Argo CD - Visual GitOps Platform

Argo CD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes with a beautiful web UI.

Overview

Argo CD provides:

• Visual Dashboard - Web UI for monitoring deployments
• Automated Sync - Automatically deploy from Git
• Multi-Cluster Support - Manage multiple clusters
• SSO Integration - Built-in user management
• Application Health - Visual status of applications

Installation

Using Helm

helm repo add argo https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm
helm repo update

helm install argocd argo/argo-cd \
  --namespace argocd \
  --create-namespace \
  --values values.yaml

Access the UI

# Port-forward to access UI
kubectl port-forward svc/argocd-server -n argocd 8080:443

# Get admin password
kubectl -n argocd get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 -d

# Access UI at: https://localhost:8080
# Username: admin

Application Definition

Basic Application

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: sample-app
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/your-org/your-repo
    targetRevision: main
    path: kustomize/overlays/staging
    kustomize: {}
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: staging
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: true
      selfHeal: true

Application with Manual Sync

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: sample-app-prod
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/your-org/your-repo
    targetRevision: main
    path: kustomize/overlays/production
    kustomize: {}
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: production
  syncPolicy:
    syncOptions:
      - CreateNamespace=true
    automated:
      prune: false
      selfHeal: false

Usage

Create Application

kubectl apply -f argocd/application.yaml

View Applications

# CLI
kubectl get applications -n argocd

# UI
# Open https://localhost:8080 and login

Sync Application

# Manual sync via CLI
argocd app sync sample-app

# Or use UI to click "Sync" button

View Application Status

argocd app get sample-app

Best Practices

1. Use Automated Sync for staging environments
2. Manual Sync for production (with approval)
3. Self-Healing enabled for automatic drift correction
4. Prune Resources to remove deleted resources

Additional Resources

• Argo CD Documentation
• Argo CD Best Practices