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Set up Jenkins agents in the Azure Cloud

This text describes how to create and configure Jenkins agents to run on Azure Cloud Virtual Machines. It includes the installation of Docker to run containers inside Jenkins pipelines.

You will need the Azure CLI tool and Packer installed on your local machine. You also need access to your Kubernetes cluster via kubectl.

Building an Azure image with Packer

Create a Packer template for the VM image like azure-jenkins-agent.pkr.hcl
- Adapt source.azure-arm.jenkins-agent.managed_image_resource_group_name to a resource group in your Azure environment
Create the corresponding variables file, e.g. azure-jenkins-agent-variables.auto.pkrvars.hcl:

client_id = ""
client_secret = ""
tenant_id = ""
subscription_id = ""

Get the credentials needed in the variables file via Azure CLI commands:
- Use az login to connect to your Azure environment
- Get the subscription ID via az account show --query "{ subscription_id: id }"
- Get the client ID, tenant ID and client secret via az ad sp create-for-rbac --role Contributor --scopes /subscriptions/SUBSCRIPTION_ID --query "{ client_id: appId, client_secret: password, tenant_id: tenant }"
- Replace SUBSCRIPTION_ID with the subscription ID obtained in the step before
Install required plugins via packer init .
Build the VM image via packer build .
You will get a VM image in your Azure environment called cesJenkinsDockerAgent

Installing Azure VM Agents plugin

Install the Azure VM Agents plugin (and, optionally, the Docker Pipeline plugin) with init150NORMinstallAzurePlugins.groovy
You can run this script by adding it to the additional scripts directory in Jenkins or by executing it on the script console
- Run script via the Jenkins additional scripts directory:
- Get the Jenkins pod name via JENKINSPODID=$(kubectl get pods --namespace ecosystem | grep jenkins | awk 'NR==1{print $1}')
- Copy script to Jenkins data volume: kubectl cp --namespace ecosystem init150NORMinstallAzurePlugins.groovy ${JENKINSPODID}:/var/lib/custom.init.groovy.d/init150NORMinstallAzurePlugins.groovy
- Restart Jenkins by deleting the Jenkins pod (which will be re-created), so that the script will be executed on startup
- Run script via the Jenkins script console:
- In the Jenkins GUI go to Manage Jenkins -> Script Console
- Paste the groovy script above into the text field and click Run

Configuring Azure Cloud in Jenkins

Use the script init160NORMconfigureAzureCloud.groovy to configure Azure agents in Jenkins
- Insert the Azure credentials from the steps before
- Make sure the resource group name is correct
Run the script via the Jenkins script console or via the additional scripts directory as described above

Testing with a Jenkins pipeline

You can test if everything worked out correctly by using this test-pipeline:

Add a Jenkins Pipeline project
Use the following code for the pipeline:

#!groovy
@Library(['github.com/cloudogu/ces-build-lib@1.62.0'])

import com.cloudogu.ces.cesbuildlib.*

node('docker') {
    stage('Clone Repository') {
        checkout scmGit(userRemoteConfigs: [
            [url: 'https://github.com/ianmiell/simple-dockerfile/']
        ])
    }

    def docker = new Docker(this)
    stage('Docker Build') {
        docker.build("testing/azuretest:0.0.0")
        sh 'docker image ls'
    }

    stage('Docker Tag') {
        docker.image("testing/azuretest:0.0.0").tag("0.0.1")
        sh 'docker image ls'
    }

    stage('Docker Push') {
        String REGISTRY_URL = ""
        docker.withRegistry(REGISTRY_URL, "registrycredentials") {
            docker.image("testing/azuretest:0.0.1").push()
        }
    }
}

Adapt the registry URL (REGISTRY_URL) to your container image registry
Add Jenkins credentials with the ID registrycredentials to store your container image registry credentials
Execute the pipeline. A new Azure VM should be deployed, connect to Jenkins and run the pipeline

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Set up Jenkins agents in the Azure Cloud