This guide walks you through installing ArgoCD on your Kubernetes cluster and configuring it to automatically deploy the DevConnect application using a GitOps approach.

We have provided scripts to automate the installation of ArgoCD into your cluster.

.\install-argocd.ps1

chmod +x install-argocd.sh
./install-argocd.sh

These scripts will:

1. Create a new argocd namespace.
2. Install ArgoCD components from the official manifests.
3. Wait for the pods to be ready.
4. Patch the argocd-server service to use NodePort for easier access.

1. Get the initial admin password: The installation script outputs the command to retrieve the password. Run it to get your password.

   • Windows: kubectl -n argocd get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | % { [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetString([System.Convert]::FromBase64String($_)) }
   • Linux/macOS: kubectl -n argocd get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 -d

2. Access the Web UI: Since the service is patched to NodePort, you can access it via your node's IP and the randomly assigned node port. You can find the port by running:

   kubectl get svc argocd-server -n argocd

   Alternatively, you can securely port-forward to your local machine:

   kubectl port-forward svc/argocd-server -n argocd 8080:443

   Now, open your browser and navigate to https://localhost:8080 (Ignore the self-signed certificate warning).

3. Login:

   • Username: admin
   • Password: The password you retrieved in step 1.

Once ArgoCD is running, we need to apply the Application manifest that tells ArgoCD to watch your Git repository.

1. Push your code to GitHub.
2. Open devconnect-application.yaml and update the repoURL field with your actual GitHub repository URL (e.g., https://github.com/myusername/DevConnect.git).
3. Apply the Application manifest to ArgoCD:

   kubectl apply -f devconnect-application.yaml -n argocd

1. Commit and Push: Whenever you make changes to your Kubernetes manifests (e.g., updating a Docker image tag in the k8s/ directory), you push those changes to your GitHub repository's main branch.
2. ArgoCD Sync: ArgoCD continuously monitors the k8s/ directory in your GitHub repository.
3. Automated Deployment: When ArgoCD detects a difference between the desired state in Git and the actual state in the Kubernetes cluster, it automatically applies the changes because prune and selfHeal are enabled in the Application manifest.