Container Registry deprecation - usage in App Engine Deployment

[JayaPriya]

Hello,

Recently I have received an email Reminder to change usage of container registry to Artifact registry.

We are not explicitly using container registry but when deploying app engine version images are uploaded to container registry.

Is there any action to be performed such as changing app engine maven plugin version etc.. in order to use Artifact registry.

[ronnelg]

Hi @JayaPriya,

Welcome to Google Cloud Community!

Regarding the email reminder that you received, yes, Container Registry is deprecated and scheduled for shutdown. Container Registry is superseded by Artifact Registry. 

As for your concern regarding changing in App Engine, no, you likely don’t need to change or update your App Engine Maven plugin version just to use Artifact Registry. However, you need to do a transition to Artifact Registry before March 18, 2025 to retain access to your container images.

There are two types of repositories that you can use to transition to Artifact Registry:

1. Repositories with gcr.io domain support, these repositories reside within Artifact Registry but retain the familiar gcr.io domain.
2. Standard repositories, these are native Artifact Registry repositories offering more granular control and features.

Hope it helps. Thanks!

[JayaPriya]

Dear ronnelg,

Thank you for the explanation.

So only when we use container registry explicitly we need to perform migration. App engine deployment related changes are managed in GCP.

[ronnelg · Accepted solution]

Hi @JayaPriya,

Yes, that is correct. GCP manages updates and changes related to the App Engine environment such as maven plugin version. But for the transition, you need to do a transition depending on your transition option and tool to Artifact Registry.