Back Up Your Argo CD Config Before Upgrading

Here are two methods of backing up your Argo CD configuration, do this before you upgrade or make critical changes

Published on June 19, 2024

2 min read

Argo CD is a wonderful git-ops tool. When performing big changes, like upgrading or converting to an HA deployment, you should first back up your config. We'll build upon the steps outlined in the Disaster Recovery page of their documentation.

Backing Up Using argocd admin

We will use Docker to mount the Argo CD image of the same version of Argo CD we are backing up, mount our .kube folder containing our kubectl config file as a Docker Volume, and run argocd admin export to dump all Argo CD configs to a single YAML file.

bash:Export Argo CD configs using argocd admin export

export $VERSION=2.10.4
sudo docker run -v /home/$USER/.kube:/home/argocd/.kube --rm quay.io/argoproj/argocd:$VERSION argocd admin export > argocd_backup_from_argocd_admin_cli.$(date +%F).yaml
less argocd_backup_from_argocd_admin_cli.$(date +%F).yaml

Backing Up Using kubectl

I haven't personally tested that this exports everything needed, but it might still be useful. The generated backup YAML was ~50KB larger than when using argocd admin export

bash:Export Argo CD configs using kubectl

kubectl get all -n argocd -o yaml > argocd_backup_from_kubectl.$(date +%F).yaml

Troubleshooting

configmaps 'argocd-cm' not found

bash:Error configmaps 'argocd-cm' not found

$ sudo docker run -v /home/corey/.kube:/home/argocd/.kube --rm quay.io/argoproj/argocd:$VERSION argocd admin export > argocd_backup_from_argocd_admin_cli.$(date +%F).yaml
time="2024-06-19T21:39:11Z" level=fatal msg="configmaps \"argocd-cm\" not found"

This is because although you might be using the default argocd namespace on the cluster, you have to specify it in the current context:

bash:Set the namespace of the current Kubernetes context

kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=argocd
Context "dev-aks" modified.

Error loading config file '/home/argocd/.kube/config': open /home/argocd/.kube/config: permission denied

bash:Error loading config file '/home/argocd/.kube/config': open /home/argocd/.kube/config: permission denied

$ sudo docker run -v /home/$USER/.kube:/home/argocd/.kube --rm quay.io/argoproj/argocd:$VERSION argocd admin export > backup_from_argocd_admin.yaml
time="2024-06-19T21:40:24Z" level=fatal msg="error loading config file \"/home/argocd/.kube/config\": open /home/argocd/.kube/config: permission denied"

If your user isn't in a group that grants access to Docker resources, you will need to set more permissive permissions on the Kubernetes config file:

bash:Permit Docker to read your kube config

chmod 664 ~/.kube/config