argocd-operator

packaged by Chainguard

Chainguard Container for argocd-operator

Kubernetes operator that manages the full lifecycle of Argo CD installations through the ArgoCD custom resource.

Chainguard Containers are regularly-updated, secure-by-default container images.

Download this Container Image

For those with access, this container image is available on cgr.dev:

docker pull cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/argocd-operator:latest

Be sure to replace the ORGANIZATION placeholder with the name used for your organization's private repository within the Chainguard Registry.

Compatibility Notes

Chainguard's argocd-operator image is compatible with the upstream quay.io/argoprojlabs/argocd-operator image. It keeps the upstream /manager entrypoint (a compatibility path to /usr/bin/argocd-operator), so existing operator manifests that run /manager, including the upstream OLM bundle, work once you point them at this image. The image also ships the Redis HA templates under /var/lib/redis, which the operator reads by default (override with REDIS_CONFIG_PATH). The container runs as a non-root user (UID 65532).

Getting Started

The Argo CD Operator watches ArgoCD custom resources and creates and manages the Argo CD components (API server, repo server, application controller, Redis, Dex, and so on) that each resource describes.

Confirm the image runs and list the available flags:

docker run --rm cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/argocd-operator:latest --help

To deploy the operator, install the upstream CRDs and manifests following the upstream installation guide, then override the manager container image in the operator Deployment:

kubectl -n argocd-operator-system set image deployment/argocd-operator-controller-manager \
  manager=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/argocd-operator:latest

Create an ArgoCD instance to have the operator reconcile an Argo CD installation:

kubectl create namespace argocd
kubectl apply -n argocd -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1beta1
kind: ArgoCD
metadata:
  name: example
spec: {}
EOF

The operator exposes health probes on port 8081 (/healthz, /readyz) and Prometheus metrics on port 8080 (/metrics).

Using Chainguard Images for Argo CD Components

By default, the operator deploys every ArgoCD instance with upstream images: Argo CD from quay.io/argoproj/argocd, Dex from ghcr.io/dexidp/dex, Redis and HAProxy from public.ecr.aws/docker/library, and the UI extension installer from quay.io/argoprojlabs/argocd-extension-installer. To have the operator deploy Chainguard images instead, set the following environment variables on the manager container of the operator Deployment:

ARGOCD_EXTENSION_IMAGE is the variable name in operator 0.18.0. Newer upstream releases rename it to ROLLOUTS_EXTENSION_IMAGE and add PROMOTER_EXTENSION_IMAGE alongside it, so check the variable names for the operator version you run.

The operator uses each value as a complete image reference, so include the tag or digest. Replace the tags in the following example with the versions you want to run:

kubectl -n argocd-operator-system set env deployment/argocd-operator-controller-manager -c manager \
  ARGOCD_IMAGE=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/argocd:latest \
  ARGOCD_DEX_IMAGE=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/dex:latest \
  ARGOCD_REDIS_IMAGE=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/redis:latest \
  ARGOCD_REDIS_HA_IMAGE=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/redis:latest \
  ARGOCD_REDIS_HA_PROXY_IMAGE=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/haproxy:latest \
  ARGOCD_EXTENSION_IMAGE=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/argocd-extension-installer:latest \
  ARGOCD_IMAGE_UPDATER_IMAGE=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/argocd-image-updater:latest

If you install the operator through OLM, set the same variables under spec.config.env of the operator Subscription instead, because OLM reverts direct edits to the Deployment.

These variables only apply when the ArgoCD resource does not set its own image. If spec.image/spec.version (or a component's image/version, such as spec.dex.image or spec.redis.image) is set on the resource, that value takes precedence.

The ArgoCDExport backup job uses quay.io/argoprojlabs/argocd-operator-util, which has no Chainguard equivalent. If you use ArgoCDExport resources, the export job continues to pull that upstream image.

Documentation and Resources

• Argo CD Operator documentation
• argocd-operator on GitHub
• Argo CD documentation

What are Chainguard Containers?

Chainguard's free tier of Starter container images are built with Wolfi, our minimal Linux undistro.

All other Chainguard Containers are built with Chainguard OS, Chainguard's minimal Linux operating system designed to produce container images that meet the requirements of a more secure software supply chain.

The main features of Chainguard Containers include:

• Minimal design, without unnecessary software bloat
• Daily builds to ensure container images are up-to-date with available security patches
• High quality build-time SBOMs attesting to the provenance of all artifacts within the image
• Verifiable signatures provided by Sigstore
• Reproducible builds with Cosign and apko (read more about reproducibility)

For cases where you need container images with shells and package managers to build or debug, most Chainguard Containers come paired with a development, or -dev, variant.

In all other cases, including Chainguard Containers tagged as :latest or with a specific version number, the container images include only an open-source application and its runtime dependencies. These minimal container images typically do not contain a shell or package manager.

Although the -dev container image variants have similar security features as their more minimal versions, they include additional software that is typically not necessary in production environments. We recommend using multi-stage builds to copy artifacts from the -dev variant into a more minimal production image.

Need additional packages?

To improve security, Chainguard Containers include only essential dependencies. Need more packages? Chainguard customers can use Custom Assembly to add packages, either through the Console, chainctl, or API.

To use Custom Assembly in the Chainguard Console: navigate to the image you'd like to customize in your Organization's list of images, and click on the Customize image button at the top of the page.

Learn More

Refer to our Chainguard Containers documentation on Chainguard Academy. Chainguard also offers VMs and Libraries — contact us for access.

Trademarks

This software listing is packaged by Chainguard. The trademarks set forth in this offering are owned by their respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement by such companies.