Manage an Argo CD configuration in Git with Harness GitOps

You can define Argo CD applications, projects, and settings declaratively by using Kubernetes manifests, and you can manage these manifests in Harness GitOps just as you would a Harness GitOps application.

This topic walks you through setting up Harness GitOps to manage Argo CD configurations stored in your Git repository.

Create the GitOps application

A Harness GitOps application consists of a GitOps repository, cluster, and application settings.

To add the GitOps application for your Argo CD configuration, do the following:

Install a Harness GitOps agent on the destination cluster.
In Harness GitOps, add a GitOps repository for the repository where your Argo CD configurations are stored. For steps on how to do this, go to Add a Harness GitOps repository.

Figure 1: GitOps repository.
Add a Harness GitOps cluster for the destination cluster where you installed the Harness GitOps agent.

Figure 2: GitOps cluster.
Add a Harness GitOps application for the Argo CD configuration.
1. Use the Harness GitOps repository added earlier.
2. In Path, select or add the path to the Argo CD configurations.
Figure 3: Path to Argo CD configs in GitOps application.

note
If the repository directory has subordinate directories, select Directory Recurse.
Figure 4: Directory Recurse option.
1. Use the Harness GitOps cluster added earlier. In Namespace, provide the namespace where the agent is installed.
Save the Harness GitOps application.
If the sync policy is manual, sync the application manually.

Once these steps are complete, you should be able to see the newly created GitOps entities in the Harness project that you configured in Git.

Git Configuration Files

Most entities, such as ConfigMaps, repository credentials, and applications will work without requiring modifications. Some entities, namely clusters, repositories, and AppProject, need some Harness-specific values added to the existing Argo-provided templates.

Sample repository configuration

Here's a sample repository configuration:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: my-https-anon-repo
  namespace: argo-config-git
  labels:
    argocd.argoproj.io/secret-type: repository
stringData:
  name: my-https-anon-repo
  project: default
  url: https://github.com/argoproj/argocd-example-apps
  type: git

Sample cluster configuration

Here's a sample cluster config:

apiVersion: v1
data:
  config: eyJiZWFyZXJUb2tlbiI6InRlc3QiLCJ0bHNDbGllbnRDb25maWciOnsiaW5zZWN1cmUiOnRydWV9fQ==
  server: aHR0cHM6Ly90ZXN0LmNvbQo=
stringData:
  name: argogitcluster1
  project: default
kind: Secret
metadata:
  annotations:
    managed-by: argocd.argoproj.io
  labels:
    argocd.argoproj.io/secret-type: cluster
  name: cluster-test1
  namespace: argo-config-git
type: Opaque

Additional fields for clusters and repositories

Here are the additional fields required for clusters and repositories:

stringData.project or data.project, whose value is the AppProject name. Provide this field only if you want the entity to reside within the scope of a Harness project or organization.
stringData.name or data.name, whose value is the name of the entity in Harness.

The remaining fields remain the same as in Argo CD.

Sample Argo AppProject configuration

Here's a sample configuration for the Argo CD AppProject:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: AppProject
metadata:
  labels:
    accountId: b.<harness-account-id>.e
    orgId: <harness-organization>
    projectId: <harness-project>
  finalizers:
    - resources-finalizer.argocd.argoproj.io
  name: default
  namespace: argo-config-git
spec:
  clusterResourceWhitelist:
  - group: '*'
    kind: '*'
  destinations:
  - namespace: '*'
    server: '*'
  sourceRepos:
  - '*'

Format of the Harness account ID

A Harness account ID is a MongoDB document ID that could start with an underscore (_). This ID is not a valid Kubernetes label according to the syntax and character set documentation for Kubernetes labels. Therefore, Harness GitOps creates a hash of the account ID. The hash is of the form b.<harness-account-id>.e.

Additional fields required for the Argo CD AppProject

Following are the additional fields required for the AppProject:

metadata.labels.accountId, whose value is the Harness account identifier.
metadata.labels.orgId, whose value is the Harness organization identifier.
metadata.labels.projectId, whose value is the Harness project identifier.

The remaining fields remain the same as in Argo CD.

note

By default, Harness creates an AppProject for you when you create the repository and cluster at the beginning of this procedure. The name of this AppProject is available on the agent details page, under Mapped Harness Project. If you are creating a new AppProject, remember to add the mapping for the Argo project to the Harness project in the GitOps Agent, and then use the value of metadata.name in the project field of the entity configurations. The UI requires that information to show the entities.

