2026-08-22 17:30:45 +01:00
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# 03 — Installing Argo CD
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Your cluster is alive but empty — it can run containers, but nothing is
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telling it to run anything yet. This doc installs Argo CD, the piece that
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watches Git and does that telling from now on.
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## Why this one step is imperative
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Everything else in this repo — every app, every future addition — gets
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deployed *by* Argo CD, driven from Git. Argo CD itself is the one exception:
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something has to exist in the cluster *before* it can start reading Git, so
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installing it can't itself be a GitOps-managed step. This is normal, and
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every GitOps setup has some version of this same bootstrap moment. We
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install it the straightforward way the Argo CD project documents — one
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`kubectl apply` of their maintained manifest bundle — rather than adding an
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extra tool (Helm, an operator) just to install the GitOps tool itself.
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## What you're installing
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Argo CD is itself a set of things running inside your cluster: an API
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server, a piece that watches Git repos, a piece that computes diffs against
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the live cluster, and a UI. You're about to install all of it with one
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command, into its own `argocd` namespace, so it stays cleanly separated
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from the apps it will go on to manage.
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## Steps
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Exact commands: [`argocd/README.md`](../argocd/README.md). Summary of what
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each stage does:
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1. **Install.** `kubectl apply` the official manifest bundle into a new
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`argocd` namespace. This creates Argo CD's own pods *and* a handful of
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CRDs (see [`docs/glossary.md`](glossary.md)) — the most important being
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`Application`, the resource type you'll use for every app from here on,
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including the demo app and the app-of-apps.
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2. **Get the initial admin password.** Auto-generated on first install and
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stored as a Kubernetes Secret.
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3. **Reach it.** Port-forward the Argo CD UI/API to your local machine and
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log in with the `argocd` CLI (and optionally, a browser).
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4. **Apply the app-of-apps.** This is the moment the GitOps loop actually
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starts — see [`docs/04-app-of-apps.md`](04-app-of-apps.md) next.
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> **Ask Claude:** "why is a port-forward good enough for now, and what
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> would I need instead to reach this Argo CD from somewhere other than my
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> own machine?" — a preview of the Ingress topic in
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2026-08-22 18:25:38 +01:00
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> [`docs/09-growing-up.md`](09-growing-up.md).
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2026-08-22 17:30:45 +01:00
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## Checklist
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- [ ] Argo CD pods all `Running`/`Ready` in the `argocd` namespace
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- [ ] Initial admin password retrieved
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- [ ] Logged in via `argocd login` (CLI) and/or the UI in a browser
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Once you're logged in, continue to
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[`docs/04-app-of-apps.md`](04-app-of-apps.md).
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