Fixing Harbor TLS Connection Errors

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Fixing Harbor Docker Push Failures: A Deep Dive

Understanding Harbor Docker Push Failures: A Comprehensive Guide

Harbor Docker push failures are a frustrating reality for many teams relying on containerized applications and automated deployments. These failures, often manifesting as TLS connection errors during image transfer, can disrupt workflows, block deployments, and generally cause a headache for developers and DevOps engineers alike. This article aims to provide a comprehensive guide to understanding, diagnosing, and resolving these issues. We'll delve into the common causes, analyze error symptoms, and outline actionable steps to get your Harbor registry back on track. In the world of containerization, Docker has become the industry standard for packaging and distributing applications. Harbor, an open-source container registry, provides a secure and reliable platform for storing and managing Docker images. When you experience issues like TLS connection errors during Docker push operations, it can bring your development and deployment pipelines to a grinding halt. Understanding these issues and how to troubleshoot them is crucial. This article provides a structured approach, from identifying the problem to implementing solutions. So, whether you're a seasoned DevOps professional or a developer new to container registries, let's dive in and troubleshoot those pesky push failures.

The Problem: TLS Connection Failures

Let's cut to the chase: The primary issue here revolves around TLS (Transport Layer Security) connection failures. These errors prevent the successful transfer of Docker images from your build environment (like GitHub Actions) to your Harbor registry. These failures, usually stemming from issues in the network or TLS layer, are often indicated by the error message tls: bad record MAC and prevent the image from being uploaded successfully. The core problem lies in the inability of the client (your CI/CD runner) to establish a secure and reliable connection with the Harbor server. This leads to the failure of the image push operation, disrupting the workflow. The error message tls: bad record MAC is your canary in the coal mine, signaling a deeper problem within the TLS handshake or data transfer process. These failures directly impact your CI/CD pipelines, halting automated deployments, and runner updates. Your builds may succeed, and your authentication may work, but when it comes to the critical step of pushing the image to Harbor, the process hits a wall. In the provided context, the issue primarily arises within the GitHub Actions workflows. While the build and authentication stages complete successfully, the push operation consistently fails, indicating a problem specific to the image transfer process. This typically includes the push phase, which fails mid-transfer, disrupting the entire deployment cycle.

Impact and Symptoms: What's Going Wrong?

The impact of these Harbor Docker push failures is significant. They can directly disrupt your CI/CD pipelines, preventing automated deployments and runner updates. Imagine the frustration when your team can't push updated images, essentially blocking any further progress. In essence, automated processes are stuck, halting development cycles and potentially delaying the delivery of new features or bug fixes. The failure symptoms are clear: failed workflow runs, error messages, and a consistent inability to push the Docker images. These failures cause several problems: blocking automated deployments, disrupting CI/CD pipelines, and preventing updates. Here's a summary of the issues encountered, as seen in the examples:

  • Workflow Failures: Continuous failures in CI/CD pipelines prevent image pushes.
  • Error Messages: The tls: bad record MAC error indicates a problem with the TLS connection.
  • Blocked Deployments: Automated deployments are impossible due to the inability to push images.
  • Runner Updates: Updates to your deployment runners are also blocked, potentially leading to security and compatibility issues.

Breakdown of Errors

The most recent error, the tls: bad record MAC, is the primary symptom. It suggests a problem at the TLS layer during the transfer. The unknown: unknown error gives a less specific clue, but these errors generally point to underlying problems with the connection or image transfer process. These errors and the related timeline show that image pushes were working until recently, suggesting a change within your infrastructure. The primary error, tls: bad record MAC, implies a network or TLS-related issue, while the secondary error, unknown: unknown error, may be related to authentication or storage issues. Analyzing the timing of the failures can help pinpoint when the issues emerged and whether any recent changes might have caused them.

