From eda47468cf837c0d58b5fa1053a65496c60bd31b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paul Buetow Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2026 23:59:00 +0200 Subject: Update content for html --- about/resources.html | 210 ++-- ...5-10-02-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-7.html | 40 +- ...5-12-07-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-8.html | 40 +- .../DRAFT-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-X.html | 1227 ++++++++++++++++++++ gemfeed/atom.xml | 82 +- index.html | 2 +- uptime-stats.html | 2 +- 7 files changed, 1435 insertions(+), 168 deletions(-) create mode 100644 gemfeed/DRAFT-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-X.html diff --git a/about/resources.html b/about/resources.html index 3bada362..30c8db37 100644 --- a/about/resources.html +++ b/about/resources.html @@ -50,112 +50,112 @@ In random order:

Polished Ruby Programming; Jeremy Evans; Packt Publishing
DevOps And Site Reliability Engineering Handbook; Stephen Fleming; Audible
100 Go Mistakes and How to Avoid Them; Teiva Harsanyi; Manning Publications
Raku Recipes; J.J. Merelo; Apress
Perl New Features; Joshua McAdams, brian d foy; Perl School
97 things every SRE should know; Emil Stolarsky, Jaime Woo; O'Reilly
The Pragmatic Programmer; David Thomas; Addison-Wesley
The Go Programming Language; Alan A. A. Donovan; Addison-Wesley Professional
Systems Performance Tuning; Gian-Paolo D. Musumeci and others...; O'Reilly
21st Century C: C Tips from the New School; Ben Klemens; O'Reilly
The KCNA (Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate) Book; Nigel Poulton
Terraform Cookbook; Mikael Krief; Packt Publishing
The Docker Book; James Turnbull; Kindle
Seeking SRE: Conversations About Running Production Systems at Scale; David N. Blank-Edelman; eBook
Concurrency in Go; Katherine Cox-Buday; O'Reilly
Object-Oriented Programming with ANSI-C; Axel-Tobias Schreiner
Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms; Andrew S. Tanenbaum; Pearson
The Practise of System and Network Administration; Thomas A. Limoncelli, Christina J. Hogan, Strata R. Chalup; Addison-Wesley Professional Pro Git; Scott Chacon, Ben Straub; Apress
Chaos Engineering - System Resiliency in Practice; Casey Rosenthal and Nora Jones; eBook
Effective Java; Joshua Bloch; Addison-Wesley Professional
Kubernetes Cookbook; Sameer Naik, Sébastien Goasguen, Jonathan Michaux; O'Reilly
Site Reliability Engineering; How Google runs production systems; O'Reilly
Data Science at the Command Line; Jeroen Janssens; O'Reilly
Clusterbau mit Linux-HA; Michael Schwartzkopff; O'Reilly
Effective awk programming; Arnold Robbins; O'Reilly
Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good; Fred Herbert; No Starch Press
The Kubernetes Book; Nigel Poulton; Unabridged Audiobook
Funktionale Programmierung; Peter Pepper; Springer
Tmux 2: Productive Mouse-free Development; Brain P. Hogan; The Pragmatic Programmers
DevOps And Site Reliability Engineering Handbook; Stephen Fleming; Audible
Ultimate Go Notebook; Bill Kennedy
The Go Programming Language; Alan A. A. Donovan; Addison-Wesley Professional
DNS and BIND; Cricket Liu; O'Reilly
Modern Perl; Chromatic ; Onyx Neon Press
Think Raku (aka Think Perl 6); Laurent Rosenfeld, Allen B. Downey; O'Reilly
Pro Puppet; James Turnbull, Jeffrey McCune; Apress
Raku Recipes; J.J. Merelo; Apress
Hands-on Infrastructure Monitoring with Prometheus; Joel Bastos, Pedro Araujo; Packt
Learn You Some Erlang for Great Good; Fred Herbert; No Starch Press
The Docker Book; James Turnbull; Kindle
Polished Ruby Programming; Jeremy Evans; Packt Publishing
Developing Games in Java; David Brackeen and others...; New Riders
Higher Order Perl; Mark Dominus; Morgan Kaufmann
97 things every SRE should know; Emil Stolarsky, Jaime Woo; O'Reilly
Ultimate Go Notebook; Bill Kennedy
Programming Ruby 3.3 (5th Edition); Noel Rappin, with Dave Thomas; The Pragmatic Bookshelf
Terraform Cookbook; Mikael Krief; Packt Publishing
Chaos Engineering - System Resiliency in Practice; Casey Rosenthal and Nora Jones; eBook
Go Brain Teasers - Exercise Your Mind; Miki Tebeka; The Pragmatic Programmers
Leanring eBPF; Liz Rice; O'Reilly
Systemprogrammierung in Go; Frank Müller; dpunkt
Data Science at the Command Line; Jeroen Janssens; O'Reilly
C++ Programming Language; Bjarne Stroustrup;
Systems Performance Tuning; Gian-Paolo D. Musumeci and others...; O'Reilly
Java ist auch eine Insel; Christian Ullenboom;
The Pragmatic Programmer; David Thomas; Addison-Wesley
21st Century C: C Tips from the New School; Ben Klemens; O'Reilly
Funktionale Programmierung; Peter Pepper; Springer
Programming Perl aka "The Camel Book"; Tom Christiansen, brian d foy, Larry Wall & Jon Orwant; O'Reilly
The DevOps Handbook; Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, John Willis; Audible
Site Reliability Engineering; How Google runs production systems; O'Reilly
Hands-on Infrastructure Monitoring with Prometheus; Joel Bastos, Pedro Araujo; Packt
Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!; Miran Lipovaca; No Starch Press
Clusterbau mit Linux-HA; Michael Schwartzkopff; O'Reilly
The Kubernetes Book; Nigel Poulton; Unabridged Audiobook
100 Go Mistakes and How to Avoid Them; Teiva Harsanyi; Manning Publications
Amazon Web Services in Action; Michael Wittig and Andreas Wittig; Manning Publications
Perl New Features; Joshua McAdams, brian d foy; Perl School
The KCNA (Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate) Book; Nigel Poulton
Systemprogrammierung in Go; Frank Müller; dpunkt
Effective awk programming; Arnold Robbins; O'Reilly
Object-Oriented Programming with ANSI-C; Axel-Tobias Schreiner
Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms; Andrew S. Tanenbaum; Pearson
Raku Fundamentals; Moritz Lenz; Apress
Java ist auch eine Insel; Christian Ullenboom;
Leanring eBPF; Liz Rice; O'Reilly
Modern Perl; Chromatic ; Onyx Neon Press
Amazon Web Services in Action; Michael Wittig and Andreas Wittig; Manning Publications
Kubernetes Cookbook; Sameer Naik, Sébastien Goasguen, Jonathan Michaux; O'Reilly
The DevOps Handbook; Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick Debois, John Willis; Audible
Higher Order Perl; Mark Dominus; Morgan Kaufmann
Programming Perl aka "The Camel Book"; Tom Christiansen, brian d foy, Larry Wall & Jon Orwant; O'Reilly
The Practise of System and Network Administration; Thomas A. Limoncelli, Christina J. Hogan, Strata R. Chalup; Addison-Wesley Professional Pro Git; Scott Chacon, Ben Straub; Apress
Concurrency in Go; Katherine Cox-Buday; O'Reilly
DNS and BIND; Cricket Liu; O'Reilly
Think Raku (aka Think Perl 6); Laurent Rosenfeld, Allen B. Downey; O'Reilly

Technical references

I didn't read them from the beginning to the end, but I am using them to look up things. The books are in random order:

Understanding the Linux Kernel; Daniel P. Bovet, Marco Cesati; O'Reilly
BPF Performance Tools - Linux System and Application Observability, Brendan Gregg; Addison Wesley
Go: Design Patterns for Real-World Projects; Mat Ryer; Packt
Algorithms; Robert Sedgewick, Kevin Wayne; Addison Wesley
Relayd and Httpd Mastery; Michael W Lucas
BPF Performance Tools - Linux System and Application Observability, Brendan Gregg; Addison Wesley
Groovy Kurz & Gut; Joerg Staudemeier; O'Reilly
Understanding the Linux Kernel; Daniel P. Bovet, Marco Cesati; O'Reilly
The Linux Programming Interface; Michael Kerrisk; No Starch Press
Implementing Service Level Objectives; Alex Hidalgo; O'Reilly
Go: Design Patterns for Real-World Projects; Mat Ryer; Packt

