I am currently using Jenkins on my development PC. I installed it on my development PC, because I had limited knowledge on this tool; so I tested on it in my development PC. Now, I feel comfortable with Jenkins as my long term "partner" in the build process and would like to "move" this Jenkins to a dedicated server.
Before this I have done few builds and have the artifacts archived from each build. In particular, the build number is very important to me for version control.
How can I export all the Jenkins information from my current PC to my new server?
Following the Jenkins wiki, you'll have to:
Install a fresh Jenkins instance on the new server
Be sure the old and the new Jenkins instances are stopped
Archive all the content of the JENKINS_HOME of the old Jenkins instance
Extract the archive into the new JENKINS_HOME directory
Do not forget to change the owner of the new Jenkins files : chown -R jenkins:jenkins $JENKINS_HOME
Launch the new Jenkins instance
Do not forget to change documentation/links to your new instance of Jenkins :)
JENKINS_HOME is by default located in ~/.jenkins on a Linux installation, yet to exactly find where it is located, go on the http://your_jenkins_url/configure page and check the value of the first parameter: Home directory; this is the JENKINS_HOME.
In case your JENKINS_HOME directory is too large to copy, and all you need is to set up same jobs, Jenkins Plugins and Jenkins configurations (and don't need old Job artifacts and reports), then you can use the ThinBackup Plugin:
Install ThinBackup on both the source and the target Jenkins servers
Configure the backup directory on both (in Manage Jenkins → ThinBackup → Settings)
On the source Jenkins, go to ThinBackup → Backup Now
Copy from Jenkins source backup directory to the Jenkins target backup directory
On the target Jenkins, go to ThinBackup → Restore, and then restart the Jenkins service.
If some plugins or jobs are missing, copy the backup content directly to the target JENKINS_HOME.
If you had user authentication on the source Jenkins, and now locked out on the target Jenkins, then edit Jenkins config.xml, set <useSecurity> to false, and restart Jenkins.
This worked for me to move from Ubuntu 12.04 (Jenkins ver. 1.628) to Ubuntu 16.04 (Jenkins ver. 1.651.2). I first installed Jenkins from the repositories.
Stop both Jenkins servers
Copy JENKINS_HOME (e.g. /var/lib/jenkins) from the old server to the new one. From a console in the new server:
rsync -av username#old-server-IP:/var/lib/jenkins/ /var/lib/jenkins/
Start your new Jenkins server
You might not need this, but I had to
Manage Jenkins and Reload Configuration from Disk.
Disconnect and connect all the nodes again.
Check that in the Configure System > Jenkins Location, the Jenkins URL is correctly assigned to the new Jenkins server.
Jenkins Server Automation:
Step 1:
Set up a repository to store the Jenkins home (jobs, configurations, plugins, etc.) in a GitLab local or on GitHub private repository and keep it updated regularly by pushing any new changes to Jenkins jobs, plugins, etc.
Step 2:
Configure a Puppet host-group/role for Jenkins that can be used to spin up new Jenkins servers. Do all the basic configuration in a Puppet recipe and make sure it installs the latest version of Jenkins and sets up a separate directory/mount for JENKINS_HOME.
Step 3:
Spin up a new machine using the Jenkins-puppet configuration above. When everything is installed, grab/clone the Jenkins configuration from the Git repository to the Jenkins home direcotry and restart Jenkins.
Step 4:
Go to the Jenkins URL, Manage Jenkins → Manage Plugins and update all the plugins that require an update.
Done
You can use Docker Swarm or Kubernetes to auto-scale the slave nodes.
Sometimes we may not have access to a Jenkins machine to copy a folder directly into another Jenkins instance. So I wrote a menu driven utility which uses Jenkins REST API calls to install plugins and jobs from one Jenkins instance to another.
For plugin migration:
GET request: {SOURCE_JENKINS_SERVER}/pluginManager/api/json?depth=1 will get you the list of plugins installed with their version.
You can send a POST request with the following parameters to install these plugins.
final_url=`{DESTINATION_JENKINS_SERVER}/pluginManager/installNecessaryPlugins`
data=`<jenkins><install plugin="{PLUGIN_NAME}#latest"/></jenkins>` (where, latest will fetch the latest version of the plugin_name)
auth=`(destination_jenkins_username, destination_jenkins_password)`
header=`{crumb_field:crumb_value,"Content-Type":"application/xml”}` (where crumb_field=Jenkins-Crumb and get crumb value using API call {DESTINATION_JENKINS_SERVER}/crumbIssuer/api/json
For job migration:
You can get the list of jobs installed on {SOURCE_JENKINS_URL} using a REST call, {SOURCE_JENKINS_URL}/view/All/api/json
Then you can get each job config.xml file from the jobs on {SOURCE_JENKINS_URL} using the job URL {SOURCE_JENKINS_URL}/job/{JOB_NAME}.
