Deploying Jenkins Server with AWS CloudFormation

AWS CloudFormation is a service that allows you to define, create, and manage AWS infrastructure as code (IaC). Instead of manually provisioning resources, you can describe your infrastructure in templates written in JSON or YAML, enabling consistent, automated deployments. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) simplifies infrastructure management by treating configurations as code, which can be version-controlled and reused.

In this article, we’ll delve into the concept of IaC, explore AWS CloudFormation, and guide you through a practical example.

How CloudFormation Works CloudFormation relies on three key components:

Template: A JSON or YAML file that specifies the AWS resources to be created.

Stack: A collection of AWS resources defined in a template, deployed, and managed together.

Change Sets: A way to preview changes to a stack before applying updates to ensure the desired outcomes.

Hands-On: Setting Up Jenkins using CloudFormation

For this project, we will break the deployment into three separate YAML files:

Network.yml: Defines the VPC, subnets, and associated networking components.

Jenkins-server.yml: Specifies the EC2 instance and the latest version of Jenkins setup.

Roles.yml: Manages IAM roles and permissions for secure resource access and more of a backup for Jenkins.

To connect to AWS and deploy these templates, we will use Visual Studio Code (VSCode), and authenticate to AWS via Access Key and Secret Key. Ensure you have AWS CLI installed on your PC. You can confirm by running aws --version on your terminal.

Let’s get started!

network.yml

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Description: "CloudFormation template to deploy Jenkins with VPC, EC2, and S3."

Resources:
  # VPC
  MyVPC:
    Type: AWS::EC2::VPC
    Properties:
      CidrBlock: "10.0.0.0/16"
      EnableDnsSupport: true
      EnableDnsHostnames: true
      Tags:
        - Key: Name
          Value: JenkinsVPC

  # Internet Gateway
  InternetGateway:
    Type: AWS::EC2::InternetGateway

  VPCGatewayAttachment:
    Type: AWS::EC2::VPCGatewayAttachment
    Properties:
      InternetGatewayId: !Ref InternetGateway
      VpcId: !Ref MyVPC

  # Public Subnet
  PublicSubnet:
    Type: AWS::EC2::Subnet
    Properties:
      CidrBlock: "10.0.1.0/24"
      MapPublicIpOnLaunch: true
      VpcId: !Ref MyVPC
      Tags:
        - Key: Name
          Value: PublicSubnet

  # Route Table and Routes
  PublicRouteTable:
    Type: AWS::EC2::RouteTable
    Properties:
      VpcId: !Ref MyVPC



... Find Complete script at github.com/chisomjude

Jenkins-server.yml

Resources:

  JenkinsInstance:
    Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
    Properties:
      InstanceType: t2.micro
      KeyName: my-key-pair  # Replace with your key pair
      ImageId: ami-0c02fb55956c7d316  # Amazon Linux 2 AMI ID
      SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet
      SecurityGroupIds:
        - !Ref JenkinsSecurityGroup
      UserData:
        Fn::Base64: !Sub |
          #!/bin/bash
          yum update -y

.... Find Complete script at github.com/chisomjude

roles.yml

Resources:
  JenkinsInstanceProfile:
    Type: AWS::IAM::InstanceProfile
    Properties:
      Roles:
        - !Ref JenkinsRole

  JenkinsRole:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Role
    Properties:
      AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
        Version: "2012-10-17"
        Statement:
          - Effect: Allow
            Principal:
              Service: ec2.amazonaws.com
     ...Find Complete script at github.com/chisomjude

How to run your cloud formation files

Configure AWS User Account:

Ensure you have AWS CLI installed, then you can confirm this by running aws —version
Run aws configure , enter the Secret and Access key, region, and file format in the prompt

Run cloud formation Yaml files:

First, you validate the file using the following command

aws cloudformation validate-template --template-body file://filename.yml

Next, you run the command to create your stacks using each YAML file in this order

VPC
Roles
Jenkins Server, ( pass the network requirement as parameters)

aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name <stackname> --template-body file://filename.yml --capabilities CAPABILITY_NAMED_IAM

aws cloudformation create-stack \
  --stack-name AppStack \
  --template-body file://jenkins-server.yml \
  --parameters ParameterKey=PublicSubnet,ParameterValue=<Subnet-ID> \
               ParameterKey=JenkinsSecurityGroup,ParameterValue=<SecurityGroup-ID> \
  --capabilities CAPABILITY_NAMED_IAM

Visualize the Stack and Resources Created

Stack creation

Resources

Check your server on <IP>:8080

Thank you for your time, If this was helpful Give this article a Like or Clap 👏👏👏
Need a complete script Cloudformation Script? Visit my Github Repo - CF-to-Jenkins

Reference:

https://www.jenkins.io/doc/book/installing/linux/

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/corretto/latest/corretto-17-ug/downloads-list.html
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/template-guide.html

Deploying a Jenkins Server to AWS using Cloud Formation