• open source automation server
• continuous integration (CI) tool
• it can automate all the process of design,development and testing phases of the project
• built in java environment and so it is platform independent
• powered by very strong community
• powered by plugins where it has 1800+ features
• latest version is jenkins 2.289.2
• prerequsite for installing is java (JDK where JRE is embedded)
• jenkins are available in various releases
  • jenkins(free)
  • enterprise jenkins
  • jenkinsx
  • blueocean

10 popular jenkins plugins:

1. Kubernetes

The “Kubernetes” plugin is great for automating build agents on a Kubernetes cluster. Essentially, the plugin will dynamically create Kubernetes Pods that house a build agent that has started and will stop the agent once the build has completed.

2. Swarm

This interesting plugin is useful if you plan on using Docker Swarm. It helps make life easier by allowing you to add worker nodes to a Jenkins master node effectively creating a cluster and making scalability much easier.

3. Amazon Elastic Container Service

A plugin that deploys build agents to an existing Amazon ECS cluster. These builds run within separate Docker containers that are removed upon completion of the build.

4. Azure Container Service

Similar to Amazon ECS, this plugin requires an existing cluster on Azure. Keep in mind that Azure Container Services is being deprecated by Microsoft, but this plugin still supports it as well as Azure Kubernetes Service.

5. Dashboard View

Dashboard View enables you to create a customized view within the Jenkins dashboard. The user is able to select which jobs they want to include in the view as well as the different portlets.

6. View Job Filters

The “View Job Filters” plugin lets you choose from a wide range of filters to help manage lots of jobs. Basically, this lets you see only the jobs you want to see within a view.

7. Folders

Tired of looking at a giant list of jobs? The “Folders” plugin allows you to organize them into your own customized folder structure. 

8. Jira

“Jira” is an open source plugin that does exactly what it says. Once installed, you can integrate your Jenkins instance with Atlassian Jira Software.

9. Performance

With this free plugin, you can run performance reports for your favorite test suites. Supported suites include JUnit, JMeter, Taurus, and others. 

10. Performance Publisher

The “Performance Publisher” plugin generates global and trend reports that can be used for test result analysis. The really cool part is that it works with any test suite.