Note_Tech

All technological notes.

Project maintained by simonangel-fong Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

ArgoCD - Deploying Helm Charts

Back

ArgoCD - Deploying Helm Charts
- Deploy Helm Charts
  - Lab: Deploy Helm Chart
- Helm Value

Deploy Helm Charts

Argo CD is a helm template engine.
- When managing a Helm chart with Argo CD, it does not run helm install or helm upgrade.
- there is no Helm history, helm install, helm upgrade, or helm uninstall.
can use Argo CD to deploy both charts stored in private own repositories, as well as charts that are publicly available.

Lab: Deploy Helm Chart

Argocd application

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: guestbook
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/simonangel-fong/argocd-example-apps.git
    targetRevision: HEAD
    path: helm-guestbook
  destination:
    server: "https://kubernetes.default.svc"
    namespace: default

kubectl apply -f guestbook-app.yaml
# application.argoproj.io/guestbook created

argocd app list
# NAME              CLUSTER                         NAMESPACE  PROJECT  STATUS     HEALTH   SYNCPOLICY  CONDITIONS  REPO                                                        PATH            TARGET
# argocd/guestbook  https://kubernetes.default.svc  default    default  OutOfSync  Missing  Manual      <none>      https://github.com/simonangel-fong/argocd-example-apps.git  helm-guestbook  HEAD

argocd app sync argocd/guestbookargocd app sync argocd/guestbook
# TIMESTAMP                  GROUP        KIND   NAMESPACE                  NAME        STATUS    HEALTH        HOOK  MESSAGE
# 2026-05-05T13:03:09-04:00            Service     default  guestbook-helm-guestbook  OutOfSync  Missing
# 2026-05-05T13:03:09-04:00   apps  Deployment     default  guestbook-helm-guestbook  OutOfSync  Missing
# 2026-05-05T13:03:10-04:00            Service     default  guestbook-helm-guestbook  OutOfSync  Missing              service/guestbook-helm-guestbook created
# 2026-05-05T13:03:10-04:00   apps  Deployment     default  guestbook-helm-guestbook  OutOfSync  Missing              deployment.apps/guestbook-helm-guestbook created

# Name:               argocd/guestbook
# Project:            default
# Server:             https://kubernetes.default.svc
# Namespace:          default
# URL:                https://argocd.example.com/applications/argocd/guestbook
# Source:
# - Repo:             https://github.com/simonangel-fong/argocd-example-apps.git
#   Target:           HEAD
#   Path:             helm-guestbook
# SyncWindow:         Sync Allowed
# Sync Policy:        Manual
# Sync Status:        Synced to HEAD (723b86e)
# Health Status:      Progressing

# Operation:          Sync
# Sync Revision:      723b86e01bea11dcf72316cb172868fcbf05d69e
# Phase:              Succeeded
# Start:              2026-05-05 13:03:09 -0400 EDT
# Finished:           2026-05-05 13:03:09 -0400 EDT
# Duration:           0s
# Message:            successfully synced (all tasks run)

# GROUP  KIND        NAMESPACE  NAME                      STATUS  HEALTH       HOOK  MESSAGE
#        Service     default    guestbook-helm-guestbook  Synced  Healthy            service/guestbook-helm-guestbook created
# apps   Deployment  default    guestbook-helm-guestbook  Synced  Progressing        deployment.apps/guestbook-helm-guestbook created

argocd app get argocd/guestbook
# Name:               argocd/guestbook
# Project:            default
# Server:             https://kubernetes.default.svc
# Namespace:          default
# URL:                https://argocd.example.com/applications/guestbook
# Source:
# - Repo:             https://github.com/simonangel-fong/argocd-example-apps.git
#   Target:           HEAD
#   Path:             helm-guestbook
# SyncWindow:         Sync Allowed
# Sync Policy:        Manual
# Sync Status:        Synced to HEAD (723b86e)
# Health Status:      Healthy

# GROUP  KIND        NAMESPACE  NAME                      STATUS  HEALTH   HOOK  MESSAGE
#        Service     default    guestbook-helm-guestbook  Synced  Healthy        service/guestbook-helm-guestbook created
# apps   Deployment  default    guestbook-helm-guestbook  Synced  Healthy        deployment.apps/guestbook-helm-guestbook created

Helm Value

Loading Precedence order: the higher Overriding the lower Chart Values

By default: Chart’s own values.yaml file
Files specified under the valueFiles option
- Later entries in the list take precedence over earlier entries.
Entries specified under the valuesObject option
Entries specified under the parameters option
- Later entries in the list take precedence over earlier entries.

