---
title: "Dynamic Environment Per Branch with ArgoCD"
date: 2023-02-25T14:00:00+01:00
draft: false
ShowToc: true
cover:
    image: "cover.png"
    caption: "Dynamic Environment Per Branch with ArgoCD"
    relative: false
    responsiveImages: false
---

[Do you remember?]({{< ref "dont-use-argocd-for-infrastructure" >}})
> And using `helmfile`, I will install `ArgoCD` to my clusters, of course, because it's an awesome tool, without any doubts. But don't manage your infrastructure with it, because it's a part of your infrastructure, and it's a service that you provide to other teams. And I'll talk about in one of the next posts.

Yes, I have written 4 posts where I was almost absuletely negative about `ArgoCD`. But I was talking about infrastructure then. I've got some ideas about how to describe it in a better way, but I think I will write another post about it.

Here, I want to talk about dynamic *(preview)* environments, and I'm going to describe how to create them using my blog as an example. My blog is a pretty easy application. From `Kubernetes` perspective, it's just a container with some static content. And here, you already can notice that static is an opposite of dynamic, so it's the first problem that I'll have to tackle. Turning static content into dynamic. So my blog consists of `markdown` files that are used by `hugo` for a web page generation. 

>Initially I was using `hugo` server to serve the static, but it needs way more resources than `nginx`, so I've decided in favor of `nginx`.

I think that I'll write 2 of 3 posts about it, because it's too much to cover in only one. So here, I'd share how I was preparing my blog to be ready for dynamic environments.

So this is how my workflow looked like before I decided to use dynamic environments. 
- I'm editing `hugo` content while using `hugo server` locally
- Pushing changes to a `non-main` branch
- When everything is ready, I'm uploading pictures to the `minio` storage
- And merging a non-main branch to the main
- Drone-CI is downloading images from `minio` and builds a docker image with the `latest` tag
    - First step is to generate a static content by `hugo`
    - Second step is to put that static content in `nginx` container
- Drone-CI is pushing a new image to my registry
- `Keel` spots that images was updated and pulls it.
- Pod with a static is being recreated, and I have my blog with a new content

What I don't like about it? I can't test something unless it's in `production`. And when I stated to work on adding comments (that is still WIP) I've understood that I'd like to have a real environemnt where I can test everything before firing the main pipeline. Even though having a static development environment would be fine for me, because I'm the only one who do the development here, I don't like the concept of static envs, and I want to be able to work on different posts in the same time. Also, adding a new static environemnt for development purposes it kind of the same amount of work as implementing a solution for deploying them dynamically.

Before I can start deploying them, I have to prepare the application for that. At the first glance changes looks like that:

1. Container must not contain any static content
2. I can't use only latest tags anymore
3. Helm chart has a lot of stuff that's hard-coded
4. CI pipelines must be adjusted
5. Deployment process should be rethought

### Static Container
Static content doesn't play well with dynamic environments. I'd even say, doesn't play at all. So at least I must stop defining hostname for my blog on the build stage. One container should be able to run anywhere with the same result. So I've decided that instead of putting the generated static content in the container with `nginx` on the build stage, I need to ship a container with source code to `Kubernetes`, generate static there and put it to a container with `nginx`. So before my deployment looked like that: 

```YAML
spec:
  containers:
    - image: git.badhouseplants.net/allanger/badhouseplants-net:latest
      imagePullPolicy: Always
      name: badhouseplants-net
```

And it was enough. Now it looks like that: 
```YAML
containers:
      - image: nginx:latest
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        name: nginx
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
          name: http
          protocol: TCP
        resources: {}
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /var/www
          name: public-content
          readOnly: true
        - mountPath: /etc/nginx/conf.d
          name: nginx-config
          readOnly: true
      initContainers:
      - args:
        - --baseURL
        - https://dynamic-charts-dev.badhouseplants.net/
        image: git.badhouseplants.net/allanger/badhouseplants-net:d727a51c0443eb4194bdaebf8ab0e94c0f228b06
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        name: badhouseplants-net
        resources: {}
        terminationMessagePath: /dev/termination-log
        terminationMessagePolicy: File
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /src/static
          name: s3-data
          readOnly: true
        - mountPath: /src/public
          name: public-content
      restartPolicy: Always
      - emptyDir:
          sizeLimit: 1Gi
        name: public-content
      - configMap:
          defaultMode: 420
          name: nginx-config
        name: nginx-config
```

So in the `init` container I'm generating a static content (`--baseUrL` flag is templated with `Helm`). Putting the result to the directory that is mounted as en `emptyDir` volume. And then later I'm mounting this folder to a container with `nginx`. Now I can use my docker image wherever I'd like with the same result It doesn't depend on the hostmame that was fixed during the build.

