An image stream and its associated tags provide an abstraction for referencing
Docker images from within OpenShift Container Platform.
The image stream and its tags allow you to see what images are available
and ensure that you are using the specific image you need even if the image in the repository changes.
Image streams do not contain actual image data, but present a single virtual view of related images, similar to an image repository.
You can configure Builds and
Deployments to watch an image stream
for notifications when new images are added and react by performing a Build or Deployment, respectively.
For example, if a Deployment is using a certain image and a new version of that image is created,
a Deployment could be automatically performed to pick up the new version of the image.
However, if the image stream tag used by the Deployment or Build is not updated,
then even if the Docker image in the Docker registry is updated, the Build or Deployment will continue using the previous (presumably known good) image.
The source images can be stored in any of the following:
-
OpenShift Container Platform’s integrated
registry
-
An external registry, for example registry.access.redhat.com
or hub.docker.com
-
Other image streams in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster
When you define an object that references an image stream tag (such as a Build or Deployment configuration), you point to an image stream tag, not the Docker repository. When you Build or Deploy your application, OpenShift Container Platform queries the Docker repository using the image stream tag to locate the associated ID of the image and uses that
exact image.
The image stream metadata is stored in the etcd instance along with other cluster information.
The following image stream contains two tags: 34
which points to a Python v3.4 image and 35
which points to a Python v3.5 image:
oc describe is python
Name: python
Namespace: imagestream
Created: 25 hours ago
Labels: app=python
Annotations: openshift.io/generated-by=OpenShiftWebConsole
openshift.io/image.dockerRepositoryCheck=2017-10-03T19:48:00Z
Docker Pull Spec: docker-registry.default.svc:5000/imagestream/python
Image Lookup: local=false
Unique Images: 2
Tags: 2
34
tagged from centos/python-34-centos7
* centos/python-34-centos7@sha256:28178e2352d31f240de1af1370be855db33ae9782de737bb005247d8791a54d0
14 seconds ago
35
tagged from centos/python-35-centos7
* centos/python-35-centos7@sha256:2efb79ca3ac9c9145a63675fb0c09220ab3b8d4005d35e0644417ee552548b10
7 seconds ago
Using image streams has several significant benefits:
-
You can tag, rollback a tag, and quickly deal with images, without having to re-push using the command line.
-
You can trigger Builds and Deployments when a new image is pushed to the registry. Also,
OpenShift Container Platform has generic triggers for other resources (such as Kubernetes objects).
-
You can mark a tag for periodic re-import.
If the source image has changed, that change is picked up and reflected in the image stream, which triggers the Build and/or Deployment flow, depending upon the Build or Deployment configuration.
-
You can share images using fine-grained access control and quickly distribute images across your teams.
-
If the source image changes, the image stream tag will still point to a known-good version of the image, ensuring that your application will not break unexpectedly.
-
You can configure security around who can view and use the images through permissions on the image stream objects.
-
Users that lack permission to read or list images on the cluster level can still retrieve the images tagged in a project using image streams.
When using image streams, it is important to understand what the image stream tag is pointing to and how changes to tags and images can affect you. For example:
-
If your image stream tag points to a Docker image tag, you need to understand how that Docker image tag is updated. For example, a Docker image tag docker.io/ruby:2.4
will probably always point to a v2.4 ruby image. But, a Docker image tag docker.io/ruby:latest
will probably change with major versions. So, the Docker image tag that a image stream tag points to can tell you how stable the image stream tag will be, if you choose to reference it.
-
If your image stream tag follows another image stream tag (it does not point directly to a docker image tag), it is possible that the image stream tag will be updated to follow a different image stream tag in the future. Again, this could result in picking up an incompatible version change.
Important terms
- Docker repository
-
A collection of related docker images and tags identifying them.
For example, the OpenShift Jenkins images are in a Docker repository:
docker.io/openshift/jenkins-2-centos7
- Docker registry
-
A content server that can store and service images from Docker repositories.
For example:
registry.access.redhat.com
- Docker image
-
A specific set of content that can be run as a container. Usually associated with a particular tag within a Docker repository.
