How to use this image

All examples in this guide use the public image. If you've mirrored the repository for your own use (for example, to your Docker Hub namespace), update your commands to reference the mirrored image instead of the public one.

For example:

• Public image: dhi.io/<repository>:<tag>
• Mirrored image: <your-namespace>/dhi-<repository>:<tag>

For the examples, you must first use docker login dhi.io to authenticate to the registry to pull the images.

About the datahub-frontend-react image

This Docker Hardened DataHub Frontend image packages the web UI layer of the DataHub⁠ open-source metadata platform. It runs a Play Framework 2.8 (Scala/Java 17) application server that serves the React/Vite/TypeScript single-page application on port 9002. The image ships the fully staged Play distribution at /datahub-frontend/, the entrypoint script at /start.sh, and two Java agent JARs — the OpenTelemetry Java agent and the JMX Prometheus agent — at /opt/javaagents/ (symlinked to /opentelemetry-javaagent.jar and /jmx_prometheus_javaagent.jar in the root for compatibility with the upstream start script).

DataHub Frontend is one component of the broader DataHub platform. It must be paired with the DataHub GMS (Generalized Metadata Service) backend and, for a complete deployment, with Kafka, Elasticsearch, and a relational database. The image is built on the Docker Hardened Eclipse Temurin 17 JRE (Debian 13) and runs as the nonroot user (UID 65532) by default.

Run the datahub-frontend-react container

The container requires at minimum a unique Play secret key (DATAHUB_SECRET) and the address of the GMS backend. The container will not start without DATAHUB_SECRET.

To start a basic instance pointing at a GMS service named datahub-gms on port 8080:

docker run --rm -p 9002:9002 \
  -e DATAHUB_SECRET=change-me-in-production \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_HOST=datahub-gms \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_PORT=8080 \
  dhi.io/datahub-frontend-react:<tag>

Once the container is running, open http://localhost:9002 in a browser to access the DataHub web UI.

To verify the process has started, check the readiness endpoint from your host (the runtime image does not ship curl or wget itself):

curl -fsS http://localhost:9002/admin

Deploy DataHub Frontend with Docker Compose

DataHub Frontend is almost always run as part of a multi-service stack. The following Compose file shows the minimal set of services required to run the web UI alongside GMS. Refer to the DataHub quickstart guide⁠ for the full production-ready Compose stack (including Kafka, Elasticsearch, MySQL, and the DataHub Actions service).

services:
  datahub-frontend-react:
    image: dhi.io/datahub-frontend-react:<tag>
    ports:
      - "9002:9002"
    environment:
      DATAHUB_SECRET: change-me-in-production
      DATAHUB_GMS_HOST: datahub-gms
      DATAHUB_GMS_PORT: "8080"
      DATAHUB_APP_VERSION: v1.0.0
    depends_on:
      - datahub-gms
    restart: on-failure

  datahub-gms:
    image: acryldata/datahub-gms:<tag>
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      EBEAN_DATASOURCE_USERNAME: datahub
      EBEAN_DATASOURCE_PASSWORD: datahub
      EBEAN_DATASOURCE_HOST: mysql:3306
      EBEAN_DATASOURCE_URL: jdbc:mysql://mysql:3306/datahub?verifyServerCertificate=false&useSSL=true
      EBEAN_DATASOURCE_DRIVER: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
      KAFKA_BOOTSTRAP_SERVER: broker:29092
      ELASTICSEARCH_HOST: elasticsearch
      ELASTICSEARCH_PORT: "9200"
      DATAHUB_SECRET: change-me-in-production
    depends_on:
      - mysql
      - elasticsearch
      - broker

Environment variables

The following environment variables configure DataHub Frontend's behavior. All variables with a default are optional unless noted otherwise.

OIDC single sign-on variables

To enable OIDC-based SSO, set the following variables:

TLS truststore variables

To configure a custom TLS truststore for outbound HTTPS connections (for example, when GMS uses a private CA):

Enable metrics with Prometheus

Set ENABLE_PROMETHEUS=true to activate the JMX Prometheus Java agent. The agent binds to port 4318 and exposes JVM and application metrics in Prometheus text format.

docker run --rm -p 9002:9002 -p 4318:4318 \
  -e DATAHUB_SECRET=change-me-in-production \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_HOST=datahub-gms \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_PORT=8080 \
  -e ENABLE_PROMETHEUS=true \
  dhi.io/datahub-frontend-react:<tag>

Add a Prometheus scrape job to your prometheus.yml:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: datahub-frontend
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - datahub-frontend-react:4318

Enable distributed tracing with OpenTelemetry

Set ENABLE_OTEL=true to activate the OpenTelemetry Java agent. The agent instruments the Play application and exports traces via OTLP HTTP to the endpoint configured by OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT (defaults to http://localhost:4318).

docker run --rm -p 9002:9002 \
  -e DATAHUB_SECRET=change-me-in-production \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_HOST=datahub-gms \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_PORT=8080 \
  -e ENABLE_OTEL=true \
  -e OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://my-otel-collector:4318 \
  dhi.io/datahub-frontend-react:<tag>

Tune JVM memory

The /start.sh entrypoint constructs the JAVA_OPTS it hands to the Play launcher from JAVA_MEMORY_OPTS (heap sizes; defaults to -Xms512m -Xmx1024m) plus a handful of fixed flags. To override heap sizes and add other flags, set JAVA_MEMORY_OPTS:

docker run --rm -p 9002:9002 \
  -e DATAHUB_SECRET=change-me-in-production \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_HOST=datahub-gms \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_PORT=8080 \
  -e JAVA_MEMORY_OPTS="-Xms512m -Xmx1g -XX:+UseG1GC" \
  dhi.io/datahub-frontend-react:<tag>

JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS is also honored by the JVM if you need flags applied even earlier in initialization, but JAVA_MEMORY_OPTS is the upstream DataHub knob and matches the variables the upstream Helm chart sets.