### No more `latest`
Since I want to have my envs updated on each commit, I can't push only `latest` anymore. So I've decided to use `commit sha` as tags for my images. But it means that I'll have a lot of them now and having `300Mb` of images and other media is becoming very painful. That means that I need to stop putting images directly to container during the build. So instead of using `rclone` to get data from `minio` in a `drone` pipeline, I'm adding another `init` container to my deployment.   
```YAML
      initContainers:
      - args:
        - -c
        - rclone copy -P badhouseplants-public:/badhouseplants-static /static
        command:
        - sh
        env:
        - name: RCLONE_CONFIG
          value: /tmp/rclone.conf
        image: rclone/rclone:latest
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        name: rclone
        resources: {}
        terminationMessagePath: /dev/termination-log
        terminationMessagePolicy: File
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /tmp
          name: rclone-config
          readOnly: true
        - mountPath: /static
          name: s3-data
      volumes:
      - name: rclone-config
        secret:
          defaultMode: 420
          secretName: rclone-config
      - emptyDir:
          sizeLimit: 1Gi
        name: s3-data
``` 

And also, I'm mounting the `s3-data` volume to the `hugo` container, so it can generate my blog with all images. 

### Helm chart should be more flexible

I had to find all the values, that should be different between different environments. And turned out, it's not a lot. 
1. `Istio` `VirtualServices` hostnames (Or Ingress hostname, if you don't use `Istio`)
2. Image tag for the container with the source code
3. And a hostname that should be passed to `hugo` as a base URL
4. Preview environments should display pages that are still `drafts`

So all of that I've put to `values.yaml`
```YAML
istio:
  hosts:
    - badhouseplants.net
  hugo:
  image:
    tag: $COMMIT_SHA
  baseURL: https://badhouseplants.net/
  buildDrafts: false
```

### CI pipelines
Now I need to push a new image on each commit instead of pushing only once the code made it to the main branch, But I also don't want to have something that doesn't work completely in my registry, because I'm self-hosting and ergo I care about storage. So before building and pushing an image, I need to test it,

```YAML
# ---------------------------------------------------------------
# -- My Dockerfile is very small and easy, so it's not a problem 
# --  to duplicate its logic in a job. But I think that 
# --  a better way to implement this, would be to build an image
# --  with Dockerfile, run it, and push, if everything is fine
# ---------------------------------------------------------------
- name: Test a build
  image: klakegg/hugo
  commands:
    - hugo

- name: Build and push the docker image 
  image: plugins/docker
  settings: 
    registry: git.badhouseplants.net
    username: allanger
    password: 
      from_secret: GITEA_TOKEN
    repo: git.badhouseplants.net/allanger/badhouseplants-net
    tags: ${DRONE_COMMIT_SHA}
```

Now if my code is not really broken, I'll have an image for each commit. And when I merge my branch to `main` I can use a tag from the latest preview build on for the production instance. So I'm almost sure that what I've tested before is what a visitor will see.

