Building CI/CD Pipelines with Jenkins: A DevOps Automation Guide

Devops RSH Network December 14, 2025 2 mins read

Learn how to design and implement CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins to automate builds, testing, and deployments in modern DevOps environments.

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Introduction

Jenkins is a powerful open-source automation server widely used to build CI/CD pipelines. It enables DevOps teams to automate every stage of the software delivery lifecycle—from code commit to production deployment.

With native support for Git, Docker, Kubernetes, and major cloud platforms, Jenkins remains a cornerstone tool for organizations adopting DevOps and continuous delivery practices.

⚙️ Why Jenkins for CI/CD?

Jenkins continues to be a popular choice for CI/CD automation due to its flexibility and ecosystem.

Key advantages include:

  • Highly customizable with thousands of plugins

  • Supports both declarative and scripted pipelines

  • Seamless integration with GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket

  • Scales across multiple agents and distributed nodes

  • Suitable for both simple pipelines and complex enterprise workflows

🧩 Jenkins Pipeline Basics

A Jenkins pipeline defines the stages and steps required to build, test, and deploy applications. Pipelines are stored as code in a Jenkinsfile, ensuring version control and repeatability.

Pipeline Types

  • Declarative Pipeline (Recommended): Simple, structured, and easy to maintain

  • Scripted Pipeline: More flexible but complex and error-prone

📜 Sample Declarative Jenkinsfile

 
pipeline { agent any stages { stage('Checkout') { steps { git 'https://github.com/example/repo.git' } } stage('Build') { steps { sh 'npm install' } } stage('Test') { steps { sh 'npm test' } } stage('Deploy') { steps { sh './deploy.sh' } } } }

This pipeline:

  • Pulls code from Git

  • Installs dependencies

  • Runs automated tests

  • Deploys the application

✅ Jenkins CI/CD Best Practices

To build reliable and scalable pipelines, follow these best practices:

  • Store Jenkinsfile in version control

  • Break pipelines into clear stages (Checkout → Build → Test → Deploy)

  • Use environment variables and credentials for secrets

  • Leverage Docker agents for isolated builds

  • Use post actions for cleanup, notifications, and failure handling

🔌 Plugins to Enhance Jenkins

Plugin Purpose
Git Source control integration
Blue Ocean Visual pipeline editor
Docker Pipeline Run builds inside containers
Slack Notifier Send build notifications
JUnit Publish test reports

Plugins allow Jenkins to adapt to virtually any CI/CD requirement.

🏁 Conclusion

Jenkins empowers DevOps teams to automate software delivery with speed and precision. By implementing clean, modular pipelines and following best practices, teams can accelerate releases, reduce errors, and improve overall system reliability.

🔜 Coming Next: GitHub Actions for CI/CD — a modern, cloud-native alternative to Jenkins.

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