- Docker image tag
-
A label applied to a Docker image in a repository that distinguishes a specific image. For example, here 3.6.0 is a tag:
docker.io/openshift/jenkins-2-centos7:3.6.0
|
A Docker image tag can be updated to point to new Docker image content at any time.
|
- Docker image ID
-
A SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm) code that can be used to pull an image. For example:
docker.io/openshift/jenkins-2-centos7@sha256:ab312bda324
|
A SHA image ID cannot change. A specific SHA identifier always references the exact same docker image content.
|
- Image stream
-
An OpenShift Container Platform object that contains pointers to any number of Docker-formatted container images identified by tags. You can think of an image stream
as equivalent to a Docker repository.
- Image stream tag
-
A named pointer to an image in an image stream. An image stream tag is similar to a Docker image tag. See Image Stream Tag below.
- Image stream image
-
An image that allows you to retrieve a specific Docker image from a particular image stream where it is tagged.
An image stream image is an API resource object that pulls together some metadata about a particular image SHA identifier.
See Image Stream Images below.
- Image stream trigger
-
A trigger that causes a specific action when an image stream tag changes. For example, importing can cause the value of the tag to change, which
causes a trigger to fire when there are Deployments, Builds, or other resources listening for those. See Image Stream Triggers below.
An image stream object file contains the following elements.
Image Stream Object Definition
apiVersion: v1
kind: ImageStream
metadata:
annotations:
openshift.io/generated-by: OpenShiftNewApp
creationTimestamp: 2017-09-29T13:33:49Z
generation: 1
labels:
app: ruby-sample-build
template: application-template-stibuild
name: origin-ruby-sample (1)
namespace: test
resourceVersion: "633"
selflink: /oapi/v1/namespaces/test/imagestreams/origin-ruby-sample
uid: ee2b9405-c68c-11e5-8a99-525400f25e34
spec: {}
status:
dockerImageRepository: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-sample (2)
tags:
- items:
- created: 2017-09-02T10:15:09Z
dockerImageReference: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-sample@sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7dd13d (3)
generation: 2
image: sha256:909de62d1f609a717ec433cc25ca5cf00941545c83a01fb31527771e1fab3fc5 (4)
- created: 2017-09-29T13:40:11Z
dockerImageReference: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-sample@sha256:909de62d1f609a717ec433cc25ca5cf00941545c83a01fb31527771e1fab3fc5
generation: 1
image: sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7dd13d
tag: latest (5)
1 |
The name of the image stream. |
2 |
Docker repository path where new images can be pushed to add/update them in this image stream. |
3 |
The SHA identifier that this image stream tag currently references. Resources that reference this image stream tag use this identifier. |
4 |
The SHA identifier that this image stream tag previously referenced. Can be used to rollback to an older image. |
5 |
The image stream tag name. |
For a sample build configuration that references an image stream, see What Is a BuildConfig?
in the Strategy
stanza of the configuration.
Image Stream Images
An image stream image points from within an image stream
to a particular image ID.
Image stream images allow you to retrieve metadata about an image from a particular image stream
where it is tagged.
Image stream image objects are automatically created in OpenShift Container Platform whenever
you import or tag an image into the image stream. You should never have to explicitly define an
image stream image object in any image stream definition that you use to create image streams.
The image stream image consists of the image stream name and image ID from the repository, delimited by an @
sign:
<image-stream-name>@<image-id>
origin-ruby-sample@sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7dd13d
Image Stream Tags
An image stream tag is a named pointer to an image in an image stream. It
is often abbreviated as istag. An image stream tag is used to reference or retrieve
an image for a given image stream and tag.
Image stream tags can reference any local or externally
managed image. It contains a history of images represented as a stack of all
images the tag ever pointed to. Whenever a new or existing image is tagged
under particular image stream tag, it is placed at the first position in the
history stack. The image previously occupying the top position will be available at
the second position, and so forth. This allows for easy rollbacks to make tags point to
historical images again.
Image Stream Tag with Two Images in its History
tags:
- items:
- created: 2017-09-02T10:15:09Z
dockerImageReference: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-sample@sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7dd13d
generation: 2
image: sha256:909de62d1f609a717ec433cc25ca5cf00941545c83a01fb31527771e1fab3fc5
- created: 2017-09-29T13:40:11Z
dockerImageReference: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-sample@sha256:909de62d1f609a717ec433cc25ca5cf00941545c83a01fb31527771e1fab3fc5
generation: 1
image: sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7dd13d
tag: latest
Image stream tags can be permanent tags or tracking tags.
-
Permanent tags are version-specific tags that point to a particular version of an image, such as Python 3.5.
-
Tracking tags are reference tags that follow another image stream tag and could be updated in the future to change which image they follow, much like a symlink. Note that these new levels are not guaranteed to be backwards-compatible.
For example, the latest
image stream tags that ship with OpenShift Container Platform are tracking tags. This means consumers of the latest
image stream tag will be updated to the newest level of the framework provided by the image when a new level becomes available. A latest
image stream tag to v3.6
could be changed to v3.7
at any time. It is important to be aware that these latest
image stream tags behave differently than the Docker latest
tag. The latest
image stream tag, in this case, does not point to the latest image in the Docker repository. It points to another image stream tag, which might not be the latest version of an image. For example, if the latest
image stream tag points to v3.2
of an image, when the 3.3
version is released, the latest
tag is not automatically updated to v3.3
, and remains at v3.2
until it is manually updated to point to a v3.3
image stream tag.
|
Tracking tags are limited to a single image stream and cannot reference other image streams.
|
The image stream tag is composed of the name of the image stream and a tag, separated by a colon:
<image stream name>:<tag>
For example, to refer to the
sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7dd13d
image
in the image stream object example above, the image stream tag
would be:
origin-ruby-sample:latest
Image Stream Change Triggers
Image stream triggers allow your Builds and Deployments to be automatically invoked when a new version of an upstream image is available.
For example, Builds and Deployments can be automatically started when an image stream tag is modified.
This is achieved by monitoring that particular image stream tag and notifying the Build or Deployment when a change is detected.
The ImageChange
trigger results in a new replication controller whenever the
content of an
image
stream tag changes (when a new version of the image is pushed).
Example 1. An ImageChange Trigger
triggers:
- type: "ImageChange"
imageChangeParams:
automatic: true (1)
from:
kind: "ImageStreamTag"
name: "origin-ruby-sample:latest"
namespace: "myproject"
containerNames:
- "helloworld"
1 |
If the imageChangeParams.automatic field is set to false ,
the trigger is disabled. |
With the above example, when the latest
tag value of the origin-ruby-sample
image stream changes and the new image value differs from the current image
specified in the deployment configuration’s helloworld container, a new
replication controller is created using the new image for the helloworld container.
|
If an ImageChange trigger is defined on a deployment configuration (with a
ConfigChange trigger and automatic=false , or with automatic=true ) and the
ImageStreamTag pointed by the ImageChange trigger does not exist yet, then
the initial deployment process will automatically start as soon as an image is
imported or pushed by a build to the ImageStreamTag .
|
Image Stream Mappings
When the
integrated
registry receives a new image, it creates and sends an image stream mapping
to OpenShift Container Platform, providing the image’s project, name,
tag, and image metadata.
|
Configuring image stream mappings is an advanced feature.
|
This information is used to create a new image (if it does not already exist)
and to tag the image into the image stream. OpenShift Container Platform stores complete
metadata about each image, such as commands, entry point, and environment
variables. Images in OpenShift Container Platform are immutable and the maximum name length
is 63 characters.
