Skip to content
Bare Metal Kubernetes Homelab

GitOps Automation Model with Ansible and ArgoCD

Automation Model

Section titled “Automation Model”

This repository is designed for maximum automation. Every change should flow through one of two systems:

  • Ansible for node and host configuration
  • ArgoCD for cluster and application manifests

If a change does not fit into those two paths, treat it as an exception and document it.

flowchart TB
  subgraph Git["Git repository"]
    AnsibleRepo["ansible/"]
    InfraRepo["infrastructure/"]
    AppsRepo["apps/"]
  end

  subgraph Hosts["Ubuntu nodes"]
    OS["OS, containerd, kubelet"]
    Kubeadm["kubeadm init/join"]
  end

  subgraph Cluster["Kubernetes cluster"]
    Argo["ArgoCD"]
    AppSets["ApplicationSets"]
    Workloads["Apps + infrastructure"]
  end

  AnsibleRepo -->|"Ansible playbooks"| OS
  OS --> Kubeadm
  Kubeadm --> Argo
  InfraRepo --> AppSets
  AppsRepo --> AppSets
  Argo --> AppSets
  AppSets --> Workloads

Detailed Automation Flow

Section titled “Detailed Automation Flow”
flowchart LR
  subgraph Repo["homelab repo"]
    Inventory["ansible/inventory/hosts.yaml"]
    Vars["ansible/group_vars/all.yaml"]
    Playbooks["ansible/playbooks/*"]
    Roles["ansible/roles/*"]
    Bootstrap["bootstrap/root.yaml"]
    AppSetInfra["bootstrap/templates/infra-appset.yaml"]
    AppSetApps["bootstrap/templates/apps-appset.yaml"]
    InfraDir["infrastructure/*"]
    AppsDir["apps/*"]
  end

  subgraph Hosts["Bare metal nodes"]
    Base["Base OS config"]
    Containerd["containerd"]
    Kubelet["kubelet"]
  end

  subgraph ControlPlane["Control plane"]
    KubeadmInit["kubeadm init"]
    CiliumInstall["cilium install"]
    ArgoCD["ArgoCD"]
  end

  subgraph Cluster["Cluster objects"]
    AppSet1["ApplicationSet: infra"]
    AppSet2["ApplicationSet: apps"]
    InfraApps["infra-* Applications"]
    UserApps["app-* Applications"]
    HelmCharts["Helm chart releases"]
    RawManifests["Raw manifests"]
  end

  Inventory --> Playbooks
  Vars --> Playbooks
  Roles --> Playbooks
  Playbooks --> Base
  Base --> Containerd
  Base --> Kubelet
  Kubelet --> KubeadmInit
  KubeadmInit --> CiliumInstall
  CiliumInstall --> ArgoCD
  Bootstrap --> ArgoCD
  ArgoCD --> AppSet1
  ArgoCD --> AppSet2
  AppSetInfra --> InfraApps
  AppSetApps --> UserApps
  InfraDir --> InfraApps
  AppsDir --> UserApps
  InfraApps --> HelmCharts
  InfraApps --> RawManifests
  UserApps --> RawManifests

What Ansible owns

Section titled “What Ansible owns”

Ansible is the source of truth for host provisioning and OS configuration:

  • Kernel modules and sysctl
  • Container runtime configuration
  • Kubernetes package installation and pinning
  • Storage prerequisites and node services

What ArgoCD owns

Section titled “What ArgoCD owns”

ArgoCD is the source of truth for everything that runs inside the cluster:

  • Infrastructure from infrastructure/
  • Applications from apps/
  • Helm-based components like Longhorn

Automation guardrails

Section titled “Automation guardrails”