🔄 Bootstrap GitOps with Argo CD

Install Argo CD, connect repo, and sync an app to the cluster. · ~40 min

Reviewed: ·Tested on: Kubernetes 1.29, Terraform 1.8, Ubuntu 22.04

If you're on Kubernetes 1.27 or older

  • Ingress: networking.k8s.io/v1 is required — v1beta1 removed in 1.22+
  • Pod Security: PodSecurityPolicy removed in 1.25 — use Pod Security Admission (PSA) labels
  • HPA v2 autoscaling/v2 is stable — check API version in manifests

If you're on Kubernetes 1.28

  • Sidecar containers (1.29+) change init-container ordering — review sidecar docs before upgrade
  • Verify metrics-server and HPA after control plane bump

If you're on Terraform 1.7 or older

  • S3 native locking (use_lockfile) differs from DynamoDB — don't mix backends mid-migration
  • Provider version constraints: run terraform init -upgrade after bump
  • terraform test (1.6+) replaces some external test harness patterns

1. Install Argo CD

kubectl create namespace argocd
kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml
kubectl wait --for=condition=available deploy/argocd-server -n argocd --timeout=300s
Guide →

2. Access UI and login

kubectl port-forward svc/argocd-server -n argocd 8080:443
# initial admin password:
kubectl get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -n argocd -o jsonpath='{.data.password}' | base64 -d

3. Register Git repo + Application

argocd repo add https://github.com/org/app.git --username git --password $TOKEN
argocd app create myapp --repo https://github.com/org/app.git --path k8s --dest-server https://kubernetes.default.svc --dest-namespace apps
Config →

4. Sync and verify

argocd app sync myapp
argocd app wait myapp --health
kubectl get pods -n apps
Guide →

Related runbook: Open runbook →