The following image stream mapping example results in an image being tagged as
test/origin-ruby-sample:latest:
Image Stream Mapping Object Definition
apiVersion: v1
kind: ImageStreamMapping
metadata:
creationTimestamp: null
name: origin-ruby-sample
namespace: test
tag: latest
image:
dockerImageLayers:
- name: sha256:5f70bf18a086007016e948b04aed3b82103a36bea41755b6cddfaf10ace3c6ef
size: 0
- name: sha256:ee1dd2cb6df21971f4af6de0f1d7782b81fb63156801cfde2bb47b4247c23c29
size: 196634330
- name: sha256:5f70bf18a086007016e948b04aed3b82103a36bea41755b6cddfaf10ace3c6ef
size: 0
- name: sha256:5f70bf18a086007016e948b04aed3b82103a36bea41755b6cddfaf10ace3c6ef
size: 0
- name: sha256:ca062656bff07f18bff46be00f40cfbb069687ec124ac0aa038fd676cfaea092
size: 177723024
- name: sha256:63d529c59c92843c395befd065de516ee9ed4995549f8218eac6ff088bfa6b6e
size: 55679776
- name: sha256:92114219a04977b5563d7dff71ec4caa3a37a15b266ce42ee8f43dba9798c966
size: 11939149
dockerImageMetadata:
Architecture: amd64
Config:
Cmd:
- /usr/libexec/s2i/run
Entrypoint:
- container-entrypoint
Env:
- RACK_ENV=production
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_NAMESPACE=test
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_SOURCE=https://github.com/openshift/ruby-hello-world.git
- EXAMPLE=sample-app
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_NAME=ruby-sample-build-1
- PATH=/opt/app-root/src/bin:/opt/app-root/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
- STI_SCRIPTS_URL=image:///usr/libexec/s2i
- STI_SCRIPTS_PATH=/usr/libexec/s2i
- HOME=/opt/app-root/src
- BASH_ENV=/opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- ENV=/opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- PROMPT_COMMAND=. /opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- RUBY_VERSION=2.2
ExposedPorts:
8080/tcp: {}
Labels:
build-date: 2015-12-23
io.k8s.description: Platform for building and running Ruby 2.2 applications
io.k8s.display-name: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-sample:latest
io.openshift.build.commit.author: Ben Parees <bparees@users.noreply.github.com>
io.openshift.build.commit.date: Wed Jan 20 10:14:27 2016 -0500
io.openshift.build.commit.id: 00cadc392d39d5ef9117cbc8a31db0889eedd442
io.openshift.build.commit.message: 'Merge pull request #51 from php-coder/fix_url_and_sti'
io.openshift.build.commit.ref: master
io.openshift.build.image: centos/ruby-22-centos7@sha256:3a335d7d8a452970c5b4054ad7118ff134b3a6b50a2bb6d0c07c746e8986b28e
io.openshift.build.source-location: https://github.com/openshift/ruby-hello-world.git
io.openshift.builder-base-version: 8d95148
io.openshift.builder-version: 8847438ba06307f86ac877465eadc835201241df
io.openshift.s2i.scripts-url: image:///usr/libexec/s2i
io.openshift.tags: builder,ruby,ruby22
io.s2i.scripts-url: image:///usr/libexec/s2i
license: GPLv2
name: CentOS Base Image
vendor: CentOS
User: "1001"
WorkingDir: /opt/app-root/src
Container: 86e9a4a3c760271671ab913616c51c9f3cea846ca524bf07c04a6f6c9e103a76
ContainerConfig:
AttachStdout: true
Cmd:
- /bin/sh
- -c
- tar -C /tmp -xf - && /usr/libexec/s2i/assemble
Entrypoint:
- container-entrypoint
Env:
- RACK_ENV=production
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_NAME=ruby-sample-build-1
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_NAMESPACE=test
- OPENSHIFT_BUILD_SOURCE=https://github.com/openshift/ruby-hello-world.git
- EXAMPLE=sample-app
- PATH=/opt/app-root/src/bin:/opt/app-root/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
- STI_SCRIPTS_URL=image:///usr/libexec/s2i
- STI_SCRIPTS_PATH=/usr/libexec/s2i
- HOME=/opt/app-root/src
- BASH_ENV=/opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- ENV=/opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- PROMPT_COMMAND=. /opt/app-root/etc/scl_enable
- RUBY_VERSION=2.2
ExposedPorts:
8080/tcp: {}
Hostname: ruby-sample-build-1-build
Image: centos/ruby-22-centos7@sha256:3a335d7d8a452970c5b4054ad7118ff134b3a6b50a2bb6d0c07c746e8986b28e
OpenStdin: true
StdinOnce: true
User: "1001"
WorkingDir: /opt/app-root/src
Created: 2016-01-29T13:40:00Z
DockerVersion: 1.8.2.fc21
Id: 9d7fd5e2d15495802028c569d544329f4286dcd1c9c085ff5699218dbaa69b43
Parent: 57b08d979c86f4500dc8cad639c9518744c8dd39447c055a3517dc9c18d6fccd
Size: 441976279
apiVersion: "1.0"
kind: DockerImage
dockerImageMetadataVersion: "1.0"
dockerImageReference: 172.30.56.218:5000/test/origin-ruby-sample@sha256:47463d94eb5c049b2d23b03a9530bf944f8f967a0fe79147dd6b9135bf7dd13d
Working with Image Streams
The following sections describe how to use image streams and image stream tags. For more information on working with
image streams, see Managing Images.
