1. The document discusses various ways to configure complex workflows in Jenkins using plugins like the Parameterized Trigger Plugin, Multi-Configuration Project, Promoted Builds Plugin, and Fingerprint Plugin. 2. Key aspects covered include passing parameters between jobs, running jobs in parallel configurations, promoting builds between stages like testing and production, and tracking artifacts and dependencies between jobs. 3. Advanced workflow capabilities in Jenkins allow automating multi-step build, test, and deployment processes in a flexible and reusable manner.

1. Large-Scale Automation with Jenkins
Kohsuke Kawaguchi / kk@kohsuke.org / @kohsukekawa
Architect, CloudBees, Inc.
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2. Have you met Jenkins?
http://jenkins-ci.org/
• #1 OSS CI server
– Written in Java
– 47K+ installations
• About 7 years old
• Two key emphasis
– Easy to install/use
– Extensible via 600+ plugins
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3. Context
• First steps in Jenkins usage
– Build your project
– Run tests on your project
– Maybe run code analysis tools
Where to go from here?
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4. Workflow!
• By which I mean interconnected jobs
• Why?
– Lots of manual process
– Dividing by the responsibility boundary
– Single job isn’t meant for complex things
– Reusing pieces
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5. Parameterized Builds
• Plain jobs can be thought of like a
procedure without any input
void buildAcmeLibrary() { … }
• Ability to pass parameters make it more
useful
void buildAcmeLibrary(targetPlatform) { … }
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6. Three Things You Need To Do
• #1: Define Parameters
Lots of different parameter types
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7. Three Things You Need To Do
• #2: Refer to parameter values
– As variable expansions: ${Browser}
– As environment variables from your builds
– Some parameter types expose data in
different ways
• File parameter
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8. Three Things You Need To Do
• #3: Specify actual values when you run
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9. Parameterized Trigger Plugin
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Parameterized+Trigger+Plugin
• Call other jobs (with parameters)
– Wait for their completions (optional)
Foo
Sub1 Sub2 Sub3
Foo
Sub1
Sub2
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10. Multi-Configuration Project
• You often do the same thing with slight
variations
– Compile C++ code for different platforms
– Test with different browsers
– Or more generally, think of it as
for (x in [a,b,c]) {
for (y in [d,e,f]) {
doSomethingWith(x,y,...);
}
}
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11. Model
• Define axes
– One axis ≈ one for loop
• Choose from pre-defined types of Axis
– Generic axis: arbitrary values exposed as
environment variables
– Slave axis: pick slaves by their names or
their labels
• e.g., linux, solaris, and windows
– JDK axis
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12. Multi-Configuration Project Gimmicks
• Filtering
– Otherwise combinations increase exponentially
– Not all combinations make sense
– Use boolean expression to trim down the size
(label==“windows”).implies(browser==“iexplore”) &&
(label==“mac”).implies(browser==“safari”)
– Or tell Jenkins to cut the workload to N%
• Jenkins will thin out the combinations by itself
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13. Demo
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14. Other Simple Choreography Tools
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Join+Plugin
• Join Plugin
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15. When Jobs Start Working Together…
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Copy+Artifact+Plugin
• Copy Artifact Plugin
– Copy artifacts into a workspace
– By using various criteria
acme-build #15 acme-test #24
foo.jar foo.jar
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16. Copy Artifact vs External Repository
• Almost as if artifacts are versioned
acme-build #10
Last saved build
acme-build #11
acme-build #12
Last stable build
acme-build #13
acme-build #14
acme-build #15
foo.jar
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17. Labeling Builds Is Useful
• Especially when labels have semantics
Deployed to production
acme-build #10
Signed off to QA
acme-build #11
acme-build #12
Last stable build
acme-build #13
acme-build #14
acme-build #15
foo.jar
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18. Labeling Builds Is Useful
• More so when you automate them
• Take “Signed off to QA” label for example
acme-devtest #15
acme-build #12
foo.jar
acme-findbugs #22
Signed off to QA
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19. Introducing Promoted Builds Plugin
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Promoted+Builds+Plugin
• Promotion = act of giving a build a label
