Cronograf, Influxdb, Grafana (CIG) + Jenkins

Here are the basics to get a local Cronograf, InfluxDB, Grafana and Jenkins running together. Cronograf, Influx and Grafana are affectionately named the 'CIG' stack. This allows you to collect Jenkins events, aggregate them, and view them in a customizable dashboard. Its a powerful pattern for a team or a set of teams that relies on Jenkins and wants more insight into usage and success/failure of Jenkins actions.

1 - Run and connect components locally

Step 1a - Docker commands

Step 1 is to get the components running locally in the simplest manner possible. This is not a production configuration but rather steps to follow to understand a topic.

This can be done with docker and a few quick commands.

First we create a docker network for the components to communicate with eachother

docker network create influxdb

Then we standup influxdb on the network

docker run -d --name=influxdb --net=influxdb -p 8086:8086 influxdb

Next chronograf As a visualization on influxdb

docker run -d -p 8888:8888 --net=influxdb chronograf --influxdb-url=http://influxdb:8086

Finally Jenkins, so that we may consume events and display them

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 --net=influxdb -p 50000:50000 jenkins/jenkins:latest

Or if you like, trigger the shell script that performs all these steps

./influxjenkinschronoup.sh

These commands create a docker network. The network is a bridge network, a local address space of 172.18.0.0/16, that allows the different components to find the influxDB ip address http://influxdb:8086, which is routed to a dynamic local assigned address of which http://172.10.0.2:8086 is an example.

Passing in -p commands allows the containers to also be accessed with localhost:8086 for in-browser debugging.

Step 1b - Install Jenkins plugin(s)

Next the influxDB plugin for Jenkins will be required. Install it on the running Jenkins and the configure it to work with your local influxDB instance.

Next install any required tools to run your specific project. I use a golang example so I had to install the go plugin and configure it in the manage jenkins/tools section.

Step 1c - Run a pipeline and check the stats in influxDB

Either point jenkins to a working repo + jenkinsfile or paste the following code in the pipeline text to get it up and running.

pipeline {
    agent any

    stages {
        stage('Build Bin') {
            steps {
                echo 'Building Bin'
            }
        }
        stage('Build War') {
            steps {
                echo 'Building War'
            }
        }
    }

    post {
        always {
            echo 'This will always run'
            emailext body:  "Build URL: ${BUILD_URL}",
                subject: "$currentBuild.currentResult-$JOB_NAME",
                to: 'peter.lamar@optum.com'
            step([$class: 'InfluxDbPublisher',
                    customData: null,
                    customDataMap: null,
                    customPrefix: null,
                    target: 'influxDB'])
        }
        success {
            echo 'This will run only if successful'
        }
        failure {
            echo 'This will run only if failed'
        }
        unstable {
            echo 'This will run only if the run was marked as unstable'
        }
        changed {
            echo 'This will run only if the state of the Pipeline has changed'
            echo 'For example, if the Pipeline was previously failing but is now successful'
        }
    }
}

2 - Connect Grafana to InfluxDB to show Jenkins stats

Step 2a - Stand up and connect Grafana

This step is fairly straight forward. First stand up Grafana and connect it to the existing Docker network

docker run -d --name=grafana --net=influxdb -p 3000:3000  grafana/grafana

Or shell script with this step

./graphanaup.sh

Once its running, visit localhost:3000 and config Grafana to communicate with our influxDB instance. The defaul login is admin/admin and you will be prompted to change it upon login.

Step 2b - Create a dashboard

Next, configure a straight forward dashboard to get started with Jenkins statistics.

Congratulations, you have the cluster running!

Cleanup, if desired

Stop all local containers:

docker kill $(docker ps -q)

Delete all local containers:

docker rm $(docker ps -a -q)

Delete all images:

docker rmi $(docker images -q)

peterlamar/CIGJenkins