Use the FIPS variant

The *-fips and *-fips-dev tags use the Docker Hardened Eclipse Temurin 17 FIPS JRE as their runtime base. That JRE is preconfigured with BouncyCastle FIPS as security.provider.1 in java.security, with the BC JARs at /usr/lib/bouncycastle/. The Play application inherits FIPS-validated cryptography through the standard JSSE/JCE plumbing — no application-level configuration changes are required.

docker run --rm -p 9002:9002 \
  -e DATAHUB_SECRET=change-me-in-production \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_HOST=datahub-gms \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_PORT=8080 \
  dhi.io/datahub-frontend-react:<tag>-fips

The FIPS variant is validated under FIPS 140-3 using BouncyCastle FIPS and the OpenSSL FIPS Provider 3.0. DataHub JWTs and Play's play.http.secret.key signing use FIPS-approved algorithms when the container runs on this JRE.

Differences from upstream acryldata/datahub-frontend-react

User and volume permissions

The upstream image creates a datahub user with a system-allocated UID. The Docker Hardened Image runs as nonroot (UID 65532). If you bind-mount host directories or volumes into the container (for example, a custom MFE config file or a TLS truststore), ensure the mounted files are readable by UID 65532:

chown 65532:65532 /path/to/my-mfe-config.yaml

Then mount it into the container:

docker run --rm -p 9002:9002 \
  -e DATAHUB_SECRET=change-me-in-production \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_HOST=datahub-gms \
  -e DATAHUB_GMS_PORT=8080 \
  -e MFE_CONFIG_FILE_PATH=/datahub-frontend/conf/mfe.config.yaml \
  -v /path/to/my-mfe-config.yaml:/datahub-frontend/conf/mfe.config.yaml:ro \
  dhi.io/datahub-frontend-react:<tag>

Image variants

Docker Hardened Images come in different variants depending on their intended use. Image variants are identified by their tag.

• Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:

  • Run as a nonroot user
  • Do not include a shell or a package manager
  • Contain only the minimal set of libraries needed to run the app

• Build-time variants typically include dev in the tag name and are intended for use in the first stage of a multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:

  • Run as the root user
  • Include a shell and package manager
  • Are used to build or compile applications

• FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. They come in both runtime and build-time variants. These variants use cryptographic modules that have been validated under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure cryptographic operations. For example, usage of MD5 fails in FIPS variants.

To view the image variants and get more information about them, select the Tags tab for this repository, and then select a tag.

Migrate to a Docker Hardened Image

To migrate your application to a Docker Hardened Image, you must update your Dockerfile. At minimum, you must update the base image in your existing Dockerfile to a Docker Hardened Image. This and a few other common changes are listed in the following table of migration notes.

The following steps outline the general migration process.

1. Find hardened images for your app.

   A hardened image may have several variants. Inspect the image tags and find the image variant that meets your needs.

2. Update the base image in your Dockerfile.

   Update the base image in your application's Dockerfile to the hardened image you found in the previous step. For framework images, this is typically going to be an image tagged as dev because it has the tools needed to install packages and dependencies.

3. For multi-stage Dockerfiles, update the runtime image in your Dockerfile.

   To ensure that your final image is as minimal as possible, you should use a multi-stage build. All stages in your Dockerfile should use a hardened image. While intermediary stages will typically use images tagged as dev, your final runtime stage should use a non-dev image variant.

4. Install additional packages

   Docker Hardened Images contain minimal packages in order to reduce the potential attack surface. You may need to install additional packages in your Dockerfile. Inspect the image variants to identify which packages are already installed.

   Only images tagged as dev typically have package managers. You should use a multi-stage Dockerfile to install the packages. Install the packages in the build stage that uses a dev image. Then, if needed, copy any necessary artifacts to the runtime stage that uses a non-dev image.

   For Alpine-based images, you can use apk to install packages. For Debian-based images, you can use apt-get to install packages.

Troubleshooting migration

The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.

General debugging

The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Docker Hardened Images is to use Docker Debug⁠ to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.

Permissions

By default image variants intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. You may need to copy files to different directories or change permissions so your application running as the nonroot user can access them.

Privileged ports

Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. To avoid issues, configure your application to listen on port 1025 or higher inside the container, even if you map it to a lower port on the host. For example, docker run -p 80:8080 my-image will work because the port inside the container is 8080, and docker run -p 80:81 my-image won't work because the port inside the container is 81.

No shell

By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers with no shell.

Entry point

Docker Hardened Images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Use docker inspect to inspect entry points for Docker Hardened Images and update your Dockerfile if necessary.