[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":792},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/cd-solution-overview":3,"navigation-en-us":39,"banner-en-us":439,"footer-en-us":449,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Cesar Saavedra":689,"blog-related-posts-en-us-cd-solution-overview":703,"assessment-promotions-en-us":743,"next-steps-en-us":782},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorSlugs":6,"body":8,"categorySlug":9,"config":10,"content":14,"description":8,"extension":26,"isFeatured":12,"meta":27,"navigation":28,"path":29,"publishedDate":20,"seo":30,"stem":34,"tagSlugs":35,"__hash__":38},"blogPosts/en-us/blog/cd-solution-overview.yml","Cd Solution Overview",[7],"cesar-saavedra",null,"engineering",{"slug":11,"featured":12,"template":13},"cd-solution-overview",false,"BlogPost",{"title":15,"description":16,"authors":17,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":21,"category":9,"tags":22},"How to use GitLab tools for continuous delivery","Learn how to use GitLab technology to release software faster and with less risk.",[18],"Cesar Saavedra","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749682956/Blog/Hero%20Images/CD-continuous-nature-cover-880x586.jpg","2020-12-17","\nThis blog post was originally published on the GitLab Unfiltered blog. It was reviewed and republished on 2021-04-01.\n\nEach organization is unique in how they adopt continuous delivery (CD) principles, but the journey to modernize and enhance your software release process can be conducted in phases. In this blog post, we unpack some of the tools companies can use to adopt continuous delivery (CD), and explain how companies can reach continuous delivery in three key stages. The good news is, regardless of how you get there, GitLab offers a solution that allows companies to modernize their release process at their own pace and in their own way.\n\n## Consolidate disparate tools into a single platform\n\nThe first step to reaching [continuous delivery](/topics/continuous-delivery/) is to consolidate the number of disparate tools in your pipeline by using the tools and capabilities baked into the GitLab product. In this section, we summarize some of the fundamental components of GitLab and give examples of how they work.\n\nGitLab users can track issues and merge requests using [milestones](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/milestones/#milestones), which also help with setting time-bound goals. Milestones can be used as Agile sprints and releases, and allow you to organize issues and merge requests into a one group, with an optional start date and an optional due date.\n\n![Example of GitLab milestone from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/milestone.png)\nScreenshot shows example milestone in GitLab.\n\n[Issues are a fundamental tool in GitLab](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/issues/#issues), and include many components to help users communication information about product problems, new features, and more.\n\n[Merge requests (MRs) are created to merge one branch into another](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/merge_requests/). MRs are also where solutions are developed and is a key input to the release planning process.\n\nBoth issues and MRs are core components of a release and allow for the audit and tracking of application changes created by a large group of DevOps engineers, system administrators, and developers. We often use Epics in the release planning process. [Epics are used to track groups of issues with the same theme](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/epics/#epics). In the example below, an Epic was created for all the UI-related issues in a project.\n\n![Example of GitLab epic for frontend work](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/epic.png)\nAn example of an Epic for frontend work in GitLab.\n\n[Iterations are a relatively new tool that allows users to track issues over time](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/iterations/#iterations) and helps to track velocity and volatility metrics. Iterations can also be used with milestones and can track a project's sprints using the detailed iterations pages, which include many progress metrics.\n\n![Example iteration from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/iteration.png)\nThis screenshot shows an example of how iterations work in GitLab.\n\nThe [Roadmap tool assembles epics, milestones, and iterations in a timeline format](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/roadmap/#roadmap), which makes it easier to visually track all progress toward a release and helps the user streamline the release process.\n\n![Example of roadmap from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/roadmap.png)\nThis screenshot shows an example of roadmap in GitLab.\n\nGitLab offers many approval gates for your release. Set a [deploy freeze window](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/environments/deployment_safety.html) to temporarily suspend automated deployments to production. The deploy freeze window prevents unintended production releases during a particular time frame to help reduce uncertainty and risk of unscheduled outages.\n\n![Example of deploy freeze window from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/freeze.png)\nThis screenshow shows an example deploy freeze window in GitLab.\n\nRelated to the deploy freeze window, users can protect the production environment for a release to prevent unintentional releases. Deploy freeze windows protect the production environment by specifying who is allowed to deploy to the environment. Assigning specific roles and responsibilities streamlines the approval gates and release process.\n\n![protected-env](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/protected-env.png)\n\nWhen it's ready, the [user can create the release which automatically generates the release evidence](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/api/releases/#collect-release-evidence). This streamlined process helps reduce release cycle times.\n\n![Example of release evidence from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/release-evidence.png)\nHere is an example of release evidence from a demo project in GitLab.