argocd-vault-plugin VS argo-helm

ArgoCD supports SOPS with the vault Plugin.

repoServer: rbac: - verbs: - get - list - watch apiGroups: - '' resources: - secrets - configmaps initContainers: - name: download-tools image: registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8 env: - name: AVP_VERSION value: 1.11.0 command: [sh, -c] args: - >- curl -L https://github.com/argoproj-labs/argocd-vault-plugin/releases/download/v$(AVP_VERSION)/argocd-vault-plugin_$(AVP_VERSION)_linux_amd64 -o argocd-vault-plugin && chmod +x argocd-vault-plugin && mv argocd-vault-plugin /custom-tools/ volumeMounts: - mountPath: /custom-tools name: custom-tools extraContainers: - name: avp-helm command: [/var/run/argocd/argocd-cmp-server] image: quay.io/argoproj/argocd:v2.4.8 securityContext: runAsNonRoot: true runAsUser: 999 volumeMounts: - mountPath: /var/run/argocd name: var-files - mountPath: /home/argocd/cmp-server/plugins name: plugins - mountPath: /tmp name: tmp-dir - mountPath: /home/argocd/cmp-server/config name: cmp-plugin - name: custom-tools subPath: argocd-vault-plugin mountPath: /usr/local/bin/argocd-vault-plugin volumes: - configMap: name: cmp-plugin name: cmp-plugin - name: custom-tools emptyDir: {} - name: tmp-dir emptyDir: {} # If you face issue with ArgoCD CRDs installation, then uncomment below section to disable it #crds: # install: false

argoproj-labs/argocd-vault-plugin

We’re using https://github.com/argoproj-labs/argocd-vault-plugin which allows you to define secrets in git (works with more backends than just hashicorp vault despite the name). The documentation took me a bit to figure out, but so far it works.

Argo CD Vault plugin

I used argocd vault plugin https://github.com/IBM/argocd-vault-plugin

kubectl create namespace argocd helm repo add argo https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm helm repo update helm install argocd argo/argo-cd --namespace argocd

We will use Helm to install Argo CD with the community-maintained chart from argoproj/argo-helm because The Argo project doesn't provide an official Helm chart. We will render thier helm chart for argocd locally on our side, manipulate it and overrides its default values, and also we can helm lint the chart and templating to see if there is some errors or not, We gonna use the chart version 5.50.0 which matches appVersion: v2.8.6 you can find all details for the chart and also we gonna override some values @ default-values.yaml

resource "helm_release" "argocd" { name = "${var.environment}-argocd" namespace = "${var.environment}-argocd" create_namespace = true repository = "https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm" version = "${var.helm_version}" chart = "argo-cd" set { name = "server.service.type" value = "LoadBalancer" } set { name = "server.service.loadBalancerIP" value = "${var.loadBalancerIP}" } values = [ <<-YAML --- global: image: tag: "${var.image_tag}" configs: repositories: gitops-homelab: url: [email protected]:myprivaterepo/gitops-homelab.git name: private-repo type: git sshPrivateKey: file("${path.module}/sa_keys/private/${var.environment}_id_rsa") server: extraArgs: - --insecure YAML ] } output "file_location" { value = file("${path.module}/sa_keys/private/${var.environment}_id_rsa") }

"argo-cd" = { repository = "https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm", chart = "argo-cd", namespace = "argocd" values_file = templatefile("./values/argocd.yml", { ingress_scheme = "internal" #internet-facing or internal elb_name = aws_lb.this["${local.name}-int-a"].name })

repository = "https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm" chart = "argo-cd" namespace = "argo" version = "5.34.5"

I think your example with the ArgoCD Helm chart says it all. It can get incredibly complicated, and I had tremendous trouble getting it working, it broke all the time, getting the indentation right was a nightmare ... very unpleasant experience. I mean look at that chart, the authors have to constantly specify the indentation level everywhere.

plugin: name: argocd-vault-helm env: - name: release_name value: argocd - name: chart_name value: argo-cd - name: chart_repo value: https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm - name: chart_version value: 5.17.1 - name: chart_values value: -f applicationset.yaml -f configs.yaml -f controller.yaml -f dex.yaml -f redis.yaml -f reposerver.yaml -f server.yaml -f notifications.yaml - name: args value: --include-crds

Another folder I want to discuss shortly is the Terraform folder. This project was installed by terraform basically but it can deployed easily with simple helm installation of ArgoCD . In the next attachment we can see the relevant values neccesary to apply our ArgoCD system : values-override.tpl

Finally, we have to install ArgoCD from the official Helm Chart but with extra configuration that provides modifications required to install Vault plugin via sidecar container.