Introduction to Argo CD¶

Let's see how you can install Argo CD in you kubernetes cluster.

Step 1: Create Namespace for Arogo CD¶

First, let's create a namespace for Argo CD:

# Create argocd namespace
kubectl create namespace argocd

Step 2: Install Argo CD¶

Now, let's install Argo CD in the argocd namespace that we created:

# Install Argo CD
kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml

Step 3: Verify Argo CD Installation¶

# List pods
kubectl get pods -n argocd

# List services
kubectl get svc -n argocd

Step 4: Access Argo CD on Local Machine¶

Let's use port forward to access Argo CD on local machine:

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

Visit localhost:80 on your local host machine and you will be able to access Argo CD.

The initial password for the admin account/user is auto-generated and stored as clear text in the field password in a secret named argocd-initial-admin-secret in your Argo CD installation namespace.

Let's retrieve the password from the argocd-initial-admin-secret as follows:

kubectl get secrets argocd-initial-admin-secret -n argocd -o yaml

Copy the value of the password field from the output of the above command. The password is base64 encoded.

Let's decode the password:

echo <encoded-password> | base64 --decode

Now, use admin user with this password to login to Argo CD.

Argo CD also provides Argo CD CLI to perform operations using CLI. The CLI lets you interact with the Argo CD server using a terminal window.

Step 6: Install Argo CD CLI¶

Use the following commands to install the Argo CD CLI:

curl -sSL -o argocd-linux-amd64 https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/releases/latest/download/argocd-linux-amd64
sudo install -m 555 argocd-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/argocd
rm argocd-linux-amd64

Verify CLI installation:

argocd version --client

Let's get the initial admin password using the Argo CD CLI:

argocd admin initial-password -n argocd

Login using CLI:

argocd login localhost:8080

List accounts and its details:

# List accounts
argocd account list

# Get user specific details
argocd account get --account admin

Step 7: Create New User¶

Let's create new user reyansh. For this we need to update the argocd-cm ConfigMap.

# set editor to nano
export KUBE_EDITOR=nano

# Edit configmap
kubectl edit configmap argocd-cm -n argocd

Add the following in the argocd-cm ConfigMap:

data:
  accounts.reyansh: apiKey, login

Verify if user was created:

# List accounts
argocd account list

# Get user specific details
argocd account get --account reyansh

Set user password:

argocd account update-password \
  --account <name> \
  --current-password <current-user-password> \
  --new-password <new-user-password>

If you are managing users as the admin user, current-user-password should be the current admin password.

As soon as additional users are created it is recommended to disable admin user. Update the configmap as follows:

data:
  admin.enabled: "false"

References: