[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":791},["ShallowReactive",2],{"/en-us/blog/tutorial-install-vs-code-on-a-cloud-provider-vm-and-set-up-remote-access":3,"navigation-en-us":39,"banner-en-us":439,"footer-en-us":449,"blog-post-authors-en-us-Cesar Saavedra":690,"blog-related-posts-en-us-tutorial-install-vs-code-on-a-cloud-provider-vm-and-set-up-remote-access":704,"assessment-promotions-en-us":742,"next-steps-en-us":781},{"id":4,"title":5,"authorSlugs":6,"body":8,"categorySlug":9,"config":10,"content":14,"description":8,"extension":26,"isFeatured":12,"meta":27,"navigation":12,"path":28,"publishedDate":20,"seo":29,"stem":34,"tagSlugs":35,"__hash__":38},"blogPosts/en-us/blog/tutorial-install-vs-code-on-a-cloud-provider-vm-and-set-up-remote-access.yml","Tutorial Install Vs Code On A Cloud Provider Vm And Set Up Remote Access",[7],"cesar-saavedra",null,"engineering",{"slug":11,"featured":12,"template":13},"tutorial-install-vs-code-on-a-cloud-provider-vm-and-set-up-remote-access",true,"BlogPost",{"title":15,"description":16,"authors":17,"heroImage":19,"date":20,"body":21,"category":9,"tags":22},"Tutorial: Install VS Code on a cloud provider VM and set up remote access","Learn how to automate the installation of VS Code on a VM running on a cloud provider and how to access it from your local laptop.",[18],"Cesar Saavedra","https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1749670563/Blog/Hero%20Images/cloudcomputing.jpg","2024-05-06","DevSecOps teams can sometimes find they need to run an instance of Visual Studio Code (VS Code) remotely for team members to share when they don't have enough local resources. However, installing, running, and using VS Code on a remote virtual machine (VM) via a cloud provider can be a complex process full of pitfalls and false starts. This tutorial covers how to automate the installation of VS Code on a VM running on a cloud provider.\n\nThis approach involves two separate GitLab projects, each with its own pipeline. The first one uses Terraform to instantiate a virtual machine in GCP running Linux Debian. The second one installs VS Code on the newly instantiated VM. Lastly, we provide a procedure on how to set up your local Mac laptop to connect and use the VS Code instance installed on the remote VM.\n\n## Create a Debian Linux distribution VM on GCP\n\nHere are the steps to create a Debian Linux distribution VM on GCP.\n\n### Prerequisites\n\n1. A GCP account. If you don't have one, please [create one](https://cloud.google.com/free?hl=en).\n2. A GitLab account on [gitlab.com](https://gitlab.com/users/sign_in)\n\n**Note:** This installation uses:\n\n- Debian 5.10.205-2 (2023-12-31) x86_64 GNU/Linux, a.k.a Debian 11\n\n### Create a service account and download its key\n\nBefore you create the first GitLab project, you need to create a service account in GCP and then generate and download a key. You will need this key so that your GitLab pipelines can communicate to GCP and the GitLab API.\n\n1. To authenticate GCP with GitLab, sign in to your GCP account and create a [GCP service account](https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication#service-accounts) with the following roles:\n- `Compute Network Admin`\n- `Compute Admin`\n- `Service Account User`\n- `Service Account Admin`\n- `Security Admin`\n\n3. Download the JSON file with the service account key you created in the previous step.\n4. On your computer, encode the JSON file to `base64` (replace `/path/to/sa-key.json` to the path where your key is located):\n\n   ```shell\n   base64 -i /path/to/sa-key.json | tr -d \\\\n\n   ```\n\n**NOTE:** Save the output of this command. You will use it later as the value for the `BASE64_GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS` environment variable.\n\n### Configure your GitLab project\n\nNext, you need to create and configure the first GitLab project.\n\n1. Create a group in your GitLab workspace and name it `gcpvmlinuxvscode`.