Is Flux v2 a replacement of Argo Flux

Question

I've set up a Continuous Delivery pipeline with Flux v2 (since Flux v1 is deprecated), and it's working fine. On the other side, I saw that Argo and Flux started a merge by the end of 2019 (please check this link).

I wonder then whether Flux v2 is an evolution of that Argo-Flux merge, or they are two separate GitOps implementation options.

My impression is that Flux v2 is pretty active, so I guess it's a real option and will be around for some time at least. But I have no idea about Argo-Flux, couldn't find much information out there.

Thanks!

Manchineel

Argo-flux was short lived and abandoned in favor of developing Flux v2. They published some blog articles about it IIRC. – Datha

there's some info about it here github.com/argoproj/gitops-engine/blob/master/docs/faq.md and here weave.works/blog/gitops-with-flux-v2 – Daman

Answer 1

The initial collaboration between Flux and Argo (argo-flux) was a partnership between Argo, Intuit, and WeaveWorks. The project became known as the GitOps-Engine, a project now living in the Argo project org and being driven by Intuit, Red Hat, and GitLab.

The intention of the collaboration effort was originally for the GitOps Engine to be integrated into both Argo and Flux v2. Later, the Flux team decided to move forward without the GitOps Engine and built the GitOps Toolkit, which is the collection of controllers that flux feels better suits their vision of GitOps within Kubernetes.

In a sense, Flux v2 is an evolution of the GitOps Engine project learnings, but it doesn't use the engine. v2 is considered GA and as you've noticed is under very active development.

Adamok

Answer 2

The Argo-Flux merged project was ultimately not meant to be, the projects each had a different vision for how to evolve and so went their separate ways. But lack of a solid UI offering for Flux continues to be an issue we hear raised often in "Argo vs Flux" discussions, since Argo has obviously a very nice solid UI, it will be hard if not impossible for Flux to catch up in a separate effort built from scratch.

But now there is "Flux Subsystem for Argo" which is being developed as a technology preview: https://github.com/chanwit/flamingo/releases/tag/v2.2.5-fl.0 where you can enable an Argo UI for Flux. This is both "really Argo" and "really Flux" which is why I am personally so excited about it. You can get the best of both worlds, having your cake and eating it too so to speak.

We envision this will be useful in teams where you find the common tension between App Developers who need to iterate fast and who feel comfortable breaking things, as long as they don't spend the next two hours struggling to unravel what they did and figure out how to fix it... and System Operator "root-type people" who look at Argo and say "hey, the attack surface is huge and cluster-admin is at stake, now there is no way I can protect it, I don't care how secure you say it is or what certifications it has, I will not sign off on any solution as flexible and useful as this one for our Production environments."

🙄 I'm rolling my eyes because I have been both those guys and so I know this is an argument you can never win. (But now you can both win. Or soon anyway, it is a technology preview, and already works, you can try using it today!)

Hoptoad

That's very valuable information @Kingdon! we'll have to keep an eye on this tool. Thanks! – Outer