Frequently Asked Questions about MCP Server

Q: What is MCP Server?

A: MCP Server is a GitHub Action that helps developers mirror Docker images from international registries like DockerHub to private Alibaba Cloud repositories for faster access in China.

Q: Which Docker registries are supported by MCP Server?

A: MCP Server supports DockerHub, gcr.io, k8s.io, ghcr.io, and any other Docker image registry.

Q: What is the maximum size of Docker images supported by MCP Server?

A: MCP Server supports Docker images up to 40GB.

Q: What Alibaba Cloud services are required to use MCP Server?

A: You need to use Alibaba Cloud Container Registry. Specifically, you need to enable a personal instance and create a namespace.

Q: What Alibaba Cloud credentials do I need to configure?

A: You need the username, password, and registry address from your Alibaba Cloud Container Registry.

Q: How do I configure MCP Server?

A: You configure MCP Server by forking the project, setting environment variables in your GitHub repository with your Alibaba Cloud credentials, and adding the desired image names to the images.txt file.

Q: Where do I add the names of the Docker images I want to mirror?

A: You add the Docker image names to the images.txt file in your forked repository.

Q: How do I specify the image tag when adding an image to images.txt?

A: You can add the tag after the image name (e.g., alpine:latest). If you don’t specify a tag, the default tag latest is used.

Q: How do I specify the architecture when adding an image to images.txt?

A: You can use the --platform=xxxxx parameter to specify the architecture (e.g., alpine --platform=linux/arm64).

Q: How do I mirror images to a specific private repository?

A: Use the format k8s.gcr.io/kube-state-metrics/kube-state-metrics in the images.txt file to specify the private repository.

Q: How do I add comments to the images.txt file?

A: Use the # symbol at the beginning of a line to add a comment.

Q: How can I access mirrored images?

A: Access the images in your Alibaba Cloud Container Registry using docker pull registry.cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/your-namespace/image-name.

Q: How does MCP Server handle images with the same name but from different namespaces?

A: MCP Server automatically adds the namespace as a prefix to the image name to avoid conflicts.

Q: Can I schedule MCP Server to run automatically?

A: Yes, you can schedule MCP Server by modifying the /.github/workflows/docker.yaml file and adding a schedule section with a cron expression.

Q: Is MCP Server free to use?

A: Yes, MCP Server is a free and open-source project.