Self-development and soft-skills books

In random order:

Ultralearning; Anna Laurent; Self-published via Amazon
The Obstacle Is The Way; Ryan Holiday; Profile Books Ltd
Atomic Habits; James Clear; Random House Business
Coders at Work - Reflections on the craft of programming, Peter Seibel and Mitchell Dorian et al., Audiobook
The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People; Stephen R. Covey; Simon & Schuster UK
Ultralearning; Scott Young; Thorsons
Getting Things Done; David Allen
Eat That Frog!; Brian Tracy; Hodder Paperbacks
Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track; Will Larson; Audiobook
Search Inside Yourself - The Unexpected path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace); Chade-Meng Tan, Daniel Goleman, Jon Kabat-Zinn; HarperOne
The Software Engineer's Guidebook: Navigating senior, tech lead, and staff engineer positions at tech companies and startups; Gergely Orosz; Audiobook
Stop starting, start finishing; Arne Roock; Lean-Kanban University
Digital Minimalism; Cal Newport; Portofolio Penguin
97 Things Every Engineering Manager Should Know; Camille Fournier; Audiobook
Coders at Work - Reflections on the craft of programming, Peter Seibel and Mitchell Dorian et al., Audiobook
101 Essays that change the way you think; Brianna Wiest; Audiobook
Soft Skills; John Sommez; Manning Publications
Atomic Habits; James Clear; Random House Business
Ultralearning; Anna Laurent; Self-published via Amazon
The Off Switch; Mark Cropley; Virgin Books (RE-READ 1ST TIME)
The Good Enough Job; Simone Stolzoff; Ebury Edge
Deep Work; Cal Newport; Piatkus
Never Split the Difference; Chris Voss, Tahl Raz; Random House Business
The Power of Now; Eckhard Tolle; Yellow Kite
Psycho-Cybernetics; Maxwell Maltz; Perigee Books
101 Essays that change the way you think; Brianna Wiest; Audiobook
Digital Minimalism; Cal Newport; Portofolio Penguin
The Software Engineer's Guidebook: Navigating senior, tech lead, and staff engineer positions at tech companies and startups; Gergely Orosz; Audiobook
Influence without Authority; A. Cohen, D. Bradford; Wiley
Never Split the Difference; Chris Voss, Tahl Raz; Random House Business
The Off Switch; Mark Cropley; Virgin Books (RE-READ 1ST TIME)
Getting Things Done; David Allen
Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track; Will Larson; Audiobook
Eat That Frog; Brian Tracy
The Courage to Be Disliked; Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga; Audiobook
So Good They Can't Ignore You; Cal Newport; Business Plus
Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction; Susan Blackmore; Oxford Uiversity Press
Meditation for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman, Audiobook
Who Moved My Cheese?; Dr. Spencer Johnson; Vermilion
The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide; John Sonmez; Unabridged Audiobook
The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People; Stephen R. Covey; Simon & Schuster UK
The Daily Stoic; Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman; Profile Books
Solve for Happy; Mo Gawdat (RE-READ 1ST TIME)
Search Inside Yourself - The Unexpected path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace); Chade-Meng Tan, Daniel Goleman, Jon Kabat-Zinn; HarperOne
The Phoenix Project - A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping your Business Win; Gene Kim and Kevin Behr; Trade Select
Who Moved My Cheese?; Dr. Spencer Johnson; Vermilion
The Obstacle Is The Way; Ryan Holiday; Profile Books Ltd
Eat That Frog; Brian Tracy
The Bullet Journal Method; Ryder Carroll; Fourth Estate
Soft Skills; John Sommez; Manning Publications
Meditation for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman, Audiobook
Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction; Susan Blackmore; Oxford Uiversity Press
The Joy of Missing Out; Christina Crook; New Society Publishers
So Good They Can't Ignore You; Cal Newport; Business Plus
The Phoenix Project - A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping your Business Win; Gene Kim and Kevin Behr; Trade Select
Buddah and Einstein walk into a Bar; Guy Joseph Ale, Claire Bloom; Blackstone Publishing
Stop starting, start finishing; Arne Roock; Lean-Kanban University
Time Management for System Administrators; Thomas A. Limoncelli; O'Reilly
The Joy of Missing Out; Christina Crook; New Society Publishers
The Courage to Be Disliked; Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga; Audiobook
Psycho-Cybernetics; Maxwell Maltz; Perigee Books
Solve for Happy; Mo Gawdat (RE-READ 1ST TIME)
Deep Work; Cal Newport; Piatkus
Slow Productivity; Cal Newport; Penguin Random House
Ultralearning; Scott Young; Thorsons
97 Things Every Engineering Manager Should Know; Camille Fournier; Audiobook

Here are notes of mine for some of the books

@@ -164,31 +164,31 @@ Some of these were in-person with exams; others were online learning lectures only. In random order:

Ultimate Go Programming; Bill Kennedy; O'Reilly Online
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs; Harold Abelson and more...;
Apache Tomcat Best Practises; 3-day on-site training
F5 Loadbalancers Training; 2-day on-site training; F5, Inc.
Cloud Operations on AWS - Learn how to configure, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot your AWS environments; 3-day online live training with labs; Amazon
Protocol buffers; O'Reilly Online
Linux Security and Isolation APIs Training; Michael Kerrisk; 3-day on-site training
Algorithms Video Lectures; Robert Sedgewick; O'Reilly Online
Scripting Vim; Damian Conway; O'Reilly Online
AWS Immersion Day; Amazon; 1-day interactive online training
Cloud Operations on AWS - Learn how to configure, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot your AWS environments; 3-day online live training with labs; Amazon
MySQL Deep Dive Workshop; 2-day on-site training
F5 Loadbalancers Training; 2-day on-site training; F5, Inc.
Linux Security and Isolation APIs Training; Michael Kerrisk; 3-day on-site training
Developing IaC with Terraform (with Live Lessons); O'Reilly Online
Protocol buffers; O'Reilly Online
The Well-Grounded Rubyist Video Edition; David. A. Black; O'Reilly Online
Functional programming lecture; Remote University of Hagen
Red Hat Certified System Administrator; Course + certification (Although I had the option, I decided not to take the next course as it is more effective to self learn what I need)
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs; Harold Abelson and more...;
Ultimate Go Programming; Bill Kennedy; O'Reilly Online
AWS Immersion Day; Amazon; 1-day interactive online training
Algorithms Video Lectures; Robert Sedgewick; O'Reilly Online
The Ultimate Kubernetes Bootcamp; School of Devops; O'Reilly Online
Functional programming lecture; Remote University of Hagen
The Well-Grounded Rubyist Video Edition; David. A. Black; O'Reilly Online
Apache Tomcat Best Practises; 3-day on-site training

Technical guides

These are not whole books, but guides (smaller or larger) which I found very useful. in random order:

How CPUs work at https://cpu.land
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
Raku Guide at https://raku.guide
How CPUs work at https://cpu.land

Podcasts

@@ -197,61 +197,61 @@ In random order:

The ProdCast (Google SRE Podcast)
BSD Now [BSD]
Pratical AI
Wednesday Wisdom
Dev Interrupted
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
Hidden Brain
Cup o' Go [Golang]
Fork Around And Find Out
The Changelog Podcast(s)
Fallthrough [Golang]
Pratical AI
Modern Mentor
Maintainable
Cup o' Go [Golang]
Hidden Brain
The Changelog Podcast(s)
The ProdCast (Google SRE Podcast)
BSD Now [BSD]
Backend Banter
Fallthrough [Golang]
The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast
Wednesday Wisdom
Dev Interrupted
Modern Mentor

Podcasts I liked

I liked them but am not listening to them anymore. The podcasts have either "finished" (no more episodes) or I stopped listening to them due to time constraints or a shift in my interests.