You can use all other entity configurations without modifying them.

Sample application

Here's a sample application:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: guestbook
  # You'll usually want to add your resources to the argocd namespace.
  namespace: argo-config-git
  # Add this finalizer ONLY if you want these to cascade delete.
  finalizers:
    - resources-finalizer.argocd.argoproj.io
  # Add labels to your application object.
  labels:
    name: guestbook
spec:
  # The project the application belongs to.
  project: default

  # Source of the application manifests
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/argoproj/argocd-example-apps.git  # Can point to either a Helm chart repo or a git repo.
    targetRevision: master  # For Helm, this refers to the chart version.
    path: guestbook  # This has no meaning for Helm charts pulled directly from a Helm repo instead of git.
  
  # Sources field specifies the list of sources for the application
  sources:
    - repoURL: https://github.com/argoproj/argocd-example-apps.git  # Can point to either a Helm chart repo or a git repo.
      targetRevision: HEAD  # For Helm, this refers to the chart version.
      path: guestbook  # This has no meaning for Helm charts pulled directly from a Helm repo instead of git.
      ref: my-repo  # For Helm, acts as a reference to this source for fetching values files from this source. Has no meaning when under `source` field

  # Destination cluster and namespace to deploy the application
  destination:
    # cluster API URL
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    # or cluster name
    # name: in-cluster
    # The namespace will only be set for namespace-scoped resources that have not set a value for .metadata.namespace
    namespace: guestbook
    
  # Extra information to show in the Argo CD Application details tab
  info:
    - name: 'Example:'
      value: 'https://example.com'
      
  # Sync policy
  syncPolicy:
    automated: # automated sync by default retries failed attempts 5 times with following delays between attempts ( 5s, 10s, 20s, 40s, 80s ); retry controlled using `retry` field.
      prune: true # Specifies if resources should be pruned during auto-syncing ( false by default ).
      selfHeal: true # Specifies if partial app sync should be executed when resources are changed only in target Kubernetes cluster and no git change detected ( false by default ).
      allowEmpty: false # Allows deleting all application resources during automatic syncing ( false by default ).
    syncOptions:     # Sync options which modifies sync behavior
    - Validate=false # disables resource validation (equivalent to 'kubectl apply --validate=false') ( true by default ).
    - CreateNamespace=true # Namespace Auto-Creation ensures that namespace specified as the application destination exists in the destination cluster.
    - PrunePropagationPolicy=foreground # Supported policies are background, foreground and orphan.
    - PruneLast=true # Allow the ability for resource pruning to happen as a final, implicit wave of a sync operation
    managedNamespaceMetadata: # Sets the metadata for the application namespace. Only valid if CreateNamespace=true (see above), otherwise it's a no-op.
      labels: # The labels to set on the application namespace
        any: label
        you: like
      annotations: # The annotations to set on the application namespace
        the: same
        applies: for
        annotations: on-the-namespace

    # The retry feature is available since v1.7
    retry:
      limit: 5 # number of failed sync attempt retries; unlimited number of attempts if less than 0
      backoff:
        duration: 5s # the amount to back off. Default unit is seconds, but could also be a duration (e.g. "2m", "1h")
        factor: 2 # a factor to multiply the base duration after each failed retry
        maxDuration: 3m # the maximum amount of time allowed for the backoff strategy

  # Will ignore differences between live and desired states during the diff. Note that these configurations are not
  # used during the sync process.
  ignoreDifferences:
  # for the specified json pointers
  - group: apps
    kind: Deployment
    jsonPointers:
    - /spec/replicas
  # for the specified managedFields managers
  - group: "*"
    kind: "*"
    managedFieldsManagers:
    - kube-controller-manager

  # RevisionHistoryLimit limits the number of items kept in the application's revision history, which is used for
  # informational purposes as well as for rollbacks to previous versions. This should only be changed in exceptional
  # circumstances. Setting to zero will store no history. This will reduce storage used. Increasing will increase the
  # space used to store the history, so we do not recommend increasing it.
  revisionHistoryLimit: 10

Create the GitOps application​

Git Configuration Files​

Sample repository configuration​

Sample cluster configuration​

Additional fields for clusters and repositories​

Sample Argo AppProject configuration​

Additional fields required for the Argo CD AppProject​

Sample application​