ArgoCD Applicationset Manager

• This repository demonstrates the ability to use an app-of-apps model for managing ArgoCD Applicationsets with Kustomize as configuration management.

Important Notes About ArgoCD

• The word applicaitons(s) will be used ALOT

• Argo CD applications are NOT the same as web applications, although web applications can be deployed using Argo CD.

• Argo CD can be used to deploy and manage web applications, as well as other types of applications, on a Kubernetes cluster. However, Argo CD is not a platform for building or running web applications itself.

App-Of-Apps & Applicationset Model

• The app-of-apps model in Argo CD is a pattern for organizing and managing applications in a way that allows you to reuse common components and resources across multiple applications.

• In Argo CD, an ApplicationSet is a collection of applications that are managed as a unit. An ApplicationSet allows you to define a set of applications that should be deployed together and to specify the deployment order and other details such as the deployment strategy.

• Kustomize is a Kubernetes configuration transformation tool that enables you to customize untemplated YAML files, leaving the original files untouched.

How This Works

• Essentially one ArgoCD application (app-of-apps) will manage an ArgoCD applicationset which using a list generator. This will deploy several web applications at once in different enviornments with one command. In this case, the qa, stage, and prod namespaces. The web applications will create their own namespaces inside the Kubernetes once deployed. The goal is to provide easy management and visibility for your web applications in Kubernetes.

• The argocd-overlays & argocd-base are configuring the argocd app-of-apps and applicationsets. The traditional base & overlays are configuring and housing the web applications.

Deploying Applications to ArgoCD

• Since we are using Kustomize, navigate to the argocd-overlays folder to deploy applications.

• Best practice is to use a repository utilizing your ssh private key, HOWEVER for demo purposes here replace this repository in the configuration files with an https clone. For example: https://github.com/jcquiles/ArgoCD.git

• Make sure the repository you are using is configured inside ArgoCD and can be recongninzed by Argo.

• Inside the argocd-overlays folder simply execute the following Kustomize command kubectl apply -k .