How to sync all images from a registry to Pulp in one go?

[VrindaMarwah]

The pulp container remote command currently allows creating a remote and performing a sync for only one image at a time. This means a separate remote and sync operation is needed for each image individually. Is there a way in Pulp to define a remote for an entire registry (like harbour), and sync all its images in one go, without having to create a separate remote for each image?

[gerrod3]

@VrindaMarwah Currently no, you have to have a separate remote for each image you want to sync. If you are fine with the images not being synced, but still available then you can use pull-through caching which will allow one remote for all the images in registry. https://pulpproject.org/pulp_container/docs/admin/guides/pull-through-caching/

[vkukk]

@gerrod3 does this mean that the tutorial is completely wrong? https://pulpproject.org/pulp_container/docs/user/tutorials/sync-and-host/

[gerrod3]

@vkukk No, the tutorial is right but maybe a bit misleading if you are coming from a different plugin like pulp-python or pulp-ansible. In container land a repository != a registry. A repository holds 1 image and its different versions/tags, while a registry is a collection of all the available image repositories. This is different from say pulp-python where a repository == an index, so a python repository can hold multiple python packages and their different versions.

This is why when you create a container remote you need to specify the upstream-name so that we know which repository we are syncing from on the upstream registry. Pull-through caching solves this problem of needing a separate remote for each repository by auto-creating the repository upon request time.