GitOps-driven Application Lifecycle Management PoC

This Proof of Concept demonstrates a complete GitOps workflow using Helm, ArgoCD, GitHub Actions, and Renovate Bot for managing application lifecycle in Kubernetes.

Project Overview

This PoC establishes a practical demonstration of managing the lifecycle of applications embedded with Helm charts using GitOps principles. The outcome serves as a complement and validation for technical documentation focusing on best practices for application deployment, versioning, and dependency management.

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│   GitHub Repo   │    │   ArgoCD        │    │   Kubernetes    │
│   (GitOps)      │◄──►│   (GitOps CD)   │◄──►│   Cluster       │
│                 │    │                 │    │                 │
│ • App Manifests │    │ • Sync Status   │    │ • Applications  │
│ • Helm Values   │    │ • Health Check  │    │ • Services      │
│ • Renovate      │    │ • Auto-Sync     │    │ • Ingress       │
└─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘    └─────────────────┘
         ▲
         │
┌─────────────────┐
│  GitHub Actions │
│  (CI/CD)        │
│                 │
│ • Validation    │
│ • Testing       │
│ • Auto-merge    │
└─────────────────┘

Components

1. Kubernetes Infrastructure

• Local Cluster: kind/k3d for easy setup and teardown
• ArgoCD: GitOps continuous delivery tool

2. Applications (Bitnami OCI Charts)

• PostgreSQL: Database with persistence
• MongoDB: Document database
• Redis: In-memory data store

Note: This PoC uses OCI (Open Container Initiative) Helm charts from Bitnami, which provide better security, faster downloads, and improved reliability compared to traditional Helm repositories.

3. GitOps Repository

• ArgoCD Applications: Declarative application definitions
• App-of-Apps: Pattern for managing multiple applications

4. Automation

• Renovate Bot: Automated dependency updates
• GitHub Actions: CI/CD pipeline with validation and auto-merge

Quick Start

1. Prerequisites

   # Install required tools
   brew install kind helm kubectl argocd

2. Setup Kubernetes Cluster

   # Create kind cluster
   kind create cluster --name gitops-poc
   
   # Install ArgoCD
   kubectl create namespace argocd
   kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml

3. Access ArgoCD

   # Port forward to access UI
   kubectl port-forward svc/argocd-server -n argocd 8080:443
   # Access at https://localhost:8080
   # Default username: admin
   # Get password: kubectl -n argocd get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret \\
   #   -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 -d

4. Deploy Applications

   # Apply ArgoCD applications
   kubectl apply -f argocd-applications/

Directory Structure

├── README.md                  # This file
├── kind-config.yaml           # Kind cluster configuration
├── argocd-applications/       # ArgoCD application manifests
│   ├── app-of-apps.yaml       # Root application
│   ├── postgresql.yaml        # PostgreSQL application
│   ├── mongodb.yaml           # MongoDB application
│   └── redis.yaml             # Redis application
├── .github/                   # GitHub configuration
│   ├── workflows/             # GitHub Actions workflows
│   │   ├── renovate-pr.yml    # Renovate PR validation
│   │   └── ci.yml             # General CI workflow
│   └── renovate.json          # Renovate Bot configuration
└── docs/                      # Documentation
    ├── setup.md               # Detailed setup instructions
    └── architecture.md        # Detailed architecture overview

Success Metrics

• ✅ ArgoCD applications remain synchronized and healthy
• ✅ Renovate Bot consistently proposes chart updates via PRs
• ✅ GitHub Actions pipeline validates Renovate PRs without errors
• ✅ Complete setup is easily reproducible and well-documented

Next Steps

1. Follow the detailed setup instructions in docs/setup.md
2. Deploy the applications using ArgoCD
3. Configure Renovate Bot for automated updates
4. Test the complete GitOps workflow

Contributing

This is a PoC project. For production use, consider:

• Security hardening (RBAC, network policies)
• Monitoring and observability
• Backup and disaster recovery
• Multi-environment support