<p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">In software development, "DevOps" has surfaced as an elementary approach to automating and enhancing the software delivery process. It represents a set of practices combining software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops), aiming to shorten the development lifecycle and continuously deliver high-quality software. One prominent tool that constantly comes up in conversations around DevOps is Jenkins.</span></p><h2 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">What is Jenkins?</span></h2><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins is an open-source Java automation server. It was first developed using the Hudson design before being renamed Jenkins in 2011. Jenkins is primarily used for continuous integration (CI), a practice in software engineering where code changes are automatically tested and incorporated into a shared storage multiple times a day. Over time, Jenkins has evolved significantly, expanding its capabilities beyond CI to support a variety of tasks in the software development lifecycle. </span></p><h2 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Key Features of Jenkins</span></h2><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins has unique features that help automate and enhance the software development and delivery process. Let’s examine some of its features.</span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Pipeline as Code</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins introduced the notion of" Pipeline as Code," which allows developers to define their frame, test, and deployment processes in a script, generally using the trendy-based domain-specific language (DSL). A Jenkinsfile script can be versioned alongside the source code, furnishing a transparent, auditable, reproducible pipeline configuration. </span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Extensibility</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins is highly extensible, with a vast ecosystem of plugins. Over 1,800 plugins are available that integrate with colorful tools and platforms used in the software development lifecycle. These plugins allow Jenkins to support a wide range of functionalities, including version control systems (Git, Subversion), build tools (Maven, Gradle), testing frameworks (J Unit, Selenium), and deployment solutions (Kubernetes, Docker).</span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Distributed Build</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins supports distributed builds, which means it can use multiple machines to run different parts of the build, test, and deployment process. This point is pivotal for large systems with expansive figure processes, as it can significantly reduce the time needed to deliver software. </span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Declarative and Scripted Pipelines</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins provides two types of pipelines: declarative and scripted. Declarative pipelines offer a more structured and easy-to-read syntax suitable for most use cases, while scripted channels give further flexibility for complex scripts. This binary approach ensures that Jenkins can feed to various pipeline conditions. </span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Security and Compliance</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins offers sound security features, including role-based access control, matrix-based security, and support for colorful authentication mechanisms similar to LDAP and OAuth. These features help associations ensure that their CI/ CD channels misbehave with security and nonsupervisory requirements. </span></p><h2 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Useful Commands of Jenkins in DevOps</span></h2><figure class="table"><table><thead><tr><th><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>Command</strong></span></th><th><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>Description</strong></span></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">build</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Schedules a build for a job and optionally waits for its completion.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">cancel-quiet-down</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Cancels the effect of the <code>quiet-down</code> command.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">console</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Retrieves the console output of a specified build.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">copy-job</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Copies a job from a specified source to a specified target.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">create-job</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Creates a new job by reading the job configuration XML from stdin.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">delete-builds</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Deletes build records of a specified job.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">delete-job</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Deletes specified jobs.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">disable-job</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Disables specified jobs, preventing them from running.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">enable-job</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Enables specified jobs, allowing them to run.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">get-build</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Dumps the build record XML for a specified job and build number to stdout.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">get-job</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Dumps the job configuration XML for a specified job to stdout.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">list-jobs</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Lists all jobs in a specified view or in Jenkins.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">list-plugins</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Lists all installed plugins.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">login</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Saves the API token of the specified user.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">logout</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Deletes the stored API token of the specified user.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">offline-node</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Takes a node offline.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">online-node</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Brings an offline node online.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">quiet-down</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Puts Jenkins into a quiet mode, preparing for a shutdown.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">reload-configuration</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Reloads the job configurations from disk.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">restart</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Restarts Jenkins.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">safe-restart</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Restarts Jenkins after the current builds complete.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">safe-shutdown</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Shuts down Jenkins after the current builds complete.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">set-build-description</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Sets the description for a specified build.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">set-build-display-name</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Sets the display name for a specified build.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">set-job-parameter</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Sets a job parameter to a specified value.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">set-node-attribute</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Sets attributes for a specified node.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">shutdown</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Shuts down Jenkins immediately.