What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Jenkins on CentOS 10 is to automate the application deployment process, making heavy use of CI/CD pipelines. We used Jenkins on CentOS 10 to automate the deployment process. The person responsible for that part, the manager, would go to the dashboard and hit play once everyone had confirmed that the changes were properly tested. From there, Jenkins on CentOS 10 built the application, registered it in Docker, updated the Helm chart for our application, and deployed it to the Kubernetes environment.
A specific example of how I use Jenkins on CentOS 10 pipelines with Docker in my workflow is a pipeline that had a Jenkinsfile stored in the project repository. In it, there were configurations for the images needed for the deployment process. We used the pipeline to build the updated image of the project. This pipeline also had another stage that handled registering this image in GitLab, which we used. After that, it updated the Helm chart version that we used in the Kubernetes environment. Finally, this pipeline deployed, installed, and updated the new version in the Kubernetes environment. In addition, we used these pipelines to diagnose and analyze the flow of this operation.
Another great use case I had was improved visibility of changes by version. The record of builds let us see which commits were being sent in each version and which versions had already been deployed, helping us investigate more clearly and roll back more quickly to previously successful versions.
How has it helped my organization?
Jenkins on CentOS 10 has positively impacted my organization by speeding up the deployment process and reducing the time we spent executing repetitive tasks. Since the automated deployment process let us start it and then continue working on other tasks, it also reduced errors in writing or executing manual commands. In addition, it reduced the need to share permission files for using the Kubernetes production environment of the application, since all usage configuration was centralized in Jenkins on CentOS 10 with restricted access only for responsible people.
Regarding the specific outcomes, we have started delivering much faster. In situations requiring a critical or emergency deployment, using Jenkins on CentOS 10 made updates quick and efficient, so necessary changes reached users faster, reducing our time, our rework, and the occurrence of errors during the deployment process. It also helped with documenting the process. If the infra developers were likely to leave for other opportunities, the deployment process was not interrupted or harmed because it was already very well configured in Jenkins on CentOS 10.
What is most valuable?
The best features Jenkins on CentOS 10 offers are the deployment process through declarative files, which makes it more standardized and easier to reuse. Also, once the deployment process is configured well, it can be run even by someone without technical experience or knowledge, just by using the dashboard. The dashboard is simple and practical to use. It has many plugins, which makes integration with various other tools easy. Plugins such as Stage View make it easier to visualize and diagnose the deployment process. Besides centralizing this process, another interesting feature is using it for jobs and actions that are not necessarily about deployment, but routine processes such as tests or other functions.
The dashboard and centralized process really help my team day-to-day by making things both easier and faster. Since we didn’t need to run all the commands manually, any change pushed to the repository could quickly trigger the deployment process just by clicking the play button on the specific project. It really made usage faster and easier, helping updates go live more quickly and more efficiently, and avoiding mistakes such as forgetting a command that needed to be run in the middle of the process.
Another interesting feature I enjoy is Jenkins as code. Even though the documentation is not very clear, it still offers a practical and quick way to preconfigure or replicate Jenkins on CentOS 10 configurations.
What needs improvement?
To improve Jenkins on CentOS 10, there are some challenges we ran into, especially when we first started using it. We missed clearer documentation, both for Jenkins as code and for some environment configurations. As a result, a lot of configurations were learned manually through tests with the team. We also missed more stable plugin updates. We had many problems with incompatibility between plugin versions in Jenkins on CentOS 10.
What makes those situations challenging is that we had problems starting and restarting the Jenkins on CentOS 10 application when we needed to reuse plugins from the previous version. Once we updated some plugins to the required version, others became incompatible with the current version. It became a cycle where we had to update Jenkins on CentOS 10, the versions of the plugins we used, and the versions of the plugins they depended on, which made configuration and startup quite difficult in some cases.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Jenkins on CentOS 10 for practically most of this work for about four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, Jenkins on CentOS 10 has been very stable, really very stable. The difficulties we faced involved only poor resource sizing or outdated plugins. Jenkins on CentOS 10 itself was always very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Jenkins on CentOS 10 is quite good, and the ease of configuration for new projects makes the process very scalable. In our Kubernetes environment, the only limitation is monitoring resource levels so that the containers for new processes and new applications can start without choking the others. Jenkins on CentOS 10 does have the capacity for growth, but that growth needs to be planned carefully so it doesn’t strangle other parts of the cloud environment.
How are customer service and support?
The community itself was more necessary and more useful than actually contacting support.
Since I didn’t use customer support, I’ll give it a seven.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In the company project, I didn't previously use a different solution before using Jenkins on CentOS 10. It was always Jenkins on CentOS 10. Before that, my personal experience was just manual deployment via terminal.
How was the initial setup?
We use Jenkins on CentOS 10 in a Kubernetes environment.
What was our ROI?
We definitely had a return on investment because of the speed in the deployment process, the automation, and the improvement in documentation of these processes, plus the faster visibility of the deployment process. I think that already pays off because of the time saved in our daily work.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Jenkins on CentOS 10 was very simple. We didn’t have any issues with that. The biggest cost is infrastructure resources to allocate the machine.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When I used Jenkins on CentOS 10, I didn’t have the power to choose; it was already used in the company. Today, however, I wouldn’t choose another tool to handle this process. Jenkins on CentOS 10 would indeed be my first option.
Before choosing Jenkins on CentOS 10, it’s important to know what resources the company has for configuration, as well as the human resources and skills of employees needed to properly configure a pipeline environment. Besides that, I would look at and compare tools such as GitLab, GitLab CI, and others such as container-focused tools or Docker-based automation tools to automate image processes for simpler, smaller applications. Those can also be good options.
What other advice do I have?
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate Jenkins on CentOS 10 a nine.
I chose nine out of ten for Jenkins on CentOS 10 because it’s really very useful. It really brought many benefits to our business, and I know there are still many features we could have used that would have made the company's day-to-day life even easier and better. However, it’s not a 10 yet for me because I find the system documentation hard to read and not very clear. I also think there’s a barrier for people who are not very into the DevOps side of things. In addition, plugin incompatibility can become a problem in some cases when restarting the project and handling versioning.
As with all AI usage now, I think the AI capabilities of Jenkins on CentOS 10 need to be used carefully. I find the Jenkins on CentOS 10 environment very suitable for AI use, but I think it should be very limited and have very clear rules. A bad configuration of a deployment process or tasks typically handled in Jenkins on CentOS 10 can cause problems for the entire operation. I don’t think governance and security themselves are a problem, but I think usage should be done carefully and with reduced permissions to avoid causing serious application errors.
I think the AI capabilities of Jenkins on CentOS 10 already have robust rules to avoid possible errors in the accuracy and reliability of output. I really like the configurations that are already available. I think its use could be very productive, since it could help diagnose errors and suggest improvements for the deployment flow and automated actions.
My recommendation to others reading reviews on PeerSpot who are looking into using Jenkins on CentOS 10 is to make good use of its capabilities. Automate processes in a clear, declarative, and organized way to make diagnosis easier. I would build an image or correctly save references of the plugins you use, because that can be very useful and necessary when you need to restart the application. I would also document what you have to do as part of the process.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other