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jenkinscontinuous-integrationmaster-slave

Can I use Jenkins Slaves for automated testing on different operating systems?

I am setting up a CI workflow using Jenkins. I have various code bases that I would like to be able to test on different operating systems from Windows Server 2012 through 2003 and also Red Hat, etc.

I'm wondering if using Jenkins slaves would be an effective solution for this.

Specific questions are things like:

  1. If a master executes a project, where is the project defined vs where does the job execute?
  2. If I want to execute a job that tests a language I don't want to support on the masters operating system (think Ruby on Windows), do I still need to make the master aware of that language in order to define the job, say by installing the relevant plugin?
  3. If I define a slave that's running inside a VM and I stop the VM, when the VM comes back up, am I going to have to run some sort of start up task on the slave, or pre-execute task on the master, to re register the slave before I can start a project running on the slave?
  4. When the slave task completes and the results are reported back, are those results stored on the master such that I can shut down the slave and still have access to previous test run results and trending information?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Solution
    1. If a master executes a project, where is the project defined vs where does the job execute?

    The jobs are defined and stored on the Master, they are executed on the Slave machines. You can define which jobs get executed on which slaves by using labels.

    1. If I want to execute a job that tests a language I don't want to support on the masters operating system (think Ruby on Windows), do I still need to make the master aware of that language in order to define the job, say by installing the relevant plugin?

    The Master doesn't need to know about the build environment. If you set up the Slave with the proper build environment, that should be fine. The master just delegates the jobs and such.

    1. If I define a slave that's running inside a VM and I stop the VM, when the VM comes back up, am I going to have to run some sort of start up task on the slave, or pre-execute task on the master, to re register the slave before I can start a project running on the slave?

    It depends on how you are connecting the Slave to the Master. For example, if you connect a Windows machine with the launch method: "Let Jenkins control this Windows slave as a Windows service". It should reconnect automatically when the Slave is back online. There is some setup involved in getting this to work however.

    1. When the slave task completes and the results are reported back, are those results stored on the master such that I can shut down the slave and still have access to previous test run results and trending information?

    Console log are kept on the Master. That's probably what you want.

    Hope that helps :)