GitOps: The Modern Way to Manage Infrastructure Using Git as the Single Source of Truth

✅ Chapter 2: Setting Up Your GitOps Workflow — Tools and Environment

🔍 Introduction

Now that you understand GitOps fundamentals, it’s time to implement a real GitOps workflow. Setting up GitOps involves choosing the right tools, organizing your repositories, configuring GitOps controllers, and preparing your infrastructure for continuous, automated operations.

In this chapter, you’ll learn:

• How to select GitOps tools
• How to organize your Git repositories
• How to install and configure GitOps controllers
• How to prepare a Kubernetes cluster for GitOps
• Common patterns for managing multiple environments

Let’s move from theory to hands-on GitOps practice.

🛠️ Choosing the Right GitOps Tools

Several open-source and commercial tools simplify GitOps adoption. Choosing the right tools depends on your environment, scale, and team preferences.

📋 GitOps Tool Comparison

🔹 Minimal Setup for a GitOps Pilot

To start, you need:

• A Git repository (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)
• A Kubernetes cluster (local Minikube/Kind or cloud-managed like EKS/GKE)
• A GitOps agent (ArgoCD or Flux)

📁 Organizing Your Git Repositories

The way you structure your Git repos affects how easily you can scale and manage environments.

🔥 GitOps Repo Structures

📚 Recommended Structure Example

bash

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gitops-repo/

├── clusters/

│   ├── dev/

│   │   ├── app1.yaml

│   │   └── app2.yaml

│   └── prod/

│       ├── app1.yaml

│       └── app2.yaml

├── applications/

│   ├── app1/

│   │   ├── base/

│   │   └── overlays/

│   └── app2/

📋 Folder Design Best Practices

• Use separate overlays for dev, staging, prod.
• Keep application manifests independent of cluster-specific configs.
• Maintain small, modular files (avoid monolithic YAMLs).

🚀 Setting Up a Kubernetes Cluster

Before deploying GitOps agents, you need a working Kubernetes environment.

🔹 Local Setup Options

🔹 Cloud Setup Options

🧪 Quickstart: Minikube

Install Minikube:

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brew install minikube

Start a cluster:

bash

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minikube start

Verify:

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kubectl get nodes

📦 Installing and Configuring a GitOps Agent

In GitOps, a controller ensures that the system state matches what’s defined in Git.

We'll walk through setting up ArgoCD, one of the most popular GitOps controllers.

🔹 Installing ArgoCD

bash

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kubectl create namespace argocd

kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml

Check Pods:

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kubectl get pods -n argocd

🔹 Accessing ArgoCD Dashboard

Port-forward the ArgoCD server:

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kubectl port-forward svc/argocd-server -n argocd 8080:443

Visit:

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https://localhost:8080

🔹 Initial Admin Credentials

Get initial password:

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kubectl get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -n argocd -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 -d

Username: admin

🧰 Creating Your First GitOps Application

Now you can point ArgoCD to a Git repository containing Kubernetes manifests.

Example:

yaml

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apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1

kind: Application

metadata:

  name: my-app

  namespace: argocd

spec:

  project: default

  source:

    repoURL: https://github.com/your-org/your-app-configs

    targetRevision: HEAD

    path: clusters/dev

  destination:

    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc

    namespace: default

  syncPolicy:

    automated:

      prune: true

      selfHeal: true

Apply:

bash

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kubectl apply -f my-app.yaml

ArgoCD will now monitor Git and deploy changes automatically!

🛡️ Handling Secrets in GitOps

One major challenge is managing sensitive information like passwords or tokens securely.

🔒 Popular Secrets Management Solutions

🧪 Example: Sealed Secrets Workflow

• Encrypt Kubernetes Secret into a SealedSecret.
• Store SealedSecret in Git safely.
• Controller decrypts automatically inside cluster.

Never store raw Secrets directly in Git repositories.

🔥 Managing Multiple Environments with GitOps

You often need different configurations for dev, staging, and production.

📋 Environment Management Patterns

🧩 Example Kustomize Structure

bash

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base/

  deployment.yaml

  service.yaml

overlays/

  dev/

    kustomization.yaml

  prod/

    kustomization.yaml

Apply:

bash

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kubectl apply -k overlays/dev/

Kustomize automatically layers environment-specific configurations.

📚 Summary: What You Learned in Chapter 2

• Choosing the right GitOps tools is critical for success
• Organizing Git repos well simplifies multi-environment management
• Setting up a Kubernetes cluster is the foundation for GitOps
• Installing GitOps agents like ArgoCD automates synchronization
• Managing secrets securely is essential
• Kustomize and Git branching strategies streamline environment management