Jenkins and InfluxDB Integration

Input and output integration overview

The Jenkins plugin collects vital information regarding jobs and nodes from a Jenkins instance through its API, facilitating comprehensive monitoring and analysis.

The InfluxDB plugin writes metrics to the InfluxDB HTTP service, allowing for efficient storage and retrieval of time series data.

Integration details

Jenkins

The Jenkins Telegraf plugin allows users to gather metrics from a Jenkins instance without needing to install any additional plugins on Jenkins itself. By utilizing the Jenkins API, the plugin retrieves information about nodes and jobs running in the Jenkins environment. This integration provides a comprehensive overview of the Jenkins infrastructure, including real-time metrics that can be used for monitoring and analysis. Key features include configurable filters for job and node selection, optional TLS security settings, and the ability to manage request timeouts and connection limits effectively. This makes it an essential tool for teams that rely on Jenkins for continuous integration and delivery, ensuring they have the insights they need to maintain optimal performance and reliability.

InfluxDB

The InfluxDB Telegraf plugin serves to send metrics to the InfluxDB HTTP API, facilitating the storage and query of time series data in a structured manner. Integrating seamlessly with InfluxDB, this plugin provides essential features such as token-based authentication and support for multiple InfluxDB cluster nodes, ensuring reliable and scalable data ingestion. Through its configurability, users can specify options like organization, destination buckets, and HTTP-specific settings, providing flexibility to tailor how data is sent and stored. The plugin also supports secret management for sensitive data, which enhances security in production environments. This plugin is particularly beneficial in modern observability stacks where real-time analytics and storage of time series data are crucial.

Configuration

Jenkins

[[inputs.jenkins]]
  ## The Jenkins URL in the format "schema://host:port"
  url = "http://my-jenkins-instance:8080"
  # username = "admin"
  # password = "admin"

  ## Set response_timeout
  response_timeout = "5s"

  ## Optional TLS Config
  # tls_ca = "/etc/telegraf/ca.pem"
  # tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
  # tls_key = "/etc/telegraf/key.pem"
  ## Use SSL but skip chain & host verification
  # insecure_skip_verify = false

  ## Optional Max Job Build Age filter
  ## Default 1 hour, ignore builds older than max_build_age
  # max_build_age = "1h"

  ## Optional Sub Job Depth filter
  ## Jenkins can have unlimited layer of sub jobs
  ## This config will limit the layers of pulling, default value 0 means
  ## unlimited pulling until no more sub jobs
  # max_subjob_depth = 0

  ## Optional Sub Job Per Layer
  ## In workflow-multibranch-plugin, each branch will be created as a sub job.
  ## This config will limit to call only the lasted branches in each layer,
  ## empty will use default value 10
  # max_subjob_per_layer = 10

  ## Jobs to include or exclude from gathering
  ## When using both lists, job_exclude has priority.
  ## Wildcards are supported: [ "jobA/*", "jobB/subjob1/*"]
  # job_include = [ "*" ]
  # job_exclude = [ ]

  ## Nodes to include or exclude from gathering
  ## When using both lists, node_exclude has priority.
  # node_include = [ "*" ]
  # node_exclude = [ ]

  ## Worker pool for jenkins plugin only
  ## Empty this field will use default value 5
  # max_connections = 5

  ## When set to true will add node labels as a comma-separated tag. If none,
  ## are found, then a tag with the value of 'none' is used. Finally, if a
  ## label contains a comma it is replaced with an underscore.
  # node_labels_as_tag = false

InfluxDB

[[outputs.influxdb]]
  ## The full HTTP or UDP URL for your InfluxDB instance.
  ##
  ## Multiple URLs can be specified for a single cluster, only ONE of the
  ## urls will be written to each interval.
  # urls = ["unix:///var/run/influxdb.sock"]
  # urls = ["udp://127.0.0.1:8089"]
  # urls = ["http://127.0.0.1:8086"]

  ## Local address to bind when connecting to the server
  ## If empty or not set, the local address is automatically chosen.
  # local_address = ""

  ## The target database for metrics; will be created as needed.
  ## For UDP url endpoint database needs to be configured on server side.
  # database = "telegraf"

  ## The value of this tag will be used to determine the database.  If this
  ## tag is not set the 'database' option is used as the default.
  # database_tag = ""

  ## If true, the 'database_tag' will not be included in the written metric.
  # exclude_database_tag = false

  ## If true, no CREATE DATABASE queries will be sent.  Set to true when using
  ## Telegraf with a user without permissions to create databases or when the
  ## database already exists.
  # skip_database_creation = false