Use this config.xml file to POST the content of the XML file on {DESTINATION_JENKINS_URL} and that will create a job on {DESTINATION_JENKINS_URL}.
I have created a menu-driven utility in Python which asks the user to start plugin or Jenkins migration and uses Jenkins REST API calls to do it.
You can refer the JenkinsMigration.docx from this URL
jenkinsjenkinsmigrationjenkinsrestapi
Let us say we are migrating Jenkins LTS from PC1 to PC2 (irrispective of LTS version is same of upgraded).
It is easy to use ThinBackUp Plugin for migration or Upgrade of Jenkins version.
Step1: Prepare PC1 for migration
Manage Jenkins -> ThinbackUp -> Setting
Select correct options and directory for backup
If you need a job history and artifacts need to be added then please select 'Back build results' option as well.
Go back click on Backup Now.
Note: This Thinbackup will also take Plugin Backup which is optional.
Check the ThinbackUp folder must have a folder with current date and timestamp.
(wait for couple of minutes it might take some time.)
You are ready with your back, .zip it and copy to PARTICULAR (which will be 'Backup directory') directory in PC2.
Unzip ThinbackUp zipped folder.
Stop Jenkins Service in PC1.
Step2: Install Jenkins (Install using .war file or Paste archived version) in PC2.
Create Jenkins Service using command sc create <Jenkins_PC2Servicename> binPath="<Path_to_Jenkinsexe>/jenkins.exe"
Modify JENKINS_HOME/jenkins.xml if needed in PC2.
Run windows service <Jenkins_PC2Servicename> in PC2
Manage Jenkins -> ThinbackUp -> Setting
Make sure that you PARTICULAR path from step1 as Backup Directory in ThinBackup settings.
ThinbackUp -> Restore will give you a Dropdown list, choose a right backup (identify with date and timestamp).
Wait for some minutes and you have latest backup configurations including jobs history and plugins in PC2.
In case if there are additional changes needed in JENKINS_HOME/Jenkins.xml (coming from PC1 ThinbackUp which is not needed) then this modification need to do manually.
NOTE: If you are using Database setting of SCM in your Jenkins jobs then you need to take extra care as all SCM plugins do not support to carry Database settings with the help of ThinbackUp plugin.
e.g. If you are using PTC Integrity SCM Plugin, and some Jenkins jobs are using DB using Integrity, then it will create a directory JENKINS_Home/IntegritySCM, ThinbackUp will not include this DB while taking backup.
Solution: Directly Copy this JENKINS_Home/IntegritySCM folder from PC1 to PC2.
Related
I installed the Deploy Plugin on my Jenkins in order to automate the deployment of my Maven built war packages to Tomcat 7. The problem is that I am able to use the plugin to deploy to a remote Tomcat server only if they are made within the same job that uses the deploy plugin. In other words, I have not been able to set up a standalone job that deploys artifacts made by a different job.
For example, I have a job named pack.foo. It uses the source code in /var/lib/project/module to create module.war and put it in /var/lib/project/module/target. However, because of the Maven version setup, the artifact posted on pack.foo's artifact page is something like module-2.0.0-SNAPSHOT.war.
The only way I am able to deploy module.war is if I add a Post-build Action to pack.foo and specify **/module.war to be a remote Tomcat manager URL (provided I have the manager's credentials in Jenkins config). Then the job's console output logs that /var/lib/project/module/target/module.war was deployed to that URL:
Deploying /var/lib/project/module/target/module.war to container Tomcat 7.x Remote with context
[/var/lib/project/module/target/module.war] is not deployed. Doing a fresh deployment.
Deploying [/var/lib/project/module/target/module.war]
How can I use this, or another plugin, to deploy a WAR artifact that was made in a separate Jenkins job? I would like to have separate jobs for artifact creation and deployment. The plugin wasn't finding **/module-2.0.0-SNAPSHOT.war or even **/module.war built by another job even though there was definitely a file on disk that matched that pattern.
See the paragraph on the Deploy Plugin's page you linked:
How to rollback or redeploy a previous build
There may be several ways to accomplish this, but here is one suggested method:
Install the Copy Artifact Plugin
Create a new job that you will trigger manually only when needed
Configure this job with a build parameter of type "Build selector for Copy Artifact", and a copy artifact build step using "Specified by build parameter" to select the build.
