ArgoCD initial access and authentication¶
The process of gaining initial access to ArgoCD typically begins after installing the application into a Kubernetes cluster using the official manifests.^[400-devops-04-ci-cd-pipelines-devops-ci-github-action-argocd-app-config-readme.md]
Installation¶
To deploy ArgoCD, a dedicated namespace must be created, followed by applying the installation manifests.^[400-devops-04-ci-cd-pipelines-devops-ci-github-action-argocd-app-config-readme.md]
[kubectl](<./kubectl.md>) create namespace [ArgoCD](<./argocd.md>)
[kubectl](<./kubectl.md>) apply -n [ArgoCD](<./argocd.md>) -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml
Accessing the UI and CLI¶
Once installed, the ArgoCD UI is accessed locally by port-forwarding the argocd-server service.^[400-devops-04-ci-cd-pipelines-devops-ci-github-action-argocd-app-config-readme.md]
[kubectl](<./kubectl.md>) port-forward svc/argocd-server 8080:443 -n [ArgoCD](<./argocd.md>)
Initial Admin Credentials¶
By default, ArgoCD creates an initial admin user.^[400-devops-04-ci-cd-pipelines-devops-ci-github-action-argocd-app-config-readme.md] The password for this user is stored in a Kubernetes Secret named argocd-initial-admin-secret^[400-devops-04-ci-cd-pipelines-devops-ci-github-action-argocd-app-config-readme.md].
To retrieve the password, the following command is used to decode the secret data^[400-devops-04-ci-cd-pipelines-devops-ci-github-action-argocd-app-config-readme.md]:
[kubectl](<./kubectl.md>) -n [ArgoCD](<./argocd.md>) get secret argocd-initial-admin-secret -o jsonpath="{.data.password}" | base64 --decode && echo
After logging in with these credentials, security best practices dictate that the initial password be changed or deleted.^[400-devops-04-ci-cd-pipelines-devops-ci-github-action-argocd-app-config-readme.md]