\n\n1. Inside your newly created group, clone the following project:\n\n   ```shell\n   git@gitlab.com:tech-marketing/sandbox/gcpvmlinuxvscode/gcpvmlnxsetup.git\n   ```\n\n1. Drill into your newly cloned project, `gcpvmlnxsetup`, and set up the following CI/CD variables to configure it:\n   1. On the left sidebar, select **Settings > CI/CD**.\n   1. Expand **Variables**.\n   1. Set the variable `BASE64_GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS` to the `base64` encoded JSON file you created in the previous section.\n   1. Set the variable `TF_VAR_gcp_project` to your GCP `project` ID.\n   1. Set the variable `TF_VAR_gcp_region` to your GCP `region` ID, e.g. us-east1, which is also its default value.\n   1. Set the variable `TF_VAR_gcp_zone` to your GCP `zone` ID, e.g. us-east1-d, which is also its default value.\n   1. Set the variable `TF_VAR_machine_type` to the GCP `machine type` ID, e.g. e2-standard-2, which is also its default value.\n   1. Set the variable `TF_VAR_gcp_vmname` to the GCP `vm name` you want to give the VM, e.g. my-test-vm, which is also its default value.\n\n**Note:** We have followed a minimalist approach to set up this VM. If you would like to customize the VM further, please refer to the [Google Terraform provider](https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/google/latest/docs/guides/provider_reference) and the [Google Compute Instance Terraform provider](https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/google/latest/docs/resources/compute_instance) documentation for additional resource options.\n\n### Provision your VM\n\nAfter configuring your project, manually trigger the provisioning of your VM as follows:\n\n1. On the left sidebar, go to **Build > Pipelines**.\n1. Next to **Play** (**{play}**), select the dropdown list icon (**{chevron-lg-down}**).\n1. Select **Deploy** to manually trigger the deployment job.\n\nWhen the pipeline finishes successfully, you can see your new VM on GCP:\n\n- Check it on your [GCP console's VM instances list](https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/instances).\n\n### Remove the VM\n\n**Important note:** Only run the cleanup job when you no longer need the GCP VM and/or the VS Code that you installed in it.\n\nA manual cleanup job is included in your pipeline by default. To remove all created resources:\n\n1. On the left sidebar, select **Build > Pipelines** and select the most recent pipeline.\n1. For the `destroy` job, select **Play** (**{play}**).\n\n## Install and set up VS Code on a GCP VM\n\nPerform the steps in this section only after you have successfully finished the previous sections above. In this section, you will create the second GitLab project that will install VS Code and its dependencies on the running VM on GCP.\n\n### Prerequisites\n\n1. A provisioned GCP VM. We covered this in the previous sections.\n\n**Note:** This installation uses:\n\n- VS Code Version 1.85.2\n\n### Configure your project\n\n**Note:** Since you will be using the `ssh` command multiple times on your laptop, we strongly suggest that you make a backup copy of your laptop local directory `$HOME/.ssh` before continuing.\n\nNext, you need to create and configure the second GitLab project.\n\n1. Head over to your GitLab group `gcpvmlinuxvscode`, which you created at the beginning of this post.\n\n1. Inside group, `gcpvmlinuxvscode`, clone the following project:\n\n   ```shell\n   git@gitlab.com:tech-marketing/sandbox/gcpvmlinuxvscode/vscvmsetup.git\n   ```\n\n1. Drill into your newly cloned project, `vscvmsetup` and set up the following CI/CD variables to configure it:\n   1. On the left sidebar, select **Settings > CI/CD**.\n   1. Expand **Variables**.\n   1. Set the variable `BASE64_GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS` to the `base64` encoded JSON file you created in project `gcpvmlnxvsc`. You can copy this value from the variable with the same name in project `gcpvmlnxvsc`.\n   1. Set the variable `gcp_project` to your GCP `project` ID.\n   1. Set the variable `gcp_vmname` to your GCP `region` ID, e.g. us-east1.\n   1. Set the variable `gcp_zone` to your GCP `zone` ID, e.g. us-east1-d.\n   1. Set the variable `vm_pwd` to the password that you will use to ssh to the VM.