A Guide to Installing Argo CD on EKS

Introduction

Managing Kubernetes applications and ensuring their smooth deployment and updates can be a complex task. This is where Argo CD comes to the rescue. Argo CD is an open-source, declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of installing Argo CD on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).

Prerequisites

Before you begin the installation process, make sure you have the following prerequisites in place:

1. An AWS EKS cluster up and running.
2. kubectl, the Kubernetes command-line tool, installed on your local machine.
3. AWS CLI installed and configured to access your EKS cluster.
4. Helm 3 installed on your local machine.
5. Git installed and configured with access to your Git repositories.

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Create a Namespace

To keep your resources organized, start by creating a new namespace for Argo CD:

kubectl create namespace argocd

Step 2: Install Argo CD with Helm

Argo CD can be easily installed on your EKS cluster using Helm. First, add the Argo CD Helm repository:

helm repo add argo https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm

Next, update your Helm repositories:

helm repo update

Now, you can install Argo CD:

helm install argocd argo/argo-cd -n argocd

This command deploys Argo CD into the ‘argocd’ namespace.

Step 3: Expose the Argo CD Web UI

To access the Argo CD Web UI, create a service of type LoadBalancer:

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

Wait for the LoadBalancer to be provisioned. You can check its status using:

kubectl get svc argocd-server -n argocd

Once the external IP address is available, you can access the Argo CD UI using your browser.

Step 4: Access Argo CD

To obtain the initial login password for Argo CD, run the following command:

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

Copy the password and use it to log in to the Argo CD Web UI. You can access the UI by navigating to the external IP address of the LoadBalancer in your browser.

Step 5: Deploy Applications

With Argo CD installed and the Web UI accessible, you can start deploying and managing your Kubernetes applications through GitOps. Define your application specifications in Git repositories, and Argo CD will automatically synchronize them with your EKS cluster.

Conclusion

Installing Argo CD on Amazon EKS is a straightforward process that provides a powerful solution for managing your Kubernetes applications. With Argo CD, you can adopt GitOps practices, ensuring a declarative, version-controlled, and automated approach to deploying and managing your applications. Now, you’re ready to take control of your EKS cluster and make application deployment a breeze with Argo CD.