Author: Vivek Balaguru - Staff Devops Engineer
Introduction
In the ever-evolving landscape of DevOps and cloud infrastructure, managing container images efficiently is crucial for seamless deployments and scaling applications. At EarnIn, we sought to improve our container management capabilities to better support our services, growth and reduce our maintenance burden. This led us to migrate to AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR), a move that provided significant benefits in performance, security, integration, and cost efficiency.
This blog post delves into the reasons behind our decision to migrate, the challenges we addressed, the migration process itself, and the substantial improvements we achieved post-migration.
Challenges with Our Previous Container Registry
Our previous container registry solution presented several challenges:
Performance Issues: We experienced delays and inefficiencies during deployments under high load scenarios.
Licensing Constraints: Managing licenses complicated cluster migrations and necessitated vertical scaling.
Maintenance Overhead: Frequent upgrades and performance tweaks diverted resources from more strategic initiatives.
Scalability Limitations: Achieving high availability required additional infrastructure complexity.
Mono Repo Build Strain: High volumes of image pulls and pushes in our mono repo setup increased the strain on the registry.
These challenges highlighted the need for a more robust, scalable, and efficient container registry solution.
Reasons for Migrating to AWS ECR
1. Performance and Scalability
We needed a container registry solution that could handle high load conditions without constant fine tuning of infra and scale configuration and undesired latency spikes. Our goal was to ensure efficient container deployments during spiky load, such as Karpenter recycling multiple production nodes simultaneously. AWS ECR demonstrated excellent performance, especially with larger Docker images (e.g., 2GB). Its ability to maintain performance under heavy load was a critical factor in our decision.
2. Seamless Integration with AWS Services
AWS ECR integrates effortlessly with other AWS services such as Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) and utilizes AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for fine-grained security control. This integration streamlined our CI/CD pipelines and simplified infrastructure management, allowing for more efficient operations.
3. Enhanced Security Features
Security is paramount in our operations. ECR offers robust security features, including encryption at rest using AWS Key Management Service (KMS) and encryption in transit by default. It also provides image scanning for vulnerabilities, which was a significant improvement that enhanced our security posture.
4. Cost Efficiency
By migrating to ECR, we reduced the costs associated with storage and data transfer of large Docker images. AWS’s pay-as-you-go model proved to be more cost-effective compared to the expenses associated with maintaining a self-hosted registry and its infrastructure.
5. Simplified Management and Maintenance
Maintaining an in-house registry required frequent upgrades, migrations, and performance tuning. ECR, being a managed service, offloaded this burden, allowing our team to focus on core services rather than infrastructure maintenance.
6. Environment-Specific Repository Isolation
Using ECR for separate accounts across different environments (development, staging, production) provided a structured and secure container management approach. By isolating repositories by environment, we could enforce environment-specific access policies, manage lifecycle rules independently, and enhance deployment security. This separation ensured that production images remained protected from unintended modifications and that each environment could be individually monitored and audited, giving us a clear view of image usage and deployment activity across the board. This aligned well with our multi-account AWS strategy and streamlined our CI/CD workflows.
Performance and Load Test Results
Pre-migration, we conducted extensive performance and load testing:
Image Pull Time: Pulling large Docker images (e.g., 2GB) from ECR was efficient and met our performance expectations.
Deployment Efficiency: Deploying 100 replicas of a service showed a significant reduction in deployment time.
Scalability: ECR maintained performance even when scaling up the number of replicas, effectively handling high loads.
Replication: ECR’s replication capabilities ensured images were available across different accounts and regions, essential for our multi-account setup.
These results confirmed that ECR met and exceeded our performance requirements.
The Migration Process
Migrating to AWS ECR across a multi-language codebase required careful planning and targeted automation. Here’s how our team tackled it.
1. Updating GitHub Actions for ECR:
Each of our supported languages—.NET, Python, Kotlin, Golang and TypeScript—had minor workflow differences. We customized each to authenticate with ECR and validated changes with sample services to ensure compatibility.
3. Automating Migration with Scripts:
We developed scripts that automated the generation of pull requests to update services with new ECR registry paths and to adjust Helm values accordingly. This removed the need for manual edits, keeping the process efficient.
4. Rolling Out Across Teams:
Once Pull requests were merged, we coordinated with teams to redeploy continuous deployment pipelines with the ECR updates, ensuring a seamless transition.
5. Implementing Pull-Through Cache:
To manage external images from sources like Docker Hub, GHCR, K8S registry, and Quay, we set up a pull-through cache in ECR. This ensured images were replicated across all ECR accounts in different environments (dev, stage, prod).
By automating key steps and coordinating across teams, we achieved a smooth, efficient migration to ECR, setting up our CI/CD pipelines for scalability and security.
Challenges Faced During Migration and How We Avoided Downtime
Repository Setup
To pull images successfully from ECR, each service required a dedicated repository. We automated repository creation using Terraform, streamlining the setup process and ensuring all repositories were ready before migration.
Image Pull Errors
To prevent image pull errors due to mismatched tags or repository names, we implemented robust automation scripts that enforced tag consistency across environments, ensuring smooth, error-free pulls.
Permissions and Configurations
We meticulously validated build role configurations, ensuring that every service had the required permissions to access AWS ECR. This preempted potential permission issues during builds, deployments, and subsequent image pulls.
Service Dependencies
All services dependent on the container registry, including CI/CD pipelines and deployment scripts, were updated to point to ECR in a carefully orchestrated sequence. This approach ensured a seamless transition without any service interruptions.
Data Consistency and Integrity
To maintain data consistency and integrity, we leveraged ECR’s replication and redundancy features. By staging the migration one service at a time, we could closely monitor and verify each phase, minimizing risks and safeguarding data integrity.
Communication and Coordination
Effective cross-team communication and coordination were essential to our success. Regular updates and clear alignment among teams helped reduce oversights and ensured the entire migration stayed on track.
Business Value and Benefits Realized
Migrating to AWS ECR brought significant business value:
Improved Performance: Faster image pulls and deployments accelerated our release cycles.
Reduced Maintenance Overhead: Offloading registry maintenance allowed our team to focus on delivering value to customers.
Enhanced Security: Improved security features reduced vulnerabilities and compliance risks.
Cost Savings: Lower operational costs and a pay-as-you-go model improved our bottom line.
Scalability: ECR’s ability to scale seamlessly with our needs supported our growth objectives.
Conclusion
The migration to AWS Elastic Container Registry was a strategic move that addressed our operational challenges and positioned us for future success. By leveraging ECR’s performance, scalability, security, and cost benefits, we enhanced our container management capabilities and operational efficiency. This transition exemplifies how aligning infrastructure choices with organizational needs can drive significant improvements in service delivery and business outcomes.