\n\n## Implement continuous delivery\n\nThe capabilities described above help to establish some best practices for software continuous delivery. In this next phase of the CD cycle, every change is automatically deployed to the User Acceptance Testing env/Staging (with a manual deployment to production). In this scenario, there is no need for a deploy freeze, and the release manager can cut a release from staging at any point in time.\n\n[GitLab Auto DevOps](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/topics/autodevops/) helps users automatically create the release pipeline and relieves them from manually creating a pipeline. With Auto DevOps, users can automatically deploy to the staging environment and manually deploy to production and enable canary deployments. Auto DevOps, which is based on DevOps best practices, helps you streamline the release process.\n\n![Example of enabling Auto DevOps from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/enable-auto-devops.png)\nHow to enable Auto DevOps in GitLab.\n\nThe first job in Auto DevOps is the build job, as shown below:\n\n![build-job](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/build-job.png)\nThe build job in GitLab Auto DevOps.\n\nThe build job applies the appropriate build strategy to create a Docker image of the application and stores it in the built-in Docker Registry.\n\n![Example of container registry from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/container-registry.png)\nSee the example of a container registry in GitLab.\n\nFaster and more reliable releases happen when you have build components like Docker images that are consistent, uniform, and readily available throughout the release process. GitLab also includes a built-in [Package Registry](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/packages/) that supports many packaging technologies.\n\n![Example of package registry from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/package-registry.png)\nHere's what the package registry looks like in GitLab.\n\n[Review Apps](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/review_apps/#review-apps) allow the user to visualize what features will go into production. As updates are made to the application via MRs, the MRs kick off Review Apps, which streamlines the review process, including the automatic creation and destruction of an ephemeral review environment. Using Review Apps, stakeholders can verify the updates to the application before the changes are merged to the main line. Review Apps help increase code quality reducing the risk of unexpected production outages.\n\n![Example Review Apps from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/review-apps.png)\nAn example of Review Apps in GitLab from a demo project.\n\nOnce an application is built and passes many automated tests, checks and verifications, the Auto DevOps pipeline automatically stands up a staging environment and deploys the application to staging.\n\n![Example staging environment from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/staging-env.png)\nAn example staging environment in GitLab.\n\nAt this point, a user can manually deploy the updated application as a canary deployment to the production environment. In doing so, a user ships features to only a portion of the pods fleet and watches their behavior as users visit the temporarily deployed feature. If everything checks out, the next step is to deploy the feature to production. After deploying to production, roll out the Canary deployment to 50% of the production pods. Incremental rollouts lower the risk of production outages and delivers a better user experience and customer satisfaction. Advanced deployment techniques, like canary, incremental, and Blue-Green also improve development and delivery efficiency, and streamlines the release process.\n\n![Example incremental rollout from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/rollout.png)\nHow incremental rollout works in GitLab.\n\n![live-env-button](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/live-env-button.png)\nTo check the running application for integrity, you can click on the \"Open live environment\" button.\n\nClicking this button will open up the application in a different browser tab. But what if you run into an application error? As shown below:\n\n![Example application error from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/app-error.png)\nThis is what an application error will look like in GitLab.\n\nIf you encounter an app error, you could decide to perform a rollback by drilling down into the production environment page and identifying the release that had been running before the last deployment. This page is an auditable sequence of changes that have been applied to the production environment. The rollback process starts with the click of a button. Rollbacks speed up recovery of production in case of failures and lowers outage times, which improves the user experience.\n\n![Example rollback from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/rollback.png)\nRollback in GitLab to speed up production recovery.\n\nPipelines usually run automatically, but to schedule a pipeline once a day at midnight, for example, so staging can have the most recent version of the application each day, go to CI/CD->Schedules. Scheduling pipelines can improve the efficiency of the development life cycle and release processes.\n\n![Example of pipeline scheduling from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/pipeline-sched.png)\nHow to schedule a pipeline to run in the future.\n\nWhile the application is running in production, track how the release is performing and quickly identify and troubleshoot any production issues. There are a few ways to do this. One way is to access the \"Monitoring\" feature for a specific environment to track system and application metrics, such as system and pod memory usage, and the number of cores used. The monitoring tracking includes markers (small rocket icon) when updates were introduced to the environment, so that fluctuations in the metrics can be correlated to a specific update.