2.2 Deploying the Mock ServiceNow API

In this section, you will deploy the mock ServiceNow API into your project namespace. The deployment is declared as an ArgoCD Application manifest, which instructs the GitOps operator to pull the application source from a Git repository and continuously reconcile the live state of the cluster to match it.

An ArgoCD Application is not the workload itself — it is a declarative pointer that tells ArgoCD where the source lives, what to deploy, and where to put it. Once created, ArgoCD takes over: it watches the repository for changes and automatically applies them to the cluster.

What You Are Deploying

The mock API simulates a ServiceNow ITSM system by exposing HTTP endpoints that return closed incident ticket data. Each record contains a problem description and its corresponding resolution: the raw material that your Kubeflow Pipeline will fetch and process for ingestion into the Milvus vector database.

Applying the ArgoCD Application Manifest

You will create the ArgoCD Application resource using the Import YAML feature built into the OpenShift web console.

In the OpenShift Web Console, click the + (Import YAML) button in the top-right toolbar.

Paste the following manifest into the editor.

ArgoCD Application Manifest

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: 'userX-mock-api' (1)
  namespace: openshift-gitops
spec:
  project: default
  source:
    repoURL: 'https://github.com/cnuland/hello-chris-rag-pipeline.git'
    path: apps/api/.k8s (2)
    targetRevision: main
    kustomize: {}
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: 'userX' (3)
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: true
      selfHeal: true
    syncOptions:
      - CreateNamespace=true
      - ServerSideApply=true

1	A unique name scoped to your account, preventing resource conflicts in the shared cluster.
2	The Kustomize overlay directory within the repository that defines the mock API deployment.
3	The target namespace where ArgoCD will deploy the application workloads.

Click Create.

You’ll be taken to the newly created Application, which will be in the process of syncing.

ArgoCD will immediately begin reconciling the application. Initial synchronization, ex. pulling the container image and starting the pod, typically takes 1–2 minutes.

Verifying the Deployment

Once ArgoCD has applied the manifest, confirm the pod is healthy from the OpenShift Console.

In the left navigation menu, go to Workloads → Pods, and confirm you are in the userX project namespace.
Wait until the mock-servicenow-api-… pod reports a Running status with 1/1 containers ready.
```
NAME                                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
mock-servicenow-api-5f6f8b9d6c-xxxxx      1/1     Running   0          2m
```
If the pod shows ContainerCreating or Pending, the node is still pulling the container image. Refresh the page after 30 seconds.

With the mock API running, you are ready to move on to the next step.

Summary

Created an ArgoCD Application CR pointing at a Kustomize overlay — ArgoCD pulls the manifests from Git and reconciles continuously
Deployed the mock ServiceNow API, which exposes the incident data your pipeline will fetch and embed
Verified the pod reached Running 1/1 in your namespace, confirming the data source is ready