ArgoCD Installatoin via Helm on EKS

ArgoCD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. It helps manage application deployments using Git repositories as the source of truth. In this guide, we'll walk through installing ArgoCD on a Kubernetes cluster using Helm.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure you have the following installed:

• A running Kubernetes cluster (v1.20+ recommended)

• kubectl installed and configured

• Helm (v3 recommended)

• Ingress Controller (optional, for exposing the ArgoCD UI)

Step 1: Add the ArgoCD Helm Repository

First, add the ArgoCD Helm repository and update your Helm repositories:

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

Step 2: Install ArgoCD Using Helm

Next, install ArgoCD into a dedicated namespace (argocd):

kubectl create namespace argocd
helm install argocd argo/argo-cd -n argocd --wait

This command installs ArgoCD with default settings. You can customize values by creating a values.yaml file.

Step 3: Verify Installation

Check if all ArgoCD pods are running:

kubectl get pods -n argocd

You should see pods like:

NAME                                  READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
argocd-application-controller-0       1/1     Running   0          2m
argocd-dex-server-846b9b57cc-8tdrp    1/1     Running   0          2m
argocd-redis-75f6f9f6b7-7tfnx         1/1     Running   0          2m
argocd-repo-server-5cbbcdd8f6-pt6tz   1/1     Running   0          2m
argocd-server-7bb8f68db4-khjzp        1/1     Running   0          2m

Step 4: Access ArgoCD Dashboard

By default, ArgoCD is deployed with a service of type ClusterIP. You can expose it using kubectl port-forward:

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

Now, you can access the ArgoCD UI at https://localhost:8080.

Step 5: Retrieve ArgoCD Admin Password

The initial admin password is stored as a secret. Retrieve it using:

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

Use admin as the username and the retrieved password to log in.

Step 6: Configure ArgoCD CLI (Optional)

To interact with ArgoCD via CLI, install the ArgoCD CLI:

curl -sSL -o argocd https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/releases/latest/download/argocd-linux-amd64
chmod +x argocd
sudo mv argocd /usr/local/bin/

Then, login to ArgoCD:

argocd login localhost:8080 --username admin --password <your-password>

Step 7: Configure Ingress (Optional)

If you prefer to expose ArgoCD via an Ingress controller, update your Helm installation with:

helm upgrade argocd argo/argo-cd -n argocd \
  --set server.ingress.enabled=true \
  --set server.ingress.hosts[0]=argocd.example.com

Ensure you configure your DNS to point argocd.example.com to your Ingress controller.