\n\n![Example monitoring capabilities from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/monitoring.png)\nExplore monitoring capabilities in GitLab.\n\nMonitoring reduces the time to identify, resolve and preempt production problems, which lowers the risk of unscheduled outages. It also provides an opportunity for monitoring business activity and optimizes cloud costs. This type of monitoring is not only useful to release managers but also to DevOps engineers, application operators, and platform engineers.\n\nAnother way to monitor the release is by creating alerts to detect out-of-range metrics, which are visible on the overall operations metrics dashboard as well as on each specific environment window. Alerts can also automatically trigger ChatOps and email messages to appropriate individuals or groups.\n\n![Example alerts from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/alerts.png\nExample alerts in GitLab.\n\nYou can manage alerts from the [Operations Alerts window](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/operations/incident_management/alerts.html), a single location from which you can assess and handle alerts, which may include the manual or automatic rollback of a release.\n\n![Example alerts dashboard from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/alerts-window.png)\nWhat the he alerts dashboard looks like on GitLab.\n\nUsers can track and monitor the release progress through [Value Stream Analytics](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/value_stream_analytics.html#value-stream-analytics-development-guide), where you can check your project or group statistics over time and see how your team improves in the number of new issues, commits, deploys, and deployment frequency. Value Stream Analytics is useful to quickly determine the velocity of a given project. It points to bottlenecks in the development process, allowing management to uncover, triage, and identify the root cause of slowdowns in the software development life cycle.\n\n![Example value stream analytics from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/value-stream.png)\nValue stream analytics in GitLab.\n\nLastly, another way to track and monitor the release is through [Pipeline analytics](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/analytics/ci_cd_analytics.html#pipeline-success-and-duration-charts). Pipeline analytics shows the history of your pipeline successes and failures, as well as how long each pipeline runs. This helps explain the health of your projects and their continuous delivery.\n\n![Example pipeline analytics from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/pipeline-analytics.png)\nScreenshot shows example pipeline analytics in GitLab.\n\nThe [Operations dashboard](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/operations_dashboard/#operations-dashboard) can contain more than one project, and allows users to oversee more than one release. This dashboard provides a summary of each project's operational health, including pipeline and alert status.\n\n![Example operations dashboard from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/ops-dashboard.png)\nExample of operations dashboard in GitLab.\n\nRelease managers can also access the [environments dashboard](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/environments/environments_dashboard.html#environments-dashboard) to provide a cross-project, environment-based view that lets you see the big picture of what is happening in each environment.\n\n![Example environments dashboard from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/env-dashboard.png)\nThe environments dashboard in GitLab.\n\nAnother option is to drill down into a specific environment to see all the updates applied to the environment.\n\n![Example production environment dashboard from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/prod-env-dashboard.png)\nThe production environment dashboards shows all updates applied to the environment.\n\nAll these dashboards offer operations insights that are necessary to understand how a release is performing in production and quickly identify and troubleshoot any production issues.\n\n## Implement continuous deployment\n\nThe third phase in the journey is continuous deployment, where users can send updates directly to production. Instead of manually triggering deplyments, continuous deployment sends changes to production production auomatically (no human intervention is required). Teams can only achieve continuous deployment once continuous delivery is already in place.\n\nTo introduce a feature to a segment of end-users in a controlled manner in production, create [feature flags](/blog/feature-flags-continuous-delivery/). Feature flags help reduce risk and let the user conduct controlled tests and separate feature delivery from customer launch.\n\n![Example feature flag from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/feature-flag.png)\nFeatures flags in GitLab.\n\nA project's audit events dashboard will record what user introduced a feature flag.\n\n![Example audit events dashboard from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/events-dashboard.png)\nScreenshot shows example audit events dashboard in GitLab.\n\nCheck security and compliance-related items of the project by visiting the [Security dashboard](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/application_security/security_dashboard/#gitlab-security-dashboards-and-security-center).\n\n![Example security dashboard from demo project](https://about.gitlab.com/images/blogimages/cd-solution-overview/sec-dashboard.png)\nThe security dashboard in GitLab.\n\nThese dashboards help you preempt out-of-compliance scenarios to avoid penalties. They also streamline audits, provide an opportunity to optimize cost, and lower risk of unscheduled production outages.\n\nWe have reviewed how GitLab can help you make your releases safe, low risk, worry-free, consistent, and repeatable.\n\nWhether you are just starting your journey into DevOps, or already in the midst of implementing DevOps processes, [GitLab's continuous delivery](/solutions/continuous-integration/) can help you every step of the way with capabilities built on DevOps and CD best practices.