CRE: Chaosradio Express [german]
Ship It (predecessor of Fork Around And Find Out)
FLOSS weekly
Modern Mentor
Go Time (predecessor of fallthrough)
Modern Mentor
CRE: Chaosradio Express [german]
Java Pub House
FLOSS weekly
Ship It (predecessor of Fork Around And Find Out)

Newsletters I like

This is a mix of tech and non-tech newsletters I am subscribed to. In random order:

byteSizeGo
Andreas Brandhorst Newsletter (Sci-Fi author)
Ruby Weekly
The Pragmatic Engineer
The Valuable Dev
Changelog News
Golang Weekly
Andreas Brandhorst Newsletter (Sci-Fi author)
Register Spill
The Valuable Dev
Monospace Mentor
byteSizeGo
The Imperfectionist
Golang Weekly
VK Newsletter
Monospace Mentor
Applied Go Weekly Newsletter
Ruby Weekly
The Pragmatic Engineer
The Imperfectionist

Magazines I like(d)

This is a mix of tech I like(d). I may not be a current subscriber, but now and then, I buy an issue. In random order:

freeX (not published anymore)
Linux Magazine
Linux User
Linux Magazine
LWN (online only)
freeX (not published anymore)

Formal education

diff --git a/gemfeed/2025-10-02-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-7.html b/gemfeed/2025-10-02-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-7.html index 70a8e44f..e17fdf7d 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2025-10-02-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-7.html +++ b/gemfeed/2025-10-02-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-7.html @@ -33,6 +33,7 @@

f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 7: k3s and first pod deployments
⇢ Introduction
⇢ Important Note: GitOps Migration
⇢ Updating
⇢ Installing k3s
⇢ ⇢ Generating K3S_TOKEN and starting the first k3s node

https://k3s.io

Important Note: GitOps Migration

**Note:** After publishing this blog post, the f3s cluster was migrated from imperative Helm deployments to declarative GitOps using ArgoCD. The Kubernetes manifests and Helm charts in the repository have been reorganized for ArgoCD-based continuous deployment.

**To view the exact manifests and charts as they existed when this blog post was written** (before the ArgoCD migration), check out the pre-ArgoCD revision:

$ git clone https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+$ cd conf
+$ git checkout 15a86f3  # Last commit before ArgoCD migration
+$ cd f3s/
+

**Current master branch** contains the ArgoCD-managed versions with:

- Application manifests organized under argocd-apps/{monitoring,services,infra,test}/

- Additional resources under */manifests/ directories (e.g., prometheus/manifests/)

- Justfiles updated to trigger ArgoCD syncs instead of direct Helm commands

The deployment concepts and architecture remain the same—only the deployment method changed from imperative (helm install/upgrade) to declarative (GitOps with ArgoCD). For details on the GitOps migration, see Part X of this series.

Updating

Before proceeding, I bring all systems involved up-to-date. On all three Rocky Linux 9 boxes r0, r1, and r2:

codeberg.org/snonux/conf/f3s

**Note:** After publishing this blog post, the f3s cluster was migrated to ArgoCD GitOps. The Kubernetes manifests and Helm charts in the repository have been reorganized for declarative deployment. To view the exact manifests and charts as they existed when this blog post was written (before ArgoCD migration), check out the pre-ArgoCD revision:

$ git clone https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
-$ cd conf
-$ git checkout 15a86f3  # Last commit before ArgoCD migration
-$ cd f3s/
-

The current master branch contains the ArgoCD-managed versions with manifests organized under argocd-apps/ and */manifests/ directories.

Within that repo, the examples/conf/f3s/registry/ directory contains the Helm chart, a Justfile, and a detailed README. Here's the condensed walkthrough I used to roll out the registry with Helm.

Within that repo, the f3s/registry/ directory contains the Helm chart, a Justfile, and a detailed README. Here's the condensed walkthrough I used to roll out the registry with Helm.

Prepare the NFS-backed storage

f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 8: Observability
⇢ Introduction
⇢ Important Note: GitOps Migration
⇢ Persistent storage recap
⇢ The monitoring namespace
⇢ Installing Prometheus and Grafana

All manifests for the f3s stack live in my configuration repository:

codeberg.org/snonux/conf/f3s

Important Note: GitOps Migration

**Note:** After publishing this blog post, the f3s cluster was migrated from imperative Helm deployments to declarative GitOps using ArgoCD. The Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, and Justfiles in the repository have been reorganized for ArgoCD-based continuous deployment.

**To view the exact configuration as it existed when this blog post was written** (before the ArgoCD migration), check out the pre-ArgoCD revision:

$ git clone https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+$ cd conf
+$ git checkout 15a86f3  # Last commit before ArgoCD migration
+$ cd f3s/prometheus/
+

**Current master branch** contains the ArgoCD-managed versions with:

- Application manifests organized under argocd-apps/{monitoring,services,infra,test}/

- Resources organized under prometheus/manifests/, loki/, etc.

- Justfiles updated to trigger ArgoCD syncs instead of direct Helm commands

Persistent storage recap

Installing Prometheus and Grafana

**Note:** After publishing this blog post, the f3s cluster was migrated to ArgoCD GitOps. The Kubernetes manifests, Helm charts, and Justfiles in the repository have been reorganized for declarative deployment. To view the exact configuration as it existed when this blog post was written (before ArgoCD migration), check out the pre-ArgoCD revision:

$ git clone https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
-$ cd conf
-$ git checkout 15a86f3  # Last commit before ArgoCD migration
-$ cd f3s/prometheus/
-

The current master branch contains the ArgoCD-managed versions with Application manifests under argocd-apps/ and resources organized under prometheus/manifests/, loki/, etc. The Justfiles have been updated to trigger ArgoCD syncs instead of direct Helm commands.

Prometheus and Grafana are deployed together using the kube-prometheus-stack Helm chart from the Prometheus community. This chart bundles Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, and various exporters (Node Exporter, Kube State Metrics) into a single deployment. Ill explain what each component does in detail later when we look at the running pods.

Prerequisites

f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part X: GitOps with ArgoCD

DRAFT - Not yet published

This is part X of the f3s series for my self-hosting demands in a home lab. f3s? The "f" stands for FreeBSD, and the "3s" stands for k3s, the Kubernetes distribution I use on FreeBSD-based physical machines.

2024-11-17 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 1: Setting the stage

2024-12-03 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 2: Hardware and base installation

2025-02-01 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 3: Protecting from power cuts

2025-04-05 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 4: Rocky Linux Bhyve VMs

2025-05-11 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 5: WireGuard mesh network

2025-07-14 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 6: Storage

2025-10-02 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 7: k3s and first pod deployments

2025-12-07 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 8: Observability

f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part X: GitOps with ArgoCD
⇢ Introduction
⇢ What is GitOps?
⇢ What is ArgoCD?
⇢ Why ArgoCD for f3s?
⇢ Deploying ArgoCD
⇢ ⇢ Prerequisites
⇢ ⇢ Installing ArgoCD
⇢ ⇢ Accessing ArgoCD
⇢ ArgoCD Application Structure
⇢ Repository Organization
⇢ Migration Strategy: Incremental, One App at a Time
⇢ ⇢ Migration Phases
⇢ Example Migration: Miniflux
⇢ ⇢ Before: Imperative Helm deployment
⇢ ⇢ After: Declarative GitOps with ArgoCD
⇢ ⇢ Migration procedure
⇢ Complex Migration: Prometheus with Multi-Source
⇢ ⇢ Sync Waves and Hooks
⇢ Migration Results
⇢ Benefits Realized
⇢ ⇢ 1. Single Source of Truth
⇢ ⇢ 2. Automatic Synchronization
⇢ ⇢ 3. Drift Detection and Self-Healing
⇢ ⇢ 4. Easy Rollbacks
⇢ ⇢ 5. Disaster Recovery
⇢ ⇢ 6. Documentation by Default
⇢ ⇢ 7. Safe Experimentation
⇢ Challenges and Solutions
⇢ ⇢ Challenge 1: Helm Release Adoption
⇢ ⇢ Challenge 2: Persistent Volumes Not Tracked by Helm
⇢ ⇢ Challenge 3: Secrets Management
⇢ ⇢ Challenge 4: Grafana Not Reloading Datasources
⇢ ⇢ Challenge 5: Prometheus With Multiple Sources
⇢ ⇢ Challenge 6: Sync Ordering for Prometheus
⇢ Justfile Evolution
⇢ Lessons Learned
⇢ Future Improvements
⇢ ⇢ 1. External Secrets Operator
⇢ ⇢ 2. ApplicationSet for Similar Apps
⇢ ⇢ 3. App-of-Apps Pattern
⇢ ⇢ 4. ArgoCD Image Updater
⇢ Summary

