Container registries provide Kubernetes operators with a convenient repository for storing and sharing container images. vSphere with Tanzu includes an embedded Harbor Registry that you can enable on the Supervisor Cluster. You can also use an external private container registry with Tanzu Kubernetes clusters.

You can enable the embedded Harbor Registry on the Supervisor Cluster to serve as the private container registry for the deployment of vSphere Pods and Tanzu Kubernetes cluster workloads. You provide the registry URL to developers who can use the vSphere Docker Credential Helper to securely access the registry and push and pull container images.

Note: The embedded Harbor Registry requires that the Supervisor Cluster is configured to use NSX-T networking.

As an alternative to the embedded Harbor Registry, or in addition to, you can configure Tanzu Kubernetes clusters to use an external private container registry.