\n\n## Watch and learn\n\nMore of a video person? Tune in below to see GitLab’s continuous delivery solution in action.\n\n\u003Chttps://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/L0OFbZXs99U>\n\nFor more information, visit [LEARN@GITLAB](https://university.gitlab.com/).\n",[23,24,25],"CD","DevOps","demo","yml",{},true,"/en-us/blog/cd-solution-overview",{"title":15,"description":16,"ogTitle":15,"ogDescription":16,"noIndex":12,"ogImage":19,"ogUrl":31,"ogSiteName":32,"ogType":33,"canonicalUrls":31},"https://about.gitlab.com/blog/cd-solution-overview","https://about.gitlab.com","article","en-us/blog/cd-solution-overview",[36,37,25],"cd","devops","ib3F1xMc6qfKIh2w6xwros3Ph7nj4-rWTyvkDTVA8w0",{"data":40},{"logo":41,"freeTrial":46,"sales":51,"login":56,"items":61,"search":369,"minimal":400,"duo":419,"pricingDeployment":429},{"config":42},{"href":43,"dataGaName":44,"dataGaLocation":45},"/","gitlab logo","header",{"text":47,"config":48},"Get free 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statement",{"items":679},[680,683,686],{"text":681,"config":682},"Terms",{"href":509,"dataGaName":510,"dataGaLocation":457},{"text":684,"config":685},"Cookies",{"dataGaName":519,"dataGaLocation":457,"id":520,"isOneTrustButton":28},{"text":687,"config":688},"Privacy",{"href":514,"dataGaName":515,"dataGaLocation":457},[690],{"id":691,"title":18,"body":8,"config":692,"content":694,"description":8,"extension":26,"meta":698,"navigation":28,"path":699,"seo":700,"stem":701,"__hash__":702},"blogAuthors/en-us/blog/authors/cesar-saavedra.yml",{"template":693},"BlogAuthor",{"name":18,"config":695},{"headshot":696,"ctfId":697},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749659600/Blog/Author%20Headshots/csaavedra1-headshot.jpg","csaavedra1",{},"/en-us/blog/authors/cesar-saavedra",{},"en-us/blog/authors/cesar-saavedra","SMqRf-z0W5m5GROz_dXGjmuIb3YaOwm_n_RfeK16GcA",[704,719,732],{"content":705,"config":717},{"title":706,"description":707,"authors":708,"heroImage":710,"date":711,"body":712,"category":9,"tags":713},"How to use GitLab Container Virtual Registry with Docker Hardened Images","Learn how to simplify container image management with this step-by-step guide.",[709],"Tim Rizzi","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772111172/mwhgbjawn62kymfwrhle.png","2026-03-12","If you're a platform engineer, you've probably had this conversation:\n  \n*\"Security says we need to use hardened base images.\"*\n\n*\"Great, where do I configure credentials for yet another registry?\"*\n\n*\"Also, how do we make sure everyone actually uses them?\"*\n\nOr this one:\n\n*\"Why are our builds so slow?\"*\n\n*\"We're pulling the same 500MB image from Docker Hub in every single job.\"*\n\n*\"Can't we just cache these somewhere?\"*\n\nI've been working on [Container Virtual Registry](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/packages/virtual_registry/container/) at GitLab specifically to solve these problems. It's a pull-through cache that sits in front of your upstream registries — Docker Hub, dhi.io (Docker Hardened Images), MCR, and Quay — and gives your teams a single endpoint to pull from. Images get cached on the first pull. Subsequent pulls come from the cache. Your developers don't need to know or care which upstream a particular image came from.\n\nThis article shows you how to set up Container Virtual Registry, specifically with Docker Hardened Images in mind, since that's a combination that makes a lot of sense for teams concerned about security and not making their developers' lives harder.\n\n## What problem are we actually solving?\n\nThe Platform teams I usually talk to manage container images across three to five registries:\n\n* **Docker Hub** for most base images\n* **dhi.io** for Docker Hardened Images (security-conscious workloads)\n* **MCR** for .NET and Azure tooling\n* **Quay.io** for Red Hat ecosystem stuff\n* **Internal registries** for proprietary images\n\nEach one has its own:\n\n* Authentication mechanism\n* Network latency characteristics\n* Way of organizing image paths\n\nYour CI/CD configs end up littered with registry-specific logic. Credential management becomes a project unto itself. And every pipeline job pulls the same base images over the network, even though they haven't changed in weeks.\n\nContainer Virtual Registry consolidates this. One registry URL. One authentication flow (GitLab's). Cached images are served from GitLab's infrastructure rather than traversing the internet each time.\n\n## How it works\n\nThe model is straightforward:\n\n```text\nYour pipeline pulls:\n  gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/1000016/python:3.13\n\nVirtual registry checks:\n  1. Do I have this cached? → Return it\n  2. No? → Fetch from upstream, cache it, return it\n\n```\n\nYou configure upstreams in priority order. When a pull request comes in, the virtual registry checks each upstream until it finds the image. The result gets cached for a configurable period (default 24 hours).\n\n```text\n┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐\n│                    CI/CD Pipeline                       │\n│                          │                              │\n│                          ▼                              │\n│   gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/\u003Cid>/image   │\n└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘\n                           │\n                           ▼\n┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐\n│            Container Virtual Registry                   │\n│                                                         │\n│  Upstream 1: Docker Hub ────────────────┐               │\n│  Upstream 2: dhi.io (Hardened) ────────┐│               │\n│  Upstream 3: MCR ─────────────────────┐││               │\n│  Upstream 4: Quay.io ────────────────┐│││               │\n│                                      ││││               │\n│                    ┌─────────────────┴┴┴┴──┐            │\n│                    │        Cache          │            │\n│                    │  (manifests + layers) │            │\n│                    └───────────────────────┘            │\n└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘\n```\n\n## Why this matters for Docker Hardened Images\n\n[Docker Hardened Images](https://docs.docker.com/dhi/) are great because of the minimal attack surface, near-zero CVEs, proper software bills of materials (SBOMs), and SLSA provenance. If you're evaluating base images for security-sensitive workloads, they should be on your list.