Introduction

In the previous posts, I deployed applications to the k3s cluster using Helm charts and Justfiles—running just install or just upgrade to imperatively push changes to the cluster. While this approach works, it has several drawbacks:

**No single source of truth**: The cluster state depends on which commands were run and when
**Manual synchronization**: Every change requires manually running commands
**Drift detection is hard**: No easy way to know if cluster state matches the desired configuration
**Rollback complexity**: Rolling back changes means re-running old Helm commands
**No audit trail**: Hard to track who changed what and when

This blog post covers the migration from imperative Helm deployments to declarative GitOps using ArgoCD. After this migration, the Git repository becomes the single source of truth, and ArgoCD automatically ensures the cluster matches what's defined in Git.

What is GitOps?

GitOps is an operational framework that applies DevOps best practices—like version control, collaboration, and CI/CD—to infrastructure automation. The core idea is simple: the entire desired state of your infrastructure is stored in Git, and automated processes ensure the actual state matches the desired state.

Key principles:

**Declarative**: The system's desired state is described declaratively (YAML manifests, Helm values)
**Versioned and immutable**: All changes are committed to Git, providing a complete history
**Pulled automatically**: An agent in the cluster continuously pulls the desired state from Git
**Continuously reconciled**: The agent ensures the actual state matches the desired state, automatically correcting drift

For Kubernetes, this means:

1. All manifests, Helm charts, and configuration live in a Git repository

2. A tool (ArgoCD in our case) watches the repository

3. When changes are pushed to Git, ArgoCD automatically applies them to the cluster

4. If someone manually changes resources in the cluster, ArgoCD detects the drift and can automatically revert it

What is ArgoCD?

ArgoCD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. It's implemented as a Kubernetes controller that continuously monitors running applications and compares the current, live state against the desired target state defined in Git.

ArgoCD Documentation

Key features:

**Automated deployment**: Monitors Git repositories and automatically syncs changes to the cluster
**Application definitions**: Defines applications as CRDs (Custom Resource Definitions)
**Health assessment**: Understands Kubernetes resources and can determine if an application is healthy
**Web UI and CLI**: Provides both a web interface and command-line tool for managing applications
**RBAC**: Role-based access control for team collaboration
**SSO integration**: Can integrate with existing authentication systems
**Multi-cluster support**: Can manage applications across multiple Kubernetes clusters
**Sync waves and hooks**: Control the order of resource deployment and run jobs at specific lifecycle points

Why ArgoCD for f3s?

For a home lab cluster, ArgoCD provides several benefits:

**Disaster recovery**: If the entire cluster is lost, I can rebuild it by:

1. Bootstrapping a new k3s cluster

2. Installing ArgoCD

3. Pointing ArgoCD at the Git repository

4. All applications automatically deploy to the desired state

**Experimentation safety**: I can test changes in a separate Git branch without affecting the running cluster. Once validated, merge to master and ArgoCD applies the changes.

**Drift detection**: If I manually change something in the cluster (for debugging), ArgoCD shows the difference and can automatically revert it.

**Declarative configuration**: The Git repository documents the entire cluster configuration. No need to remember which just commands to run or in which order.

**Automatic sync**: Push to Git, and changes deploy automatically. No need to SSH to a workstation and run Helm commands.

Deploying ArgoCD

ArgoCD itself runs as a set of Kubernetes resources in the cluster. The official installation method uses kubectl apply, which is fitting—ArgoCD manages everything else via GitOps, but ArgoCD itself needs a bootstrap.

Prerequisites

Create the cicd namespace where ArgoCD will run:

$ kubectl create namespace cicd
+namespace/cicd created
+

Installing ArgoCD

The ArgoCD installation lives in the configuration repository:

codeberg.org/snonux/conf/f3s/argocd

I deployed ArgoCD using Helm instead of the raw manifests. This provides easier upgrades and customization. The installation is managed via a Justfile:

$ cd conf/f3s/argocd
+$ just install
+helm repo add argo https://argoproj.github.io/argo-helm
+helm repo update
+helm install argocd argo/argo-cd \
+    --namespace cicd \
+    --version 7.7.12 \
+    -f values.yaml
+NAME: argocd
+LAST DEPLOYED: ...
+NAMESPACE: cicd
+STATUS: deployed
+

The values.yaml file configures several important aspects:

**Persistent storage for the repo-server**: ArgoCD clones Git repositories to cache them locally. I configured a persistent volume so the cache survives pod restarts:

+repoServer:
+  volumes:
+    - name: repo-cache
+      persistentVolumeClaim:
+        claimName: argocd-repo-cache-pvc
+  volumeMounts:
+    - name: repo-cache
+      mountPath: /tmp
+

**Admin password preservation**: By default, the admin password is auto-generated and stored in a secret. To ensure it persists across Helm upgrades:

+configs:
+  secret:
+    createSecret: false
+

I manually created the secret before installation:

$ ARGOCD_ADMIN_PASSWORD=$(pwgen -s 32 1)
+$ BCRYPT_HASH=$(htpasswd -nbBC 10 "" "$ARGOCD_ADMIN_PASSWORD" | tr -d ':\n' | sed 's/$2y/$2a/')
+$ kubectl create secret generic argocd-secret \
+    --from-literal=admin.password="$BCRYPT_HASH" \
+    -n cicd
+$ echo "ArgoCD admin password: $ARGOCD_ADMIN_PASSWORD"
+

**Server configuration**: Enabled insecure mode since TLS is handled by the OpenBSD edge relays:

+server:
+  insecure: true
+

Accessing ArgoCD

After deployment, ArgoCD runs several pods in the cicd namespace:

$ kubectl get pods -n cicd
+NAME                                                READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
+argocd-application-controller-0                     1/1     Running   0          45d
+argocd-applicationset-controller-66d6b9b8f4-vhm9k   1/1     Running   0          45d
+argocd-dex-server-7fb556b7dd-xjr2l                  1/1     Running   0          45d
+argocd-notifications-controller-6d8dd4c5f5-b8vwl    1/1     Running   0          45d
+argocd-redis-77b8d6c6d4-mz9hg                       1/1     Running   0          45d
+argocd-repo-server-5f98f77b97-8xtcq                 1/1     Running   0          45d
+argocd-server-6b9c4b4f8d-kxw7p                      1/1     Running   0          45d
+

I created an ingress to expose the ArgoCD web UI:

+apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
+kind: Ingress
+metadata:
+  name: argocd-server-ingress
+  namespace: cicd
+  annotations:
+    spec.ingressClassName: traefik
+    traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.entrypoints: web
+spec:
+  rules:
+    - host: argocd.f3s.buetow.org
+      http:
+        paths:
+          - path: /
+            pathType: Prefix
+            backend:
+              service:
+                name: argocd-server
+                port:
+                  number: 80
+

Following the same pattern as other services, the OpenBSD edge relays terminate TLS and forward traffic through WireGuard to the cluster. ArgoCD is now accessible at:

ArgoCD Web UI

The ArgoCD CLI can also be used for operations:

$ argocd login argocd.f3s.buetow.org
+$ argocd app list
+

ArgoCD Application Structure

ArgoCD uses a CRD called Application to define what should be deployed. Each application specifies:

**Source**: Where the manifests live (Git repo, Helm chart repository, or both)
**Destination**: Which cluster and namespace to deploy to
**Sync policy**: Whether to automatically sync changes

Here's a simple example for the miniflux application:

+apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
+kind: Application
+metadata:
+  name: miniflux
+  namespace: cicd
+  finalizers:
+    - resources-finalizer.argocd.argoproj.io
+spec:
+  project: default
+  source:
+    repoURL: https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+    targetRevision: master
+    path: f3s/miniflux/helm-chart
+  destination:
+    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
+    namespace: services
+  syncPolicy:
+    automated:
+      prune: true
+      selfHeal: true
+    syncOptions:
+      - CreateNamespace=false
+    retry:
+      limit: 3
+      backoff:
+        duration: 5s
+        factor: 2
+        maxDuration: 1m
+

Key fields:

source.path: Points to the Helm chart directory in Git
destination.namespace: Where to deploy the application
syncPolicy.automated.prune: Delete resources that are removed from Git
syncPolicy.automated.selfHeal: Automatically revert manual changes in the cluster
finalizers: Ensures ArgoCD deletes all resources when the Application is deleted

Repository Organization

I reorganized the configuration repository to support GitOps:

+/home/paul/git/conf/f3s/
+├── argocd-apps/               # ArgoCD Application manifests (organized by namespace)
+│   ├── README.md              # Documentation of structure
+│   ├── monitoring/            # Observability stack (6 apps)
+│   │   ├── alloy.yaml
+│   │   ├── grafana-ingress.yaml
+│   │   ├── loki.yaml
+│   │   ├── prometheus.yaml
+│   │   ├── pushgateway.yaml
+│   │   └── tempo.yaml
+│   ├── services/              # User-facing applications (13 apps)
+│   │   ├── anki-sync-server.yaml
+│   │   ├── audiobookshelf.yaml
+│   │   ├── filebrowser.yaml
+│   │   ├── immich.yaml
+│   │   ├── keybr.yaml
+│   │   ├── kobo-sync-server.yaml
+│   │   ├── miniflux.yaml
+│   │   ├── opodsync.yaml
+│   │   ├── radicale.yaml
+│   │   ├── syncthing.yaml
+│   │   ├── tracing-demo.yaml
+│   │   ├── wallabag.yaml
+│   │   └── webdav.yaml
+│   ├── infra/                 # Infrastructure services (1 app)
+│   │   └── registry.yaml
+│   └── test/                  # Test/example applications (1 app)
+│       └── example-apache-volume-claim.yaml
+├── miniflux/                  # Application directories (unchanged)
+│   ├── helm-chart/
+│   │   ├── Chart.yaml
+│   │   ├── values.yaml
+│   │   └── templates/
+│   └── Justfile               # Updated for ArgoCD
+├── prometheus/
+│   ├── manifests/             # NEW: Additional manifests
+│   │   ├── persistent-volumes.yaml
+│   │   ├── grafana-restart-hook.yaml
+│   │   ├── freebsd-recording-rules.yaml
+│   │   └── ...
+│   └── Justfile               # Updated for ArgoCD
+└── ...
+

The application directories (miniflux, prometheus, etc.) remained mostly unchanged—ArgoCD references the same Helm charts. The main additions:

1. **argocd-apps/**: Application manifests organized by Kubernetes namespace for better clarity

- monitoring/: 6 observability applications

- services/: 13 user-facing applications

- infra/: 1 infrastructure application (registry)

- test/: 1 test application

2. ***/manifests/**: Additional Kubernetes manifests for complex apps (like Prometheus)

3. **Justfiles updated**: Changed from helm install/upgrade to argocd app sync

This organization makes it easy to apply all applications in a specific namespace or manage them independently.

Migration Strategy: Incremental, One App at a Time

Rather than attempting a "big bang" migration of all 21 applications at once, I migrated them incrementally:

1. **Start with a simple app**: Validate the pattern with a low-risk application

2. **Migrate in waves**: Group similar applications and migrate together

3. **Validate thoroughly**: Ensure each app is healthy before moving to the next

4. **Learn and iterate**: Apply lessons from earlier migrations to later ones

This approach reduced risk and allowed me to refine the migration process.

Migration Phases

**Phase 1: Simple services** (13 apps)

miniflux, freshrss, wallabag
anki-sync-server, kobo-sync-server, opodsync
radicale, syncthing, audiobookshelf
filebrowser, keybr, webdav
example-apache, example-apache-volume-claim

These apps have straightforward Helm charts with no complex dependencies. Pattern established:

1. Create Application manifest in argocd-apps/

2. Apply with kubectl apply -f argocd-apps/<app>.yaml

3. Verify sync status: argocd app get <app>

4. Update Justfile to use ArgoCD commands

**Phase 2: Infrastructure apps** (3 apps)

registry (Docker image registry)
pushgateway (Prometheus metrics ingestion)
immich (photo management with complex dependencies)

**Phase 3: Monitoring stack** (4 apps)

tempo (distributed tracing)
loki (log aggregation)
alloy (log collection)
prometheus (metrics and monitoring)

**Phase 4: Monitoring addons** (1 app)

grafana-ingress (separate ingress for Grafana)

Example Migration: Miniflux

Let me walk through the migration of miniflux as a concrete example.

Before: Imperative Helm deployment

Original Justfile:

NAMESPACE := "services"
+APP_NAME := "miniflux"
+
+install:
+    kubectl apply -f helm-chart/persistent-volumes.yaml
+    helm install {{APP_NAME}} ./helm-chart --namespace {{NAMESPACE}}
+
+upgrade:
+    helm upgrade {{APP_NAME}} ./helm-chart --namespace {{NAMESPACE}}
+
+uninstall:
+    helm uninstall {{APP_NAME}} --namespace {{NAMESPACE}}
+    kubectl delete -f helm-chart/persistent-volumes.yaml
+
+status:
+    @kubectl get all -n {{NAMESPACE}} -l app={{APP_NAME}}
+

Workflow:

1. Make changes to helm-chart/

2. Run just upgrade

3. Helm pushes changes to cluster

After: Declarative GitOps with ArgoCD

Created argocd-apps/services/miniflux.yaml:

+apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
+kind: Application
+metadata:
+  name: miniflux
+  namespace: cicd
+  finalizers:
+    - resources-finalizer.argocd.argoproj.io
+spec:
+  project: default
+  source:
+    repoURL: https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+    targetRevision: master
+    path: f3s/miniflux/helm-chart
+  destination:
+    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
+    namespace: services
+  syncPolicy:
+    automated:
+      prune: true
+      selfHeal: true
+    syncOptions:
+      - CreateNamespace=false
+    retry:
+      limit: 3
+      backoff:
+        duration: 5s
+        factor: 2
+        maxDuration: 1m
+

Updated Justfile:

NAMESPACE := "services"
+APP_NAME := "miniflux"
+
+status:
+    @echo "=== Pods ==="
+    @kubectl get pods -n {{NAMESPACE}} -l app={{APP_NAME}}
+    @echo ""
+    @echo "=== Services ==="
+    @kubectl get svc -n {{NAMESPACE}} -l app={{APP_NAME}}
+    @echo ""
+    @echo "=== ArgoCD Status ==="
+    @kubectl get application {{APP_NAME}} -n cicd -o jsonpath='Sync: {.status.sync.status}, Health: {.status.health.status}' 2>/dev/null && echo ""
+
+sync:
+    @echo "Triggering ArgoCD sync..."
+    @kubectl annotate application {{APP_NAME}} -n cicd argocd.argoproj.io/refresh=normal --overwrite
+    @sleep 2
+    @kubectl get application {{APP_NAME}} -n cicd -o jsonpath='Sync: {.status.sync.status}, Health: {.status.health.status}' && echo ""
+
+argocd-status:
+    argocd app get {{APP_NAME}} --core
+
+logs:
+    kubectl logs -n {{NAMESPACE}} -l app={{APP_NAME}} --tail=100 -f
+

New workflow:

1. Make changes to helm-chart/

2. Commit and push to Git

3. ArgoCD automatically detects and syncs changes

4. (Optional) Run just sync to force immediate sync

Migration procedure

1. **Backup current state**:

$ helm get values miniflux -n services > /tmp/miniflux-backup-values.yaml
+$ kubectl get all,ingress -n services -o yaml > /tmp/miniflux-backup.yaml
+

2. **Create Application manifest**:

$ kubectl apply -f argocd-apps/services/miniflux.yaml
+application.argoproj.io/miniflux created
+

3. **Verify ArgoCD adopted the resources**:

$ argocd app get miniflux
+Name:               miniflux
+Project:            default
+Server:             https://kubernetes.default.svc
+Namespace:          services
+URL:                https://argocd.f3s.buetow.org/applications/miniflux
+Repo:               https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+Target:             master
+Path:               f3s/miniflux/helm-chart
+SyncWindow:         Sync Allowed
+Sync Policy:        Automated (Prune)
+Sync Status:        Synced to master (4e3c216)
+Health Status:      Healthy
+

4. **Monitor for issues**:

$ kubectl get pods -n services -l app=miniflux -w
+NAME                                READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
+miniflux-postgres-556444cb8d-xvv2p  1/1     Running   0          54d
+miniflux-server-85d7c64664-stmt9    1/1     Running   0          54d
+

5. **Test the application**:

$ curl -I https://flux.f3s.buetow.org
+HTTP/2 200
+

6. **Update Justfile** and commit changes

Total time: 10 minutes. Zero downtime.