> But with this kind of setup I've reached docker pull limit pretty fast, so I've decided that I need to have a builder image in my registry too. Of course, it must be an automated action, but right off the bat, I've just pushed the `hugo` image to my registry with the `latest` tag and created an issue to fix it later

```BASH
docker pull klakegg/hugo
docker tag klakegg/hugo git.badhouseplants.net/badhouseplants/hugo-builder
docker push
```

And update my Dockerfile to look like this: 
```DOCKERFILE
FROM git.badhouseplants.net/badhouseplants/hugo-builder
WORKDIR /src
COPY . /src
ENTRYPOINT ["hugo"]
```

### How to deploy

Previously I was using the same helmfile that I use for everything else in my k8s cluster. It was fine for static envs, but when I need to deploy them dynamically, it's not an option anymore. And here `ArgoCD` enters the room. I'm creating an `ApplicationSet` that looks like that: 
```YAML
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: ApplicationSet
metadata:
  name: badhouseplants-net
  namespace: argo-system
spec:
  generators:
    - list:
        elements:
          - name: application # just not to lose a backward compability with the prevouos setup
            app: badhouseplants
            branch: main
            chart_version: 0.3.6
            # Image that is lates now, we'll get there later
            value: |
              hugo:
                image:
                  tag: latest
            # And this is an example of environemnt that I want to be created.
          - name: dynamic-charts
            app: badhouseplants
            branch: dynamic-charts
            chart_version: 0.3.6
            value: |
              istio:
                hosts:
                  - dynamic-charts-dev.badhouseplants.net
              hugo:
                image:
                  tag: 5d742a71731320883db698432303c92aee4d68a1
                baseURL: https://dynamic-charts-dev.badhouseplants.net/
                buildDrafts: true
  template:
    metadata:
      name: "{{ app }}-{{ name }}"
      namespace: argo-system
    spec:
      project: "default"
      source:
        helm:
          valueFiles:
            - values.yaml
          values: "{{ value }}"
        repoURL: https://git.badhouseplants.net/api/packages/allanger/helm
        targetRevision: "{{ chart_version }}"
        chart: badhouseplants-net
      destination:
        server: "https://kubernetes.default.svc"
        namespace: "{{ app }}-{{ name }}"
      syncPolicy:
        syncOptions:
          - CreateNamespace=true

``` 

But storing I don't like an idea of storing something like that in the repository. So in the git I'm putting something like that.
```YAML
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: ApplicationSet
metadata:
  name: badhouseplants-net
  namespace: argo-system
spec:
  generators:
    - list:
        elements:
          - name: application 
            app: badhouseplants
            branch: main
            chart_version: 0.3.6
            value: |
              hugo:
                image:
                  tag: $ARGO_IMAGE_TAG
...
``` 

Since I'm not using latest anymore, I need to add use a new tag every time a new image is pushed. But let's test with the preview env first:
```YAML
# ./kube/template.yaml
...
- name: $ARGO_APP_BRANCH
  app: badhouseplants
  branch: $ARGO_APP_BRANCH
  chart_version: $ARGO_APP_CHART_VERSION
  value: |
    istio:
      hosts:
        - $ARGO_APP_HOSTNAME
    hugo:
      image:
        tag: $ARGO_APP_IMAGE_TAG
      baseURL: https://$ARGO_APP_HOSTNAME/
      buildDrafts: true
...
```

And the logic that I would like to have in my setup would be
- In the git repo there is only application set with the main instance only (production)
- After a new image is pushed to registry, I'm getting this application set as `yaml` and appending new generator to it.
- Applying a new `ApplicationSet` and syncing application using the `argo` CLI tool

First, let's set environment variables:
```
- $ARGO_APP_BRANCH = $DRONE_BRANCH | I don't want to use it directly, in case if I want to stop using Drone
- $ARGO_APP_CHART_VERSION should be taken from the `./chart/Chart.yaml` file. `cat chart/Chart.yaml | yq '.version'`
- $ARGO_APP_HOSTNAME, I want it to look like that: "$DRONE_BRANCH-dev.badhouseplants.net"
- $ARGO_APP_IMAGE_TAG = $DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
```

So after setting all these variables, I can use `envsubst  < ./kube/template.yaml` to create a correct generator. After that I only need to append it to one that is already in k8s. *And not to append if it's already there*.

