Recover container images from a running Kubernetes node

Products

• VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Management

Issue/Introduction

A user has deleted an image from Harbor

Environment

2.5.4

Resolution

The images can be rebuilt from a running K8s node:

1. ssh into your nodes until you find one that has a copy of the image:
    
   # ssh <USER>@<K8SNODE>
 
2. List the images on the node:
    
   # crictl images
note the image name
 
3. Export that image to a .tar file:
    
   # ctr -n k8s.io image export <OUTPUT-FILE> <IMAGE>:<TAG>
 
4. Copy that output file to Harbor:
    
   # scp <OUTPUT-FILE> <USER>@<HARBOR>:/tmp
 
5. Connect to Harbor via ssh:
    
   # ssh <USER>@<HARBOR>
 
6. Change directory to where we copied the file:
    
   # cd /tmp
 
7. Use Docker to rebuild the image from the exported layers from step 3:
    
   # docker load -i <OUTPUT-FILE>
 
8. Push the image to Harbor:
    
   # docker push <IMAGE>:<TAG>
 
9. Confirm in the Harbor UI that the image exists.
10. Repeat for each image to be recovered.