Argo CD

Argo CD Zero-to-Hero

A five-tier GitOps mastery path — from your first Application to a production platform spanning AKS, EKS and GKE — every lesson hands-on and multi-cloud.

Foundation → Intermediate → Multi-Cloud → Advanced → Specialist ~120 hours 45 of 45 lessons ready CGOA (Certified GitOps Associate) · complements CKA/CKAD and the Azure/AWS/GCP Kubernetes certifications
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A complete, practical path through GitOps with Argo CD, built multi-cloud from the start. Tier 1 begins with the GitOps principles and Argo CD's architecture, installing it on AKS/EKS/GKE, your first Application, sync vs health, and the Kustomize and Helm engines. Tier 2 is real delivery: App-of-Apps, ApplicationSets and every generator, sync policies, waves and hooks, the diff engine, AppProjects, RBAC, SSO and secrets done properly. Tier 3 is the heart of the course — Argo CD end to end on Azure AKS, AWS EKS and Google GKE with each cloud's identity, secret store, registry and ingress, then a single hub managing all three, plus OpenShift/on-prem, Terraform bootstrapping and private clusters. Tier 4 adds Argo Rollouts progressive delivery, traffic management, metrics-driven rollback, observability, scaling, HA/DR and hardening. Tier 5 is production reality: the troubleshooting playbooks, Argo CD vs Flux, environment promotion, compliance, migration — and a multi-cloud capstone.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Explain and apply the GitOps model — declarative, versioned, pulled and continuously reconciled — and know exactly where CI stops and Argo CD starts
  • Install, secure and operate Argo CD on Azure AKS, AWS EKS and Google GKE, including each cloud's identity, secret store, registry and ingress
  • Deliver at scale with App-of-Apps, ApplicationSets, sync waves/hooks, AppProjects, RBAC and enterprise SSO
  • Handle secrets correctly in GitOps with Sealed Secrets, External Secrets Operator, SOPS or Vault backed by Key Vault / Secrets Manager / Secret Manager
  • Run one Argo CD hub against a multi-cloud AKS + EKS + GKE fleet, including private clusters and Terraform-to-GitOps bootstrapping
  • Ship safely with Argo Rollouts canary/blue-green, traffic management and metrics-driven automatic rollback
  • Diagnose any Argo CD failure — OutOfSync, Degraded, ComparisonError, sync and hook failures — and run the platform with HA, DR, observability and compliance

Prerequisites

  • Working Kubernetes basics: pods, deployments, services, namespaces and kubectl (the Kubernetes Zero-to-Hero course covers this)
  • Comfort with Git and YAML; a cluster for the labs — kind/minikube is enough for most lessons, and a free-tier AKS/EKS/GKE cluster for the cloud-specific tiers

Who it’s for

Kubernetes users who deploy with kubectl/Helm and want real GitOps, platform and DevOps engineers running clusters on more than one cloud, SREs owning delivery and rollback, and anyone preparing for the CGOA certification or a platform-engineering role.

Curriculum

Tier 1 · Foundation

GitOps from first principles, then Argo CD itself: the architecture and reconcile loop, installing it (on AKS, EKS and GKE), your first Application, sync status vs health, connecting private repos and registries, the UI/CLI, and the two manifest engines you will actually use — Kustomize and Helm.

  1. 1 GitOps From First Principles: Declarative, Versioned, Pulled & Continuously Reconciled 41 min read
  2. 2 Argo CD Architecture: API Server, Repo Server, Application Controller, Redis & Dex 38 min read
  3. 3 Installing Argo CD: Manifests vs Helm, non-HA vs HA, First Login & the CLI — on AKS, EKS and GKE 36 min read
  4. 4 Your First Application: The Application CRD, source, destination & Your First Sync 37 min read
  5. 5 Sync Status & Health Assessment: Synced/OutOfSync, Healthy/Degraded/Progressing 39 min read
  6. 6 Connecting Repositories: HTTPS, SSH, Private Repos, Credential Templates & Helm/OCI Registries 41 min read
  7. 7 The UI, the CLI & Declarative vs Imperative: Managing Argo CD the GitOps Way 37 min read
  8. 8 Kustomize with Argo CD: Bases, Overlays, Patches & Per-Environment Config 33 min read
  9. 9 Helm with Argo CD: Charts, values.yaml, valueFiles, Parameters & the Rendering Model 34 min read

Tier 2 · Intermediate

Real deployments at scale: App-of-Apps, ApplicationSets and every generator, sync policies (automated/self-heal/prune), sync waves and hooks, the diff engine and drift, AppProjects for multi-tenancy, RBAC, SSO against Entra ID/AWS/Google, secrets done properly (Sealed Secrets, ESO, SOPS, Vault + the cloud secret stores), and multi-cluster registration.