So my pipeline for a non-main branch looks like that: 
```YAML
- name: Deploy a preview ApplicationSet
  image: alpine/k8s:1.24.10
  when: 
    branch:
      exclude:
        - main
  environment:
    KUBECONFIG_CONTENT:
      from_secret: KUBECONFIG_CONTENT
  commands: 
    - mkdir $HOME/.kube
    - echo $KUBECONFIG_CONTENT | base64 -d > $HOME/.kube/config
    - apk update --no-cache && apk add yq gettext
    - export ARGO_APP_CHART_VERSION=`cat chart/Chart.yaml | yq '.version'`
    - export ARGO_APP_BRANCH=$DRONE_BRANCH
    - export ARGO_APP_HOSTNAME="${DRONE_BRANCH}-dev.badhouseplants.net"
    - export ARGO_APP_IMAGE_TAG=$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
    - kubectl get -f ./kube/applicationset.yaml -o yaml  > /tmp/old_appset.yaml
    - yq "del(.spec.generators[].list.elements[] | select(.name == \"$ARGO_APP_BRANCH\"))" /tmp/old_appset.yaml > /tmp/clean_appset.yaml
    - envsubst  < ./kube/template.yaml > /tmp/elements.yaml
    - yq '.spec.generators[].list.elements += load("/tmp/elements.yaml")' /tmp/clean_appset.yaml > /tmp/new_appset.yaml
    - kubectl apply -f /tmp/new_appset.yaml
```

And even though it's very ugly, I already like it. Because it works.

![Drone pipeline result](/dyn-envs/drone-pipeline.png)

I would like to move the whole pipeline logic out of the `.drone.yml` file. But I will do it later.

After our application set is deployed, we need to update the application the is created by it. I would like to use the `argocd` CLI tool for that. To sync a specific app, we need to use selectors, and I'd like to go with labels. So let's first add labels to our `ApplicationSet`

```YAML
...
  template:
    metadata:
      name: "{{ app }}-{{ name }}"
      namespace: argo-system
      labels:
        branch: "{{ name }}"
        application: "{{ app }}"
...
```

And now let's create a job like that:
```YAML
- name: Sync application 
  image: argoproj/argocd
  environment:
    ARGOCD_SERVER: 
      from_secret: ARGOCD_SERVER
    ARGOCD_AUTH_TOKEN:
      from_secret: ARGOCD_AUTH_TOKEN
  commands:
    - argocd app sync -l app=badhouseplants -l branch=$DRONE_BRANCH
    - argocd app wait -l app=badhouseplants -l branch=$DRONE_BRANCH
```

And the last step would be to remove an application when branch is removed. It could be easy with `Gitlab` because there you can use `environments` and `triggers` for removing branch *(as I remember)* But with `drone` it seems to be harder. Because `drone` won't be triggered by a removed branch. 
Maybe a pull request trigger could be used for that, but I've found another way, which may not be the best, obviously.

I've enabled only `fast-forward` merge to the `main` that that means that after merging a Pull Request the commit will have the same `SHA`. So when merging to the main branch, I can use the commit hash to remove a generator. It also means that if I have one commit deployed to several environments, I will remove more that I want. But I don't think that it will be a problem in my case. If you're not a lonely developer, but a team, you may need to choose something else.

So I've added a new element to `preview` generator: `commit_sha: $ARGO_APP_IMAGE_TAG`, and then this command will do the trick: `yq -i "del(.spec.generators[].list.elements[] | select(.name == \"$ARGO_APP_BRANCH\"))" /tmp/appset.yaml`

I've created a file `./kube/main-template.yaml`, that looks like that:
```YAML
- name: application
  app: badhouseplants
  branch: main
  chart_version: $ARGO_APP_CHART_VERSION
  value: |
    hugo:
      image:
        tag: $ARGO_APP_IMAGE_TAG
```

