Using gitlab private docker images from gitlab CI

Description of the problem

When referencing a gitlab private docker image like this:

services:
  - registry.gitlab.com/bertbruynooghe/upnxt_service_aaa:build

I get:

Pulling docker image registry.gitlab.com/bertbruynooghe/upnxt_service_aaa:build ... ERROR: Build failed (system failure): API error (500): Get https://registry.gitlab.com/v2/bertbruynooghe/upnxt_service_aaa/manifests/build:

And the result from going directly to that page:

{"errors":[{"code":"UNAUTHORIZED","message":"authentication required","detail": [{"Type":"repository","Name":"bertbruynooghe/upnxt_service_aaa","Action":"pull"}]}]}

Even when I have the following:

before_script:
  - docker login -u "gitlab-ci-token" -p "$CI_BUILD_TOKEN" registry.gitlab.com

(which is to be expected, since that line was for docker-in-docker scenarios)

How should I do I make sure the registry is properly authorized?

Which Group/Project (with full path) is experiencing the issue?

https://gitlab.com/unifiedpost/upnxt_frontend_resources

Approximate date/time when the error occurred.

not applicable

Describe what you were doing right before the issue occurred.

not applicable

I'm also facing this same issue, and I think it's also reported for EE: gitlab-org/gitlab-ee#797 and CE: gitlab-org/gitlab-ce#19275 with a (related, partial?) fix proposed in gitlab-org/gitlab-ce#19219.

Using the docker-in-docker approach, I can get past the login problem:

image: docker:latest
services:
- docker:find
before_script:
- docker login -u "$GROUP_USER" -p "$GROUP_PASSWORD" registry.gitlab.com
- docker run -d -p 8087:8087 registry.gitlab.com/bertbruynooghe/upnxt_service_aaa:build

Now I am able to execute the tests in a custom Dockerfile for my project using docker build and docker run, but there's two negative sides to that approach:

1. The project is about a ruby gem, so it does not make much sense to create a Docker container for it.
2. The tests should be run against different versions of ruby, meaning I would have to create multiple Dockerfiles.

Status changed to closed