• You specify:
– Promotion criteria
– what happens after promotion
• Label is a nice hand-off between teams
– It’s like sausage making process
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20. Demo
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21. Maven Repository Plugin
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Jenkins+Maven+Repository+Server
• Virtual Maven repository
– Expose artifacts from specific build
– And its upstream builds
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22. http://www.flickr.com/photos/andresmusta/7990193487
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23. Challenge: Visualization
• Edge traversal
breaks down on large
workflow
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24. Dependency Graph
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Dependency+Graph+View+Plugin
• Uses GraphViz to draw a
graph of relations
• Supports copy-artifact
plugin
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25. Build Pipeline Plugin
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Build+Pipeline+Plugin
• It shows how far each change has gone
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26. Fingerprint
• Yet another angle to look at data
• Think of it as a lifelog for a blob
Air travel Jenkins
Airline check-in/TSA/immigration Jobs and workflow
My going through immigration Build #13
My travel experience Fingerprint view
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27. Fingerprint: Mechanism
• MD5 checksum of a file
– Recorded against builds that it appeared
– (And actions that were taken)
acme-build #15 acme-test #13
MD5= MD5=
604e7e07 604e7e07
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28. Fingerprint: Why?
• Track down where it came from
– My component integrates to product
XYZ, and a bug was reported against XYZ
3.0.5. Which build of the component did it
contain?
• Cross-correlate jobs that aren’t directly
related
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29. Next Step in Workflow
✓ Aggregation of results
? Aggregation of definitions
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30. Build Flow Plugin
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Build+Flow+Plugin
• Groovy DSL for kicking builds
– High-level primitives
– Ability to define abstractions
b = build(“acme-build”)
guard {
parallel (
{ build(“acme-test1”, param1:b.number) },
{ build(“acme-test2”, param1:b.number) }
)
} rescue {
build(“acme-teardown”)
}
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31. Demo
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32. Jenkow Plugin
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Jenkow+Plugin
• Embed BPMN workflow
engine in Jenkins
– Timeout, fork, join, …
• Workflow is version
controlled in Git
– Push to Jenkins to load
them up
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33. Next Step in Workflow
✓ Choreography defined in one place
? Everything defined in one place
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34. Job DSL Plugin
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Job+DSL+Plugin
• Groovy DSL for defining jobs
def project = "jenkinsci/jenkins"
def branchApi = new URL("https://api.github.com/repos/${project}/branches")
def branches = new JsonSlurper().parse(branchApi.newReader())
branches.each { b ->
job {
name "${project}-${b.name}".replaceAll('/','-')
scm {
git("git://github.com/${project}.git", b.name)
}
steps {
maven("install")
}
}
}
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35. Or More Likely…
• Take Existing Job, Make Adjustments
def project = "jenkinsci/jenkins"
def branchApi = new URL("https://api.github.com/repos/${project}/branches")
def branches = new JsonSlurper().parse(branchApi.newReader())
branches.each { b ->
job {
using "jenkins-build"
name "${project}-${b.name}".replaceAll('/','-')
scm {
git("git://github.com/${project}.git", b.name)
}
}
}
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36. Job DSL Plugin
• You can go down to XML definitions
• The program itself executes as Jenkins
job
– Control over when it executes
– Store definitions in VCS
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37. Or just a bit of Perl/Python/Ruby scripts
• Programmatically CRUD jobs
$ ssh jenkins get-job foo
| sed -e 's/old.gitserver.com/new.gitserver.com/g’
| ssh jenkins update-job foo
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38. Templates (in Jenkins Enterprise by
CloudBees)
http://www.cloudbees.com/jenkins-enterprise-by-cloudbees-overview.cb
• Share some traits with Job DSL
– Define job once, generate many variations
– Update definition, and reflect it everywhere
• But different
– Templates are defined in GUI, not in a
program
– Individual variations are manually updated
by users
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39. Conclusion
• Lots of useful building blocks for
automating even more
– That means many people are doing this
• Take your automation to the next level
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