And a job:
```YAML
- name: Deploy a main ApplicationSet
  image: alpine/k8s:1.24.10
  when: 
    branch:
      - main
  environment:
    KUBECONFIG_CONTENT:
      from_secret: KUBECONFIG_CONTENT
  commands: 
    - mkdir $HOME/.kube
    - echo $KUBECONFIG_CONTENT | base64 -d > $HOME/.kube/config
    - apk update --no-cache && apk add yq gettext
    - export ARGO_APP_CHART_VERSION=`cat chart/Chart.yaml | yq '.version'`
    - export ARGO_APP_BRANCH=$DRONE_BRANCH
    - export ARGO_APP_IMAGE_TAG=$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
    - kubectl get -f ./kube/applicationset.yaml -o yaml  > /tmp/old_appset.yaml
    - yq "del(.spec.generators[].list.elements[] | select(.name == \"$ARGO_APP_BRANCH\"))" /tmp/old_appset.yaml > /tmp/clean_appset1.yaml
    - yq "del(.spec.generators[].list.elements[] | select(.commit_sha == \"$ARGO_APP_IMAGE_TAG\"))" /tmp/clean_appset1.yaml > /tmp/clean_appset.yaml
    - envsubst  < ./kube/main.yaml > /tmp/elements.yaml
    - yq '.spec.generators[].list.elements += load("/tmp/elements.yaml")' /tmp/clean_appset.yaml > /tmp/new_appset.yaml
    - kubectl apply -f /tmp/new_appset.yaml

```

> Also, I've found out that `ArgoCD` won't remove a namespace if it was created by a `SyncPolicy`, so I've added it to the helm chart, and add a new `value` to provide a name.

### And a little bit more

1. Since my storage capacity is a bit limited, I need to care about it. Hence, I can't store all the images there. And I had to come up with a cleaning up solution. Removing images that are older than `X` days, didn't seem to be an option, because in case I'm not pushing to the registry for quite a time, my production image will be gone, and I won't be able to run the blog fast. So I've decided that I only need to store images with tags that still exists in repo as a `commit sha`. If I have a feature branch with 100 commits, I'll have 100 images, but when I squash it before merging, I will be left with only one. So when it's merged to the `main`, I won't have to store 100 images forever. And I've decided to write a script for that.
A `Perl` script. Why Perl? Because I like it and I wanted not to forget it completely. Also, `bash` seems a little bit too primitive for that, compilable languages (`go`, `rust`) seem to be an overkill, `python` I hate. So why not `Perl`? 
The initial plan to create a scheduled job that is getting all commit hashes from git, comparing them to docker tags, and if tag with a non-existent commit is found, it's getting removed.  But t problem is that `Gitea` *(At the time of writing, I am using `Gitea` 1.18.3)* package registry doesn't have an API to list all tags for an image (or I'm too dummy to find it). So I've decided to use `Drone API`. Getting all commits and all drone builds, comparing builds to commits and for non-existent `SHAs` remove images from the registry. But the problem is that drone doesn't return all the builds, only recent (and again, maybe I couldn't find how to do it). So the scheduled job may not work, if I'm being very productive. So I've added a new step to the job. After syncing an `Argo Application` I'm running [this script](https://git.badhouseplants.net/badhouseplants/badhouseplants-net/src/branch/main/scripts/cleanup.pl): 

{{< details "In case you want to read it here:" >}}
```Perl
#!/usr/bin/perl 
    
use strict; 
use warnings; 
# --------------------------------------
# -- Drone variables
# --------------------------------------
my $drone_url="$ENV{'DRONE_SYSTEM_PROTO'}://$ENV{'DRONE_SYSTEM_HOST'}";
my $drone_project=$ENV{'DRONE_REPO'};
my $drone_api="$drone_url/api/repos/$drone_project/builds";
# --------------------------------------
# -- Gitea variables
# --------------------------------------
my $gitea_url=$ENV{'GITEA_URL'} || 'https://git.badhouseplants.net/api/v1';
my $gitea_org=$ENV{'GITEA_ORG'} || 'badhouseplants';
my $gitea_package=$ENV{'GITEA_PACKAGE'} || 'badhouseplants-net';
my $gitea_api="$gitea_url/packages/$gitea_org/container/$gitea_package";
my $gitea_token=$ENV{'GITEA_TOKEN'};
my $gitea_user=$ENV{'GITEA_USER'} || $ENV{'DRONE_COMMIT_AUTHOR'};
# ---------------------------------------
# -- Get recent builds from drone-ci
# ---------------------------------------
my $builds = "curl -X 'GET' $drone_api -H 'accept: application/json' | jq -r '.[].after'";
my @builds_out = `$builds`;
chomp @builds_out;
# ---------------------------------------
# -- Get a list of all commits + 'latest'
# ---------------------------------------
my $commits = "git log --format=format:%H --all";
my @commits_out = `$commits`;
chomp @commits_out;
push @commits_out, 'latest';

# ---------------------------------------
# -- Compare builds to commits 
# -- And remove obsolete imgages from
# --  registry
# ---------------------------------------
foreach my $line (@builds_out)
{
    if ( ! grep( /^$line$/, @commits_out ) ) {
      my $cmd = "curl -X 'DELETE' -s \"$gitea_api/$line\"  -H 'accept: application/json' -u $gitea_user:$gitea_token || true";
      print "Removing ${line}\n\n";
      my $output = `$cmd`;
      print "$output \n";
    } 
}
```
{{< /details >}}