\n\nBut adopting them creates the same operational friction as any new registry:\n\n* **Credential distribution**: You need to get Docker credentials to every system that pulls images from dhi.io.\n* **CI/CD changes**: Every pipeline needs to be updated to authenticate with dhi.io.\n* **Developer friction**: People need to remember to use the hardened variants.\n* **Visibility gap**: It's difficulat to tell if teams are actually using hardened images vs. regular ones.\n\nVirtual registry addresses each of these:\n\n**Single credential**: Teams authenticate to GitLab. The virtual registry handles upstream authentication. You configure Docker credentials once, at the registry level, and they apply to all pulls.\n\n**No CI/CD changes per-team**: Point pipelines at your virtual registry. Done. The upstream configuration is centralized.\n\n**Gradual adoption**: Since images get cached with their full path, you can see in the cache what's being pulled. If someone's pulling `library/python:3.11` instead of the hardened variant, you'll know.\n\n**Audit trail**: The cache shows you exactly which images are in active use. Useful for compliance, useful for understanding what your fleet actually depends on.\n\n## Setting it up\n\nHere's a real setup using the Python client from this demo project.\n\n### Create the virtual registry\n\n```python\nfrom virtual_registry_client import VirtualRegistryClient\n\nclient = VirtualRegistryClient()\n\nregistry = client.create_virtual_registry(\n    group_id=\"785414\",  # Your top-level group ID\n    name=\"platform-images\",\n    description=\"Cached container images for platform teams\"\n)\n\nprint(f\"Registry ID: {registry['id']}\")\n# You'll need this ID for the pull URL\n```\n\n### Add Docker Hub as an upstream\n\nFor official images like Alpine, Python, etc.:\n\n```python\ndocker_upstream = client.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://registry-1.docker.io\",\n    name=\"Docker Hub\",\n    cache_validity_hours=24\n)\n```\n\n### Add Docker Hardened Images (dhi.io)\n\nDocker Hardened Images are hosted on `dhi.io`, a separate registry that requires authentication:\n\n```python\ndhi_upstream = client.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://dhi.io\",\n    name=\"Docker Hardened Images\",\n    username=\"your-docker-username\",\n    password=\"your-docker-access-token\",\n    cache_validity_hours=24\n)\n```\n\n### Add other upstreams\n\n```python\n# MCR for .NET teams\nclient.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://mcr.microsoft.com\",\n    name=\"Microsoft Container Registry\",\n    cache_validity_hours=48\n)\n\n# Quay for Red Hat stuff\nclient.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://quay.io\",\n    name=\"Quay.io\",\n    cache_validity_hours=24\n)\n```\n\n### Update your CI/CD\n\nHere's a `.gitlab-ci.yml` that pulls through the virtual registry:\n\n```yaml\nvariables:\n  VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID: \u003Cyour_virtual_registry_ID>\n\n  \nbuild:\n  image: docker:24\n  services:\n    - docker:24-dind\n  before_script:\n    # Authenticate to GitLab (which handles upstream auth for you)\n    - echo \"${CI_JOB_TOKEN}\" | docker login -u gitlab-ci-token --password-stdin gitlab.com\n  script:\n    # All of these go through your single virtual registry\n    \n    # Official Docker Hub images (use library/ prefix)\n    - docker pull gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/${VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID}/library/alpine:latest\n    \n    # Docker Hardened Images from dhi.io (no prefix needed)\n    - docker pull gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/${VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID}/python:3.13\n    \n    # .NET from MCR\n    - docker pull gitlab.com/virtual_registries/container/${VIRTUAL_REGISTRY_ID}/dotnet/sdk:8.0\n```\n\n### Image path formats\n\nDifferent registries use different path conventions:\n\n| Registry | Pull URL Example |\n|----------|------------------|\n| Docker Hub (official) | `.../library/python:3.11-slim` |\n| Docker Hardened Images (dhi.io) | `.../python:3.13` |\n| MCR | `.../dotnet/sdk:8.0` |\n| Quay.io | `.../prometheus/prometheus:latest` |\n\n### Verify it's working\n\nAfter some pulls, check your cache:\n\n```python\nupstreams = client.list_registry_upstreams(registry['id'])\nfor upstream in upstreams:\n    entries = client.list_cache_entries(upstream['id'])\n    print(f\"{upstream['name']}: {len(entries)} cached entries\")\n\n```\n\n## What the numbers look like\n\nI ran tests pulling images through the virtual registry:\n\n| Metric | Without Cache | With Warm Cache |\n|--------|---------------|-----------------|\n| Pull time (Alpine) | 10.3s | 4.2s |\n| Pull time (Python 3.13 DHI) | 11.6s | ~4s |\n| Network roundtrips to upstream | Every pull | Cache misses only |\n\n\n\n\nThe first pull is the same speed (it has to fetch from upstream). Every pull after that, for the cache validity period, comes straight from GitLab's storage. No network hop to Docker Hub, dhi.io, MCR, or wherever the image lives.\n\nFor a team running hundreds of pipeline jobs per day, that's hours of cumulative build time saved.\n\n## Practical considerations\nHere are some considerations to keep in mind:\n\n### Cache validity\n\n24 hours is the default. For security-sensitive images where you want patches quickly, consider 12 hours or less:\n\n```python\nclient.create_upstream(\n    registry_id=registry['id'],\n    url=\"https://dhi.io\",\n    name=\"Docker Hardened Images\",\n    username=\"your-username\",\n    password=\"your-token\",\n    cache_validity_hours=12\n)\n```\n\nFor stable, infrequently-updated images (like specific version tags), longer validity is fine.\n\n### Upstream priority\n\nUpstreams are checked in order. If you have images with the same name on different registries, the first matching upstream wins.