How to manage images in cloud-native deployment?

Managing images in cloud-native deployment involves several key practices to ensure efficiency, security, and scalability. Here's how to handle it:

1. Use Container Registries: Store and distribute container images in a registry. This allows versioning, access control, and easy deployment.

   • Example: Push a Docker image to a private registry like Tencent Container Registry (TCR) for secure storage and CI/CD integration.

2. Image Optimization: Keep images lightweight by removing unnecessary dependencies and using multi-stage builds.

   • Example: A Node.js app image should only include runtime dependencies, not build tools, to reduce size.

3. Security Scanning: Regularly scan images for vulnerabilities before deployment.

   • Example: TCR provides vulnerability scanning to detect issues like outdated libraries or misconfigurations.

4. Version Control: Tag images with semantic versions (e.g., v1.0.0) or hashes to track changes and roll back if needed.

   • Example: Deploy my-app:v1.2.0 to Kubernetes and revert to v1.1.0 if bugs arise.

5. Immutable Infrastructure: Avoid modifying running containers; instead, redeploy with updated images.

   • Example: Update a Kubernetes Deployment by changing the image tag to v1.3.0 and letting the orchestrator handle the rollout.

6. CI/CD Integration: Automate image builds and deployments through pipelines.

   • Example: Use Tencent Cloud’s DevOps tools to trigger TCR image builds upon code commits and deploy to Kubernetes clusters.

For cloud-native deployments, Tencent Cloud services like Tencent Container Registry (TCR) and Tencent Kubernetes Engine (TKE) streamline image management with features like vulnerability scanning, access control, and seamless Kubernetes integration.