Troubleshooting Harbor Push Failures: A Step-by-Step Approach

Identifying Working vs. Failing Steps

Identifying what works is a crucial part of the troubleshooting process. In this case, authentication with Harbor is successful, and the image builds are also completing successfully. This tells us the problem isn't likely with your credentials or the image itself. This means that the core problem lies in the image push process. By identifying the exact point of failure, you narrow the scope of your investigation and focus your efforts effectively. This helps in understanding the root cause. This information allows us to identify the point of failure with greater precision, making it easier to identify the root cause.

Deep Dive into the Failing Steps

The crucial step that's failing is the image push to the Harbor registry. The failure occurs in the middle of the transfer, specifically during the blob upload phase, which can be seen in the error logs. It's during this phase that the connection is failing, preventing the image from reaching its destination. The error message is PUT https://harbor.egyrllc.com/v2/.../blobs/uploads/.... This pinpoints the exact point where the process is failing, which is important for understanding the root cause.

Root Cause Analysis: Uncovering the Culprit

Potential Causes: Where to Look First

Let's brainstorm the potential culprits causing these TLS connection errors and categorize them. By understanding these potential causes, you can narrow your focus and systematically investigate the issue. The potential causes can be categorized into various sections, each representing a possible point of failure. The most likely causes are:

  1. TLS Certificate/Configuration Issue: The Harbor ingress TLS certificate may have expired, been updated incorrectly, or have a TLS version or cipher mismatch. Certificate chain validation failures are also a possibility.
  2. Network Interruption During Transfer: Issues like large image sizes and network instability may interfere with the process, causing it to fail. In other cases, load balancers or proxies may also cause problems.
  3. Harbor Ingress/Load Balancer Problem: Ingress controller TLS termination misconfigurations, load balancer health check or timeout settings, or even service mesh policies can cause these issues.
  4. Harbor Service Configuration: Problems such as Harbor core service TLS settings changes or registry backend storage issues may cause connection drops. Resource limits may also lead to service degradation during large uploads.

Why Infrastructure Is the Likely Culprit

Several factors suggest that the issue likely lies within the infrastructure, including the fact that the build and authentication phases are successful. The error occurs post-October 27, implying an infrastructure change. The consistent error across multiple runs suggests a more persistent problem. The image builds complete successfully, indicating that the Dockerfile and build process are functioning correctly. Authentication with Harbor is also successful, verifying that the credentials and access are valid. The fact that all failures occur after a certain date suggests a possible change in the infrastructure.

Investigation Steps: What to Do Next

Completed Steps: What We've Already Done

Before diving into further investigation, some initial steps have already been completed. These preliminary steps help to exclude common issues and narrow down the scope of the investigation. The steps already completed, as detailed in the original context, provide a solid foundation for the next stage of the investigation.

  • Verified GitHub Actions workflow authentication.
  • Confirmed Docker image builds successfully locally and in CI.
  • Verified Harbor credentials are retrieved correctly from Pulumi stack.
  • Analyzed error logs from 4+ failed workflow runs.
  • Ruled out client-side workflow configuration issues.

Needed Steps: Where to Focus Your Efforts

With the groundwork laid, the next step involves a series of targeted investigations. Each step is designed to pinpoint the cause of the TLS connection errors. By systematically checking each potential issue, you can determine the root cause of the problem. Here are the key areas to investigate:

  • Check Harbor ingress TLS certificate status and expiration.
  • Review Harbor ingress controller logs for connection errors.
  • Verify load balancer configuration and health checks.
  • Check Harbor core service logs during push attempts.
  • Review Kubernetes network policies affecting Harbor namespace.
  • Verify Harbor storage backend health (S3/Ceph).
  • Test push from a different network location.
  • Check if Harbor TLS cipher suite configuration changed.