\n\n### Limits\n\n* Maximum of 20 virtual registries per group\n* Maximum of 20 upstreams per virtual registry\n\n## Configuration via UI\n\nYou can also configure virtual registries and upstreams directly from the GitLab UI—no API calls required. Navigate to your group's **Settings > Packages and registries > Virtual Registry** to:\n\n* Create and manage virtual registries\n* Add, edit, and reorder upstream registries\n* View and manage the cache\n* Monitor which images are being pulled\n\n## What's next\n\nWe're actively developing:\n\n* **Allow/deny lists**: Use regex to control which images can be pulled from specific upstreams.\n\nThis is beta software. It works, people are using it in production, but we're still iterating based on feedback.\n\n## Share your feedback\n\nIf you're a platform engineer dealing with container registry sprawl, I'd like to understand your setup:\n\n* How many upstream registries are you managing?\n* What's your biggest pain point with the current state?\n* Would something like this help, and if not, what's missing?\n\nPlease share your experiences in the [Container Virtual Registry feedback issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/work_items/589630).\n## Related resources\n- [New GitLab metrics and registry features help reduce CI/CD bottlenecks](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/new-gitlab-metrics-and-registry-features-help-reduce-ci-cd-bottlenecks/#container-virtual-registry)\n- [Container Virtual Registry documentation](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/packages/virtual_registry/container/)\n- [Container Virtual Registry API](https://docs.gitlab.com/api/container_virtual_registries/)",[714,715,716],"tutorial","product","features",{"featured":12,"template":13,"slug":718},"using-gitlab-container-virtual-registry-with-docker-hardened-images",{"content":720,"config":730},{"title":721,"description":722,"authors":723,"heroImage":725,"date":726,"category":9,"tags":727,"body":729},"How IIT Bombay students are coding the future with GitLab","At GitLab, we often talk about how software accelerates innovation. But sometimes, you have to step away from the Zoom calls and stand in a crowded university hall to remember why we do this.",[724],"Nick Veenhof","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1750099013/Blog/Hero%20Images/Blog/Hero%20Images/blog-image-template-1800x945%20%2814%29_6VTUA8mUhOZNDaRVNPeKwl_1750099012960.png","2026-01-08",[261,611,728],"open source","The GitLab team recently had the privilege of judging the **iHack Hackathon** at **IIT Bombay's E-Summit**. The energy was electric, the coffee was flowing, and the talent was undeniable. But what struck us most wasn't just the code — it was the sheer determination of students to solve real-world problems, often overcoming significant logistical and financial hurdles to simply be in the room.\n\n\nThrough our [GitLab for Education program](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/), we aim to empower the next generation of developers with tools and opportunity. Here is a look at what the students built, and how they used GitLab to bridge the gap between idea and reality.\n\n## The challenge: Build faster, build securely\n\nThe premise for the GitLab track of the hackathon was simple: Don't just show us a product; show us how you built it. We wanted to see how students utilized GitLab's platform — from Issue Boards to CI/CD pipelines — to accelerate the development lifecycle.\n\nThe results were inspiring.\n\n## The winners\n\n### 1st place: Team Decode — Democratizing Scientific Research\n\n**Project:** FIRE (Fast Integrated Research Environment)\n\nTeam Decode took home the top prize with a solution that warms a developer's heart: a local-first, blazing-fast data processing tool built with [Rust](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/secure-rust-development-with-gitlab/) and Tauri. They identified a massive pain point for data science students: existing tools are fragmented, slow, and expensive.\n\nTheir solution, FIRE, allows researchers to visualize complex formats (like NetCDF) instantly. What impressed the judges most was their \"hacker\" ethos. They didn't just build a tool; they built it to be open and accessible.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** Since the team lived far apart, asynchronous communication was key. They utilized **GitLab Issue Boards** and **Milestones** to track progress and integrated their repo with Telegram to get real-time push notifications. As one team member noted, \"Coordinating all these technologies was really difficult, and what helped us was GitLab... the Issue Board really helped us track who was doing what.\"\n\n![Team Decode](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/epqazj1jc5c7zkgqun9h.jpg)\n\n### 2nd place: Team BichdeHueDost — Reuniting to Solve Payments\n\n**Project:** SemiPay (RFID Cashless Payment for Schools)\n\nThe team name, BichdeHueDost, translates to \"Friends who have been set apart.\" It's a fitting name for a group of friends who went to different colleges but reunited to build this project. They tackled a unique problem: handling cash in schools for young children. Their solution used RFID cards backed by a blockchain ledger to ensure secure, cashless transactions for students.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** They utilized [GitLab CI/CD](https://about.gitlab.com/topics/ci-cd/) to automate the build process for their Flutter application (APK), ensuring that every commit resulted in a testable artifact. This allowed them to iterate quickly despite the \"flaky\" nature of cross-platform mobile development.\n\n![Team BichdeHueDost](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/pkukrjgx2miukb6nrj5g.jpg)\n\n### 3rd place: Team ZenYukti — Agentic Repository Intelligence\n\n**Project:** RepoInsight AI (AI-powered, GitLab-native intelligence platform)\n\nTeam ZenYukti impressed us with a solution that tackles a universal developer pain point: understanding unfamiliar codebases. What stood out to the judges was the tool's practical approach to onboarding and code comprehension: RepoInsight-AI automatically generates documentation, visualizes repository structure, and even helps identify bugs, all while maintaining context about the entire codebase.