Configuring Jenkins
Learn how to configure Jenkins for secure CI/CD workflows.
Abstract
Preface
To enable your Jenkins pipeline to perform essential tasks, such as vulnerability scanning, image signing, and attestation, follow these steps. The table outlines the actions you need to take and when you need to complete them.
Action | When to complete |
Adding secrets to Jenkins for secure integration with external tools | Before you use secure software templates to create an application, add secrets to Jenkins. This ensures seamless integration with ACS, Quay, and GitOps. |
Add your application to Jenkins | After creating the application and source repositories, add them to Jenkins. This enables you to review various aspects of the Jenkins pipeline on the Red Hat Developer Hub platform. |
By completing these steps, you enable Jenkins to integrate seamlessly with ACS (Advanced Cluster Security), Quay, and GitOps, and utilize Cosign for signing and verifying container images.
Chapter 1. Adding secrets to Jenkins for secure integration with external tools
When you select Jenkins as your CI provider while creating an application, you must add secrets to Jenkins for secure integration with external tools. This enables Jenkins to perform essential tasks, such as vulnerability scanning, image signing, and attestation generation.
Prerequisites
- You must have the necessary permissions to create and manage Jenkins jobs, variables, and CI pipelines.
- You must have the username and password for the image registry, such as Quay.io, Jfrog Artifactory, or Sonatype Nexus, to and pull container images.
- You must have appropriate GitOps credentials.
You must have the following information for specific tasks that you want Jenkins pipeline to perform:
For ACS tasks:
- ROX Central server endpoint and token
For SBOM tasks:
- Cosign signing keys password, private key, and public key
- Trustification URL, client ID, secret, and supported CycloneDX version
NoteThe values used for these credentials are already Base64-encoded, so you do not need to convert them. You can find these credentials in your
private.env
file.
Procedure
- Open your Jenkins instance in a web browser and log in with your admin credentials.
- Select on your username at the top right corner of the Jenkins dashboard.
- From the left sidebar, select Credentials.
- Choose the appropriate domain where you want to add the credentials. Typically, it’s Global credentials (unrestricted).
- Select Add Credentials.
- From the Kind drop-down list, select Secret text.
- Keep the default value in the Scope drop-down list as Global (Jenkins).
- In the Secret field, enter your ACS API token.
-
In the ID field, enter
ROX_API_TOKEN
. - In the Description field, enter an appropriate description for the credentials.
Repeat steps 5-10 for the following credentials:
Variable Description Provide image registry credentials for only one image registry.
QUAY_IO_CREDS_USR
Username for accessing Quay.io repository.
QUAY_IO_CREDS_PSW
Password for accessing Quay.io repository.
ARTIFACTORY_IO_CREDS_USR
Username for accessing JFrog Artifactory repository.
ARTIFACTORY_IO_CREDS_PSW
Password for accessing JFrog Artifactory repository.
NEXUS_IO_CREDS_USR
Username for accessing Sonatype Nexus repository.
NEXUS_IO_CREDS_PSW
Password for accessing Sonatype Nexus repository.
Set these variables if Jenkins runs on a non-local OpenShift instance, and the Rekor and TUF services are on different clusters.
REKOR_HOST
URL of your Rekor server.
TUF_MIRROR
URL of your TUF service.
GitOps configuration for Jenkins
GITOPS_AUTH_PASSWORD
The token the system uses to update the GitOps repository for newly built images.
GITOPS_AUTH_USERNAME
(optional)The parameter required for Jenkins to work with GitLab. You also need to uncomment a line with this parameter in a Jenkinsfile: GITOPS_AUTH_USERNAME = credentials('GITOPS_AUTH_USERNAME'). By default, this line is commented out.
Variable required for ACS tasks.
ROX_CENTRAL_ENDPOINT
Endpoint for the ROX Central server.
ROX_API_TOKEN
API token for accessing the ROX server.
Variables required for SBOM tasks.
COSIGN_SECRET_PASSWORD
Password for Cosign signing key.
COSIGN_SECRET_KEY
Private key for Cosign.
