Kubernetes GitOps Workshop

A hands-on 2.5–4 hour workshop teaching real-world cluster operations using ArgoCD, MetalLB, Ingress-Nginx, and Tekton — all on a local single-node k3s cluster.

Quick start

Requirements

Install all three before the workshop (ideally the day before — downloads are large):

Tool	Install
VirtualBox 7.x	https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads — reboot after install
Vagrant 2.4.x	https://developer.hashicorp.com/vagrant/downloads
Git	https://git-scm.com/downloads

12 GB RAM free, ~15 GB disk. On Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4), download the Apple Silicon build of VirtualBox — see docs/vm-setup.md.

Quick check — all three must print a version:

VBoxManage --version && vagrant --version && git --version

1. Start the VM

git clone https://github.com/paulharkink/ops-demo.git
cd ops-demo
vagrant up          # first run: ~10–15 min
vagrant ssh
cd /vagrant

See docs/vm-setup.md for verification steps and troubleshooting.

2. Bootstrap ArgoCD

./scripts/bootstrap.sh

Then follow the exercises in order.

Exercises

#	Exercise	Guide	Type	Est. Time
01	Bootstrap ArgoCD	docs/01-argocd-bootstrap.md	Core	30 min
02	Deploy podinfo via GitOps	docs/02-deploy-podinfo.md	Core	30 min
03	MetalLB + Ingress-Nginx	docs/03-metallb-ingress.md	Core	45 min
04	Tekton pipeline	docs/04-tekton-pipeline.md	Core	45 min
05	App upgrade + reflection	docs/05-app-upgrade.md	Core	15 min
06	Prometheus + Grafana	docs/06-monitoring.md	Bonus	60 min

Beginners: aim for Exercises 01–03 (~1h45m). Everyone else: target 01–05 for the full core loop.

Stack

Component	Purpose	Version
k3s	Kubernetes	v1.31.4
ArgoCD	GitOps engine	v2.13.x (chart 7.7.11)
MetalLB	Bare-metal LoadBalancer	v0.14.9
Ingress-Nginx	HTTP routing	chart 4.12.0
Tekton	CI pipeline	v0.65.1
podinfo	Demo app	6.6.2 → 6.7.0
kube-prometheus-stack	Observability (bonus)	chart 68.4.4

Solution branches

Stuck on an exercise? Each solution branch is cumulative — it contains the complete working state up to and including that exercise.

# View a specific file without checking out the branch
git fetch origin
git show origin/solution/03-metallb-ingress:manifests/networking/metallb/metallb-config.yaml

Branch	State
`solution/01-argocd-bootstrap`	ArgoCD running
`solution/02-deploy-podinfo`	podinfo synced via ArgoCD
`solution/03-metallb-ingress`	LAN access via MetalLB + Ingress
`solution/04-tekton-pipeline`	Full GitOps CI loop
`solution/05-app-upgrade`	podinfo at v6.7.0
`solution/06-monitoring`	Prometheus + Grafana running

Network layout

Your laptop
    │
    │ 192.168.56.x (VirtualBox host-only)
    ▼
VM: 192.168.56.10
    │
    └── MetalLB pool: 192.168.56.200–192.168.56.220
            │
            └── 192.168.56.200  →  Ingress-Nginx
                    │
                    ├── podinfo.192.168.56.200.nip.io
                    ├── argocd.192.168.56.200.nip.io
                    └── grafana.192.168.56.200.nip.io  (bonus)

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