\n   1. Set the variable `gcp_vm_username` to the first portion (before the \"@\" sign) of the email associated to your GCP account, which should be your GitLab email.\n\n### Run the project pipeline\n\nAfter configuring the second GitLab project, manually trigger the provisioning of VS Code and its dependencies to the GCP VM as follows:\n\n1. On the left sidebar, select **Build > Pipelines** and click on the button **Run Pipeline**. On the next screen, click on the button **Run pipeline**.\n\n    The pipeline will:\n\n    - install `xauth` on the virtual machine. This is needed for effective X11 communication between your local desktop and the VM \n    - install `git` on the VM\n    - install `Visual Studio Code` on the VM.\n\n2. At this point, you can wait until the pipeline successfully completes. If you don't want to wait, you can continue to do the first step of the next section. However, you must ensure the pipeline has successfully completed before you can perform Step 2 of the next section.\n\n### Connect to your VM from your local Mac laptop\n\nNow that you have an instance of VS Code running on a Linux VM on GCP, you need to configure your Mac laptop to be able to act as a client to the remote VM. Follow these steps:\n\n1. To connect to the remote VS Code from your Mac, you must first install `XQuartz` on your Mac. You can execute the following command on your Mac to install it:\n\n```shell\nbrew install xquartz\n```\nOr, you can follow the instructions from the following [tutorial](https://und.edu/research/computational-research-center/tutorials/mac-x11.html) from the University of North Dakota.\n\nAfter the pipeline for project `vscvmsetup` successfully executes to completion (pipeline you manually executed in the previous section), you can connect to the remote VS Code as follows:\n\n2. Launch `XQuartz` on your Mac (it should be located in your Applications folder). Its launching should open up an `xterm` on your Mac. If it does not, then you can select **Applications > Terminal** from the `XQuartz` top menu. \n3. On the `xterm`, enter the following command:\n\n```shell\ngcloud compute ssh --zone \"[GCP zone]\" \"[name of your VM]\" --project \"[GCP project]\" --ssh-flag=\"-Y\"\n```\nWhere:\n\n- `[VM name]` is the name of the VM you created in project `gcpvmlnxvsc`. Its value should be the same as the `gcp_project` variable.\n- `[GCP zone]` is the zone where the VM is running. Its value should be the same as the `gcp_vmname` variable.\n- `[GCP project]` is the name of your GCP project assigned name. Its value should be the same as the `gcp_project` variable.\n\n***Note: If you have not installed the Google Cloud CLI, please do so by following the [Google documentation](https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install).***\n\n4. If you have not used SSH on your Mac before, you may not have a `.ssh` in your `HOME` directory. If this is the case, you will be asked if you would like to continue with the creation of this directory. Answer **Y**.\n\n5. Next, you will be asked to enter the same password twice to generate a public/private key. Enter the same password you used when defining the variable `vm_pwd` in the required configuration above.\n\n6. Once the SSH key is done propagating, you will need to enter the password again two times to log in to the VM.\n\n7. You should now be logged in to the VM.\n\n### Create a personal access token\n\nThe assumption here is that you already have a GitLab project that you would want to open from and work on the remote VS Code. To do this, you will need to clone your GitLab project from the VM. First, you will be using a personal access token (PAT) to clone your project.\n\n1. Head over to your GitLab project (the one that you'd like to open from the remote VS Code).\n2. From your GitLab project, create a [PAT](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/profile/personal_access_tokens.html#create-a-personal-access-token), name it `pat-gcpvm` and ensure that it has the following scopes: `read_repository`, `write_repository`, `read_registry`, `write_registry`, and `ai_features`\n3. Save the generated PAT somewhere safe; you will need it later.