Private Azure registry for container images. Images can be geo-replicated, cleaned up by retention policies and built by ACR Tasks, while webhooks let a push kick off continuous deployment.
Also called ACR, ACR.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
AZ-305AZ-104SC-500AI-200AZ-400
Each book explains Azure Container Registry in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- Container
Something that groups data. Blob Storage containers sit inside a storage account and hold blobs much as folders hold files; Cosmos DB containers hold items and set the scope for partitioning and throughput.
- ACR Tasks
Capability present in all Azure Container Registry SKUs for building, pushing and patching images in the cloud, through quick tasks (
az acr build), triggered tasks or multi-step tasks. - Real-time streaming semantic model
Covers live-fed push, streaming and PubNub models, plus streaming dashboard tiles. Microsoft now steers people towards Real-Time Intelligence in Fabric, as these are being retired and new ones can only be made until 31 October 2027.
- CD
Practice of releasing every change automatically, such as an ACR webhook that redeploys a containerised web app when a new image is pushed.
Related terms
- ACR geo-replication
Capability of Premium Azure Container Registry that keeps images in multiple regions while clients still use a single registry name.
- acr purge
A container command, currently in preview, that runs as an ACR task either on demand or on a schedule. It removes tags matching a repository and tag regex once they pass a given age, can also clear untagged manifests, and anything it deletes is gone for good.
- AcrPull
Data-plane role built into Azure Container Registry that allows reading tags and pulling images. Assign it to whichever identity performs the pull.
- AcrPush
Azure Container Registry built-in role for pushing as well as pulling images. It is the narrowest role that permits pushes, though signing images is outside it.
- AcrQuarantineWriter
Azure Container Registry built-in role belonging to the quarantine feature: it lets an identity push quarantined images and update their quarantine status. It has nothing to do with signing.
- Admin user
A built-in account on each Azure Container Registry, switched off unless you enable it, that can push and pull everything and has two passwords you can regenerate. It is meant for one person testing; Microsoft Entra identities are the better choice, partly because every admin request is throttled together.
- az acr build
Azure CLI command for an ACR quick task, which sends the build context to Azure, builds the image there and pushes the result into a registry that already exists.
- Azure Container Registry SKUs
Azure Container Registry comes in Basic, Standard and Premium. Every tier includes ACR Tasks and the admin user; private endpoints, content trust, connected registries and dedicated data endpoints are Premium-only.