Complex Migration: Prometheus with Multi-Source

The Prometheus migration was more complex because it combines:

Upstream Helm chart (kube-prometheus-stack)
Custom manifests (PersistentVolumes, recording rules, dashboards)
Sync hooks (PostSync job to restart Grafana)

ArgoCD supports "multi-source" Applications that combine multiple sources:

+apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
+kind: Application
+metadata:
+  name: prometheus
+  namespace: cicd
+  finalizers:
+    - resources-finalizer.argocd.argoproj.io
+spec:
+  project: default
+  sources:
+    # Source 1: Upstream Helm chart from prometheus-community
+    - repoURL: https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
+      chart: kube-prometheus-stack
+      targetRevision: 55.5.0
+      helm:
+        releaseName: prometheus
+        valuesObject:
+          # Full Prometheus configuration embedded here
+          kubeEtcd:
+            enabled: true
+            endpoints:
+              - 192.168.2.120
+              - 192.168.2.121
+              - 192.168.2.122
+          # ... (hundreds of lines of configuration)
+
+    # Source 2: Additional manifests from Git repository
+    - repoURL: https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+      targetRevision: master
+      path: f3s/prometheus/manifests
+
+  destination:
+    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
+    namespace: monitoring
+
+  syncPolicy:
+    automated:
+      prune: false  # Manual pruning for safety on complex stack
+      selfHeal: true
+    syncOptions:
+      - CreateNamespace=false
+      - ServerSideApply=true
+    retry:
+      limit: 3
+      backoff:
+        duration: 10s
+        factor: 2
+        maxDuration: 3m
+

The prometheus/manifests/ directory contains:

+f3s/prometheus/manifests/
+├── persistent-volumes.yaml              # Sync wave 0
+├── additional-scrape-configs-secret.yaml # Sync wave 1
+├── grafana-datasources-configmap.yaml   # Sync wave 1
+├── freebsd-recording-rules.yaml         # Sync wave 3
+├── openbsd-recording-rules.yaml         # Sync wave 3
+├── zfs-recording-rules.yaml             # Sync wave 3
+├── epimetheus-dashboard.yaml            # Sync wave 4
+├── zfs-dashboards.yaml                  # Sync wave 4
+├── grafana-restart-hook.yaml            # Sync wave 10 (PostSync)
+└── grafana-restart-rbac.yaml            # Sync wave 0
+

Sync Waves and Hooks

ArgoCD allows controlling the order of resource deployment using sync waves (the argocd.argoproj.io/sync-wave annotation):

**Wave 0**: Infrastructure (PersistentVolumes, RBAC)
**Wave 1**: Configuration (Secrets, ConfigMaps)
**Wave 3**: Recording rules (PrometheusRule CRDs)
**Wave 4**: Dashboards (ConfigMaps with grafana_dashboard: '1' label)
**Wave 10**: PostSync hooks (Jobs that run after everything else)

The Grafana restart hook ensures Grafana reloads datasources after they're updated:

+apiVersion: batch/v1
+kind: Job
+metadata:
+  name: grafana-restart-hook
+  namespace: monitoring
+  annotations:
+    argocd.argoproj.io/hook: PostSync
+    argocd.argoproj.io/hook-delete-policy: BeforeHookCreation
+    argocd.argoproj.io/sync-wave: "10"
+spec:
+  template:
+    spec:
+      serviceAccountName: grafana-restart-sa
+      restartPolicy: OnFailure
+      containers:
+        - name: kubectl
+          image: bitnami/kubectl:latest
+          command:
+            - /bin/sh
+            - -c
+            - |
+              kubectl wait --for=condition=available --timeout=300s deployment/prometheus-grafana -n monitoring || true
+              kubectl delete pod -n monitoring -l app.kubernetes.io/name=grafana --ignore-not-found=true
+  backoffLimit: 2
+

This replaces the manual step in the old Justfile that required running kubectl delete pod after every upgrade.

Migration Results

After migrating all 21 applications to ArgoCD:

$ argocd app list
+NAME                      CLUSTER                         NAMESPACE    PROJECT  STATUS  HEALTH   SYNCPOLICY
+alloy                     https://kubernetes.default.svc  monitoring   default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+anki-sync-server          https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+audiobookshelf            https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+example-apache            https://kubernetes.default.svc  test         default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+example-apache-volume-... https://kubernetes.default.svc  test         default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+filebrowser               https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+freshrss                  https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+grafana-ingress           https://kubernetes.default.svc  monitoring   default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+immich                    https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+keybr                     https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+kobo-sync-server          https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+loki                      https://kubernetes.default.svc  monitoring   default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+miniflux                  https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+opodsync                  https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+prometheus                https://kubernetes.default.svc  monitoring   default  Synced  Healthy  Auto
+pushgateway               https://kubernetes.default.svc  monitoring   default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+radicale                  https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+registry                  https://kubernetes.default.svc  infra        default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+syncthing                 https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+tempo                     https://kubernetes.default.svc  monitoring   default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+wallabag                  https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+webdav                    https://kubernetes.default.svc  services     default  Synced  Healthy  Auto-Prune
+

All 21 applications: **Synced** and **Healthy**.

ArgoCD Web UI:

Benefits Realized

1. Single Source of Truth

The Git repository at https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf now contains the complete cluster configuration. Anyone can clone it and see exactly what's deployed:

$ git clone https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+$ cd conf/f3s
+$ ls argocd-apps/
+alloy.yaml  anki-sync-server.yaml  audiobookshelf.yaml  ...
+

2. Automatic Synchronization

Push to Git, and changes deploy automatically:

$ cd conf/f3s/miniflux/helm-chart
+$ vim values.yaml  # Change replica count from 1 to 2
+$ git add values.yaml
+$ git commit -m "Scale miniflux to 2 replicas"
+$ git push
+# ArgoCD detects change within 3 minutes and syncs automatically
+

No need to SSH to a workstation, pull the repo, and run just upgrade.

3. Drift Detection and Self-Healing

If someone manually changes a resource in the cluster, ArgoCD detects it:

$ kubectl scale deployment miniflux-server -n services --replicas=3
+deployment.apps/miniflux-server scaled
+
+# ArgoCD detects drift within 3 minutes
+$ argocd app get miniflux
+...
+Sync Status:        OutOfSync from master (4e3c216)
+

With selfHeal: true, ArgoCD automatically reverts the change back to 2 replicas (the value in Git).

4. Easy Rollbacks

To rollback a change:

$ git revert HEAD
+$ git push
+# ArgoCD automatically rolls back to the previous state
+

Or rollback to a specific commit:

$ argocd app rollback miniflux <revision-id>
+

5. Disaster Recovery

If the entire cluster is destroyed, recovery is straightforward:

1. Bootstrap a new k3s cluster

2. Create namespaces

3. Install ArgoCD

4. Apply all Application manifests:

$ kubectl apply -f argocd-apps/
+

5. ArgoCD deploys all 21 applications to their desired state

Total recovery time: ~30 minutes (mostly waiting for pods to pull images and start).

