Kustomize

Kustomize is the standard build tool for Kubernetes manifest aggregation and patching.

• Install
• Commands
• ArgoCD
• Template kustomization.yaml
• Kubernetes Kustomizations and Configs

Install

curl -s "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/master/hack/install_kustomize.sh"  | bash

Commands

cd to a directory with kustomization.yaml, then run:

kustomize build

If your kustomization.yaml include the helmCharts operator you must specify the --enable-helm switch:

kustomize build --enable-helm

Compare changes to currently loaded manifests in the cluster:

kustomize build --enable-helm | kubectl diff -f -

Apply the yaml manifests:

kustomize build --enable-helm | kubectl apply -f -

Newer versions of kubectl have kustomize built-in, just specify -k to activate

eg.

kubectl diff -k .

but this is weaker than using standalone kustomize but kubectl doesn't use the --enable-helm switch so fails on Kustomizations which pull in Helm charts:

error: accumulating resources: accumulation err='accumulating resources from '../base': '/Users/hari/github/k8s/jenkins/base' must resolve to a file': recursed accumulation of path '/Users/hari/github/k8s/jenkins/base': trouble configuring builtin HelmChartInflationGenerator with config: `
includeCRDs: true
name: jenkins
namespace: jenkins
releaseName: jenkins
repo: https://charts.jenkins.io
valuesFile: values.yaml
version: 4.12.1
`: must specify --enable-helm

ArgoCD

Once you have this working, you should be getting your ArgoCD to automatically apply your Kustomize + Helm manifests.

This makes Helm becomes fully self-healing GitOps.

Template kustomization.yaml

HariSekhon/Kubernetes-configs - kustomization.yaml

Kubernetes Kustomizations and Configs

HariSekhon/Kubernetes-configs repo.

Partial port from private Knowledge Base page 2020+