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Jenkins Kubernetes integration plugins

To integrate Jenkins with a Kubernetes cluster, specific plugins must be installed to enable the CI/CD system to interact with containerized workflows and cloud-native resources.^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-k8s-jenkins-k8s.md]

Required Plugins

The following plugins are explicitly required to establish the connection and functionality between Jenkins and Kubernetes:^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-k8s-jenkins-k8s.md]

  • k8s: The core plugin for Kubernetes integration.
  • docker: Essential for building and publishing Docker images.
  • docker-pip: A plugin utilized for Docker pipeline operations.

Additional Tooling

While the Kubernetes integration relies on the plugins above, it is standard practice to install the Blue Ocean plugin alongside them.^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-k8s-jenkins-k8s.md] This plugin provides a modernized user interface and improved pipeline visualization, which complements the containerized deployment workflow.

Deployment Context

Once the plugins are installed, Jenkins is typically deployed as a Deployment within the Kubernetes cluster.^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-k8s-jenkins-k8s.md] To function correctly, the Jenkins container requires specific environment variables, such as JAVA_OPTS for memory allocation and TRY_UPGRADE_IF_NO_MARKER for upgrade behavior, along with exposed ports for HTTP traffic (8080) and agent communication (50000).^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-k8s-jenkins-k8s.md]

Access to the Jenkins instance is commonly configured via a Kubernetes Service and an Ingress resource, which routes external traffic to the Jenkins service port.^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-k8s-jenkins-k8s.md]

Sources

^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-k8s-jenkins-k8s.md]