Performance Optimization and Scaling

Optimizing Trivy's performance ensures fast scan times even for large images. Several configuration options help balance thoroughness with speed:

# Parallel downloading for faster database updates
trivy image --db-repository ghcr.io/aquasecurity/trivy-db:2 alpine:latest

# Limit scanning to specific vulnerabilities
trivy image --vuln-type os alpine:latest

# Skip scanning for dev dependencies
trivy image --skip-dev-deps node:latest

# Use lightweight database for faster scans
trivy image --light alpine:latest

For high-volume scanning scenarios, implementing Trivy in client-server mode improves efficiency:

# Start Trivy server
trivy server --listen 0.0.0.0:8080

# Run client scans against server
trivy client --remote http://trivy-server:8080 alpine:latest

# Server with authentication
trivy server --listen 0.0.0.0:8080 --token mytoken

# Authenticated client
trivy client --remote http://trivy-server:8080 --token mytoken alpine:latest