Jenkins X

Jenkins X, sprinkled with the magic of Jenkins and Kubernetes, serves as an effective platform for CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery) in the realm of cloud-native applications in a microservices structure. It introduces Jenkins, Helm, Draft, GitOps, Github, and similar power tools as components of an infrastructure that offers end-to-end support, right from cluster installation and environment management to continuous integration, deployment, and application publishing.

Setting Up

Installing the jx Command Line Tool

# MacOS
brew tap jenkins-x/jx
brew install jx

# Linux
curl -L https://github.com/jenkins-x/jx/releases/download/v1.1.10/jx-linux-amd64.tar.gz | tar xzv
sudo mv jx /usr/local/bin

Deploying Your Kubernetes Cluster

You can skip this step if you already have a deployed Kubernetes cluster.

With the jx command, you can thrust your Kubernetes directly into the cloud:

create cluster aks      # Create a new kubernetes cluster on AKS: Runs on Azure
create cluster aws      # Create a new kubernetes cluster on AWS with kops
create cluster gke      # Create a new kubernetes cluster on GKE: Runs on Google Cloud
create cluster minikube # Create a new kubernetes cluster with minikube: Runs locally

Launching Your Jenkins X Service

Before you introduce Jenkins X service into the mix, make sure that RBAC is activated in your Kubernetes cluster and insecure docker registries are on (dockerd --insecure-registry=10.0.0.0/16).

Execute the following command and follow the instructions to configure:

• An Ingress Controller (if not installed)

• Public IP's DNS of Ingress (with ip.xip.io as the default)

• Github API token (for conjuring github repos and webhooks)

• The Jenkins-X service

• Demonstration projects such as 'staging' and 'production', including github repo and Jenkins configuration, etc.

jx install --provider=kubernetes

When the installation wraps up, you'll get Jenkins's access point as well as the admin username and password to log into Jenkins.

App Creation

Jenkins X takes you on a speedy ride to create new applications:

# To create a Spring Boot application
jx create spring -d web -d actuator

# For a quick start project creation
jx create quickstart  -l go

It also offers successful app imports, as long as:

• Github or equivalent git systems manage their source code and have Jenkins webhooks in place.

• Dockerfile, Jenkinsfile, and any required Helm Charts to run the app are added.

# Import from local
$ cd my-cool-app
$ jx import

# Import from Github
jx import --github --org myname

# Import from URL
jx import --url https://github.com/jenkins-x/spring-boot-web-example.git

Publishing Apps

# To launch a recent version into the production environment
jx promote myapp --version 1.2.3 --env production

Usual Commands

# Get pipelines
jx get pipelines

# Get pipeline activities
jx get activities

# Get build logs
jx get build logs -f myapp

# Open Jenkins in the browser
jx console

# Get applications
jx get applications

# Get environments
jx get environments