What is your primary use case for Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu?

My main use case for Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu is to manage the CI/CD pipeline of my application where it will automate the complete CI and CD deployment. A specific example of how I use Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu for my CI/CD pipeline is with an application where it needs some integration that we need to build the application using Docker and we need to deploy the same application onto the Kubernetes cluster. We have some Docker containers which are running with Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu installed, and we have mounted that volume to the local Ubuntu server. If something happens to the container, there will be no issue with the data loss as we can recreate the container and attach the same volume to the container which has Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu, ensuring no data loss. Once Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu is installed on the container, I access it through the UI and manage the complete pipeline, which includes all stages, such as getting the code from the GitHub repository. We use Maven as my application is Java-based, allowing us to build the code and perform unit tests. Once we have the Maven artifact ready, we use the same WAR file to create an image using Docker. After creating the Docker image, we push it to the ECR repository on the AWS container registry. Once we have the container image available, it is pushed to the Kubernetes cluster using Argo CD deployment, and the same image runs on the Kubernetes clusters.

Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu is utilized for CI/CD processing, and we manage more than 50 different projects. Each project requires different pipeline procedures and different requirements. We organize our product project pipeline process in Jenkins for web applications, mobile applications, and security checks and testing procedures. We manage our whole infrastructure, continuous integration, and delivery process in Jenkins. We need Ubuntu hardened images most of the time because we chose Ubuntu. The same process and procedure could be applied regardless of the distribution chosen. Our hardened Ubuntu step operates in AWS. In our images, we need to maintain current security at the kernel and app level. We also require fast opening time and fast build time. If we do not use a package, we do not include it. We run hardening steps every time as an automatic build process. We use Jenkins in the Ubuntu hardening process, which is very important for us. For example, we run Ubuntu hardening images automatically every week. Our pipeline downloads the latest Ubuntu image and runs required tools, then executes hardened steps with Ansible. We use Ansible for the hardening steps. When the tasks are finished, we verify that everything is functioning correctly. Then we upload the AMI to our library for use in new deployments. Regarding governance and security for Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu, I can share details about the Ubuntu hardening side. Requirements sometimes change, and we can close every unnecessary tool and service. In the security steps, we can close their ports, use bastion hosts, or if using the cloud, allow access to the server in different ways. For Jenkins, we can block root access. We can also use RBAC.

My main use case for Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu is to build out some of our hardened Docker images used by the different product teams. For that contract, I worked as a platform engineer and essentially what we did was standardize the entire process by which teams or the product teams can leverage images and use it as a base image to build out their own application image to ensure that it is as secure as possible and is also fitted with all the things that are required for the application to run within our client's environments, which includes things like proxy, specific tools that the application might require, and different languages. I mostly also use it to create smoke tests for our re-roll process. Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu helped me manage and automate those image builds by allowing us to set up a process to build out our hardened images used by our Elastic Container Service on AWS. In fact, towards the end of when I joined that program, we were having to migrate from that Jenkins environment to Harness, but while we were still working on Jenkins, we had set up a process where we built out our hardened images that get security updates every week. We try to rebuild them once a week and push out that image to all our Elastic Container instances across the different production. There was a process that Jenkins helped us handle, which we call the re-roll process, which essentially just rotates the images, updating the Amazon Machine Images behind the Elastic Container Service instances. We update those images and then try to restart the different product teams' clusters with those updated images to ensure that we have the latest security patch. Jenkins being on a hardened image itself allowed us to safely push out our own hardened images for our Elastic Container service automatically, and teams could easily be assured that whatever gets rolled out at the start of a new week contains the latest security updates and patches that get fixed almost immediately.

My main use case for Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu is building pipelines for CI/CD and making sure that it has the proper security where the product that we deploy demands it.

My main use case for Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu is for the deployment of my microservices, creating the pipeline when creating the new services, and we can deploy easily for microservices in any environment. A specific example of a pipeline I've set up in Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu is when I need to go on the setting there and add our GitHub repository URL so that it can fetch that particular branch or that particular code, and then I can write that configuration file in our microservices, such as what the steps need to be there, including some code coverage checking, Sonar check, and some security checks, which we can do on our microservice configuration level, enabling it and deploying it by creating the new pipeline on Jenkins.

I am still working with Black Duck. I am working with both Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu and Coverity. I have Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu on Ubuntu and Windows. I am utilizing almost 200 Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu plugins on hardened Ubuntu.Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu is used for automated testing as well as manual testing, and in automated testing, I am able to organize and streamline the process. Once I build or once the requirement is there, the build pipelines are triggered to get the output and ensure the testing is in progress. It is extremely useful. There is a role-based access system in Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu on hardened Ubuntu and I am able to configure it for each user. For a developer, for integrator, for viewer, for reporters, there is a complete role-based access system. I call it RBAC. I have introduced these things and completely integrated with LDAP and it is highly secure. Real-time feedback is impacting my team's productivity positively. There are a lot of version upgrades. I am at the latest version too, and I have not seen any crash or any problem with the current environment. It is good. I am able to proceed and upgrade. I am almost having 15 to 18 Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu instances. Globally, I am using it across India and outside India too.

My main use case for Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu is using a secure CICD pipeline on an Amazon Machine Image, which is already secure, so that deploying code is as secure as it can be rather than running it on my own VM and worrying about the security. In my use case for Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu, I write code within Visual Studio Code, push it to our code repository, and then Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu has a webhook which allows it to link to that repository, enabling it to fetch the code and deploy it by running the CICD pipeline, making Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu the CICD server in a secure way on Hardened Ubuntu AWS hosted. There is nothing unique about my workflow or how it integrates with other tools.

I am using Jenkins on Hardened Ubuntu for procuring the infrastructure to deploy our applications and procuring databases for various tasks.