  1. 10 The App-of-Apps Pattern: Bootstrapping a Whole Cluster From One Application 44 min read
  2. 11 ApplicationSets In Depth: List, Cluster, Git, Matrix, Merge, SCM & Pull-Request Generators 47 min read
  3. 12 Sync Policies: Automated Sync, Self-Heal, Prune & Sync Options 44 min read
  4. 13 Sync Waves & Resource Hooks: Ordering, PreSync/Sync/PostSync/SyncFail & Jobs 42 min read
  5. 14 Diffing & Drift: ignoreDifferences, Server-Side Diff, Mutating Webhooks & Perpetual OutOfSync 41 min read
  6. 15 AppProjects: Multi-Tenancy Boundaries, Allowed Repos, Clusters, Namespaces & Resource Whitelists 42 min read
  7. 16 Argo CD RBAC: Built-in Roles, policy.csv, Local Accounts, Project Roles & Tokens 41 min read
  8. 17 SSO for Argo CD: OIDC & Dex — Microsoft Entra ID, AWS (Cognito/IAM IdC) & Google Workspace 45 min read
  9. 18 Secrets in GitOps: Sealed Secrets, External Secrets Operator, SOPS & Vault — with Key Vault, Secrets Manager & Secret Manager 49 min read
  10. 19 Multi-Cluster Argo CD: Registering Clusters, Cluster Secrets & Targeting Deployments 47 min read

Tier 3 · Multi-Cloud

The heart of this course: Argo CD end-to-end on each managed Kubernetes — AKS (Entra ID, Key Vault, ACR, Workload Identity, App Gateway), EKS (IRSA/Pod Identity, Secrets Manager, ECR, ALB) and GKE (Workload Identity, Secret Manager, Artifact Registry, GCLB) — then one hub managing an AKS+EKS+GKE fleet, OpenShift/Rancher/on-prem, Terraform→Argo CD bootstrapping, private-cluster connectivity, and cross-registry image automation.

  1. 20 Argo CD on Azure AKS: Entra ID SSO, Key Vault Secrets, ACR, Workload Identity & Application Gateway Ingress 48 min read
  2. 21 Argo CD on AWS EKS: IRSA & Pod Identity, Secrets Manager, ECR & the AWS Load Balancer Controller 45 min read
  3. 22 Argo CD on Google GKE: Workload Identity, Secret Manager, Artifact Registry & GCLB Ingress 46 min read
  4. 23 One Hub, Many Clouds: A Single Argo CD Managing an AKS + EKS + GKE Fleet 53 min read
  5. 24 Argo CD Beyond the Big Three: OpenShift (GitOps Operator), Rancher & On-Prem/Edge Clusters 50 min read
  6. 25 Cluster Bootstrapping: Terraform Creates the Cluster, Argo CD Takes Over — on AKS, EKS & GKE 47 min read
  7. 26 Private Clusters & Network Connectivity: Reaching Private API Servers Across AKS, EKS & GKE 48 min read
  8. 27 Argo CD Image Updater: Automated Image Promotion from ACR, ECR & Artifact Registry 50 min read

Tier 4 · Advanced

Progressive delivery and running Argo CD like a platform: Argo Rollouts canary and blue-green, traffic management across NGINX/Istio/ALB/Gateway API, metrics-driven promotion and automatic rollback, notifications, observability and SLOs, sharding and monorepo performance, HA and disaster recovery, config-management plugins, and hardening.

  1. 28 Argo Rollouts: Canary & Blue-Green Progressive Delivery 49 min read
  2. 29 Rollouts Traffic Management: NGINX, Istio, ALB & the Gateway API 49 min read
  3. 30 Metrics-Driven Promotion: AnalysisTemplates, Prometheus Queries & Automatic Rollback 50 min read
  4. 31 Argo CD Notifications: Triggers, Templates, Slack, Teams & Webhooks 39 min read
  5. 32 Observing Argo CD: Metrics, Prometheus, Grafana Dashboards & SLOs 45 min read
  6. 33 Scaling Argo CD: Controller Sharding, Repo-Server Tuning & Monorepo Performance 52 min read
  7. 34 Argo CD HA & Disaster Recovery: Backup, Restore & Rebuilding the Control Plane 53 min read
  8. 35 Config Management Plugins (CMP): Extending Argo CD for jsonnet, cdk8s & Custom Tooling 50 min read
  9. 36 Hardening Argo CD: Least Privilege, Network Policy, Image Verification & Admission Control 52 min read

Tier 5 · Specialist

Production reality and the job: the full troubleshooting playbooks (OutOfSync/Degraded/Unknown, sync failures, pruning disasters), Argo CD vs Flux, environment promotion without drift, monorepo vs polyrepo, compliance/audit with OPA/Kyverno, migrating off Jenkins/helm-install — capped with a multi-cloud platform capstone and interview/CGOA prep.

  1. 37 Troubleshooting Argo CD Part 1 — OutOfSync, Degraded, Unknown & ComparisonError 54 min read
  2. 38 Troubleshooting Argo CD Part 2 — Sync Failures, Hooks, Pruning Disasters & Stuck Operations 59 min read
  3. 39 Argo CD vs Flux: An Honest Comparison (and When to Choose Which) 49 min read
  4. 40 Environment Promotion: Dev → Staging → Prod the GitOps Way (PR-Based, No Drift) 55 min read
  5. 41 Monorepo vs Polyrepo GitOps: Structuring Your Repos for 100 Apps and 40 Teams 53 min read
  6. 42 Compliance & Audit in GitOps: Who Deployed What, Drift Evidence & Policy with OPA/Kyverno 52 min read
  7. 43 Migrating to GitOps: From Jenkins/`helm install` Pipelines to Argo CD Without a Big Bang 55 min read
  8. 44 Capstone: A Production Multi-Cloud GitOps Platform Across AKS, EKS & GKE 58 min read
  9. 45 Argo CD & GitOps Interview Prep: Questions, Scenarios & the CGOA Certification 56 min read
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