\n\n**How they used GitLab:** The team built a comprehensive CI/CD pipeline that showcased GitLab's security and DevOps capabilities. They integrated [GitLab's Security Templates](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/tree/master/lib/gitlab/ci/templates/Security) (SAST, Dependency Scanning, and Secret Detection), and utilized [GitLab Container Registry](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/packages/container_registry/) to manage their Docker images for backend and frontend components. They created an AI auto-review bot that runs on merge requests, demonstrating an \"agentic workflow\" where AI assists in the development process itself.\n\n![Team ZenYukti](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380253/ymlzqoruv5al1secatba.jpg)\n\n## Beyond the code: A lesson in inclusion\n\nWhile the code was impressive, the most powerful moment of the event happened away from the keyboard.\n\nDuring the feedback session, we learned about the journey Team ZenYukti took to get to Mumbai. They traveled over 24 hours, covering nearly 1,800 kilometers. Because flights were too expensive and trains were booked, they traveled in the \"General Coach,\" a non-reserved, severely overcrowded carriage.\n\nAs one student described it:\n\n*\"You cannot even imagine something like this... there are no seats... people sit on the top of the train. This is what we have endured.\"*\n\nThis hit home. [Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/company/culture/inclusion/) are core values at GitLab. We realized that for these students, the barrier to entry wasn't intellect or skill, it was access.\n\nIn that moment, we decided to break that barrier. We committed to reimbursing the travel expenses for the participants who struggled to get there. It's a small step, but it underlines a massive truth: **talent is distributed equally, but opportunity is not.**\n\n![hackathon class together](https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1767380252/o5aqmboquz8ehusxvgom.jpg)\n\n### The future is bright (and automated)\n\nWe also saw incredible potential in teams like Prometheus, who attempted to build an autonomous patch remediation tool (DevGuardian), and Team Arrakis, who built a voice-first job portal for blue-collar workers using [GitLab Duo](https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-duo/) to troubleshoot their pipelines.\n\nTo all the students who participated: You are the future. Through [GitLab for Education](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/), we are committed to providing you with the top-tier tools (like GitLab Ultimate) you need to learn, collaborate, and change the world — whether you are coding from a dorm room, a lab, or a train carriage. **Keep shipping.**\n\n> :bulb: Learn more about the [GitLab for Education program](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/).\n",{"slug":731,"featured":12,"template":13},"how-iit-bombay-students-code-future-with-gitlab",{"content":733,"config":741},{"title":734,"description":735,"authors":736,"heroImage":737,"date":738,"category":9,"tags":739,"body":740},"Artois University elevates research and curriculum with GitLab Ultimate for Education","Artois University's CRIL leveraged the GitLab for Education program to gain free access to Ultimate, transforming advanced research and computer science curricula.",[724],"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1750099203/Blog/Hero%20Images/Blog/Hero%20Images/blog-image-template-1800x945%20%2820%29_2bJGC5ZP3WheoqzlLT05C5_1750099203484.png","2025-12-10",[611,261,715],"Leading academic institutions face a critical challenge: how to provide thousands of students and researchers with industry-standard, **full-featured DevSecOps tools** without compromising institutional control. Many start with basic version control, but the modern curriculum demands integrated capabilities for planning, security, and advanced CI/CD.\n\nThe **GitLab for Education program** is designed to solve this by providing access to **GitLab Ultimate** for qualifying institutions, allowing them to scale their operations and elevate their academic offerings. \n\nThis article showcases a powerful success story from the **Centre de Recherche en Informatique de Lens (CRIL)**, a joint laboratory of **Artois University** and CNRS in France. After years of relying solely on GitLab Community Edition (CE), the university's move to GitLab Ultimate through the GitLab for Education program immediately unlocked advanced capabilities, transforming their teaching, research, and contribution workflows virtually overnight. This story demonstrates why GitLab Ultimate is essential for institutions seeking to deliver advanced computer science and research curricula.\n\n## GitLab Ultimate unlocked: Managing scale and driving academic value\n\n**Artois University's** self-managed GitLab instance is a large-scale operation, supporting nearly **3,000 users** across approximately **19,000 projects**, primarily serving computer science students and researchers. While GitLab Community Edition was robust, the upgrade to GitLab Ultimate provided the sophisticated tooling necessary for managing this scale and facilitating advanced university-level work.\n\n***\"We can see the difference,\" says Daniel Le Berre, head of research at CRIL and the instance maintainer. \"It's a completely different product. Each week reveals new features that directly enhance our productivity and teaching.\"***\n\nThe institution joined the GitLab for Education program specifically because it covers both **instructional and non-commercial research use cases** and offers full access to Ultimate's features, removing significant cost barriers.\n\n### Key GitLab Ultimate benefits for students and researchers\n\n* **Advanced project management at scale:** Master's students now benefit from **GitLab Ultimate's project planning features**. This enables them to structure, track, and manage complex, long-term research projects using professional methodologies like portfolio management and advanced issue tracking that seamlessly roll up across their thousands of projects.