Argo CD Image Updater for automate image update

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In this post I will show you how you can use Argo CD Image Updater to automate image update in Kubernetes.

Parts of the K8S Gitops series

What is Argo CD Image Updater

A tool to automatically update the container images of Kubernetes workloads that are managed by Argo CD.

Inatall Argo CD Image Updater

VERSION=$(curl --silent "https://api.github.com/repos/argoproj-labs/argocd-image-updater/releases/latest" | grep '"tag_name"' | sed -E 's/.*"([^"]+)".*/\1/')

wget https://github.com/argoproj-labs/argocd-image-updater/releases/download/$VERSION/argocd-image-updater_"$VERSION"_linux-amd64 -O /usr/local/bin/argocd-image-updater
chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/argocd-image-updater

argocd-image-updater version

Now install the cluster-side controller

cd /opt
git clone https://github.com/argoproj-labs/argocd-image-updater.git
cd argocd-image-updater/manifests/
kubectl apply -f install.yaml

Deploy an updatable app

In order for Argo CD Image Updater to know which applications it should inspect for updating the workloads' container images, the corresponding Kubernetes resource needs to be annotated. or its annotations, Argo CD Image Updater uses the following prefix: argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  annotations:
    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/image-list: gcr.io/heptio-images/ks-guestbook-demo:^0.1
  name: guestbook
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  destination:
    namespace: guestbook-demo
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
  project: default
  source:
    path: helm-guestbook
    repoURL: https://github.com/argoproj/argocd-example-apps
    targetRevision: HEAD

Test the image for update:

argocd-image-updater test gcr.io/heptio-images/ks-guestbook-demo:0.1
INFO[0000] getting image                                 image_name=heptio-images/ks-guestbook-demo registry=gcr.io
INFO[0000] Fetching available tags and metadata from registry  image_name=heptio-images/ks-guestbook-demo
INFO[0000] Found 2 tags in registry                      image_name=heptio-images/ks-guestbook-demo
DEBU[0000] found 2 from 2 tags eligible for consideration  image="gcr.io/heptio-images/ks-guestbook-demo:0.1"
INFO[0000] latest image according to constraint is gcr.io/heptio-images/ks-guestbook-demo:0.2

Allow update of the image:

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  annotations:
    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/image-list: gcr.io/heptio-images/ks-guestbook-demo
    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/write-back-method: argocd
  name: guestbook
  namespace: argocd
spec:
  destination:
    namespace: guestbook-demo
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
  project: default
  source:
    path: helm-guestbook
    repoURL: https://github.com/argoproj/argocd-example-apps
    targetRevision: HEAD

The Argo CD Image Updater supports two distinct methods on how to update images of an application:

  • imperative, via Argo CD API
  • declarative, by pushing changes to a Git repository

The write-back method is configured via an annotation on the Application resource:

argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/write-back-method: <argocd>
# argocd or git

argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/write-back-method: git:secret:argocd-image-updater/git-creds
# add git credentials secret named git-creds

argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/git-branch: HEAD
# Specifying a branch to commit to

At the gui you can see that the guestbook app is out of sync and can be updated.