Getting Information about Image Streams
To get general information about the image stream and detailed information about all the tags it is pointing to,
use the following command:
oc describe is/<image-name>
oc describe is/python
Name: python
Namespace: default
Created: About a minute ago
Labels: <none>
Annotations: openshift.io/image.dockerRepositoryCheck=2017-10-02T17:05:11Z
Docker Pull Spec: docker-registry.default.svc:5000/default/python
Image Lookup: local=false
Unique Images: 1
Tags: 1
3.5
tagged from centos/python-35-centos7
* centos/python-35-centos7@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
About a minute ago
To get all the information available about particular image stream tag:
oc describe istag/<image-stream>:<tag-name>
oc describe istag/python:latest
Image Name: sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
Docker Image: centos/python-35-centos7@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
Name: sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
Created: 2 minutes ago
Image Size: 251.2 MB (first layer 2.898 MB, last binary layer 72.26 MB)
Image Created: 2 weeks ago
Author: <none>
Arch: amd64
Entrypoint: container-entrypoint
Command: /bin/sh -c $STI_SCRIPTS_PATH/usage
Working Dir: /opt/app-root/src
User: 1001
Exposes Ports: 8080/tcp
Docker Labels: build-date=20170801
|
More information is output than shown.
|
Adding Additional Tags to an Image Stream
To add a tag that points to one of the existing tags, you can use the oc tag
command:
oc tag <image-name:tag> <image-name:tag>
oc tag python:3.5 python:latest
Tag python:latest set to python@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25.
Use the oc describe
command to confirm the the image stream has two tags, one (3.5
) pointing at the external Docker image and another tag (latest
) pointing to the same image because it was created based on the first tag.
oc describe is/python
Name: python
Namespace: default
Created: 5 minutes ago
Labels: <none>
Annotations: openshift.io/image.dockerRepositoryCheck=2017-10-02T17:05:11Z
Docker Pull Spec: docker-registry.default.svc:5000/default/python
Image Lookup: local=false
Unique Images: 1
Tags: 2
latest
tagged from python@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
* centos/python-35-centos7@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
About a minute ago
3.5
tagged from centos/python-35-centos7
* centos/python-35-centos7@sha256:49c18358df82f4577386404991c51a9559f243e0b1bdc366df25
5 minutes ago
Use the oc tag
command for all tag-related operations, such as adding tags pointing to internal or external images:
oc tag <repositiory/image> <image-name:tag>
For example, this command maps the docker.io/python:3.6.0
image to the 3.6
tag in the python
image stream.
oc tag docker.io/python:3.6.0 python:3.6
Tag python:3.6 set to docker.io/python:3.6.0.
Updating an Image Stream Tag
To update a tag to reflect another tag in an image stream:
oc tag <image-name:tag> <image-name:latest>
For example, the following updates the latest
tag to reflect the 3.6
tag in an image stream:
oc tag python:3.6 python:latest
Tag python:latest set to python@sha256:438208801c4806548460b27bd1fbcb7bb188273d13871ab43f.
To remove old tags from an image stream:
oc tag -d <image-name:tag>
oc tag -d python:3.5
Deleted tag default/python:3.5.
Configuring Periodic Importing of Tags
When working with an external Docker registry, to periodically re-import an image (such as, to get latest security updates), use the --scheduled
flag:
oc tag <repositiory/image> <image-name:tag> --scheduled
oc tag docker.io/python:3.6.0 python:3.6 --scheduled
Tag python:3.6 set to import docker.io/python:3.6.0 periodically.
This command causes OpenShift Container Platform to periodically update this particular image stream tag. This period is a cluster-wide setting set to 15 minutes by default.
To remove the periodic check, re-run above command but omit the --scheduled
flag. This will reset its behavior to default.
oc tag <repositiory/image> <image-name:tag>