Jenkins and Docker

Question

Is there a way to do automation with Jenkins to deploy and run containers? I heard we can use the Docker plugins for it. But there isn't any tutorials or info that explains how we can use Jenkins and Docker together. Anyone who uses them both care to share?

Answer 1

Have a look at https://registry.hub.docker.com/search?q=jenkins&searchfield=

and at some Dockerfiles such as https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/niaquinto/jenkins/dockerfile/

or https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/aespinosa/jenkins/dockerfile/

Answer 2

First off in my implementation of things Jenkins is actually a container in Docker.

Here's where it may seem things get bizarre: I actually install docker-ce inside of that container, not because I want to run Docker-in-Docker. I disable the Docker daemon from running (sysctl) but I want the command line.

I install docker-compose and docker-machine on the Jenkins host and add the "jenkins" userid to the docker group.

There's a bunch of other steps that I do but basically they are the same steps that a user is going to go through (except it's all in my Docker file) and I add the results of "docker-machine env" to the global variables in the Jenkins configuration.

head spinning yet?

Applications I have Jenkins deploying all have a "jenkins" subdirectory with a Jenkins file in it to perform the dirty work as a pipeline. (build/test/deploy)

Deployments for Java apps for instance involve copying the warfile for the application to the correct directory and when the container (or containers) start the application engine (tomcat, Jboss, whatever) picks it up and the application runs.