Continuous Integration or CI is one of the most significant parts of DevOps. DevOps is the process of combining multiple pieces of code snippets. During software development, the codes of many developers work cumulatively to ensure built features. This processor code combination is a difficult task due to the involvement of thousands of code snippets from hundreds of developers.

Over time there have been many methods like nightly build and integration to Continuous Integration. Jenkins is just one of the most user-friendly environments set for Continuous Integration. Continuous Integration Jenkins is written in Java Programming Language.

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What is Jenkins?

Jenkins is a strong automation server that supports Continuous Deployment (CD) and Continuous Integration (CI) procedures. It enables programmers to automate a number of software development processes, such as the creation, testing, and deployment of programmes. Jenkins has a vast ecosystem of plugins that enable customization and integration with numerous platforms and development tools.

The History of Jenkins

Jenkins was originally created as Hudson, but in 2011 a disagreement over project governance caused it to split. Jenkins soon became the de facto standard for CI/CD systems thanks to its vibrant community, sizable plugin library, and strong capabilities.

Why Use Continuous Sonar Integration with Jenkins?

Jenkins and continuous sonar integration together provide development teams several advantages. Frequent code integration ensures early issue and conflict discovery, which cuts down on the time and effort needed for troubleshooting. Continuous integration Jenkins streamlines development workflows and makes it possible for quicker feedback cycles by automating the building, testing, and deployment procedures.

Real-World Case Study of Continuous Integration

Leading software development firms Netflix and Facebook are noteworthy case studies demonstrating the value of continuous integration. Jenkins ci cd Pipeline was implemented by these Corporations, which saw considerable gains in code quality, fewer integration problems, and better teamwork. These beneficial results hastened the supply of software and raised customer satisfaction.

Advantages of Using CI with Jenkins

Jenkins offers several advantages, including:

Scalability: Jenkins is capable of efficiently managing many projects and distributed builds.

Flexibility: Jenkins supports a large number of tools, languages, and platforms thanks to its rich ecosystem of plugins.

Simple Integration: Jenkins easily interfaces with a variety of build tools, issue tracking systems, and version control systems.

Extensibility: To modify Jenkins’ capabilities to meet certain needs, developers can write original plugins.

Let’s explore a few common installation methods

Installation and setup of Jenkins: Manual configuration is necessary during installation, which can take some time.

A step-by-step tutorial for installing Jenkins on Ubuntu is provided in order to ensure a quick setup.

Jenkins may be installed inside a Docker container, which makes management and scalability easier and streamlines the installation process.

Configuring Jenkins:

Jenkins must be configured appropriately if you want to reap its benefits to their fullest. Important features of Jenkins configuration are covered in this section:

Jenkins initial configuration connection: gaining access to the Jenkins interface and completing the preliminary setup tasks.

Managing user accounts, rights, and security options is known as user management in Jenkins.

Defining roles and giving particular rights to various user groups are steps in the process of assigning roles to users.

Making an SSH Key for the Jenkins User For secure communication between Jenkins and external systems, create an SSH key pair.

Setting the Jenkins Build Server’s Default Port: Changing the Jenkins server’s default port to meet network requirements.

Setting Up a Jenkins Job

The process of creating and managing jobs is a key component of Jenkins. The key components of job setup are the following:

Jenkins administration: Accessing important features, navigating the Jenkins administration interface, and comprehending the dashboard.

Managing plugins to increase Jenkins’ capabilities requires investigating the vast ecosystem of plugins, installing, and maintaining plugins.

Relaunching Jenkins: a set of instructions for restarting Jenkins securely, maintaining service continuity, and applying configuration changes.

Jenkins X: The Evolution of Jenkins:

A contemporary version of Jenkins called Jenkins X was created exclusively for Kubernetes-native apps. GitOps principles are incorporated, and CI/CD for cloud-native settings is streamlined. Jenkins X is a desirable option for developing cloud-native applications because of features like automatic pipeline building, preview environments, and promotion workflows.

What is Continuous Integration?

Continuous Integration is the system where all developers write a piece of code and immediately test it. In the past, the system made the developers write their codes and combine them at a specific time at night. This system led to many problems. One of them was – combining large codes raised many errors simultaneously. Also, the testing process was hazardous in the nightly build. 

