How to Deploy Apps with ArgoCD

ArgoCD is a popular tool for managing continuous deployment within a GitOps environment. It enables you to automate application deployments to Kubernetes clusters, ensuring seamless and reliable delivery of software.

Prerequisites

Kubernetes cluster (Official site) set up and running.
Basic understanding of Git and ArgoCD (Official site) concepts.
Access to a terminal with kubectl installed.
ArgoCD CLI installed on your local system.

Installing ArgoCD

To deploy applications using ArgoCD, you first need to install it on your Kubernetes cluster. Here’s how:

kubectl create namespace argocd
kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml

The above commands create a new namespace called ‘argocd’ and apply the necessary deployment files.

Accessing the ArgoCD Dashboard

After installation, expose the ArgoCD server as a LoadBalancer service:

kubectl patch svc argocd-server -n argocd -p '{"spec": {"type": "LoadBalancer"}}'

Retrieve the initial password for the admin user:

kubectl get pods -n argocd -l app.kubernetes.io/name=argocd-server --output name | cut -d'/' -f 2

Logging In and Creating Your First Application

Navigate to the ArgoCD web UI using the LoadBalancer IP.
Login with the username admin and the initial password retrieved in the previous step.
From the dashboard, click on ‘New App’ to create your first application.
Provide the repository URL and the path to your Kubernetes manifests or Helm chart.

For more specific details on installing ArgoCD, you can refer to our article on How to Install ArgoCD for GitOps in Kubernetes.