COSIGN_PUBLIC_KEY
Public key for Cosign.
TRUSTIFICATION_BOMBASTIC_API_URL
URL for Trustification Bombastic API used in SBOM generation.
TRUSTIFICATION_OIDC_ISSUER_URL
OIDC issuer URL used for authentication when interacting with the Trustification Bombastic API.
TRUSTIFICATION_OIDC_CLIENT_ID
Client ID for authenticating to the Trustification Bombastic API using OIDC.
TRUSTIFICATION_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET
Client secret used alongside the client ID to authenticate to the Trustification Bombastic API.
TRUSTIFICATION_SUPPORTED_CYCLONEDX_VERSION
Specifies the CycloneDX SBOM version that is supported and generated by the system.
Rerun the last pipeline run.
- Alternatively, switch to you application’s source repository in GitHub, make a minor change, and commit it to trigger a new pipeline run.
Additional resources
- If you selected Jenkins Continuous Integration (CI) when building your application, add your application to Jenkins.
Chapter 2. Adding your application to Jenkins
When you select Jenkins as your CI provider while creating an application, you must add your application to Jenkins. Proper integration ensures that your pipeline aligns with your CI/CD workflows and operates seamlessly.
Prerequisites
- You must have installed and configured Jenkins in your environment.
- You must have the necessary permissions to create and manage Jenkins jobs.
- You must have added correct credentials for the Jenkins pipeline during the post RHTAP install phase.
-
Review the
Jenkinsfile
and ensure it aligns with your Jenkins configuration. For example, you may need to update the agent settings to limit where the pipeline can run. -
Ensure that the Jenkins agent has the necessary binaries installed:
git
,curl
,jq
,yq
,buildah
,syft
,cosign
,python3
, andtree
. If the pipeline run fails at the start, it likely indicates that one or more binaries are missing.
Procedure
- Log in to your Jenkins instance.
- From the Jenkins dashboard, select New Item.
Enter a name for your pipeline job and select Pipeline project (for example,
secure-jenkins
).NoteThe name of your pipeline job must match the name of the application for which you are adding Jenkins CI. If the names do not match, the pipeline will run on Jenkins but will not be visible on RHDH.
-
(Optional) If you want to use a different pipeline name, update the
jenkins.io/job-full-name
field in thecatalog-info.yaml
file in the source repository with the pipeline name you choose.
-
(Optional) If you want to use a different pipeline name, update the
- Select OK to create the job.
- On the Configure > General page, navigate to the Pipeline section, and from the Definition drop-down list, select Pipeline script from SCM.
- From the SCM drop-down list, select Git.
In the Repository URL field, enter the Jenkins source repository URL.
- On the Red Hat Developer Hub platform, from the Catalog, select an appropriate application.
- Go to the Overview tab and select View Source to open the repository where your application’s source code is housed.
-
In the Branches to build section, enter
*/main
. - Select Save. The system displays the live-jenkins (name of your job) page.
Select Build Now. The system starts the build pipeline. Wait until the build is complete.
- In the Stage View section, select Pipeline Overview to visualize the pipeline run.
- Select Pipeline Console to review the live logs of each stage of the pipeline run.
Verification
After integrating your application with Jenkins, review various aspects of the Jenkins pipeline on the Red Hat Developer Hub platform.
From the Catalog, select the appropriate application or component.
- Go to the CI tab to view the Jenkins project. For the appropriate Jenkins job, using the Actions column, you can view, rerun, and view history of the job. The system displays the job overview with the status of latest run.
- Go to the CD tab and select the appropriate card to view deployment details, such as the commit message, author name, and deployment history managed by ArgoCD and GitOps.
- In the Catalog, from the Kind dropdown list, select Resource. The system displays Jenkins GitOps jobs. Select and review the appropriate GitOps resource.
- Go to the Topology tab to visualize your application’s deployment within the development namespace.
Completing these steps ensures seamless integration of your application with Jenkins, enabling efficient and reliable CI/CD workflows.
Revised on 2025-02-06 18:02:18 UTC