6. Documentation by Default

The Application manifests serve as documentation:

Which Helm chart version is deployed? → Check targetRevision
What custom values are configured? → Check valuesObject
Which namespace does this deploy to? → Check destination.namespace
Is auto-sync enabled? → Check syncPolicy.automated

No more guessing or checking helm list output.

7. Safe Experimentation

Create a feature branch, make changes, and preview them:

$ git checkout -b test-prometheus-upgrade
+$ vim argocd-apps/prometheus.yaml  # Bump chart version
+$ git commit -am "Test Prometheus 56.0.0"
+$ git push origin test-prometheus-upgrade
+
+# Temporarily point ArgoCD at the feature branch
+$ kubectl patch application prometheus -n cicd \
+    --type merge \
+    -p '{"spec":{"source":{"targetRevision":"test-prometheus-upgrade"}}}'
+
+# Verify changes in ArgoCD Web UI
+# If good: merge to master
+# If bad: revert the patch
+

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge 1: Helm Release Adoption

When creating an Application for an existing Helm release, ArgoCD needs to "adopt" the resources. This failed initially with errors like:

+The Helm operation failed with an error: release miniflux failed, and has been uninstalled due to atomic being set: timed out waiting for the condition
+

**Solution**: For existing Helm releases, I first ensured the Application manifest matched the current Helm values exactly. ArgoCD then recognized the resources were already in the desired state and adopted them without re-deploying.

Challenge 2: Persistent Volumes Not Tracked by Helm

PersistentVolumes are cluster-scoped resources, not namespace-scoped. Many of my Helm charts created PVs using kubectl apply -f persistent-volumes.yaml outside of Helm.

**Solution**: For simple apps, I moved the PV definitions into the Helm chart templates. For complex apps (like Prometheus), I used the multi-source pattern with PVs in the manifests/ directory with sync wave 0.

Challenge 3: Secrets Management

ArgoCD stores Application manifests in Git, but secrets shouldn't be committed in plaintext.

**Solution (current)**: Secrets are created manually with kubectl create secret and referenced by the Helm charts. The secrets themselves aren't managed by ArgoCD.

**Future enhancement**: Migrate to External Secrets Operator (ESO) to manage secrets declaratively while storing the actual secrets in a separate backend (Kubernetes secrets in a separate namespace, or eventually Vault).

Challenge 4: Grafana Not Reloading Datasources

After updating the Grafana datasources ConfigMap, Grafana wouldn't detect the changes until pods were manually deleted.

**Solution**: Created a PostSync hook that automatically restarts Grafana pods after every ArgoCD sync. This runs as a Kubernetes Job in sync wave 10, ensuring it executes after all other resources are deployed.

Challenge 5: Prometheus With Multiple Sources

Prometheus needed both the upstream Helm chart and custom manifests (recording rules, dashboards, PVs).

**Solution**: Used ArgoCD's multi-source feature to combine:

Helm chart from prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
Additional manifests from codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git at path f3s/prometheus/manifests

This keeps the upstream chart cleanly separated from custom configuration.

Challenge 6: Sync Ordering for Prometheus

Prometheus resources have dependencies:

PVs before PVCs
Secrets before Prometheus Operator
PrometheusRule CRDs before Prometheus Operator can process them
Grafana must be running before the restart hook executes

**Solution**: Added sync wave annotations to all resources in prometheus/manifests/:

Wave 0: PVs, RBAC
Wave 1: Secrets, ConfigMaps
Wave 3: PrometheusRule CRDs (recording rules)
Wave 4: Dashboard ConfigMaps
Wave 10: PostSync hook (Grafana restart)

ArgoCD deploys resources in wave order, ensuring correct sequencing.

Justfile Evolution

The Justfiles evolved from deployment tools to utility scripts:

**Before (Helm deployment)**:

install:
+    helm install miniflux ./helm-chart -n services
+
+upgrade:
+    helm upgrade miniflux ./helm-chart -n services
+
+uninstall:
+    helm uninstall miniflux -n services
+

**After (ArgoCD utilities)**:

status:
+    @kubectl get pods -n services -l app=miniflux
+    @kubectl get application miniflux -n cicd -o jsonpath='Sync: {.status.sync.status}, Health: {.status.health.status}'
+
+sync:
+    @kubectl annotate application miniflux -n cicd argocd.argoproj.io/refresh=normal --overwrite
+
+argocd-status:
+    argocd app get miniflux --core
+
+logs:
+    kubectl logs -n services -l app=miniflux --tail=100 -f
+

The Justfiles now provide:

status: Quick health check
sync: Force immediate ArgoCD sync (instead of waiting 3 minutes)
argocd-status: Detailed ArgoCD application status
logs: Tail application logs
Application-specific utilities (e.g., port-forward, restart)

Lessons Learned

1. **Incremental migration is safer than big-bang**: Migrating one app at a time allowed me to validate the pattern and fix issues before they affected all apps.

2. **Start with simple apps**: The first migration (simple services) established the basic pattern. Complex apps (Prometheus) came later after the pattern was proven.

3. **Sync waves are essential for complex apps**: Without sync waves, resources deployed in random order and caused failures. Proper ordering eliminated all deployment issues.

4. **Multi-source is powerful**: Combining upstream Helm charts with custom manifests keeps configuration clean and maintainable.

5. **PostSync hooks replace manual steps**: The Grafana restart hook eliminated a manual step that was easy to forget.

6. **Documentation in Git is better than tribal knowledge**: The Application manifests document exactly what's deployed and how. No more "let me check my shell history to remember how I deployed this."

7. **Self-healing prevents configuration drift**: Multiple times I've manually tweaked something for debugging, forgotten about it, and ArgoCD automatically reverted it back to the desired state.

8. **ArgoCD Web UI is invaluable**: Seeing the resource tree, sync status, and health status at a glance is much better than running multiple kubectl commands.

Future Improvements

1. External Secrets Operator

Currently, secrets are manually created with kubectl create secret. This works but isn't declarative. Plan:

Deploy External Secrets Operator (ESO)
Store actual secrets in a Kubernetes Secret in a separate secrets namespace
Create ExternalSecret CRDs that reference the backend secrets
ArgoCD manages the ExternalSecret CRDs, ESO creates the actual Secrets

This makes secrets declarative while keeping them out of Git.

2. ApplicationSet for Similar Apps

Many apps have nearly identical Application manifests (miniflux, freshrss, wallabag, etc.). ArgoCD ApplicationSets can generate multiple Applications from a template:

+apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
+kind: ApplicationSet
+metadata:
+  name: simple-services
+  namespace: cicd
+spec:
+  generators:
+    - list:
+        elements:
+          - app: miniflux
+          - app: freshrss
+          - app: wallabag
+  template:
+    metadata:
+      name: '{{app}}'
+    spec:
+      project: default
+      source:
+        repoURL: https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+        targetRevision: master
+        path: 'f3s/{{app}}/helm-chart'
+      destination:
+        server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
+        namespace: services
+      syncPolicy:
+        automated:
+          prune: true
+          selfHeal: true
+

One ApplicationSet could replace 10+ individual Application manifests.

