ops-demo/docs/01-argocd-bootstrap.md

Exercise 01 — Bootstrap ArgoCD

Time: ~30 min Goal: Get ArgoCD running on your local k3s cluster and apply the App-of-Apps root application.

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What you'll learn

• How to install ArgoCD via Helm
• The App-of-Apps pattern: one ArgoCD Application that manages all others
• How ArgoCD watches a Git repository and syncs cluster state

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Prerequisites

Make sure your VM is up and you are SSHed in:

vagrant up        # first time takes ~10 min (downloads images)
vagrant ssh
cd /vagrant

Verify k3s is healthy:

kubectl get nodes
# NAME       STATUS   ROLES                  AGE   VERSION
# ops-demo   Ready    control-plane,master   Xm    v1.31.x+k3s1

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Steps

1. Run the bootstrap script

./scripts/bootstrap.sh

This script:

1. Creates the argocd namespace
2. Installs ArgoCD via Helm (chart 7.7.11 → ArgoCD v2.13.x)
3. Applies apps/project.yaml — a permissive AppProject for all workshop apps
4. Applies apps/root.yaml — the App-of-Apps entry point

At the end it prints the admin password. Copy it now.

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2. Open the ArgoCD UI

In a second terminal on your laptop (not the VM), run:

vagrant ssh -- -L 8080:localhost:8080 &
# or, inside the VM:
kubectl port-forward svc/argocd-server -n argocd 8080:443

Then open https://localhost:8080 in your browser (accept the self-signed cert).

Login: admin / <password from script output>

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3. Explore the root Application

In the ArgoCD UI you should see one application: root.

• Click it. Notice it is syncing the apps/ directory from this repo.
• It found apps/argocd.yaml and apps/project.yaml and is managing them.
• ArgoCD is now self-managing — any change you push to apps/ will be picked up automatically.

# Confirm from the CLI too
kubectl get applications -n argocd

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4. Check the self-managing ArgoCD app

Click the argocd application in the UI. It should show Synced / Healthy.

ArgoCD is now reconciling its own Helm release from Git. If you push a change to manifests/argocd/values.yaml, ArgoCD will apply it to itself.

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Expected outcome

NAME     SYNC STATUS   HEALTH STATUS
argocd   Synced        Healthy
root     Synced        Healthy

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Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
kubectl get nodes shows NotReady	Wait 30–60 s; k3s is starting
Helm install fails with timeout	Run kubectl get pods -n argocd — if image pull is slow, wait
UI shows "Unknown" sync status	Click Refresh on the application
Port-forward drops	Re-run the kubectl port-forward command

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What's next

In Exercise 02 you will deploy your first application — podinfo — purely through Git: no kubectl apply, just a YAML file committed to the repo.