9 Argo CD
This chapter covers:
- What is Argo CD
- Deploy an application using Argo CD
- Argo CD Enterprise Features
In this chapter you will learn how to use the Argo CD GitOps operator to deploy our reference example application to Kubernetes. You will also learn how Argo CD addresses enterprise considerations such as single sign-on (SSO) and access control.
We recommend you read chapters 1, 2, 3, and 5 before reading this chapter.
9.1 What is Argo CD?
Argo CD is an open-source GitOps operator for Kubernetes[1]. The project is a part of the Argo family - a set of cloud-native tools for running and managing jobs and applications on Kubernetes. Along with Argo Workflows, Rollouts, and Events, Argo CD focuses on application delivery use cases and makes it easier to combine three modes of computing: services, workflows, and event-based processing.
The company behind Argo CD is Intuit - the creator of TurboTax and QuickBooks. In early 2018 Intuit decided to adopt Kubernetes to speed up cloud migration. At the time, the market already had several successful continuous deployment tools for Kubernetes, but none of them fully satisfied Intuit’s needs. So instead of adopting an existing solution, the company decided to invest in a new project and started working on Argo CD. So what is so special about Intuit's requirements? The answer to that question explains how Argo CD is different from other Kubernetes CD tools and explains the main project use cases.