Pratham More

Running Jenkins in a Docker Container with Persistent Storage

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Prathm More
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2 min read

This guide will help you set up Jenkins in a Docker container, with a persistent volume to ensure Jenkins configuration, jobs, and plugins are preserved even after container restarts.

Prerequisites

  • Docker installed on your host machine

  • Basic knowledge of Docker commands

Steps

Step 1: Set Up a Directory for Persistent Storage

Create a directory on your host machine to store Jenkins data:

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/jenkins

This directory will serve as a persistent volume for Jenkins data.

Set ownership of the directory to user ID 1000, which is the default Jenkins user inside the Docker container:

sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /var/lib/jenkins

Step 2: Run the Jenkins Docker Container

Pull the Jenkins image if it’s not already available on your machine:

docker pull jenkins/jenkins:lts

Run the container with the volume mounted:

docker run -d \
   --name jenkins \
   -p 8080:8080 \
   -p 50000:50000 \
   -v /var/lib/jenkins:/var/jenkins_home \
   jenkins/jenkins:lts

  • -p 8080:8080: Maps Jenkins’s web interface to port 8080 on your host.

  • -p 50000:50000: Enables connections from Jenkins agents.

  • -v /var/lib/jenkins:/var/jenkins_home: Mounts the host directory /var/lib/jenkins to /var/jenkins_home in the container. This is where Jenkins stores its data by default.

Step 3: Access Jenkins

Open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080 (replace localhost with your server’s IP address if accessing remotely).

Unlock Jenkins:

During the initial setup, Jenkins will prompt for an administrator password.

Retrieve this password from the file located at /var/lib/jenkins/secrets/initialAdminPassword on the host machine.

To view the password, run:

cat /var/lib/jenkins/secrets/initialAdminPassword

Complete the Jenkins setup by following the on-screen instructions:

  1. Install the recommended plugins or select plugins as per your requirements.

  2. Create your first administrator user.

Step 4: Verify Data Persistence

To ensure that Jenkins data persists across container restarts:

  1. Stop the Jenkins container:

     docker stop jenkins

  2. Start the container again:

     docker start jenkins

  3. Confirm that your settings, jobs, and plugins are retained by visiting http://localhost:8080 and logging in. All your previous configurations should remain intact.