I'm quite new to Docker, but feel using a Docker image is the best way to distribute a self-hosted SaaS application as simply as possible. I've learned that I can have a private registry for my applications.
How would I provide an authentication mechanism before accessing the image? I would need to create a new set of access credentials after the customer purchases the self-hosted product.
You will need to set-up a token based authentication with the docker registry to allow an external system to manage the log-in trough OAuth2. You will need to have an application that will manage the tokens (issuing and authentication).
The token manager will have configuration (credentials) for each of the customers that are entitled to pull the container.
You can check the docker repository document.
