ArgoCD Kubernetes Infrastructure

A production-ready GitOps infrastructure repository for deploying and managing Kubernetes applications using ArgoCD. This repository contains declarative configurations for automated deployment, monitoring, and load balancing of containerized applications.

Features

GitOps with ArgoCD

• Automated Deployment: Continuous deployment with ArgoCD's GitOps methodology
• Self-Healing Applications: Automatic synchronization and recovery of application state
• Declarative Configuration: Infrastructure and applications defined as code
• Multi-Application Management: Centralized control of multiple services
• Static IP Assignment: LoadBalancer with fixed IP (10.10.90.51) for ArgoCD server

Monitoring Stack

• Prometheus Integration: Metrics collection and alerting with kube-prometheus-stack
• Grafana Dashboards: Visual monitoring and analytics interface
• Alertmanager: Intelligent alert routing and notification management
• Custom Scrape Configs: Monitor external hosts (K3s control plane at 10.10.90.151:9100)
• LoadBalancer Access: Grafana accessible via static IP (10.10.90.50)

Load Balancing & Networking

• MetalLB Integration: Bare-metal load balancer for on-premises Kubernetes
• IP Address Pool: Dedicated IP range (10.10.90.30-10.10.90.140)
• L2 Advertisement: Layer 2 networking for seamless service exposure
• Static IP Assignment: Predictable service endpoints for external access

Weather Service Deployment

• High Availability: Dual deployment strategy (primary + backup)
• Horizontal Pod Autoscaling: Auto-scaling from 2 to 10 replicas based on CPU utilization (50% threshold)
• Health Checks: Readiness probes for zero-downtime deployments
• Resource Management: Defined CPU and memory limits for optimal performance
• LoadBalancer Service: External access via static IP (10.10.90.52)

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes Cluster (K3s, K8s, or any Kubernetes distribution)
• kubectl - Kubernetes command-line tool
• ArgoCD - GitOps continuous delivery tool
• Git - Version control system
• MetalLB (optional) - For bare-metal load balancing

Initial Setup

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/TropoMetrics/ArgoCI-CD.git
   cd ArgoCI-CD

2. Create required namespaces

   kubectl apply -f namespaces/argocd-ns.yaml
   kubectl apply -f namespaces/metallb-ns.yaml

3. Install ArgoCD (if not already installed)

   kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml

4. Apply ArgoCD static LoadBalancer service

   kubectl apply -f argocd-static

5. Install MetalLB (for bare-metal clusters)

   kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/metallb/metallb/v0.13.12/config/manifests/metallb-native.yaml
   kubectl apply -f metallb/metallb-conf.yaml

6. Get ArgoCD admin password

   kubectl -n argocd get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 -d

7. Access ArgoCD UI
   • Navigate to http://10.10.90.51 or https://10.10.90.51
   • Username: admin
   • Password: (from step 6)

Deploying Applications

Deploy Weather Service

kubectl apply -f automator.yaml

Deploy Monitoring Stack

kubectl apply -f monitoring-app.yaml

ArgoCD will automatically sync and deploy the applications from this repository.

Technology Stack

Infrastructure & Orchestration

• Kubernetes - Container orchestration platform
• ArgoCD - GitOps continuous delivery tool
• MetalLB - Bare-metal load balancer
• K3s - Lightweight Kubernetes distribution

Monitoring & Observability

• Prometheus - Metrics collection and alerting
• Grafana - Visualization and analytics platform
• Alertmanager - Alert routing and management
• kube-prometheus-stack - Complete monitoring solution (v61.3.0)
• Node Exporter - Hardware and OS metrics exporter

Application Deployment

• Helm - Kubernetes package manager
• HorizontalPodAutoscaler - Automatic pod scaling
• Docker - Container runtime

Project Structure

ArgoCI-CD/
├── argocd-static              # ArgoCD LoadBalancer service configuration
├── automator.yaml             # ArgoCD application for weather service
├── monitoring-app.yaml        # ArgoCD application for monitoring stack
├── metallb/
│   └── metallb-conf.yaml     # MetalLB configuration with IP pool
├── monitoring/
│   ├── Chart.yaml            # Helm chart for monitoring stack
│   └── values.yaml           # Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager config
├── namespaces/
│   ├── argocd-ns.yaml        # ArgoCD namespace
│   └── metallb-ns.yaml       # MetalLB namespace
├── weerservice/
│   ├── deployment.yaml       # Weather service deployments & HPA
│   └── service.yaml          # LoadBalancer service
└── README.md                 # This file

