Building a GitOps Pipeline with Amazon EKS

GitOps emerges as a transformative methodology, empowering development teams to declare infrastructure and application changes through version-controlled Git repositories.

At the heart of this transformation lies the harmonious integration of Amazon EKS, a managed Kubernetes service, and Argo CD, a GitOps continuous delivery tool. Together, they offer an unprecedented level of control, observability, and security to your containerized workloads.

Prerequisites: Setting the Stage for GitOps Excellence

Before we delve into the magic of GitOps with EKS and Argo CD, let’s ensure we have the necessary prerequisites in place:

1. AWS CLI and kubectl Installation

Ensure that you have the AWS CLI and kubectl installed and configured with the appropriate IAM credentials to interact with your EKS cluster.

2. Terraform Installation

We’ll employ Terraform to provision our EKS cluster infrastructure. Install Terraform on your local development environment.

3. Git Repository

Have a version-controlled Git repository set up to host your Kubernetes manifests and configuration files.

Step 1: Setting Up Amazon EKS Cluster

Let’s begin by deploying an EKS cluster, the foundation of our GitOps journey.

# Clone the EKS Terraform module repository
git clone https://github.com/terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-eks.git

# Navigate to the EKS Terraform module directory
cd terraform-aws-eks/examples/basic

# Initialize Terraform
terraform init

# Review and modify the configuration as per your needs (e.g., region, node instance type, etc.) in variables.tf
terraform plan

# Apply the Terraform configuration
terraform apply

Congratulations! You now have a fully functional EKS cluster at your fingertips.

Step 2: Installing Argo CD

With the EKS cluster in place, it’s time to welcome Argo CD aboard our GitOps voyage.

# Install Argo CD using Helm
kubectl create namespace argocd

# Install Argo CD using Helm
helm repo add argo https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm
helm install argocd argo/argo-cd --namespace argocd

Step 3: Configuring Argo CD for EKS

Let’s establish the necessary configurations to enable Argo CD to manage our EKS applications effectively.

# Get the Argo CD server password
kubectl -n argocd get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 -d

Step 2: Accessing Argo CD’s Web UI

After installing Argo CD, we’ll set up port forwarding to access the Argo CD server running within your Kubernetes cluster:

# Port-forward the Argo CD server to access its web UI
kubectl port-forward svc/argocd-server -n argocd 8080:443

Now, access the Argo CD web UI by visiting https://localhost:8080 in your browser. Log in with the username admin and the password retrieved in the previous step.

Step 4: Change the Password (Optional)

Upon your initial login, Argo CD will prompt you to change the password for the admin user. Follow the instructions to set a new password for increased security.

Step 5: Access Argo CD CLI (Optional)

If you prefer using the command-line interface (CLI) instead of the web UI, you can install the Argo CD CLI with the following command:

# Install the Argo CD CLI
brew install argocd   # For macOS with Homebrew

Step 6: Access Argo CD API Server (Optional)

If you need to interact with the Argo CD API directly, you can set up port forwarding for the API server:

# Port-forward the Argo CD API server
kubectl port-forward svc/argocd-server -n argocd 8080:80

You can then access the Argo CD API at http://localhost:8080 using tools like curl or Postman.

Step 4: Deploying Applications with GitOps

The moment has arrived to embrace the GitOps methodology and deploy applications using Argo CD.

4.1. Creating Argo CD Applications

In your Git repository, create Kubernetes manifests for your applications and commit them. Then, add an Argo CD application manifest, like the one below, to deploy your application:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: my-awesome-app
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  destination:
    server: 'https://kubernetes.default.svc'
    namespace: 'default'
  source:
    repoURL: 'https://github.com/your-org/your-repo'
    path: 'path/to/your/app'
    targetRevision: 'main'
  syncPolicy:
    automated: {}

4.2. Applying GitOps Changes

Argo CD continuously monitors your Git repository for changes. Whenever you push new commits or modify the application manifests, Argo CD automatically synchronizes the changes with your EKS cluster.

Conclusion: A New Era of GitOps Excellence

In conclusion, we have embarked on a transformative journey through GitOps with Amazon EKS and Argo CD. This harmonious integration empowers your development teams to embrace declarative infrastructure and application management, ensuring unparalleled control, observability, and security.

By setting up an EKS cluster, installing Argo CD, and configuring your applications, you have laid the foundation for a new era of GitOps excellence within your organization.

Step forth confidently into the future of cloud-native deployments with GitOps and Amazon EKS. The possibilities are boundless.