Harbor / Nexus / Artifactory — Prerequisites

What to Know Before Starting Harbor

Harbor is a registry — the prerequisites are almost entirely about understanding container images and Docker workflows, since that's what Harbor stores, scans, and replicates.

Required (Must Have)

1. Docker/Container Image Basics

bash

docker build, docker push, docker pull, docker tag

You need to understand what an image tag is, what pushing/pulling actually does, and basic Docker registry authentication (docker login) — Harbor is a registry you interact with using these exact same commands, just pointed at a different host.

2. Basic Kubernetes Awareness (For the Deployment Path)

bash

kubectl get pods -n harbor
helm install / helm upgrade

Harbor itself is typically deployed via Helm onto Kubernetes for production use — you don't need deep K8s expertise, just enough to deploy and inspect a Helm-installed application.

3. Basic Understanding of Vulnerability Scanning Concepts

•What a CVE is, at a conceptual level

•Why "scan before deploy" is a meaningful security practice, not just a checkbox

Nice to Have (Speeds Up Learning)

Cloud Registry Experience (ECR/ACR/GCR)

Overview's own framing is the fastest on-ramp: if you've used a cloud-native registry before, Harbor's Projects (namespaces with their own RBAC/scanning/retention) map to a familiar mental model — you're learning what Harbor adds on top, not registries from scratch.

Terraform Basics (Optional)

Advanced's API-automation-at-scale material uses Harbor's Terraform provider for project provisioning — prior Terraform exposure (this site's Terraform section) makes that module immediately familiar syntax.

CI/CD Pipeline Experience

Webhooks (Intermediate) are most useful in the context of a CI pipeline reacting to a scan-complete event — prior exposure to any CI/CD tool (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins) makes that pattern click faster.

What You Do NOT Need

•Prior Harbor, Nexus, or Artifactory experience

•Deep vulnerability-scanning tool internals (Trivy, which Harbor uses, is covered as a built-in feature, not something you configure from scratch)

•Multi-cloud infrastructure experience — the concepts apply even learning on a single local cluster

Time Estimate

If you have the prerequisites above:

•Fundamentals: 1 day

•Intermediate + Advanced: 4-5 days

•Job-ready (comfortable with RBAC, scanning policy, replication, and HA deployment concepts): 2 weeks

Start Here

Go to the Installation section to deploy Harbor, then proceed to Fundamentals.