\n\n### Clone the read_repository\n\n1. On your local Mac, from the `xterm` where you are logged on to the remote VM, enter the following command:\n\n```shell\ngit clone https://[your GitLab username]:[personal_access_token]@gitlab.com/[GitLab project name].git \n```\n\nWhere:\n\n- `[your GitLab username]` is your GitLab handle.\n- `[personal_access_token]` is the PAT you created in the previous section.\n- `[GitLab project name]` is the name of the project that contains the GitLab Code Suggestions test cases.\n\n## Launch Visual Studio Code\n\n1. From the `xterm` where you are logged in to the VM, enter the following command:\n\n```text\ncode\n```\n\nWait for a few seconds and Visual Studio Code will appear on your Mac screen.\n\n2. From the VS Code menu, select **File > Open Folder...\"\n3. In the File chooser, select the top-level directory of the GitLab project you cloned in the previous section\n\nThat's it! You're ready to start working on your cloned GitLab project using the VS Code that you installed on a remote Linux-based VM.\n\n### Troubleshooting\n\nWhile using the remotely installed VS Code from your local Mac, you may encounter a few issues. In this section, we provide guidance on how to mitigate them.\n\n#### Keyboard keys not mapped correctly\n\nIf, while running VS Code, you are having issues with your keyboard keys not being mapped correctly, e.g. letter e is backspace, letter r is tab, letter s is clear line, etc., do the following:\n\n1. In VS Code, select **File > Preferences > Settings**.\n1. Search for \"keyboard\". If having issues with the letter e, then search for \"board\". Click on the \"Keyboard\" entry under \"Application.\"\n1. Ensure that the Keyboard Dispatch is set to \"keyCode.\"\n1. Restart VS Code.\n1. If you need further help, this is a good resource for [keyboard problems](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Keybinding-Issues#troubleshoot-linux-keybindings).\n\n#### Error loading webview: Error\n\nIf while running VS Code, you get a message saying:\n\n\"Error loading webview: Error: Could not register service worker: InvalidStateError: Failed to register a ServiceWorker: The document is in an invalid state.\"\n\n1. Exit VS Code and then enter this cmd from the `xterm` window:\n\n`killall code`\n\nYou may need to execute this command two or three times in a row to kill all VS Code processes.\n\n2. Ensure that all VS Code-related processes are gone by entering the following command from the `xterm` window:\n\n`ps -ef | grep code`\n\n3. Once all the VS Code-related processes are gone, restart VS Code by entering the following command from the `xterm` window:\n\n`code`\n\n#### Some useful commands to debug SSH\n\nHere are some useful commands to run on the VM that can help you debug SSH issues:\n\n1. To get the status, location and latest event of sshd:\n\n`sudo systemctl status ssh`\n\n2. To see the log of sshd:\n\n`journalctl -b -a -u ssh`\n\n3. To restart to SSH daemon:\n\n`sudo systemctl restart ssh.service`\n\nOr\n\n`sudo systemctl restart ssh`\n\n4. To start a root shell:\n\n`sudo -s`\n\n## Get started\n\nThis article described how to:\n- instantiate a Linux-based VM on GCP\n- install VS Code and dependencies on the remote VM\n- clone an existing GitLab project of yours in the remote VM\n- open your remotely cloned project from the remotely installed VS Code\n\nAs a result, you can basically use your laptop as a thin client that accesses a remote server, where all the work takes place.\n\n> The automation to get all these parts in place was done by GitLab. Sign up for a [free GitLab Ultimate trial](https://about.gitlab.com/free-trial/) to get started today!