Configure Internal TLS communication between Harbor Component

By default, The internal communication between Harbor’s component (harbor-core,harbor-jobservice,proxy,harbor-portal,registry,registryctl,trivy_adapter,chartmuseum) use HTTP protocol which might not be secure enough for some production environment. Since Harbor v2.0, TLS can be used for this internal network. In production environments, always use HTTPS is a recommended best practice.

This functionality is introduced via the internal_tls in harbor.yml file. To enabled internal TLS, set enabled to true and set the dir value to the path of directory that contains the internal cert files.

All certs can be automatically generated by prepare tool.

docker run -v /:/hostfs goharbor/prepare:v2.3.x gencert -p /path/to/internal/tls/cert

Remember to replace the version number with the current version number.

User also can provide their own CA to generate the other certs. Just put certificate and key of the CA on internal tls cert directory and name them as harbor_internal_ca.key and harbor_internal_ca.crt. Besides, a user can also provide the certs for all components. However, there are some constraints for the certs:

  • First, all certs must be signed by a single unique CA
  • Second, the filename of the internal cert and CN field on cert file must follow the convention listed below’
  • Third, because the self signed certificate without SAN was deprecated in Golang 1.5, you must add the SAN extension to your cert files when generating certs by yourself or the Harbor instance will not start up normally. The DNS name in SAN extension should the same as CN field in the table below. For more information please refer to golang 1.5 release notes and this issue.
    name usage CN
    harbor_internal_ca.key ca’s key file for internal TLS N/A
    harbor_internal_ca.crt ca’s certificate file for internal TLS N/A
    core.key core’s key file N/A
    core.crt core’s certificate file core
    job_service.key job_service’s key file N/A
    job_service.crt job_service’s certificate file jobservice
    proxy.key proxy’s key file N/A
    proxy.crt proxy’s certificate file proxy
    portal.key portal’s key file N/A
    portal.crt portal’s certificate file portal
    registry.key registry’s key file N/A
    registry.crt registry’s certificate file registry
    registryctl.key registryctl’s key file N/A
    registryctl.crt registryctl’s certificate file registryctl
    notary_server.key notary_server’s key file N/A
    notary_server.crt notary_server’s certificate file notary-server
    notary_signer.key notary_signer’s key file N/A
    notary_signer.crt notary_signer’s certificate file notary-signer
    trivy_adapter.key trivy_adapter.’s key file N/A
    trivy_adapter.crt trivy_adapter.’s certificate file trivy-adapter
    chartmuseum.key chartmuseum’s key file N/A
    chartmuseum.crt chartmuseum’s certificate file chartmuseum