How to Configure a Custom Domain Name for Amazon ECR

How to Configure a Custom Domain Name for Amazon ECR

In this blog, we’ll be addressing a commonly asked question: How to configure a custom domain name for Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR)? As data scientists and software engineers, you are often required to manage container images and push them to Amazon ECR. But wouldn’t it be more convenient to use a custom domain name instead of the default lengthy URL provided by Amazon?

This blog post targets experienced data scientists and software engineers who are conversant with AWS services and familiar with Docker. Let’s dive in!

Understanding Amazon ECR

Amazon ECR is an AWS managed container image registry service. It allows developers to store, manage, and deploy Docker container images. ECR is integrated with Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), simplifying your development to production workflow.

Why Use a Custom Domain Name?

By default, Amazon ECR provides a long URL that typically looks like this: 123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/my-web-app. It’s not the most user-friendly, is it?

Using a custom domain name offers a few benefits:

1. Simplicity: A custom domain name is easier to remember and use.
2. Branding: A custom domain can be a better representation of your brand or company.

How to Configure a Custom Domain Name

Step 1: Create a Repository in Amazon ECR

First, we need to create a repository in Amazon ECR. You can do this either through the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI. Here is how to do it using the AWS CLI:

aws ecr create-repository --repository-name my-web-app

Step 2: Push the Docker Image to Amazon ECR

Next, build your Docker image and push it to your ECR repository:

docker build -t my-web-app .
aws ecr get-login-password --region region | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin 123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com
docker tag my-web-app:latest 123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/my-web-app:latest
docker push 123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/my-web-app:latest

Step 3: Configuring Route 53

To use a custom domain name, you need to configure the Route 53 DNS service:

1. Create a hosted zone: If you don’t already have a hosted zone for your domain, create one.
2. Create an alias record: Create an alias record that points your custom domain name (e.g., ecr.mycompany.com) to your ECR repository.

Step 4: Setting Up a Reverse Proxy

Unfortunately, AWS does not natively support custom domain names for ECR. To work around this, you can set up a reverse proxy server, like Nginx or HAProxy, to forward requests from your custom domain to your ECR repository.

Here’s a basic example of how you can set up Nginx as a reverse proxy:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name ecr.mycompany.com;
    location / {
        proxy_pass https://123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    }
}

Step 5: Validating the Setup

Finally, validate your setup by pulling the Docker image using your custom domain name:

docker pull ecr.mycompany.com/my-web-app:latest

If everything is set up correctly, you should successfully pull the image.

Conclusion

In this post, we detailed the steps to configure a custom domain name for Amazon ECR. Although it involves setting up a reverse proxy, the benefits of using a custom domain name can outweigh the initial setup complexity.

Remember, this setup may have additional costs, and security should always be a priority. Consider using HTTPS for securing your traffic and regularly updating your proxy server.

Happy coding!

Keywords: Amazon ECR, custom domain, Route 53, Docker, AWS, ECR repository, reverse proxy, Nginx, data scientists, software engineers.

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