Add a post-build action to deploy the artifact that was copied from the other job
Now when you trigger this job you can enter the build number (or use any other available selector) to select which build to redeploy. Thanks to Helge Taubert for this idea.
I have two Jenkins, both are master. Both have 5 salve Jenkins each. I have one job on first jenkins that needs to be cloned for each job.
I can clone the job on first jenkins and its slave but not on second master jenkins. Is there a way to clone a job from one jenkins to another?
I have one more question can I archive the job at some defined location other than master jenkins, May be on slave?
I assume you have a job called "JOB" on "Jenkins1" and you want to copy it to "Jenkins2":
curl JENKINS1_URL/job/JOB/config.xml | java -jar jenkins-cli.war -s JENKINS2_URL create-job
You might need to add username and password if you have turned on security in Jenkins. The jenkins-cli.war is available from your $JENKINS_URL/cli.
Ideally you should make sure you have the same plugins installed on both Jenkins1 and Jenkins2. More similar you can make the two Jenkins masters, the fewer problems you will have importing the the job.
For the second part of your question: slaves don't store any Jenkins configuration. All configuration is done on Master. There is a lot of backup plugins, some backup the whole Jenkins, some backup just job configuration, some backup individual jobs, export them to files, or even store/track changes from SCM such as SVN.
So "archiving job configuration to slave" simply makes no sense. But at the end of the day, a job configuration is simply an .xml file, and you can take that file and copy it anywhere you want.
As for the first part of the question, it's unclear what you want. Do you want to clone a job automatically (as part of another job's process), programmatically (through some script) or manually (through the UI, other means)?
Edit:
Go to your JENKINS_HOME directory on the server filesystem, navigate to the jobs folder, then select the specific job folder that you want.
Copy the config.xml to another server, this will create the same job with the same configuration (make sure your plugins are same)
Copy the whole job_name folder if you want to preserve history, builds, artifacts, etc
I want to configure Jenkins to build my code on 1 server. Then want to deploy it on another server using Jenkins.Both servers are using Linux I want to automate the entire process as much as possible. I went through some of plugins like pipeline, Job Import Plugin, etc
Can anyone guide me how to go about it ? Which plugins will be useful ? Any example or tutorial somewhere will be useful. The configuration of build pipeline plugin on jenkins was not seamless for me.
Thanks,
Bhargav
I would work it this way :
Install jenkins on your first server
Install the following plugins : ssh credentials, ssh slaves, copy to
slave, and restart jenkins
Go to Manage jenkins -> Manage credentials, and add ssh credentials
for your second server
Go to Manage jenkins -> Manage nodes, and create a passive slave.
The launch method should be "Launch slave agents on Unix machines
via ssh". You should use the credentials that you have added in step
3
Create a job to build your code. In the advanded options of job, you
should indicate that the job must only be built on master node.
Create a job to deploy your code on the second server. In the
avanded options of job, you should indicate that the job must only
be built on slave node.
In the "Build Environment" section, check the "Copy files into workspace before building" box and configure what files you want to copy from first server (https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Copy+To+Slave+Plugin)
The code will be copied into the jenkins slave's workspace.
Our SVN repository has moved to a new location. I need to reconfigure the jenkins so that it points to the new location and start building from there. Jenkins runs in a remote UNIX server.
Is it sufficient if I change the SVN URL in the source code management section in the jenkins UI page? or do I need to grep for the SVN url in the jenkins directory by logging into the unix server and start replacig every occurence of it ?
It is sufficient to change the SVN URL in the job configuration. Jenkins will remove the existing checkout and start anew. If the job has fixed slave, you can delete the workspace manually in the slave to fasten the process.
I'm running jenkins on my local machine. I need to build and run a project on remote machine as a slave.
I have my project(Java code) in my local machine where the Jenkins is running. So Now when I build the project it looks for the code in my slave machine and says it's not able to find the build.xml in my slave machine.
I want to be able to have Jenkins looks for the code in my local machine and build it in my slave machine and run in the slave machine.
Is that possible? if yes pls help me.
You do not state which version control system you are using? Jenkins has version control plugins for Git, Subversion, etc...
The idea is that you commit and push your changes to your source code repository and the Jenkins slave will automatically pull down the code and compile if anything has changed.
Try the copy artifact plugin. You can create 2 jobs - 1st one to just check out the source code from your repo/version control/workspace. The second job (which runs on the slave restrict where this job can be run inside the job config) can copy those files automatically to the ...remote slave/workspace and then you do whatever you want with them.
This will do what you want, but as Mark O'Çonnor mentions, the idea is you commit the changes to your repository and then the other machine checks it out.