Continuous Integration Jenkins, on the contrary, provides a handful of opportunities over Nightly Build. In this method, a source repository is created, which is officially connected to all the developers. Whenever a developer successfully writes a code snippet, they add it to the source code.

The whole system is connected to a Continuous Integration server that runs the modified source code. A successful compilation is forwarded for testing, and a failure is returned to the developer. Eventually, successful testing is immediately updated for the user end.

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In this way, every developer does not need to modify many bugs simultaneously from a large piece of code. They can write and test together plus, the system never suffers the pressure of combination. There are many Continuous Integration servers available such as Bamboo, CruiseControl, TeamCity, and Jenkins. Jenkins has some advantages over the others though.

Read: Interesting Jenkins Project Ideas & Topics

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Role of Jenkins in Continuous Integration

Jenkins is an API (Application Program Interface) or a tool of automation for continuous integration. It has multiple plugins available to support the procedures of CI such as GitHub, Slack, HTML Publisher, Maven 2 Project, Amazon EC2, and Docker. Jenkins can support a variety of different programming languages on many platforms of the Operating System.

This Java tool can support many stages of development, starting from building, documentation, testing to ending with deployment, and static analysis. Multinational Companies efficiently use Jenkins to upgrade their building strategies. Continuous Integration Jenkins can enhance the speed of development up to multiple times.

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The primitive version of Jenkins was Hudson, which started its journey in 2004. Kohsuke Kawaguchi being tired of developing and testing-built Hudson. Later, Oracle divided Hudson to make Jenkins, which later overtook Hudson in popularity.

Features of Jenkins

• Easy Installation: Jenkins is one of the most popular self-contained Java programs. It is ready to run on multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It is widely used by more than a million users across the globe. It has an installation count of nearly one lakh and forty-seven thousand.
• Easy Configuration: Jenkins is easy to set up. Compared to previous technologies, it has a much-improved procedure with a user-friendly web interface. It also includes error checks and built-in help options.

• Plugins: Jenkins has thousands of plugins. The update centre is responsible for integrating every tool a developer adds through CI and CD toolchain.

• Extensible: It is very extensible for the developer’s end. Due to its user-friendly plugin features and understandable codes, it allows every developer to modify it upon their own needs. So, it eventually creates an infinite amount of opportunities to innovate. Although, extending Jenkins is primarily different from creating a custom version of Jenkins.

• Distribution: Jenkins is very often easily distributed among multiple programming devices to support a faster building mechanism. So, it enables a process of easy deployment.

Also Read: Jenkins Interview Questions & Answers

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Jenkins Pipeline

Jenkins pipeline is a continuous set of extensible plugins, which implements the Continuous Delivery System. It primarily consists of four stages.

The Build stage refers to the initial code snippet writing or upgrading. Then it is deployed through the Deploy stage. The Test stage, as it says, refers to the testing of the code and, finally if successful, the feature is Released. 

Advantages of Jenkins

• Jenkins is monitored by an open community developer society. They arrange meetings almost every month and take suggestive feature ideas from developers. This community enhances the development and makes upgradation of Jenkins very adaptive. The developer audience directly reports the needed features and makes the tool rich in pros.
• With modern advancement in the tech world and the Big Data era, cloud computing is a prominent tool for Computer Science. Jenkins also supports cloud-based architectures. Hence, it can be easily incorporated into any cloud platform, making it even more convenient to use.
• Moreover, to summarise Jenkins, it can be said that it is a tool for developers developed by developers.

Disadvantages of Jenkins

Although Jenkins is a very efficient tool for development, it still has some flaws, which are better to know as a developer.

• Despite its open community and continuous development, its UI is slightly backdated.
• Jenkins runs on a server. So, it’s not easy to always handle it, as the developer needs to have some potential server administration knowledge.
• Sometimes, Continuous Integration Jenkins breaks down even for slight changes in the program. Hence, it requires developer attention, which is often very time-consuming.

Must Read: Jenkins Salary in India

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Wrapping Up 

So far, we have discussed the basics of Continuous Integration Jenkins, the role of Jenkins in Continuous Integration, features of Jenkins, and its advantages and disadvantages. If you have already grown your interest to learn Continuous Integration Jenkins compactly and thoroughly, then do not waste your time and register yourself for upGrad’s Advanced Certificate Programme in DevOps from IIIT Bangalore

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