It's far from being perfect, but it works and I like that I was able to finally use `Perl` somewhere

2. I want to have a manifest that I can apply in case of kind of *disaster recovery*. And it means that `ApplicationSet` should contain enough information to deploy a production instance of my blog right off the bat. But I don't want to keep it up-to-date with every new commit hash. So I've decided to keep pushing `latest` to registry but only on `main` builds. So I can use the latest tag in application set, but in the application life-time I'll keep using `SHA` as tags. The only static hard-coded value in the `ApplicationSet` is a version of the `Helm chart`. And I don't know how to automate it yet. But I'm sure that I will do it somehow. 
I know that it's a very common practice to store all `Argo` resource in `git`. But I don't see any sense in storing manifests for temporary environments that can be recreated by clicking a button in `Drone` or by pushing a new commit.

3. Some more static data that I've found later. I've understood that I'm using a badge on the [About page]({{< ref "about" >}}). And it's statically points only to the main branch, that doesn't make a lot of sense on envs built from other branches. But fortunately, *bit ups to devs*, `hugo` can use environment variables for setting up parameters of a site. I've updated the badge, so it looks like that: 
```
[![Build Status](https://drone.badhouseplants.net/api/badges/badhouseplants/badhouseplants-net/status.svg?ref=refs/heads/{{< param GitBranch >}})](https://drone.badhouseplants.net/badhouseplants/badhouseplants-net)
```
[![Build Status](https://drone.badhouseplants.net/api/badges/badhouseplants/badhouseplants-net/status.svg?ref=refs/heads/{{< param GitBranch >}})](https://drone.badhouseplants.net/badhouseplants/badhouseplants-net) 

And then I'm setting an env var `HUGO_PARAMS_GITBRANCH`. And now badge is looking for its branch.

### What's not done yet

1. I'm using `Minio` as a storage for pictures, and currently all pictures (and other files) are stored in one folder regardless of the environment. I would to have something like that. 
- On the first commit to a branch, sync pictures from the main dir to a new one.
- On next commits, if pictures are added, copy them to a new dir only
- When branch is merged, pictures from the branch should be synced to the main dir.

2. Since I don't really have a static content, I can't be 100% sure that content that is generated during the run-time is what I expect to have. So I'd like to add a UI test that is executed after pod with `nginx` is started and is being used as a `startupProbe`. If test is not satisfied by a content, pod is never getting `ready` and traffic will keep going to the older version.

3. A lot of logic that is put to `.drone.yaml` file should be moved out of it. Maybe to scripts, or to `Makefile`. But I don't think it's an important thing for this post, so I've decided not to care about it now. 

## Some kind of conclusion

Even though my application is just a simple blog, I still believe that creating dynamic environments is a great idea that should totally replace static dev'n'stages. And it's not only my blog, I've created dynamic envs for. Two biggest pains *as I think* are `Static content` and `Persistent data` (I think, there are more, but these two are most obvious). I've already shown an example how you can handle the first one, and the second is also a big pain in the ass. In my case this data is the one coming from the `Minio` and I'm not doing anything about it, *but I'll write one more post, when it's solved*, other, in my opinion, more obvious example, are databases. You need it to contain all the data that's required for testing, but you also may want it not to be huge, and it most probably should not contain any sensible personal data. So maybe you could stream a database from the production through some kind of anonymizer, clean it up, so it's not too big. And it doesn't sound easy already. But if I'll have to add something like that to my blog once, I'll try to describe it. 

Thanks,

Oi!

