For many software companies, deployment is no longer manual. As they mature, they tend to move towards an engineering-driven process that is more controlled and automated, usually to reduce downtime. And Argo CD is one such tool which is a Kubernetes-native continuous deployment tool. Although many other external CD tools are available, it is the one that enables pull-based deployments.
Origin of Argo CD
Argo CD was introduced in 2018, and it has since then become popular because other deployment solutions like Spinnaker failed to provide the required support to Kubernetes-workflow. Argo CD applies the GitOps approach and uses git repositories that are the only source for your Kubernetes infrastructure’s state. This is referred to as a pull model.
This model is the preliminary phase to “achieve continuous operations”. This is possible by employing declarative system activity requirements to monitor, analyze, and automate the correction of operational faults.
Features of Argo CD
Argo CD is a Kubernetes-based solution for managing containerized applications. It allows users to easily deploy, and scale their applications in the cloud. Argo CD also provides a number of features that make it easier for users to manage their containerized applications. These features include:
- It allows users to create multiple tenants on one system, each with its own dedicated resources and storage. This allows users to host multiple applications on a single server without having to worry about resource contention between them.
- It monitors the health of containers based on their logs and other metrics, so if there are any issues with any of your containers, you’ll know right away. This can help you quickly address problems before they become big issues later down the road.
- The platform includes a UI-based workflow builder that allows users to create complex workflows with ease by dragging and dropping components from the library into a canvas and connecting them together using drag-and-drop gestures; this allows users to create complex workflows without writing any code.
- This tool lets you deploy your infrastructure in minutes instead of hours so that you can focus on what really matters—the applications running in your cluster and how they can improve your business!
- This is scalable which means if a cluster doesn’t have enough capacity for all of your workloads, just simply add more nodes! It automatically distributes the load across all nodes so that no one node has to bear all the weight of your workloads alone.
Working
Argo CD is a lightweight, self-contained framework for building and deploying Kubernetes clusters. This tool enables you to easily manage your cluster, as well as its underlying hardware.
It is a Kubernetes Helm Chart that enables you to deploy an agile CD solution on your Kubernetes cluster. It consists of an open-source CI/CD pipeline, which consists of the following components:
- Jenkins – Jenkins manages the build and test steps for your source code.
- Gitlab CI – Gitlab CI runs the build and test steps for your source code in a GitLab repository. You can configure this component to run standalone or integrated with Gitlab CE.
- Artifactory – Artifactory stores artifacts from builds and tests that are performed by Jenkins or Gitlab CI. You can configure this component to use either Docker Hub or your own private registry.
- SonarQube – SonarQube analyzes code quality metrics in order to provide insight into how well your project complies with industry standards. You can configure this component to use either Docker Hub or your own private registry.
In a nutshell, Argo CD is a modern DevOps tool that helps to automate and accelerate the speed of application deployment. It deploys applications with minimum steps, their work on the cloud and in any environment, running in cluster mode or docker swarm.
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