Bootstrap ArgoCD for GitOps Deployment

ArgoCD and GitOps

ArgoCD is the primary declarative engine for the cluster. It continuously synchronizes Kubernetes resources against the master branch of this repository.

Step 1: Automated vs Manual Installation

When running ./scripts/provision.sh, the Ansible role ansible/roles/argocd installs ArgoCD and applies the root application automatically.

If you ever need to manually deploy or recover ArgoCD:

kubectl apply --server-side --force-conflicts -k bootstrap/argocd
kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=600s deployment/argocd-server -n argocd

Retrieve the initial admin password:

kubectl -n argocd get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -o jsonpath='{.data.password}' | base64 -d; echo

Step 2: The ApplicationSet pattern

The repository uses two ApplicationSets in bootstrap/templates/:

flowchart TD
  Root["bootstrap/root.yaml"] --> Argo["ArgoCD Engine"]
  Argo --> InfraSet["infra ApplicationSet"]
  Argo --> AppsSet["apps ApplicationSet"]
  InfraSet --> InfraApps["infra-* apps (infrastructure/*)"]
  AppsSet --> UserApps["app-* apps (apps/*)"]

bootstrap/templates/infra-appset.yaml: Discovers every subdirectory in infrastructure/ and deploys its manifests or Helm charts into the cluster.
bootstrap/templates/apps-appset.yaml: Discovers workloads via apps/*/app.yaml and deploys applications into target namespaces with auto-prune and self-healing.

Step 3: Apply the root bootstrap application

To trigger reconciliation of all infrastructure components and applications:

kubectl apply -f bootstrap/root.yaml

ArgoCD reconciles root.yaml, which creates the ApplicationSets, which in turn generate and synchronize all applications across the cluster.

Step 4: Verify application sync status

Check that all applications report Synced and Healthy:

kubectl get applications -n argocd

To add a new workload or infrastructure component, push your manifests directly to Git; ArgoCD deploys them automatically.