argocd-vault-plugin VS sops-secrets-operator

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

sops-secrets-operator (sops)

There is also a third-party sops-secrets operator available.

I have configured sops-secret-controller too, I'll be using that to manage my secrets. But my problem is that I don't know beforehand the value.

SOPS that was developed by Mozilla offers significantly more options, though at the expense of a more complex configuration. Here, the key material can come from the key management systems (KMS) of the major cloud providers, from your own HashiCorp Vault, or from configured PGP keys. SOPS itself does not contain an operator, but there are different ways to use it with GitOps. Flux v2 offers native support. There is also the helm-secrets plug-in, which can also be used in ArgoCD with the manual configuration. There is also a sops-secrets operator that has been developed by a third party.