Configuration

IP Address Allocation

The infrastructure uses the following static IP assignments:

Service	IP Address	Port	Purpose
ArgoCD Server	10.10.90.51	80, 443	GitOps management UI
Grafana	10.10.90.50	80	Monitoring dashboards
Weather Service	10.10.90.52	80	Weather application API
IP Pool Range	10.10.90.30-140	-	Available LoadBalancer IPs

MetalLB Configuration

Edit metallb/metallb-conf.yaml to adjust the IP address pool:

spec:
  addresses:
    - 10.10.90.30-10.10.90.140  # Your IP range

Monitoring Configuration

Grafana Access

• URL: http://10.10.90.50
• Username: admin
• Password: prom-operator

Custom Prometheus Scrape Targets

Add additional scrape targets in monitoring/values.yaml:

additionalScrapeConfigs:
  - job_name: 'custom-target'
    scrape_interval: 15s
    static_configs:
      - targets: ['<host>:<port>']
        labels:
          nodename: 'custom-node'

Weather Service Scaling

Adjust autoscaling parameters in weerservice/deployment.yaml:

spec:
  minReplicas: 2          # Minimum pods
  maxReplicas: 10         # Maximum pods
  metrics:
  - type: Resource
    resource:
      name: cpu
      target:
        type: Utilization
        averageUtilization: 50  # Scale at 50% CPU

Monitoring & Observability

Available Metrics

• Node Metrics: CPU, memory, disk, network from K3s control plane
• Application Metrics: Weather service performance and health
• Kubernetes Metrics: Cluster state, pod status, resource utilization
• Custom Scrapes: External host monitoring (10.10.90.151:9100)

Alertmanager Configuration

Alerts are configured with the following defaults:

• Group Wait: 30s
• Group Interval: 5m
• Repeat Interval: 12h
• Resolve Timeout: 5m

Customize alert routing in monitoring/values.yaml under alertmanager.config.

GitOps Workflow

1. Make changes to YAML files in this repository
2. Commit and push to the main branch
3. ArgoCD detects changes automatically
4. Auto-sync deploys updates to the cluster
5. Self-healing ensures desired state is maintained

Manual Sync (if needed)

argocd app sync weerservice
argocd app sync monitoring

Check Application Status

argocd app get weerservice
argocd app get monitoring

Troubleshooting

ArgoCD Not Accessible

# Check ArgoCD pods
kubectl get pods -n argocd

# Check service
kubectl get svc -n argocd argocd-server

# Verify LoadBalancer IP
kubectl get svc -n argocd argocd-server -o jsonpath='{.status.loadBalancer.ingress[0].ip}'

MetalLB Issues

# Check MetalLB pods
kubectl get pods -n metallb-system

# Verify IP pool
kubectl get ipaddresspool -n metallb-system

# Check L2 advertisement
kubectl get l2advertisement -n metallb-system

Application Sync Failures

# View sync status
argocd app get <app-name>

# Check logs
kubectl logs -n argocd <argocd-application-controller-pod>

# Force refresh
argocd app sync <app-name> --force

Weather Service Not Responding

# Check pods
kubectl get pods -l app=weerservice

# Check HPA status
kubectl get hpa weerservice-hpa

# View pod logs
kubectl logs <pod-name>

# Check service
kubectl get svc weerservice

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how you can help:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch

   git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature

3. Commit your changes

   git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature'

4. Push to the branch

   git push origin feature/amazing-feature

5. Open a Pull Request

Development Guidelines

• Follow Kubernetes best practices
• Use declarative YAML configurations
• Test changes in a development cluster first
• Document IP address changes
• Keep ArgoCD applications in sync
• Use meaningful commit messages

Additional Resources

• ArgoCD Documentation
• Kubernetes Documentation
• MetalLB Documentation
• Prometheus Operator
• Grafana Documentation

License

This project is for educational purposes.

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Authors: Max Blaauw, Arne Jansonius, Kai Diemel & Ole Spiegelenberg Organization: HHS (The Hague University of Applied Sciences) Domain: hhs.nl