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What is a management (hub) cluster in ArgoCD? How do you list registered clusters in ArgoCD? Do workloads keep running if the ArgoCD hub goes down? How do you remove a cluster from ArgoCD? What are the architectural models for multi-cluster ArgoCD (hub-spoke vs per-cluster)? How are cluster credentials secured in ArgoCD? How do you target a subset of clusters (e.g., only production)? How do cluster labels help manage a fleet? What connectivity does the hub need to spoke clusters? How do you deploy region-specific configuration to clusters?
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ArgoCD › Multi-cluster

What is the difference between the in-cluster and external cluster destinations?

Intermediate

Answer

The in-cluster destination (https://kubernetes.default.svc) is the cluster ArgoCD runs in—no separate credentials needed. External clusters are remote and require stored credentials/secrets. Applications choose by destination.server URL or by the cluster's registered name via destination.name.
destination:
  server: https://kubernetes.default.svc   # in-cluster
# or
destination:
  name: prod-eu                            # external, by name
Real-world example Platform tooling deploys in-cluster while business apps target the remote prod cluster by name.

Common follow-ups: What URL denotes the in-cluster destination? | server vs name in destination?

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All 29 Multi-cluster questions