Can we use Jenkins for that?

#1

Post by brensudol » Tue, Dec 15, 2015, 4:11 PM UTC

Can we use Jenkins for that?
engineering.simondata.com

Re: Can we use Jenkins for that?

#2

Post by herge » Tue, Dec 15, 2015, 5:28 PM UTC

We use jenkins for CI, but only on our QA server. I haven't found a way to do CI without giving Jenkins full credentials on our server.

Jenkins is very powerful, but I would not trust it (or any of the myriad plugins we have installed) to not have security holes.

Re: Can we use Jenkins for that?

#3

Post by ktt » Tue, Dec 15, 2015, 5:47 PM UTC

herge wrote: post #2

We use jenkins for CI, but only on our QA server. I haven't found a way to do CI without giving Jenkins full credentials on our server. Jenkins is very powerful, but I would not trust it (or any of the myriad plugins we have installed) to not have security holes.

Yep. Not long ago a remote code execution hole in Java was found. Fortunately Jenkins was quickly patched: https://jenkins-ci.org/content/mitigating-unauthenticated-re...

Re: Can we use Jenkins for that?

#4

Post by gkop » Tue, Dec 15, 2015, 5:48 PM UTC

Eh, I'm sure there are many things Jenkins is OK at, but it's not that great of build server.

The Multi-Configuration Project abstraction (IE build matrices) is clunky and the plugin ecosystem doesn't respect it well (eg. the Gerrit plugin is extremely popular but very brittle here). So you wind up with O(n) projects anyway and still needing to copy and paste configuration among them.

Also Jenkins configuration itself is pretty nuts - settings splattered all over the web UI, backed by XML - compared to the simplicity of modern tools like Travis (which uses YAML).

And Jenkins' UI I would definitely categorize as typically-poor open source UI, having evolved and grown more complex over many years with no strong guiding vision.

Re: Can we use Jenkins for that?

#5

Post by falcolas » Tue, Dec 15, 2015, 5:49 PM UTC

I hope your Jenkins server is well protected, if you're running so many things through it. One [JVM] to rule them all.

Re: Can we use Jenkins for that?

#6

Post by JulianWasTaken » Tue, Dec 15, 2015, 5:49 PM UTC

gkop wrote: post #4

Eh, I'm sure there are many things Jenkins is OK at, but it's not that great of build server. The Multi-Configuration Project abstraction (IE build matrices) is clunky and the plugin ecosystem doesn't respect it well (eg. the Gerrit plugin is extremely popular but very brittle here). So you wind up with O(n) projects anyway and still needing to copy and paste configuration among them. Also Jenkins configuration itsel…

I agree with all this. Unfortunately I haven't found anything less bad :(

Re: Can we use Jenkins for that?

#7

Post by chizzl » Tue, Dec 15, 2015, 5:49 PM UTC

Does anyone consider Jenkins as a replacement to CRON?

Re: Can we use Jenkins for that?

#8

Post by pilom » Tue, Dec 15, 2015, 5:51 PM UTC

In addition to CI, we use it for all of our Selenium testing and for jobs that would otherwise just be cron jobs. The UI for logging and built in email alerting when jobs fail are invaluable.

Re: Can we use Jenkins for that?

#9

Post by pilom » Tue, Dec 15, 2015, 5:55 PM UTC

chizzl wrote: post #7

Does anyone consider Jenkins as a replacement to CRON?

We do at my work. It has much more robust options. You can keep multiple jobs from running at the same time if one takes too long. You can auto kill it after a time limit. You get a web UI for all logging from the job. You get great built in tools for auto deleting logs after a certain number of builds or time period. You get a very robust email solution for sending out alerts when jobs run or don't run or fail. It adds some complexity vs CRON but it has many more features.

Re: Can we use Jenkins for that?

#10

Post by lmm » Tue, Dec 15, 2015, 6:04 PM UTC

This is part of the problem I have with Jenkins. It does far too many things. In many organizations it seems to occupy an awkward position between dev and production, where it's used for both and so ends up as the most fragile part of a production pipeline. Its config is very awkward, and partly as a result of that I've never seen it properly backed up or even a staging instance for testing changes, yet alone blue/green instances.

So I prefer to have clear segregation. Jenkins as a build tool only. Rundeck for deployment. If I had a big need for scheduling, I'd want a dedicated system for doing that too.