Jenkins: Overview and Case Studies

Jenkins is an open-source automation server that enables developers around the world to reliably build, test, and deploy their software. It is used to continuously build and test software projects, enabling developers to set up a CI/CD environment.

Jenkins is capable of orchestrating a chain of actions that help to achieve the Continuous Integration process in an automated fashion. Jenkins manages and controls software delivery processes throughout the entire lifecycle, including build, document, test, package, stage, deployment, static code analysis and much more.

It is a server-based application and requires a web server like Apache Tomcat. The reason Jenkins became so popular is that of its monitoring of repeated tasks that arise during the development of a project. For example, if a team is developing a project, Jenkins will continuously test the project, builds and show you the errors in the early stages of your development.

By using Jenkins, software companies can accelerate their software development process, as Jenkins can automate build and test at a rapid rate. Jenkins supports the complete development lifecycle of software from building, testing, documenting the software, deploying and other stages of a software development lifecycle.

Jenkins integrating various DevOps Stages -

Features of Jenkins

• Easy installation — Jenkins is a self-contained Java-based program, ready to run out-of-the-box, with packages for Windows, Linux, macOS and other Unix-like operating systems.
• Easy configuration — Jenkins can be easily set up and configured via its web interface, which includes on-the-fly error checks and built-in help.
• Plugins — With hundreds of plugins in the Update Center, Jenkins integrates with practically every tool in the continuous integration and continuous delivery toolchain.
• Extensible — Jenkins can be extended via its plugin architecture, providing nearly infinite possibilities for what Jenkins can do.
• Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery — As an extensible automation server, Jenkins can be used as a simple CI server or turned into the continuous delivery hub for any project.
• Distributed — Jenkins can easily distribute work across multiple machines, helping drive builds, tests and deployments across multiple platforms faster.

Before Jenkins

After Jenkins

Jenkins Pipeline

A Jenkins pipeline is a combination of jobs, tasks, or events that are connected to each other in a sequence. In other words, it is a group of plugins that enable continuous delivery pipelines to be easily integrated and implemented. Extendable automation works to support a pipeline in the creation of both complex and simple delivery pipelines in the form of code and with the help of domain-specific language or DSL.

Case Studies

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For this industry-leading log management platform powering tens of thousands of enterprise installations worldwide, their new build and release manager set out to leverage the power and flexibility of Jenkins’ latest features to enhance their current DevOps environment.

CHALLENGE: Upgrade Graylog’s Jenkins installation with the latest version to -

• Enable expanded use of infrastructure-as-code
• Ensure quick and straightforward disaster recovery for Jenkins
• Provide visibility for all during the release process

SOLUTION: A flexible and modern DevOps platform for Graylog.

RESULTS:

• Maintainability of job improved through infrastructure-as-code
• Upgrade performance moved from never upgraded to upgrades within minutes
• Observability of builds increased through Blue Ocean UI
• A scalable infrastructure to support 40,000 enterprise installations and thousands of IT professionals worldwide

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Gainsight’s CSX platform helps the customer success teams at over 100 leading IT and healthcare organizations drive engagement for tens of thousands of their customers. That’s why the engineering team at Gainsight built a smarter, faster DevSecOps platform using Jenkins.

CHALLENGE: Maintain an infrastructure-as-code approach while integrating various tools and programming languages within the platform, all while securing processes with better visibility and air-tight quality control.

SOLUTION: A flexible and scalable DevSecOps infrastructure that provides Gainsight with keener operational insight, ease of collaboration, and the ability to accelerate releases to stay a step ahead of the competition