What is Jenkins?

Jenkins is an open source continuous integration (CI) tool. It is java based and allows you to easily add modules to your product. Features like pipeline building and build testing make it a very popular development tool. It currently has over 300,000 downloads and 1,600 active plugins that can help with coding, resource management, and testing.

Jenkins is a server tool that typically requires a server container like Tomcat. Through it, you can detect errors generated in the initial phases of development and construction and carry out reports and printing.

Jenkins can take multiple DevOps stages and integrate them into your build through the use of plugins. You can also integrate automation testing frameworks such as Selenium, Pytest, and Robot for detailed examination.

Who created Jenkins?

Kawaguchi of Sun Microsystems was the lead engineer who built Jenkins. He realized that he needed to continually build and push his code to the repository, even when the code had errors. To avoid this, he built an automation server in 2004 that could build and test his work and called it Hudson.

When Oracle acquired Sun Microsystem, they forked the project and called it Jenkins. For a time, both Hudson and Jenkins were used by developers. Some time later, Oracle stopped maintaining Hudson and Jenkins gained the top position due to its notable features and the interests of the development community itself.

Why is Jenkins such a good CI/CD tool?

Automated CI tools have made profound changes to the SDLC. Using them is more economical and efficient than employing traditional processes alone. Once you implement one of these tools, build management, source code management, analysis, UI (user interface), administration, and platform-specific tasks can be performed from a centralized location.

So what makes Jenkins so much better than other tools?

• It is easy to install as you can deploy it through its web interface.
• It continuously runs debug and deployment tests to the base repository. If the test is successful, it will automatically update the production library and deploy the module. If not, it will report to the developer. You can also use it to develop large-scale projects with ease.
• It also has many automation features and plugins that can automatically add new code to the repository, build it, and test it, saving you time and allowing developers to focus on business logic instead of testing. This reduces project complexity, which in turn reduces project costs. This minimizes construction time and you can also easily understand the point of failure.
• It is open source and free to use. It also has enormous community support for its extensive environment. The community releases updates and patches frequently.
• You can easily integrate Jenkins with the cloud. It can be integrated with popular cloud platforms such as Amazon EC2, Google Cloud, VMWare vSphere, Digital Ocean, and more.

How does Jenkins work?

• The engineer creates the code and pushes it to your repository. You can edit the source file or create a new file for the project.
• The Jenkins server continuously checks to see if there are any changes to the code repository. Once it detects one, it sends those specific changes to the server.
• The Build server creates a new build for the project and starts testing it. If the build is successful, it will be completed. Otherwise, logs, file details, and snapshots will be sent to the team and involved stakeholders.
• After the server confirms that the build was successful, the build passes to the test server, where it is subjected to tests defined by the testing team. A feedback loop runs to the system that continually updates the logs about which tests are failing. Snapshots of failed tests are taken and logs are again sent to the involved teams.
• After the test server determines that the build was successful, it is sent to the production server.

Jenkins continuously checks the user repository for the latest updates. The system automatically iterates the entire process as soon as it detects a change. This process is also called a continuous delivery pipeline.

What is the Jenkins pipeline?

Jenkins Pipelines are the set of plugins that organizations can use to improve their DevOps functionality. They allow developers to implement continuous delivery pipeline.

The concept is called pipeline as code, and domain-specific language (DSL) is used to define the project. The code is written in the Jenkinsfile and attached to the code repository. Declarative and scripted are the two ways companies define Jenkins pipelines for a specific project.

Through the Jenkins pipeline, you can create forks, modules, and loops for your project. You can also use it to create an audit trail. It improves collaboration, helps visualize a single point of failure, and improves code durability.

What are the top plugins for Jenkins that programmers use every day?

Dashboard view

This plugin allows you to create a custom dashboard for your Jenkins program. With this, you can decide the jobs you want to monitor and track their status and completion.

Monitoring

This plugin allows you to analyze metrics such as CPU time, memory, security issues and bugs. It also captures log information, data dumps, and HTTP responses.

Kubernetes

Developers use this plugin to add Kubernetes cluster resources to their Jenkins build. Helps scale Jenkins agents through Kubernetes. It also adds an additional layer of automation to Jenkins and ensures that developer-defined infrastructure is managed effectively.

Build pipeline

This plugin allows you to check the workflow for that specific build. You can check the triggers and successors for a specific job, or configure reports for triggered jobs. It is important for DevOps applications that require simultaneous verification of different elements of the work structure.