Proposed Solutions: How to Fix It

Immediate Actions: Diagnostics and Verification

To diagnose the issues and implement the solution, you'll need to do these tasks:

  1. Verify TLS Certificate Health.
    • kubectl get certificate -n harbor
    • kubectl describe certificate harbor-tls -n harbor
    • openssl s_client -connect harbor.egyrllc.com:443 -servername harbor.egyrllc.com
  2. Check Harbor Ingress Logs.
    • kubectl logs -n ingress-nginx -l app.kubernetes.io/component=controller --tail=1000 | grep harbor
  3. Review Harbor Core Logs.
    • kubectl logs -n harbor -l component=core --tail=1000
  4. Test Push from Different Client. This can help to isolate whether the issue is specific to the GitHub Actions environment.
    • From a non-GitHub Actions environment.
    • docker pull alpine:latest
    • docker tag alpine:latest harbor.egyrllc.com/aiaugmentedsoftwaredev/test:latest
    • docker push harbor.egyrllc.com/aiaugmentedsoftwaredev/test:latest

Short-term Fixes: Quick Wins

Once the root cause is identified, a set of short-term fixes can be implemented. These are designed to address the problem directly and quickly restore functionality. These are a few of the short-term fixes:

  1. If TLS Certificate Issue: Renew or recreate Harbor TLS certificate
  2. If Ingress Config Issue: Review and update ingress annotations for TLS
  3. If Timeout Issue: Increase ingress proxy timeouts for large uploads
  4. If Load Balancer Issue: Adjust load balancer timeout and connection settings

Long-term Solutions: Preventing Recurrence

To prevent future occurrences, implementing long-term solutions is important.

  1. Add Monitoring: Set up alerts for Harbor registry push failures
  2. Optimize Image Size: Implement multi-stage builds to reduce transfer size
  3. Add Health Checks: Pre-flight connectivity check before CI push attempts
  4. Implement Retry Logic: Client-side retry with exponential backoff

Verification and Validation: Ensuring the Fix Works

After applying a fix, it's important to verify that the issue has been resolved. Validation is key to ensuring that the fix effectively addresses the root cause and prevents future problems. Here are the steps to verify the solution:

  1. Trigger a manual workflow run in the customgithubactionrunner repository.
  2. Monitor Harbor ingress/core logs during the push operation.
  3. Verify successful image push and tag update in the Harbor UI.
  4. Confirm automated workflows succeed on subsequent commits.
  5. Test with different image sizes to ensure stability.

Technical Details: Diving Deeper

Image Details

The following details are essential for context and further troubleshooting:

  • Registry: harbor.egyrllc.com/aiaugmentedsoftwaredev/customgithubactionrunner
  • Size: ~800MB (Flutter SDK ~500MB + Actions Runner base ~318MB)
  • Platform: linux/amd64
  • Base: ghcr.io/actions/actions-runner:latest

Harbor Configuration

Understanding the current Harbor stack configuration can help in identifying potential issues. Knowing your current setup can help you diagnose and fix any issues more efficiently.

  • Ingress: Likely using cert-manager for TLS.
  • Storage: S3-compatible backend (Ceph RBD).
  • Database: External PostgreSQL.
  • Authentication: Robot account from the harbor-permissions stack.

Client Environment: Contextual Insights

Understanding the client environment provides valuable context for troubleshooting. By examining the client environment, you can better understand where the failures are originating.

  • Platform: GitHub Actions hosted runners
  • Docker: Using docker/build-push-action@v6
  • Buildx: Setup with docker/setup-buildx-action@v3
  • Region: GitHub Actions infrastructure (unknown specific location)

Conclusion: Keeping Your Container Registry Healthy

Harbor Docker push failures can disrupt your workflow, but armed with the right knowledge and a systematic approach, you can effectively diagnose and resolve these issues. By understanding the common causes, analyzing error symptoms, and implementing the investigation and verification steps outlined in this article, you can get your Harbor registry back up and running. Remember, a healthy container registry is essential for a smooth development and deployment pipeline. Regular monitoring, proactive maintenance, and a solid understanding of the underlying infrastructure are key to keeping your container registry healthy and ensuring that your team can continue to build and deploy with confidence.