  ## Name of existing retention policy to write to.  Empty string writes to
  ## the default retention policy.  Only takes effect when using HTTP.
  # retention_policy = ""

  ## The value of this tag will be used to determine the retention policy.  If this
  ## tag is not set the 'retention_policy' option is used as the default.
  # retention_policy_tag = ""

  ## If true, the 'retention_policy_tag' will not be included in the written metric.
  # exclude_retention_policy_tag = false

  ## Write consistency (clusters only), can be: "any", "one", "quorum", "all".
  ## Only takes effect when using HTTP.
  # write_consistency = "any"

  ## Timeout for HTTP messages.
  # timeout = "5s"

  ## HTTP Basic Auth
  # username = "telegraf"
  # password = "metricsmetricsmetricsmetrics"

  ## HTTP User-Agent
  # user_agent = "telegraf"

  ## UDP payload size is the maximum packet size to send.
  # udp_payload = "512B"

  ## Optional TLS Config for use on HTTP connections.
  # tls_ca = "/etc/telegraf/ca.pem"
  # tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
  # tls_key = "/etc/telegraf/key.pem"
  ## Use TLS but skip chain & host verification
  # insecure_skip_verify = false

  ## HTTP Proxy override, if unset values the standard proxy environment
  ## variables are consulted to determine which proxy, if any, should be used.
  # http_proxy = "http://corporate.proxy:3128"

  ## Additional HTTP headers
  # http_headers = {"X-Special-Header" = "Special-Value"}

  ## HTTP Content-Encoding for write request body, can be set to "gzip" to
  ## compress body or "identity" to apply no encoding.
  # content_encoding = "gzip"

  ## When true, Telegraf will output unsigned integers as unsigned values,
  ## i.e.: "42u".  You will need a version of InfluxDB supporting unsigned
  ## integer values.  Enabling this option will result in field type errors if
  ## existing data has been written.
  # influx_uint_support = false

  ## When true, Telegraf will omit the timestamp on data to allow InfluxDB
  ## to set the timestamp of the data during ingestion. This is generally NOT
  ## what you want as it can lead to data points captured at different times
  ## getting omitted due to similar data.
  # influx_omit_timestamp = false

Input and output integration examples

Jenkins

1. Continuous Integration Monitoring: Use the Jenkins plugin to monitor the performance of continuous integration pipelines by collecting metrics on job durations and failure rates. This can help teams identify bottlenecks in the pipeline and improve overall build efficiency.

2. Resource Allocation Analysis: Leverage Jenkins node metrics to assess resource usage across different agents. By understanding how resources are allocated, teams can optimize their Jenkins architecture, potentially reallocating agents or adjusting job configurations for better performance.

3. Job Execution Trends: Analyze historical job performance metrics to identify trends in job execution over time. With this data, teams can proactively address potential issues before they grow, making adjustments to the jobs or their configurations as needed.

4. Alerting for Job Failures: Implement alerts that leverage the Jenkins job metrics to notify team members in case of job failures. This proactive approach can enhance operational awareness and speed up response times to failures, ensuring that critical jobs are monitored effectively.

InfluxDB

1. Real-Time System Monitoring: Utilize the InfluxDB plugin to capture and store metrics from a range of system components, such as CPU usage, memory consumption, and disk I/O. By pushing these metrics into InfluxDB, you can create a live dashboard that visualizes system performance in real time. This setup not only helps in identifying performance bottlenecks but also assists in proactive capacity planning by analyzing trends over time.

2. Performance Tracking for Web Applications: Automatically gather and push metrics related to web application performance, such as request durations, error rates, and user interactions, to InfluxDB. By employing this plugin in your monitoring stack, you can use the stored metrics to generate reports and analyses that help understand user behavior and application efficiency, thus guiding development and optimization efforts.

3. IoT Data Aggregation: Leverage the InfluxDB Telegraf plugin to collect sensor data from various IoT devices and store it in a centralized InfluxDB instance. This use case enables you to analyze trends and patterns in environmental or machine data over time, facilitating smarter decisions and predictive maintenance strategies. By integrating IoT data into InfluxDB, organizations can harness the power of historical data analysis to drive innovation and operational efficiency.

4. Analyzing Historical Metrics for Forecasting: Set up the InfluxDB plugin to send historical metric data into InfluxDB and use it to drive forecasting models. By analyzing past performance metrics, you can create predictive models that forecast future trends and demands. This application is particularly useful for business intelligence purposes, helping organizations prepare for fluctuations in resource needs based on historical usage patterns.

Feedback

Thank you for being part of our community! If you have any general feedback or found any bugs on these pages, we welcome and encourage your input. Please submit your feedback in the InfluxDB community Slack.