industry use cases of Jenkins
History of Jenkins
Just like we have so many interesting stories about the development of so many technologies and tools over the years, we have one for Jenkins, too. It goes back to 2004, Kohsuke Kawaguchi, the developer of Jenkins, was working with Sun Microsystems as a Java developer.
Little did Kawaguchi know that the future had something very special in store for him. At that time, Kawaguchi was involved in several development projects. He didn’t like breaking the builds due to code failure. This made him look for something that could help him know whether the code will work or not before it is committed to the repository.
This curiosity led the way to the development of an automation server named Hudson. In 2011, there was an infamous dispute between the independent Hudson open source community and Oracle, which now has Sun Microsystems under its umbrella.
What is Jenkins?
Jenkins can be termed as an automation tool that is used by DevOps teams looking to bring continuous integration into their projects. It is open-source software that is built in Java. It is used through the lifecycle of software development.
Not just in development and testing, but in deployment as well. It allows developers to integrate changes much easily into their projects. Jenkins is also used for the continuous delivery of software projects.
How does continuous integration work?
Continuous integration (CI) is an integral part of the software development process. It can consist of a number of different tasks, including the use of unique functionality in the repository, feature development, and bug fixes amongst others.
A continuous integration tool, such as Jenkins, is great in identifying issues with current application sources and provides speedy response by checking the integration process with the help of automated build and test features.
Continuous integration has come from a programming model that is associated with the Agile methodology. However, the concept can still be applied to all those programming models that are iterative in nature.
The waterfall models and other such development approaches can also benefit from what continuous integration has to offer. CI often works in tandem with continuous delivery (CD) to deliver executable code to production at a much faster pace and in an automated way. Listed below are common CI practices:
- Regular code committing
- Build staging
- A build machine dedicated to the integration
- Continuous feedback
- Developer test categorization
Continuous integration can be released at whatever frequency you deem appropriate considering your project and company. So, companies that use CI have more regular releases than those that use traditional software development processes.
More and more companies have started using CI because of one simple fact — even the minutest of change in the code could give rise to a new build. CI can give continuous feedback during the development of software.
This helps DevOps teams to get rid of the errors in every stage of development. It also detects problems quite early in the development process. This makes these problems less disruptive, not too complex, and easy to handle.
What is 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.
Let us now discuss a little about continuous delivery pipelines and how they work. The basic characteristic of a Jenkins pipeline is that each event or task or job that it holds is dependent in one way or the other on one or more of these events, jobs, or tasks. Continuous delivery pipelines feature different states, such as build, test, deploy, release. All these states are connected to each other.
A continuous delivery pipeline is a sequence that events of each of these states work in. It is an automated expression that processes required for getting version control software. All the changes that are made to the software have to pass through several complex processes before the software is released. This process also ensures that the software is developed in a repeatable and reliable way and involves multiple testing and deployment stages, which the software progresses through.
Why should you use Jenkins pipeline?
Jenkins automates that software development process through its continuous integration capabilities. You can use different use cases to create a number of automation jobs and then use Jenkins pipeline to run all of them. Listed below are a few reasons for using Jenkins pipeline:
- As it is implemented in the form of a code, Jenkins pipeline can have a number of users who can edit and execute the process.
- It supports projects that are larger in size than usual. Running multiple projects at a time or using pipelines in a loop are all possible.
- They are robust. You don’t have to worry if your server restarts under unforeseen circumstances. Jenkins pipeline would resume automatically.
- The pipeline process can be paused and not resumed until you receive user input.
Benefits of Jenkins
1. Jenkins is an open-source tool that is extremely easy to install and use. You need no extra components to use it
2. It is free and available to be used with different platforms, such as Windows, Linux, macOS, and others
3. It is widely used, so finding support on online communities is not a big problem
4. Jenkins automates all integration work. Integration issues are scarce, and so, it helps in saving time and money over the project lifecycle.
5. It is easy to configure, extend, and modify. It allows the instant generation of tests and building, automation, and deployment of code on different platforms
6. Jenkins can be configured to run CI and CD concepts properly
7. It can easily detect and fix issues. The software is always ready for a sudden release
8. Supports a variety of plugins, which allows better flexibility
9. It helps in detecting errors very early, thus saving developers a lot of time and hard work
Conclusion
This blog provides a sound idea of how Jenkins works and how it can be used for implementing different project ideas using CI/CD. It is one of the most preferred DevOps tools these days that makes things very easy with its effective interface and plugins.