Jenkins Fundamentals

Jenkins is an automation server for CI/CD pipelines.

Core Concepts

• Job: Unit of automation (freestyle or pipeline).
• Pipeline: Declarative/scripted workflow in Jenkinsfile.
• Agent: Worker node that executes stages.
• Plugin: Extension for integrations and features.
• Credentials: Secure secret management for pipelines.

Best Practices

• Prefer pipeline-as-code (Jenkinsfile).
• Keep controller lightweight, run workloads on agents.
• Version and backup Jenkins configuration.
• Restrict plugin usage to trusted/maintained plugins.
• Implement role-based access control.