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">version</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Prints the Jenkins version to stdout.</span></td></tr><tr><td><pre><code class="language-plaintext">who-am-i</code></pre></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Displays the current authenticated user and their permissions.</span></td></tr></tbody></table></figure><h2 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Role of Jenkins in DevOps</span></h2><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Continuous Integration</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">At its core, Jenkins is a CI tool. Nonstop integration is a foundational DevOps practice that integrates code changes constantly, ideally multiple times daily. Jenkins automates this process by pulling code from interpretation control systems, building it, running automated tests, and furnishing immediate feedback to developers. This practice helps detect integration issues beforehand, reducing the time and effort needed to fix bugs. </span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Continuous Delivery and Deployment</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins initially started as a CI tool but has evolved to support Continuous Delivery (CD) and Deployment (CD). Jenkins facilitates these practices by ordering complex deployment pipelines and integrating with colorful deployment tools and environments. </span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Infrastructure as Code</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">DevOps lays emphasis on Infrastructure as Code (IaC), the infrastructure is provisioned and managed using code and automation tools. Jenkins can integrate with IaC tools like Terraform, Ansible, and Chef to automate the provisioning and configuration of the structure. This integration ensures that the development and deployment environments are harmonious and reproducible. </span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Monitoring and Feedback</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">A crucial aspect of DevOps is nonstop monitoring and feedback. Jenkins can integrate with monitoring tools like Nagios, Prometheus, and Grafana to gather metrics and logs from operations and structure. By incorporating these tools into the CI/ CD channel, Jenkins helps teams detect issues beforehand, analyze performance, and make informed opinions to improve the software and its deployment process. </span></p><h2 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Pricing of Jenkins</span></h2><figure class="table" style="width:100%;"><table class="ck-table-resized"><colgroup><col style="width:30.66%;"><col style="width:69.34%;"></colgroup><thead><tr><th><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>Offering</strong></span></th><th><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>Pricing Model</strong></span></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>Jenkins Open Source</strong></span></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Free</span></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>CloudBees Jenkins Platform</strong></span></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Subscription-Based</span></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>CloudBees CI</strong></span></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Subscription-Based</span></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>CloudBees Core</strong></span></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Subscription-Based</span></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>CloudBees Jenkins Support</strong></span></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Subscription-Based</span></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>Jenkins X</strong></span></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Free</span></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>Jenkins on Cloud Providers</strong></span></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Pay-as-You-Go</span></td></tr><tr><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);"><strong>Third-Party Plugins</strong></span></td><td><span style="color:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);">Mixed</span></td></tr></tbody></table></figure><h2 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins in the DevOps Toolchain</span></h2><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Source Code Management</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins integrates seamlessly with source code management (SCM) tools like Git, Subversion, and Unpredictable. This integration allows Jenkins to automatically trigger builds when code changes are pushed to the depository. By automating this process, Jenkins ensures that code is constantly tested and integrated promptly, reducing the likelihood of integration issues. </span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Build Automation</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins supports various build tools like Maven, Gradle, and Ant, which are essential for automating the compilation, packaging, and deployment of law. By integrating these tools, Jenkins automates the entire figure process, from fetching dependencies to creating deployable artifacts. </span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Testing Automation</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Automated testing is a critical element of the CI/ CD channel. Jenkins aligns with testing frameworks like JUnit, NUnit, and Selenium, allowing it to run unit, integration, and functional tests as part of the figure process. By automating tests, Jenkins ensures that law changes do not introduce new bugs or reversions, maintaining the quality and trustability of the software. </span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Configuration Management</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Configuration management tools like Ansible, Puppet, and Chef are essential for managing the configuration of waiters and operations. Jenkins can integrate with these tools to automate the configuration of the structure, ensuring harmonious environments and reducing the threat of configuration drift. </span></p><h3 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Deployment Automation</span></h3><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Jenkins can automate the deployment of applications to various surroundings, including development, staging, and product. It integrates with containerization tools like Docker and unity platforms like Kubernetes, enabling teams to deploy operations constantly and reliably. Jenkins can also integrate with cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud to automate the provisioning and deployment of structure and operations.</span></p><h2 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Conclusion</span></h2><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">In conclusion, Jenkins is indeed a </span><a href="https://devopsden.io/article/what-is-the-use-of-devops-tools"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">DevOps tool</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">. Its expansive point set, flexibility, and integration capabilities make it a foundation of numerous DevOps toolchains. Jenkins facilitates pivotal DevOps practices such as continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment, and it integrates with a wide range of tools and platforms to automate the entire software development lifecycle. While there are challenges associated with managing and maintaining Jenkins, its automation, effectiveness, and collaboration benefits make it an essential tool for associations seeking to apply DevOps practices and achieve continuous delivery of high-quality software.</span></p><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Read More</span></p><p style="text-align:justify;"><a href="https://devopsden.io/article/what-is-the-role-of-devops-in-software-development"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">https://devopsden.io/article/what-is-the-role-of-devops-in-software-development</span></a></p><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;">Follow us on</span></p><p style="text-align:justify;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/devopsden/">https://www.linkedin.com/company/devopsden/</a></p>