\n",[23,24,25],"cloud native","tutorial","open source","yml",{},"/en-us/blog/tutorial-install-vs-code-on-a-cloud-provider-vm-and-set-up-remote-access",{"title":15,"description":16,"ogTitle":15,"ogDescription":16,"noIndex":30,"ogImage":19,"ogUrl":31,"ogSiteName":32,"ogType":33,"canonicalUrls":31},false,"https://about.gitlab.com/blog/tutorial-install-vs-code-on-a-cloud-provider-vm-and-set-up-remote-access","https://about.gitlab.com","article","en-us/blog/tutorial-install-vs-code-on-a-cloud-provider-vm-and-set-up-remote-access",[36,24,37],"cloud-native","open-source","GBfeqqwivrg2fBaaasmTL0EH4cm4YOcEHttfGy33LUQ",{"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":680},[681,684,687],{"text":682,"config":683},"Terms",{"href":509,"dataGaName":510,"dataGaLocation":457},{"text":685,"config":686},"Cookies",{"dataGaName":519,"dataGaLocation":457,"id":520,"isOneTrustButton":12},{"text":688,"config":689},"Privacy",{"href":514,"dataGaName":515,"dataGaLocation":457},[691],{"id":692,"title":18,"body":8,"config":693,"content":695,"description":8,"extension":26,"meta":699,"navigation":12,"path":700,"seo":701,"stem":702,"__hash__":703},"blogAuthors/en-us/blog/authors/cesar-saavedra.yml",{"template":694},"BlogAuthor",{"name":18,"config":696},{"headshot":697,"ctfId":698},"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",[705,719,731],{"content":706,"config":717},{"title":707,"description":708,"authors":709,"heroImage":711,"date":712,"body":713,"category":9,"tags":714},"How to use GitLab Container Virtual Registry with Docker Hardened Images","Learn how to simplify container image management with this step-by-step guide.",[710],"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/)",[24,715,716],"product","features",{"featured":30,"template":13,"slug":718},"using-gitlab-container-virtual-registry-with-docker-hardened-images",{"content":720,"config":729},{"title":721,"description":722,"authors":723,"heroImage":725,"date":726,"category":9,"tags":727,"body":728},"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",[261,612,25],"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":730,"featured":30,"template":13},"how-iit-bombay-students-code-future-with-gitlab",{"content":732,"config":740},{"title":733,"description":734,"authors":735,"heroImage":736,"date":737,"category":9,"tags":738,"body":739},"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",[612,261,715],"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":741,"featured":12,"template":13},"artois-university-elevates-curriculum-with-gitlab-ultimate-for-education",{"promotions":743},[744,758,769],{"id":745,"categories":746,"header":748,"text":749,"button":750,"image":755},"ai-modernization",[747],"ai-ml","Is AI achieving its promise at scale?","Quiz will take 5 minutes or less",{"text":751,"config":752},"Get your AI maturity score",{"href":753,"dataGaName":754,"dataGaLocation":243},"/assessments/ai-modernization-assessment/","modernization assessment",{"config":756},{"src":757},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/qix0m7kwnd8x2fh1zq49.png",{"id":759,"categories":760,"header":761,"text":749,"button":762,"image":766},"devops-modernization",[715,559],"Are you just managing tools or shipping innovation?",{"text":763,"config":764},"Get your DevOps maturity score",{"href":765,"dataGaName":754,"dataGaLocation":243},"/assessments/devops-modernization-assessment/",{"config":767},{"src":768},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138785/eg818fmakweyuznttgid.png",{"id":770,"categories":771,"header":773,"text":749,"button":774,"image":778},"security-modernization",[772],"security","Are you trading speed for security?",{"text":775,"config":776},"Get your security maturity score",{"href":777,"dataGaName":754,"dataGaLocation":243},"/assessments/security-modernization-assessment/",{"config":779},{"src":780},"https://res.cloudinary.com/about-gitlab-com/image/upload/v1772138786/p4pbqd9nnjejg5ds6mdk.png",{"header":782,"blurb":783,"button":784,"secondaryButton":789},"Start building faster today","See what your team can do with the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps.\n",{"text":785,"config":786},"Get your free trial",{"href":787,"dataGaName":50,"dataGaLocation":788},"https://gitlab.com/-/trial_registrations/new?glm_content=default-saas-trial&glm_source=about.gitlab.com/","feature",{"text":495,"config":790},{"href":54,"dataGaName":55,"dataGaLocation":788},1773350831919]