor-portal options

The harbor-portal service provides these options:

# Main Options:
# -h               - Show help information

Run as a daemon service

# Show help
docker run --rm dhi.io/harbor-portal:<tag> -h

docker run -d --name harbor-portal \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  dhi.io/harbor-portal:<tag>

# Test welcome page
curl http://localhost:8080

Non-hardened images vs Docker Hardened Images

Key differences

Why no shell or package manager?

Docker Hardened Images prioritize security through minimalism:

• Reduced attack surface: Fewer binaries mean fewer potential vulnerabilities
• Immutable infrastructure: Runtime containers shouldn't be modified after deployment
• Compliance ready: Meets strict security requirements for regulated environments

Hardened image debugging

The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. Common debugging methods for applications built with Docker Hardened Images include:

• Docker Debug⁠ to attach to containers
• Docker's Image Mount feature to mount debugging tools
• Ecosystem-specific debugging approaches

Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.

For example, you can use Docker Debug:

docker debug dhi.io/harbor-portal

or mount debugging tools with the Image Mount feature:

docker run --rm -it --pid container:my-container \
  --mount=type=image,source=<your-namespace>/dhi-busybox,destination=/dbg,ro \
  dhi.io/harbor-portal:<tag> /dbg/bin/sh

Image variants

Docker Hardened Images come in different variants depending on their intended use.

• Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:

  • Run as the nonroot user
  • Do not include a shell or a package manager
  • Contain only the minimal set of libraries needed to run the app

• Build-time variants typically include dev in the variant name and are intended for use in the first stage of a multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:

  • Run as the root user
  • Include a shell and package manager
  • Are used to build or compile applications

Migrate to a Docker Hardened Image

To migrate your application to a Docker Hardened Image, you must update your Kubernetes manifests or Docker configurations. At minimum, you must update the base image in your existing deployment to a Docker Hardened Image. This and a few other common changes are listed in the following table of migration notes.

The following steps outline the general migration process.

1. Find hardened images for your Harbor deployment.

   A hardened image may have several variants. Inspect the image tags and find the image variant that meets your needs. The harbor-portal service is the web-based user interface for Harbor registry management.

2. Update your Harbor Helm chart configurations.

   Update the image references in your Helm values or Harbor deployment configurations to use the hardened images:

   • From: goharbor/harbor-portal:<tag>
   • To: dhi.io/harbor-portal:<tag>

3. For custom Harbor deployments, update the base image in your manifests.

   If you're building custom Harbor deployments, ensure that your core pod uses the hardened harbor-portal as the main container image.

4. Update environment configuration.

   Ensure your deployments properly configure environment variables that harbor-portal needs for database connections, Redis cache, and other Harbor components.

5. Test Harbor functionality.

   After migration, verify that the Harbor web UI loads correctly and that you can navigate through the interface. The web UI is served by harbor-portal, while API endpoints like /api/v2.0/health are handled by the harbor-core component.

Troubleshoot migration

The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.

General debugging

The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Docker Hardened Images is to use Docker Debug⁠ to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.

Permissions

By default image variants intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. You may need to copy files to different directories or change permissions so your application running as the nonroot user can access them.

harbor-portal requires read access to nginx configuration files and network connectivity to the harbor-core API backend. Ensure your network configuration allows the nonroot user to connect to harbor-core when running in containers.

Privileged ports

Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. Harbor core typically uses port 8080 which is not privileged.

No shell

By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers with no shell.

Entry point

Docker Hardened Images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Use docker inspect to inspect entry points for Docker Hardened Images and update your Dockerfile if necessary.