Unlocking the power of Jenkins data

The Challenge

Managing a Jenkins CI/CD pipeline effectively requires consistent monitoring of various build metrics, including build statuses, build durations, health metrics, and overall Jenkins environment performance. With multiple jobs running simultaneously and the pressure to keep all builds stable, it becomes increasingly difficult to pinpoint issues quickly and ensure a smooth flow of development from code commit to deployment.

This dashboard was built to solve exactly that: provide a single-pane-of-glass view of Jenkins performance metrics that lets teams rapidly understand the health of their builds, while keeping an eye on the system’s overall performance.

The Solution

This Jenkins Summary Dashboard offers a powerful snapshot of Jenkins' build and environment metrics, tailored for development teams and DevOps professionals. By leveraging SquaredUp with Jenkins integrations, we were able to surface real-time insights into build stability, duration, and overall system health without the need to jump between multiple Jenkins views.

Build Status Overview

At the top, key build statuses are displayed prominently. By default, the dashboard shows the most recent builds from our Jenkins projects, however this can be changed to focus on specific builds if needed. Each card represents a specific build, making it easy to see whether the builds passed (green) or failed (red) at a glance. These are up-to-date and help the team instantly assess the state of recent builds. For example:

- #1873: Completed successfully

- #3860: Completed successfully

- #1877: Completed successfully

Build Duration and Trends

The build duration overview provides a comparative view of recent builds' run times, helping the team quickly spot outliers. For instance, the build duration for #3860 is significantly higher than the others, indicating potential inefficiencies or resource bottlenecks.

To give a general sense of performance trends, the average build duration is displayed at 20,118 ms. This number helps identify if builds are slowing down over time, enabling proactive improvements in pipeline configurations or resources.

For more detailed insights, the recent builds table tracks results, timestamps, durations, and causes of the latest jobs. It helps teams monitor the specifics of each build and quickly identify any recent failures or delays, such as which upstream projects triggered the job.

Health Metrics

Health is crucial for any pipeline, and the Project Build Score of 100.00% is a sign of optimal performance and stability with very few (if any) failed builds in this example. Paired with the Weather Report, which shows green for all recent builds across projects, this section helps teams track pipeline stability. No recent build failures mean everything is running smoothly for now. If there were any failed builds this metric would be updated in real time, allowing for swift action to be taken.

Jenkins Environment Metrics

In terms of infrastructure, the Jenkins Environment Metrics section ensures that the Jenkins master node and controller are functioning correctly. The dashboard shows that Jenkins is running version 2.346.3, and the built-in node is healthy and operational, ensuring a solid foundation for builds. We note that the running version is showing as amber status, meaning although it is running healthy, the version has an update available.

The Plugin Status section tracks Jenkins plugins, which are critical for managing different parts of the pipeline. This table gives a clear view of plugin health, including their version, required core version, and dependencies. With plugins like gitlab-api and ansiColor up-to-date and working as expected, the pipeline remains stable and secure.

Why this dashboard matters

This Jenkins Summary Dashboard simplifies complex build data into actionable insights. DevOps teams now have a bird's-eye view of their CI/CD environment, allowing them to instantly spot issues before they become blockers, all in real-time. Furthermore, this dashboard encourages better communication in team meetings, as everyone can easily reference the health of the pipeline, identify long-running builds, and stay on top of any environment issues.