🎁 New User? Get 20% off your first purchase with code NEWUSER20 · ⚡ Instant download · 🔒 Secure checkout Register Now →
Menu

Categories

DevOps Intermediate

What is Jenkins?

An open-source automation server for building, testing, and deploying software through configurable CI/CD pipelines.

Jenkins is the most widely used CI/CD server. Pipelines are defined in Jenkinsfiles (Groovy-based DSL) with stages like Build, Test, and Deploy. Jenkins supports thousands of plugins for integration with virtually any tool.

Features include distributed builds (master/agent architecture), pipeline-as-code, Blue Ocean UI, shared libraries, and extensive plugin ecosystem. While newer tools (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) offer simpler setup, Jenkins remains dominant in enterprise environments.

Related Terms

Pipeline as Code
Defining CI/CD pipeline configurations as version-controlled code files rather than through UI-based pipeline builders.
Message Queue
A communication mechanism that enables asynchronous message passing between services, decoupling producers from consumers.
Error Budget
The acceptable amount of unreliability allowed for a service, calculated as 100% minus the Service Level Objective.
Log Aggregation
The process of collecting, centralizing, and indexing log data from multiple sources for unified search and analysis.
Istio
An open-source service mesh that provides traffic management, security, and observability for microservices on Kubernetes.
API Gateway
A server that acts as the single entry point for API requests, handling routing, authentication, rate limiting, and monitoring.
 View All DevOps Terms →