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Install Jenkins by Docker

You are a DevOps fresher and want to practice with Jenkins for CI/CD, but you remember you need install Java, service config, port mapping, etc. A huge messy things you need to do first, this post is for you meme

Environment Setup​

To begin, you need two things:

  • Install docker
  • At least 4GB RAM to run

Quick check:

  • docker --version
  • docker ps

If two commands above run without zero, READY TO START

Install Jenkins by docker run​

Step 1: Create folder to store Jenkins data​

mkdir ~/jenkins_home

This folder will store Jenkins configuration, plugin, job, credential, etc. It's make sure the data/config is "safe" when stop/remove container

Step 2: Run Jenkins container​

Open command prompt / terminal and run

docker run -d \
  --name jenkins \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -p 50000:50000 \
  -v ~/jenkins_home:/var/jenkins_home \
  jenkins/jenkins:lts

Quick explain:

  • -p 8080:8080: mapping port 8000 in container to port 8000 in host machine

  • -p 50000:50000: port connect for agent (I will write about it in other post)

  • -v ~/jenkins_home:/var/jenkins_home: mount jenkins_home folder into container

  • jenkins/jenkins:lts: the latest Jenkins image

Install Jenkins with docker-compose​

If you want deploy Jenkins like IaC (Infrastructure As Code), docker-compose is the best suite

Step 1: Create project folder​

mkdir jenkins-docker
cd jenkins-docker
mkdir jenkins_home

Bước 2: Create file docker-compose.yml​

docker-compose.yml
version: "3.8"

services:
  jenkins:
    image: jenkins/jenkins:lts
    container_name: jenkins
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
      - "50000:50000"
    volumes:
      - ./jenkins_home:/var/jenkins_home
    restart: unless-stopped

Some setting optional:

  • restart: unless-stopped: Jenkins will start automatically after server restart
  • Put ./jenkins_home folder in the same directory of file compose, easy to backup.

Step 3: Start service​

docker compose up -d

Older version:

docker-compose up -d

Check:

docker compose ps
docker compose logs -f jenkins

If you see Jenkins log “Jenkins is fully up and running”, you're all set.

Get admin password​

Access to jenkins container and run:

cat jenkins_home/secrets/initialAdminPassword

How to backup?​

We usually use the "old" but most efficient:

  • Stop container or at least, stop an heavy job when backup
  • Zip jenkins_home folder (or volume snapshot if use cloud storage)