Question

hello
i want to install a central build server that will serve all my other build servers (different OS’s).
should Jenkins be installed on this central machine or should i install it on the main build server (windows based)?
in addition, what is the master-slave relationship means?
does it mean that i can run a build from the master but it will actually run on the slave?
thanks!

Answer 1

The build server can have a Jenkins slave, that is can be declared on the Hudson master instance (itself installed on a dedicated server) in order to be run according to the job specifications registered at said master.

The Jenkins master is just a scheduler, and will execute jobs either on the Jenkins master server itself, or on any server registered as slave.

The idea to isolate the master on its own server, rather than having it directly in the build server, is to:

• administer the Jenkins master server independently from the build server
• avoid taking resources (disk space, cpu) from the build processes on the build server
• not making all the other jobs depending on the state of the build server (if said server goes down, no other jobs would be executed)

The script actually executed on the build server can then declare/use locally whatever ClearCase snapshot or dynamic view it needs to access the relevant sources, depending on how the Jenkins ClearCase job, ClearCase UCM job or ClearCase Release job has been configured.

You don’t need for that to have the server directly on the build server.