Jenkins plugins management options

gistfile1.txt

1.  Jenkins Plugin Manager CLI
The Jenkins Plugin Manager CLI (jenkins-plugin-manager) is officially recommended, modern, and robust:

 - Better dependency resolution.

 - Officially supported by Jenkins.

 - YAML-based plugin configuration.

2. Step-by-step Automation Guide:

Overall workflow:
 - Maintain plugins.yaml on GitHub.
 - EC2 instance (or Ansible automation) fetches plugins.yaml.
 - Use jenkins-plugin-manager with authentication to Jenkins to install/update plugins.

Step 1: Prepare plugins.yaml on GitHub
Create a plugins.yaml file in your repo:

plugins:
  - artifactId: workflow-aggregator
    source:
      version: latest
  - artifactId: git
    source:
      version: latest
  - artifactId: blueocean
    source:
      version: 1.27.12
  - artifactId: configuration-as-code
    source:
      version: 1714.v09593e830cfa

Step 2: Download and Configure jenkins-plugin-manager on EC2
Download the latest release:

wget https://github.com/jenkinsci/plugin-installation-manager-tool/releases/latest/download/jenkins-plugin-manager-2.13.0.jar -O /tmp/jenkins-plugin-manager.jar

Step 3: Jenkins Authentication Setup (API Token):
You need Jenkins credentials (username/API token):

a. Log into Jenkins.
b. Manage Jenkins → Manage Users → your-user → Configure
c. Under API Token, click Add New Token, name it (e.g., plugin-manager-token).
d. Copy the generated token securely.

Step 4: Deployment

Option 1 Automate with Ansible (Including Authentication)

Ansible playbook example:

inventory.ini file:

[jenkins]
jenkins_ec2 ansible_host=<your-ec2-ip> ansible_user=ubuntu
jenkins-plugins.yml 

Ansible playbook file:
---
- hosts: jenkins
  vars:
    jenkins_url: "http://localhost:8080"
    plugin_manager_url: "https://github.com/jenkinsci/plugin-installation-manager-tool/releases/latest/download/jenkins-plugin-manager-2.13.0.jar"
    plugins_yaml_url: "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/<username>/<repo>/main/plugins.yaml"
    jenkins_cli_jar: "/tmp/jenkins-plugin-manager.jar"
    jenkins_user: "admin"
    jenkins_token: "<your-jenkins-api-token>"

  tasks:
    - name: Install OpenJDK
      apt:
        name: openjdk-17-jre
        state: present
      become: yes

    - name: Download Jenkins Plugin Manager CLI
      get_url:
        url: "{{ plugin_manager_url }}"
        dest: "{{ jenkins_cli_jar }}"

    - name: Download plugins.yaml from GitHub
      get_url:
        url: "{{ plugins_yaml_url }}"
        dest: "/tmp/plugins.yaml"

    - name: Install Jenkins plugins using Jenkins Plugin Manager CLI
      command: >
        java -jar {{ jenkins_cli_jar }}
        --war /usr/share/java/jenkins.war
        --plugin-file /tmp/plugins.yaml
        --jenkins-url {{ jenkins_url }}
        --username {{ jenkins_user }}
        --password {{ jenkins_token }}
        --verbose
      notify: Restart Jenkins

  handlers:
    - name: Restart Jenkins
      service:
        name: jenkins
        state: restarted
      become: yes
Replace <username>/<repo> and <your-jenkins-api-token> accordingly.

Step 4.1: Run the Automation 
Deploy plugins:

ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini jenkins-plugins.yml


Option 2: EC2 User Data Script (Cloud-init automation):

It will run under userdata scrip during of provisioning EC2 instances:

Automation script:
#!/bin/bash

# Install Java and Jenkins
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y openjdk-17-jre wget
wget -q -O - https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian-stable/jenkins.io.key | sudo apt-key add -
echo 'deb https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian-stable binary/' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jenkins.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y jenkins

# Download Plugin Manager CLI
wget https://github.com/jenkinsci/plugin-installation-manager-tool/releases/latest/download/jenkins-plugin-manager-2.13.0.jar -O /tmp/jenkins-plugin-manager.jar

# Wait Jenkins to start (may take ~1 minute)
sleep 60

# Download plugins.yaml
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/<username>/<repo>/main/plugins.yaml -O /tmp/plugins.yaml

# Install Plugins
java -jar /tmp/jenkins-plugin-manager.jar \
  --war /usr/share/java/jenkins.war \
  --plugin-file /tmp/plugins.yaml \
  --jenkins-url http://localhost:8080 \
  --username admin \
  --password <your-api-token> \
  --verbose

# Restart Jenkins
sudo systemctl restart jenkins


Maintaining the Plugin List via GitHub:
Update your plugins.yaml directly in GitHub.

Run the Ansible playbook or re-run the automation to apply updates.


Security Best Practices:
 - Always protect your Jenkins API token securely.
 - Consider using AWS Secrets Manager or Ansible Vault for tokens.
 - Never commit API tokens directly into public repositories.