Why did I get an email about Google IP addresses subject to Docker Hub download limits now?

[lauren-rmt]

I got an email in February: "Google IP addresses subject to Docker Hub download limits after July 15 2024" which specified a particular project and IP address that would be affected. 

The email included a link to a google blog from 2020, https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/containers-kubernetes/mitigating-the-impact-of-new-docker-hub.... 

I'm a little confused why I am getting this email now in 2024. Does anyone know? 

The blog post also says that the google mirror (mirror.gcr.io) is queried automatically by GKE for public images, but I can't find any information back this up. 

Struggling to understand what will happen on July 15th 2024, any help would be appreciated. 

[garisingh · Accepted solution]

Back towards the end of 2020, Docker announced that it was going to rate limit pulls from Dockerhub, especially for the free plans.  You can see the rate limits in each of the current Docker subscription plans.

Fortunately, an agreement was reached between Google and Docker which exempted Google-owned IP address from these rate limits.   The email you received was sent because the exemption agreement will end on July 15.

Depending on the images you use, some are in the Google mirror (generally it's the most frequently used ones).  The blog post you referenced has a couple of sample commands you can run to better understand which images might be affected by the new limits.

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