Day 4 – Jenkins & CI/CD: The Backbone of Automated Software Delivery
Shruthi Chikkela
Azure Cloud DevOps Engineer | Driving Innovation with Automation & Cloud | Kubernetes | Mentoring IT Professionals | Empowering Careers in Tech ??
?? Why Are We Talking About Jenkins & CI/CD Today?
As software development accelerates, teams release code faster than ever.
But speed without stability leads to disaster!
That’s where Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) come in—ensuring every change is tested, validated, and deployed without breaking production.
Jenkins is the #1 choice for automating these processes, used by companies like Netflix, Facebook, and Amazon to handle thousands of deployments per day.
By the end of this article, you’ll understand:
? What CI/CD really means (beyond just buzzwords)
? Why Jenkins is a game-changer in DevOps
? How companies use Jenkins to scale efficiently
? Advanced Jenkins concepts: Agents, Distributed Builds, and Security
? A hands-on example to implement Jenkins from scratch
?? The Real Meaning of CI/CD (Beyond Just Definitions)
Most explanations of CI/CD sound like this:
?? Continuous Integration (CI): Developers frequently merge code changes, triggering automatic builds and tests.
?? Continuous Deployment (CD): If tests pass, code is automatically deployed to production.
While correct, this definition lacks the depth of what CI/CD really achieves.
?? The Real Purpose of CI/CD:
?? CI/CD is about RISK MANAGEMENT! It eliminates "Worked on my machine" excuses by ensuring every change works in a real environment.
?? CI/CD enforces CONSISTENCY – No more manual deployments leading to unexpected issues.
?? CI/CD improves RECOVERY TIME – If something breaks, rollback is quick & painless.
?? CI/CD isn't just automation—it's a CULTURE of faster, reliable, and consistent software delivery!
?? Jenkins: The Workhorse of CI/CD
Jenkins is an open-source CI/CD automation tool that provides:
? Pipeline-based workflows to automate software releases
? Integration with 1000+ DevOps tools (Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub, AWS, Azure, Terraform)
? Support for parallel execution to handle large-scale applications
? Built-in security controls to ensure only verified code is deployed
?? What Makes Jenkins Powerful?
?? Master-Agent Architecture: Jenkins uses multiple agents to distribute build loads efficiently.
?? Declarative & Scripted Pipelines: Provides flexibility to define CI/CD workflows.
?? Integration with Infrastructure as Code: Works with Terraform & Ansible for full automation.
?? Rollback Mechanism: Automatically detects failures and rolls back to the last stable version.
?? Jenkins is like an Air Traffic Controller, managing thousands of "code flights" per day without crashes!
Layman’s Example: Jenkins in Action
?? Think of Jenkins as an Automated Coffee Machine!
Just like this automated coffee-making process, Jenkins ensures every code change goes through build, test, and deploy automation before reaching production.
??? Advanced Use Case: Jenkins at Scale in Large Enterprises
?? Challenge: A leading financial services company needed to release 100+ microservices without breaking production.
Manual deployments were too slow and introduced security risks.
?? Jenkins-Powered Solution:
?? Developers pushed code → Triggered Jenkins CI pipeline
领英推荐
?? Jenkins built, tested & containerised applications using Docker & Kubernetes
?? Automated security scans ensured no vulnerabilities were deployed
?? Jenkins CD pipeline deployed changes to AWS EKS (Kubernetes cluster)
?? Results:
? Deployment frequency increased by 400%!
? Incident response time reduced by 75%!
? Security vulnerabilities dropped by 80%!
?? This is how top companies use Jenkins to automate, secure, and accelerate DevOps!
??? Hands-on: Installing & Running Jenkins (Step-by-Step)
1?? Install Jenkins on Your Machine
For Windows:
1?? Download Jenkins Windows Installer: https://www.jenkins.io/download/
2?? Run the .msi installer and follow the setup wizard.
3?? Open your browser and go to https://localhost:8080.
4?? Copy-paste the initial admin password from:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\secrets\initialAdminPassword
5?? Install recommended plugins and create an admin user.
For Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):
sudo apt update && sudo apt install openjdk-11-jdk -y
wget -q -O - https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian/jenkins.io.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo sh -c 'echo deb https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian-stable binary/ > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jenkins.list'
sudo apt update && sudo apt install jenkins -y
sudo systemctl start jenkins
sudo systemctl enable jenkins
?? Access Jenkins at https://localhost:8080 and follow setup instructions.
??? Hands-on: Creating a CI/CD Pipeline with Jenkins
2?? Setting Up a CI/CD Job with Jenkins & GitHub
?? Scenario: We will use Jenkins to automate builds of a simple Node.js application stored in GitHub.
Step 1: Clone Sample Node.js App
git clone https://github.com/sample/node-app.git
cd node-app
npm install
Step 2: Configure Jenkins Job
1?? Go to Jenkins Dashboard → New Item → Freestyle Project
2?? Under Source Code Management, select Git and add repo URL
3?? Under Build Triggers, enable Poll SCM to check for new commits
4?? Under Build Steps, add:
npm install
npm test
5?? Save & Click Build Now ??
Step 3: View Build Results
?? Congratulations! You just built your first CI/CD pipeline with Jenkins!
?? What’s Next?
?? Coming Up in Day 5: Jenkins Pipelines – Writing a Simple CI/CD Pipeline!
We will move from Freestyle Jobs to Declarative Pipelines using a Jenkinsfile.
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?? Cloud DevOps | ?? Azure | ??? Terraform | ?? Docker | ?? Kubernetes | ?? Infrastructure Automation Enthusiast | ?? Driving Scalability & Innovation
3 周Very informative
Solutions Architect | Azure Cloud Expert | Enterprise IT Modernization | Cloud Strategy & Cost Optimization
3 周Great going Shruthi Chikkela please keep it up