\n\n* **Enhanced visibility:** Features like improved dashboards and code previews directly in Markdown files dramatically streamline tracking and documentation review, reducing administrative friction for both instructors and students managing large project loads.\n\n## Comprehensive curriculum: From concepts to continuous delivery\n\nGitLab Ultimate is deeply integrated into the computer science curriculum, moving students beyond simple `git` commands to practical **DevSecOps implementation**.\n\n* **Git fundamentals:** Students begin by visualizing concepts using open-source tools to master Git concepts.\n\n* **Full CI/CD implementation:** Students use GitLab CI for rigorous **Test-Driven Development (TDD)** in their software projects. They learn to build, test, and perform quality assurance using unit and integration testing pipelines—core competency made seamless by the integrated platform.\n\n* **DevSecOps for research and documentation:** The university teaches students that DevSecOps principles are vital for all collaborative work. Inspired by earlier work in Delft, students manage and produce critical research documentation (PDFs from Markdown files) using GitLab, incorporating quality checks like linters and spell checks directly in the CI pipeline. This ensures high-quality, reproducible research output.\n\n* **Future-proofing security skills:** The GitLab Ultimate platform immediately positions the institution to incorporate advanced DevSecOps features like SAST and DAST scanning as their research and development code projects grow, ensuring students are prepared for industry security standards.\n\n## Accelerating open source contributions with GitLab Duo\n\nAccess to the full GitLab platform, including our AI capabilities, has empowered students to make impactful contributions to the wider open source community faster than ever before.\n\nTwo Master's students recently completed direct contributions to the GitLab product, adding the **ORCID identifier** into user profiles. Working on GitLab.com, they leveraged **GitLab Duo's AI chat and code suggestions** to navigate the codebase efficiently.\n\n***\"This would not have been possible without GitLab Duo,\" Daniel Le Berre notes. \"The AI features helped students, who might have lacked deep codebase knowledge, deliver meaningful contributions in just two weeks.\"***\n\nThis demonstrates how providing students with cutting-edge tools **accelerates their learning and impact**, allowing them to translate classroom knowledge into real-world contributions immediately.\n\n## Empowering open research and institutional control\n\nThe stability of the self-managed instance at Artois University is key to its success. This model guarantees **institutional control and stability** — a critical factor for long-term research preservation.\n\nThe institution's expertise in this area was recently highlighted in a major 2024 study led by CRIL, titled: \"[Higher Education and Research Forges in France - Definition, uses, limitations encountered and needs analysis](https://hal.science/hal-04208924v4)\" ([Project on GitLab](https://gitlab.in2p3.fr/coso-college-codes-sources-et-logiciels/forges-esr-en)). The research found that the vast majority of public forges in French Higher Education and Research relied on **GitLab**. This finding underscores the consensus among academic leaders that self-hosted solutions are essential for **data control and longevity**, especially when compared to relying on external, commercial forges.\n\n## Unlock GitLab Ultimate for your institution today\n\nThe success story of **Artois University's CRIL** proves the transformative power of the GitLab for Education program. By providing **free access to GitLab Ultimate**, we enable large-scale institutions to:\n\n1.  **Deliver a modern, integrated DevSecOps curriculum.**\n\n2.  **Support advanced, collaborative research projects with Ultimate planning features.**\n\n3.  **Empower students to make AI-assisted open source contributions.**\n\n4.  **Maintain institutional control and data longevity.**\n\nIf your academic institution is ready to equip its students and researchers with the complete DevSecOps platform and its most advanced features, we invite you to join the program.\n\nThe program provides **free access to GitLab Ultimate** for qualifying instructional and non-commercial research use cases.\n\n**Apply now [online](https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/education/join/).**\n",{"slug":742,"featured":28,"template":13},"artois-university-elevates-curriculum-with-gitlab-ultimate-for-education",{"promotions":744},[745,759,770],{"id":746,"categories":747,"header":749,"text":750,"button":751,"image":756},"ai-modernization",[748],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":752,"config":753},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":754,"dataGaName":755,"dataGaLocation":243},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":757},{"src":758},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":760,"categories":761,"header":762,"text":750,"button":763,"image":767},"devops-modernization",[715,557],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":764,"config":765},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":766,"dataGaName":755,"dataGaLocation":243},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":768},{"src":769},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":771,"categories":772,"header":774,"text":750,"button":775,"image":779},"security-modernization",[773],"security","Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":776,"config":777},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":778,"dataGaName":755,"dataGaLocation":243},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":780},{"src":781},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"header":783,"blurb":784,"button":785,"secondaryButton":790},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":786,"config":787},"Get your free trial",{"href":788,"dataGaName":50,"dataGaLocation":789},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":495,"config":791},{"href":54,"dataGaName":55,"dataGaLocation":789},1773350828783]