Install ArgoCD Image Updater via ArgoCD declaratively

Posted on by Yuki Nakamura
ArgoCD Image Updater allocation

ArgoCD Image Updater

ArgoCD image updater can automate the updating of image tags in manifests. It will make your CI/CD process more efficient! In this article, I will explain how to install ArgoCD Image Updater via ArgoCD using ArgoCD’s Declarative Setup. ๐Ÿ™ใ€€

  1. Preparation
  2. Add argo’s chart repository
  3. Check ArgoCD’s namespace
  4. Install ArgoCD Image Updater
    1. Check available charts’ versions and ArgoCD Image Updater’s versions
    2. Create Application manifest of ArgoCD Image Updater
    3. Check if it has been installed on ArgoCD UI.
  5. Test ArgoCD Image Updater
    1. Look up image updater’s pod name
    2. Run test command
  6. (Optional) Authentication to container registries
  7. Wrap up

Preparation

Please install tools below.

  • kubernetes[1]
  • ArgoCD[1]
  • Helm[1]

[1] Here are my versions of each tool for reference.

$ minikube profile list
|----------|-----------|---------|--------------|------|---------|---------|-------|--------|
| Profile  | VM Driver | Runtime |      IP      | Port | Version | Status  | Nodes | Active |
|----------|-----------|---------|--------------|------|---------|---------|-------|--------|
| minikube | docker    | docker  | 192.168.49.2 | 8443 | v1.26.3 | Running |     1 | *      |
|----------|-----------|---------|--------------|------|---------|---------|-------|--------|

$ argocd version --short | grep argocd-server
argocd-server: v2.7.4+a33baa3.dirty

$ helm version 
version.BuildInfo{Version:"v3.12.0", GitCommit:"c9f554d75773799f72ceef38c51210f1842a1dea", GitTreeState:"clean", GoVersion:"go1.20.4"}

If you’d like to install ArgoCD Image Updater with GitOps way, please prepare below, too.

  • (Optional) GitHub repository for manifests[2]
  • (Optional) ArgoCD Application that maintains ArgoCD Applications by following App of Apps pattern.[3]

[2] Please refer to my previous post and create a GitHub repository for manifests.

[3] If you’re not familiar with App of Apps pattern, please check the ArgoCD document or my previous post.

Add argo’s chart repository

ArgoCD’s Helm Charts are maintained on argoproj/argo-helm. Also, they are hosted at https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm/ . Letโ€™s add it to your helm.

helm repo add argo https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm

If you’ve already added it, please update it.

helm repo update argo

There are several charts in the repository. You can find argocd-image-updater’ chart by the following command.

helm search repo argo | grep argocd-image-updater

example:

helm search repo argo | grep argocd-image-updater
argo/argocd-image-updater       0.9.1           v0.12.2         A Helm chart for Argo CD Image Updater, a tool ...

Check ArgoCD’s namespace

There are two methods for installing ArgoCD Image Updater.

  1. Installing as Kubernetes workload in Argo CD namespace
  2. Connect using Argo CD API Server

This time, we will use 1 because it’s easier than 2.

You can check ArgoCD’s namespace by the following command.

kubectl get deploy -A | grep -e '^NAMESPACE' -e argocd-server

In my case, I installed ArgoCD in a namespace called argocd.

NAMESPACE              NAME                                  READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
argocd                 my-argocd-server                      1/1     1            1           17d

Install ArgoCD Image Updater

Check available charts’ versions and ArgoCD Image Updater’s versions

You can check available versions via helm search with –versions option.

helm search repo argo/argocd-image-updater --versions | head -5

example:

NAME                            CHART VERSION   APP VERSION     DESCRIPTION                                       
argo/argocd-image-updater       0.9.1           v0.12.2         A Helm chart for Argo CD Image Updater, a tool ...
argo/argocd-image-updater       0.9.0           v0.12.2         A Helm chart for Argo CD Image Updater, a tool ...
argo/argocd-image-updater       0.8.5           v0.12.2         A Helm chart for Argo CD Image Updater, a tool ...
argo/argocd-image-updater       0.8.4           v0.12.2         A Helm chart for Argo CD Image Updater, a tool ...

This time, I chose the latest version (0.9.1) that uses v0.12.2 ArgoCD Image Updater.

Create Application manifest of ArgoCD Image Updater

Store the following in a file called my-argocd-image-updater.yaml. Please put your ArgoCD’s namespace in the spec.destination.namespace field.

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: my-argocd-image-updater
spec:
  destination:
    namespace: <ArgoCD's namespace>
    server: 'https://kubernetes.default.svc'
  source:
    path: ''
    repoURL: 'https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm'
    targetRevision: 0.9.1
    chart: argocd-image-updater
    helm:
      parameters:
  sources: []
  project: default
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: false
      selfHeal: false

Apply the manifest to your kubernetes. Please put your ArgoCD’s namespace in the command.

kubectl apply -f my-argocd-image-updater.yaml -n <ArgoCD's namespace>

(Optional) If you’re managing Application’s manifests in GitHub, please commit and push it to the repository.

example:

git add argocd-resources/applications/my-argocd-image-updater.yaml \
&& git commit -m "Add my-argocd-image-updater" \
&& git push

Check if it has been installed on ArgoCD UI.

Please sign in your ArgoCD UI, then check if ArgoCD Image Updater has been installed.

my-argocd-image-updater

Now you are ready to use the ArgoCD Image Updater! ๐Ÿ™

Test ArgoCD Image Updater

Let’s run test command to verify the behavior of Argo CD Image Updater on arbitrary images and to validate your configuration.

Look up image updater’s pod name

Look up image updater’s pod name by the following command.

kubectl get po -n <ArgoCD's namespace> | grep -e '^NAME' -e 'image-updater'

example:

$ kubectl get po -n argocd | grep -e '^NAME' -e 'image-updater'
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
my-argocd-image-updater-5f49876fc7-4mnxp 1/1 Running 1 (15m ago) 3d12h

Run test command

Let’s check if it can access the nginx repository on DockerHub as a test.

kubectl exec <pod name> -n  <ArgoCD's namespace> -- argocd-image-updater test nginx

example:

kubectl exec my-argocd-image-updater-5f49876fc7-4mnxp -n argocd -- argocd-image-updater test nginx
time="2023-07-08T02:00:11Z" level=debug msg="Creating in-cluster Kubernetes client"
time="2023-07-08T02:00:11Z" level=info msg="retrieving information about image" image_alias= image_name=nginx registry_url=
time="2023-07-08T02:00:11Z" level=info msg="Fetching available tags and metadata from registry" application=test image_alias= image_name=nginx registry_url=

skip...

time="2023-07-08T02:00:14Z" level=info msg="latest image according to constraint is nginx:1.25.1" application=test image_alias= image_name=nginx registry_url=

(Optional) Authentication to container registries

If you’d like to your private registries, you need to configure authentication. Please check the official documentations.

Wrap up

We installed ArgoCD Image Updater. In a next article, I will share how to use it to automate the updating of image tags in manifests.

Thank you for reading! ๐Ÿ™

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Published by Yuki Nakamura