example

spec:
  source:
  repoURL: https://kubernetes.github.io/dashboard/
  chart: kubernetes-dashboard
  targetRevision: 7.13.0
  helm:
    valueFiles:
      - values.yaml
      - custom-values.yaml
    valuesObject:
      kong:
        enabled: true
    parameters:
      - name: "nginx.enabled"
        value: "false"

`valueFiles`

spec:
  source:
    helm:
      valueFiles:
        - values.yaml

Lab: Deploy Helm Charts with valueFiles

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: guestbook-valuefile
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/simonangel-fong/argocd-example-apps.git
    targetRevision: HEAD
    path: helm-guestbook
    helm:
      valueFiles:
        - values.yaml
  destination:
    server: "https://kubernetes.default.svc"
    namespace: default

kubectl apply -f guestbook-app/guestbook-app-value-file.yaml
# application.argoproj.io/guestbook-valuefile created

argocd app list
# NAME                        CLUSTER                         NAMESPACE  PROJECT  STATUS     HEALTH   SYNCPOLICY  CONDITIONS  REPO                                                        PATH            TARGET
# argocd/guestbook-valuefile  https://kubernetes.default.svc  default    default  OutOfSync  Missing  Manual      <none>      https://github.com/simonangel-fong/argocd-example-apps.git  helm-guestbook  HEAD

argocd app sync argocd/guestbook-valuefile

`parameters`

spec:
  source:
    helm:
      parameters:
        - name: "replicaCount"
          value: "3"

Lab: Deploy Helm Charts with parameters

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: guestbook-app-parameters
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/simonangel-fong/argocd-example-apps.git
    targetRevision: HEAD
    path: helm-guestbook
    helm:
      # parameters
      parameters:
        - name: "replicaCount"
          value: "3"
  destination:
    server: "https://kubernetes.default.svc"
    namespace: default

kubectl apply -f guestbook-app/guestbook-app-parameters.yaml
# application.argoproj.io/guestbook-app-parameters created

argocd app list
# NAME                             CLUSTER                         NAMESPACE  PROJECT  STATUS     HEALTH   SYNCPOLICY  CONDITIONS  REPO                                                        PATH            TARGET
# argocd/guestbook-app-parameters  https://kubernetes.default.svc  default    default  OutOfSync  Missing  Manual      <none>      https://github.com/simonangel-fong/argocd-example-apps.git  helm-guestbook  HEAD

argocd app sync argocd/guestbook-app-parameters

kubectl get po
# NAME                                                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
# guestbook-app-parameters-helm-guestbook-78d98bb7b-4q5w5   1/1     Running   0          7s
# guestbook-app-parameters-helm-guestbook-78d98bb7b-s9mmm   1/1     Running   0          7s
# guestbook-app-parameters-helm-guestbook-78d98bb7b-sm8jx   1/1     Running   0          7s

`valuesObject`

spec:
  source:
    helm:
      valuesObject:
        replicaCount: 5

Lab: Deploy Helm Charts with values object

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: guestbook-app-values-object
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: https://github.com/simonangel-fong/argocd-example-apps.git
    targetRevision: HEAD
    path: helm-guestbook
    helm:
      valuesObject:
        replicaCount: 5
  destination:
    server: "https://kubernetes.default.svc"
    namespace: default

kubectl apply -f guestbook-app/guestbook-app-values-object.yaml
# application.argoproj.io/guestbook-app-values-object created

argocd app list
# NAME                                CLUSTER                         NAMESPACE  PROJECT  STATUS     HEALTH   SYNCPOLICY  CONDITIONS  REPO                                                        PATH            TARGET
# argocd/guestbook-app-values-object  https://kubernetes.default.svc  default    default  OutOfSync  Missing  Manual      <none>      https://github.com/simonangel-fong/argocd-example-apps.git  helm-guestbook  HEAD

argocd app sync argocd/guestbook-app-values-object

kubectl get po
# NAME                                                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
# guestbook-app-values-object-helm-guestbook-74f99fcdbd-25vtx   1/1     Running   0          6s
# guestbook-app-values-object-helm-guestbook-74f99fcdbd-2rjk2   1/1     Running   0          6s
# guestbook-app-values-object-helm-guestbook-74f99fcdbd-hwr2m   1/1     Running   0          6s
# guestbook-app-values-object-helm-guestbook-74f99fcdbd-j4llt   1/1     Running   0          6s
# guestbook-app-values-object-helm-guestbook-74f99fcdbd-zvzjj   1/1     Running   0          6s