3. App-of-Apps Pattern

Currently, all Application manifests are applied manually with kubectl apply -f argocd-apps/ -R. An alternative is the "app-of-apps" pattern:

Create a root Application that deploys all other Applications. With the namespace-organized structure, this could be done per-namespace or for the entire cluster:

+apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
+kind: Application
+metadata:
+  name: root
+  namespace: cicd
+spec:
+  source:
+    repoURL: https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+    targetRevision: master
+    path: f3s/argocd-apps
+    directory:
+      recurse: true  # Recursively find all manifests in subdirectories
+  destination:
+    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
+    namespace: cicd
+  syncPolicy:
+    automated:
+      prune: true
+      selfHeal: true
+

Or create separate root apps per namespace:

+# root-monitoring.yaml
+apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
+kind: Application
+metadata:
+  name: root-monitoring
+  namespace: cicd
+spec:
+  source:
+    repoURL: https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+    targetRevision: master
+    path: f3s/argocd-apps/monitoring
+  destination:
+    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
+    namespace: cicd
+  syncPolicy:
+    automated:
+      prune: true
+      selfHeal: true
+

Then disaster recovery becomes:

$ kubectl apply -f root-app.yaml
+# Root app deploys all 21 applications automatically
+
+# Or apply by namespace
+$ kubectl apply -f root-monitoring.yaml
+$ kubectl apply -f root-services.yaml
+$ kubectl apply -f root-infra.yaml
+

4. ArgoCD Image Updater

For applications with custom Docker images (like the registry, tracing-demo), ArgoCD Image Updater can automatically update the image tag in Git when a new image is pushed:

+metadata:
+  annotations:
+    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/image-list: |
+      app=registry.f3s.buetow.org/miniflux:~^v
+    argocd-image-updater.argoproj.io/write-back-method: git
+

When a new image registry.f3s.buetow.org/miniflux:v2.1.0 is pushed, Image Updater automatically:

1. Updates the Helm values in Git

2. Commits the change

3. ArgoCD syncs the new image

This creates a fully automated CI/CD pipeline.

Summary

Migrating from imperative Helm deployments to declarative GitOps with ArgoCD transformed how I manage the f3s cluster:

**Before**:

Manual Helm commands for every change
No visibility into cluster state
Difficult to track what changed and when
Disaster recovery required rebuilding from memory/notes

**After**:

Git is the single source of truth
Automatic synchronization of changes
Complete audit trail in Git history
Drift detection and self-healing
Disaster recovery: deploy ArgoCD, apply Application manifests, done
Organized by namespace for clarity

The migration took several days spread over a few weeks, migrating one application at a time. The result is a more maintainable, reliable, and recoverable cluster.

All 21 applications are now managed via GitOps, with the configuration living in:

codeberg.org/snonux/conf/f3s

The ArgoCD Application manifests are organized by namespace:

codeberg.org/snonux/conf/f3s/argocd-apps

ArgoCD has become an essential part of the f3s infrastructure, and I can't imagine managing the cluster without it.

Other *BSD-related posts:

2025-12-07 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 8: Observability

2025-10-02 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 7: k3s and first pod deployments

2025-07-14 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 6: Storage

2025-05-11 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 5: WireGuard mesh network

2025-04-05 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 4: Rocky Linux Bhyve VMs

2025-02-01 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 3: Protecting from power cuts

2024-12-03 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 2: Hardware and base installation

2024-11-17 f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 1: Setting the stage

2024-04-01 KISS high-availability with OpenBSD

2024-01-13 One reason why I love OpenBSD

2022-10-30 Installing DTail on OpenBSD

2022-07-30 Let's Encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex

2016-04-09 Jails and ZFS with Puppet on FreeBSD

E-Mail your comments to paul@nospam.buetow.org

Back to the main site

- 2026-01-07T23:43:40+02:00 + 2026-01-07T23:57:53+02:00 foo.zone feed To be in the .zone! @@ -2312,6 +2312,7 @@ $ curl -s -G "http://localhost:3200/api/search" \

f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 8: Observability
⇢ Introduction
⇢ Important Note: GitOps Migration
⇢ Persistent storage recap
⇢ The monitoring namespace
⇢ Installing Prometheus and Grafana

All manifests for the f3s stack live in my configuration repository:

codeberg.org/snonux/conf/f3s

Important Note: GitOps Migration

**To view the exact configuration as it existed when this blog post was written** (before the ArgoCD migration), check out the pre-ArgoCD revision:

$ git clone https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+$ cd conf
+$ git checkout 15a86f3  # Last commit before ArgoCD migration
+$ cd f3s/prometheus/
+

**Current master branch** contains the ArgoCD-managed versions with:

- Application manifests organized under argocd-apps/{monitoring,services,infra,test}/

- Resources organized under prometheus/manifests/, loki/, etc.

- Justfiles updated to trigger ArgoCD syncs instead of direct Helm commands

Persistent storage recap

Installing Prometheus and Grafana

$ git clone https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
-$ cd conf
-$ git checkout 15a86f3  # Last commit before ArgoCD migration
-$ cd f3s/prometheus/
-

Prerequisites

f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 7: k3s and first pod deployments
⇢ Introduction
⇢ Important Note: GitOps Migration
⇢ Updating
⇢ Installing k3s
⇢ ⇢ Generating K3S_TOKEN and starting the first k3s node

https://k3s.io

Important Note: GitOps Migration

**To view the exact manifests and charts as they existed when this blog post was written** (before the ArgoCD migration), check out the pre-ArgoCD revision:

$ git clone https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
+$ cd conf
+$ git checkout 15a86f3  # Last commit before ArgoCD migration
+$ cd f3s/
+

**Current master branch** contains the ArgoCD-managed versions with:

- Application manifests organized under argocd-apps/{monitoring,services,infra,test}/

- Additional resources under */manifests/ directories (e.g., prometheus/manifests/)

- Justfiles updated to trigger ArgoCD syncs instead of direct Helm commands

Updating

Before proceeding, I bring all systems involved up-to-date. On all three Rocky Linux 9 boxes r0, r1, and r2:

codeberg.org/snonux/conf/f3s

$ git clone https://codeberg.org/snonux/conf.git
-$ cd conf
-$ git checkout 15a86f3  # Last commit before ArgoCD migration
-$ cd f3s/
-

The current master branch contains the ArgoCD-managed versions with manifests organized under argocd-apps/ and */manifests/ directories.

Within that repo, the examples/conf/f3s/registry/ directory contains the Helm chart, a Justfile, and a detailed README. Here's the condensed walkthrough I used to roll out the registry with Helm.

Within that repo, the f3s/registry/ directory contains the Helm chart, a Justfile, and a detailed README. Here's the condensed walkthrough I used to roll out the registry with Helm.

Prepare the NFS-backed storage

Hello!

This site was generated at 2026-01-07T23:43:40+02:00 by Gemtexter

This site was generated at 2026-01-07T23:57:53+02:00 by Gemtexter

Welcome to the foo.zone!

My machine uptime stats

This site was last updated at 2026-01-07T23:43:40+02:00

This site was last updated at 2026-01-07T23:57:53+02:00

The following stats were collected via uptimed on all of my personal computers over many years and the output was generated by guprecords, the global uptime records stats analyser of mine.

Technical references

Self-development and soft-skills books

Technical guides

Podcasts

Podcasts I liked

Newsletters I like

Magazines I like(d)

Formal education

Important Note: GitOps Migration

Updating

Prepare the NFS-backed storage

Important Note: GitOps Migration

Persistent storage recap

Installing Prometheus and Grafana

Prerequisites

f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part X: GitOps with ArgoCD

Table of Contents

Introduction

What is GitOps?

What is ArgoCD?

Why ArgoCD for f3s?

Deploying ArgoCD

Prerequisites

Installing ArgoCD

Accessing ArgoCD

ArgoCD Application Structure

Repository Organization

Migration Strategy: Incremental, One App at a Time

Migration Phases

Example Migration: Miniflux

Before: Imperative Helm deployment

After: Declarative GitOps with ArgoCD

Migration procedure

Complex Migration: Prometheus with Multi-Source

Sync Waves and Hooks

Migration Results

Benefits Realized

1. Single Source of Truth

2. Automatic Synchronization

3. Drift Detection and Self-Healing

4. Easy Rollbacks

5. Disaster Recovery

6. Documentation by Default

7. Safe Experimentation

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge 1: Helm Release Adoption

Challenge 2: Persistent Volumes Not Tracked by Helm

Challenge 3: Secrets Management

Challenge 4: Grafana Not Reloading Datasources

Challenge 5: Prometheus With Multiple Sources

Challenge 6: Sync Ordering for Prometheus

Justfile Evolution

Lessons Learned

Future Improvements

1. External Secrets Operator

2. ApplicationSet for Similar Apps

3. App-of-Apps Pattern

4. ArgoCD Image Updater

Summary

Important Note: GitOps Migration

Persistent storage recap

Installing Prometheus and Grafana

Prerequisites

Important Note: GitOps Migration

Updating

Prepare the NFS-backed storage

Hello!

My machine uptime stats