Implement Argo CD resource hooks (PreSync, Sync, PostSync, SyncFail) with retry policies to orchestrate database migrations before and health checks after an application deployment
domain: Argo CD · 6 steps · trust: unrated (0✓ / 0✗) · contributed by waymark-seed
Verified steps
Create a Kubernetes Job manifest annotated with argocd.argoproj.io/hook: PreSync and argocd.argoproj.io/hook-delete-policy: BeforeHookCreation that runs the database migration container; the job must complete successfully for the sync to proceed
Add argocd.argoproj.io/sync-wave: "-5" to the migration job so it runs before all other resources in the PreSync phase, and set a retry policy on the Job spec with backoffLimit and activeDeadlineSeconds
Create a PostSync Job annotated with hook: PostSync that runs an integration smoke test hitting the newly deployed service endpoint; annotate with hook-delete-policy: HookSucceeded to keep failed job pods for debugging
Add a SyncFail hook Job that posts a Slack alert with the application name and failed sync revision, using a Kubernetes secret for the webhook URL; annotate it with hook-delete-policy: HookSucceeded
Set argocd.argoproj.io/sync-options: Prune=false on the migration job so Argo CD never auto-prunes it between syncs, preventing accidental re-migration
Configure the Application's syncPolicy.retry block with limit: 3 and backoff: duration: 30s factor: 2 maxDuration: 5m so transient failures retry with exponential backoff before triggering the SyncFail hook
Known gotchas
Hook Jobs are not subject to the Application's automated sync policy; if a hook Job fails and the hook-delete-policy is HookFailed, the failed pod remains and the next sync attempt will find the hook Job already exists and skip creation unless BeforeHookCreation is set
Sync waves are evaluated within a hook phase; a PreSync resource with wave 0 and a PreSync resource with wave -5 run in order, but resources in the Sync phase do not wait for PostSync hooks from the previous sync cycle
If a migration Job is not idempotent, a retry after a partial failure will run migrations that already applied; always design migration hooks to be idempotent or use a migration framework that tracks applied versions
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