Adding zOS to our Jenkins Build Farm

Adding zOS to a Jenkins server as an ssh agent can be a difficult task, that’s why I’ve documented the steps that we were required follow to add our zOS machines to Jenkins.

Adding Java to zOS

All Jenkins build agents require Java to be on the machine to run the Slave agent. Normally an OpenJDK binary would be recommended to run the slave agent but there is no official zOS OpenJDK binary so I would recommend fetching IBM’s Java from here.

Adding the Machine to Jenkins

Head over to https://<jenkins-server>/computer/new, specify a node name and tick permanent agent.

Jenkins Screenshot 1

Once you have reached the machine configuration page specify the Launch method as Launch slave agents via SSH. Set the host IP Address, Credentials and Host Key Verification Strategy and then click advanced.

Jenkins Screenshot 2

In the advanced page, set the JavaPath as the path to the Java binary that you downloaded earlier and then add the following to JVM Options:

-Dfile.encoding=ISO8859-1

This will allow Jenkins to understand the Ebcdic output from Java on the machine.

You should now be able to successfully launch the Jenkins Java agent on your zOS machines.

Do you have questions or want to discuss this post? Hit us up on the AdoptOpenJDK Slack workspace!


George Adams

Posted by George AdamsJava Program Manager @microsoft, Chair of TSC @AdoptOpenJDK, Core Collaborator @nodejs

© 2017–2024, Built with Gatsby