This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Bhaskar Sharma
Hello dev.to community! 
Yesterday, I explored Ansible, a powerful configuration management tool that automates server setup and application deployment.
Today, I’m diving into Jenkins, one of the most popular CI/CD tools that automates software delivery pipelines.
Why Jenkins Matters
Modern software development requires frequent updates, testing, and deployments. Jenkins helps by:
Automating builds, tests, and deployments
Supporting 1,800+ plugins (integrates with almost everything)
Scalable — can run on a single server or distributed agents
Open-source & widely adopted across the industry
Core Jenkins Concepts
Pipeline → A series of steps (build → test → deploy)
Job/Project → A single automation task (e.g., build a Java app)
Agent/Node → Where Jenkins executes jobs
Plugins → Add integrations (Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub, etc.)
Jenkinsfile → Code representation of pipelines (declarative or scripted)
Example: Simple Declarative Pipeline
pipeline {
agent any
stages {
stage(‘Build’) {
steps {
echo “Building the application…”
}
}
stage(‘Test’) {
steps {
echo “Running tests…”
}
}
stage(‘Deploy’) {
steps {
echo “Deploying application…”
}
}
}
}
Save this in a Jenkinsfile and Jenkins will execute the pipeline automatically.
DevOps Use Cases
Continuous Integration (CI) → Run unit tests on every commit
Continuous Delivery (CD) → Deploy apps to staging/prod automatically
Infrastructure pipelines → Integrate with Terraform & Ansible
Security scans → Integrate with tools like SonarQube, Trivy
Pro Tips
Use Jenkins pipelines as code (Jenkinsfile) for version control
Run Jenkins in Docker/Kubernetes for scalability
Secure Jenkins with role-based access control & credentials manager
Automate notifications (Slack, email) for pipeline status
Hands-on Mini-Lab (Try this!)
1⃣ Install Jenkins (Docker is easiest 
)
2⃣ Create a simple freestyle job to print “Hello DevOps”
3⃣ Write a Jenkinsfile for a simple pipeline
4⃣ Integrate GitHub → trigger builds on every commit
Key Takeaway
Jenkins automates the CI/CD pipeline, making software delivery faster, consistent, and reliable — a must-have skill for DevOps engineers.
Tomorrow (Day 19):
I’ll explore GitHub Actions — CI/CD natively built into GitHub.
#Jenkins #DevOps #CI/CD #Automation #SRE
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Bhaskar Sharma