Upgrade guide for Jenkins Windows Installer

[Mark Waite]

The new Jenkins installer for Windows has been available in the Jenkins weekly since April 2020.  However, the first long term support release with the new Windows installer was just last week with Jenkins 2.235.3.

The Jenkins 2.235.3 upgrade guide needs to describe the transition from the old Windows installer (32 bit, bundled a JRE) to the new Windows installer (64 bit, no bundled JRE, choose your service account). The new installer is described in a blog post.  I think we may want a blog post that announces the change in 2.235.3 as well.

I will be working on it this week but I would love to have help from additional people willing to assist. If you have a Windows computer and are willing to install and experiment with Jenkins on Windows, I'd sincerely appreciate your help.  Reply to this mail thread if you're available to help with writing, reviewing, or experimenting with the Jenkins Windows installer.

Thanks,

Mark Waite

[Vlad Silverman]

Hi Mark,

Although I hadn’t touched my Windows computer for a while, I would be glad to help with this.

Thx, Vlad

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[Mark Waite]

Help would be deeply appreciated.  If you have time and would be willing to experience it first hand, I'd love to have you take the following steps to prepare for a discussion related to the upgrade guide:

1. Read the Windows installers blog post and identify key areas related to upgrade.  Things that come to my mind include:
1. Switch from 32 bit default installation folder to 64 bit default installation folder
2. Switch from bundled 32 bit JRE to relying on user installed 64 bit JDK
3. Java 11 support
4. New or different location for the Jenkins home directory
5. Service account selection in the new installer and how users transition to that from the old installation
6. More topics that you may identify
2. Download and Install Jenkins 2.235.2 from the MSI to a Windows computer and extend it with a few job definitions, possibly a credential, and some plugins
3. Download and run the Jenkins 2.235.3 installer on the same computer where Jenkins 2.235.2 was installed, take note of behaviors
1. Does it detect the Jenkins 2.235.2 installation and offer to upgrade?  (probably not)
2. Does it offer to copy data from the Jenkins 2.235.2 installation? (probably not)
3. When installed, does it supersede the Jenkins 2.235.2 installation?

I'm open to other suggestions of areas to explore.  The goal is to quickly identify the types of things that should be mentioned in the upgrade guide for Jenkins 2.253.3 Windows installer users.

Thanks,

Mark Waite

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jenkinsci-docs/0A857880-0C8E-4C0D-BF7C-7598B8CD10E8%40gmail.com.

[Vlad Silverman]

That sounds like a good plan.  I will start working on that

Thx, Vlad

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jenkinsci-docs/CAO49JtHgAiPfabRM%3D298vc%3DbTxtHn8L2MEtCRx3fFGTGxuC4ig%40mail.gmail.com.

[Vlad Silverman]

Windows installer for Jenkins 2.235.3 asks for user account credentials for Jenkins 2.235.3.  Please clarify which credential values should be entered for testing.

Thx, Vlad

On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 10:39 AM Mark Waite <mark.ea...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jenkinsci-docs/CAO49JtHgAiPfabRM%3D298vc%3DbTxtHn8L2MEtCRx3fFGTGxuC4ig%40mail.gmail.com.

[Mark Waite]

You'll need to create a service account on your Windows computer.  I believe it would be a Standalone managed service account and would be something that you define and create.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jenkinsci-docs/CALuOL0b3D7E1gWP4ONvHamqQkq%2BZvy8B52%3DzxcHwtM4EPc2YJA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Vlad Silverman]

Those are to provide a security context for services running on Windows Server operating systems.  Currently I'm testing the install on Windows 10   

 It looks I will need access to the Windows Server OS to do some positive testing. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jenkinsci-docs/CAO49JtHg01he9gZmZr1%2Bp2wt_8WGnMZyPnPEvK2oEagTQxreiA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Vlad Silverman]

Windows Installer for Jenkins 2.235.3

Previous Steps

- Testing user account credentials - PASSED

- Testing port number - PASSED

Current Step 

- Selecting Java Home Directory

Result of testing:

  Installer is not compatible with java-11.0.8 from Oracle (as shown below)

Is it as designed?

Thx, Vlad

[Mark Waite]

New installer works with 64 bit JDK 11.0.8 for me.  I think that you need to select the parent directory (jdk-11.0.8) rather than the directory containing the java.exe program.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jenkinsci-docs/CALuOL0Y1OjtBD0zwSqZ%2BQX3w_cef%3DEeGA%3DErMSaP%2BkfyXovRog%40mail.gmail.com.

[Vlad Silverman]

Sorry to miss this email hint.  I did yesterday exactly the same (pointing to parent folder) and it worked fine.

There was issue though with default plugin install step - all plugins were installed except one:

—Vlad

On Aug 5, 2020, at 6:46 PM, Mark Waite <mark.ea...@gmail.com> wrote:

New installer works with 64 bit JDK 11.0.8 for me.  I think that you need to select the parent directory (jdk-11.0.8) rather than the directory containing the java.exe program.

On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 6:12 PM Vlad Silverman <vsilv...@gmail.com> wrote:

Windows Installer for Jenkins 2.235.3

Previous Steps

- Testing user account credentials - PASSED

- Testing port number - PASSED

Current Step 

- Selecting Java Home Directory

Result of testing:

  Installer is not compatible with java-11.0.8 from Oracle (as shown below)

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jenkinsci-docs/CAO49JtHQ3FupB-4SDa9VH-PFmqZ%2BVxjOOyZiNVxXjDwMezE_-Q%40mail.gmail.com.

[kwhet...@cloudbees.com]

I started reading this to make sure that I could use the installer, and I was wondering if there was going to be more highlighting on the significant changes that were made for the installer.  Like changing the home directory seems pretty significant.  Other than that, I'm not seeing anything specific right now.

Thanks!

Kristin

[Mark Waite]

We'll need an upgrade guide for Jenkins 2.235.3 and Jenkins 2.235.4.  I expect to work on the upgrade guide tonight.  I captured some notes in  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SegpeEmVvGZYNCvk-o5V5itr5mzepix5qL60m1SgGuU/edit that I'll use tonight for the document.

I think the blog post will provide additional emphasis on the change and the choices available to Windows administrators.

If they choose to continue upgrading inside Jenkins, without running the new MSI installer, then they will have the latest Jenkins version and retain all their existing settings.  They won't get the benefits of the new MSI installer, but they also don't have to make any transition.  If they want to use a 64 bit Java, they can modify the configuration file to use a 64 bit Java.

If they choose to install the new MSI installer, then they will have the latest Jenkins version and will get all the new settings, new home directory, new service account selection, and they can choose the 64 bit JDK 8 or 64 bit JDK 11 they want to use.  They'll need to adapt to the new home directory by either copying or moving files from the existing installed Jenkins home directory to the new Jenkins home directory.

Mark Waite

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jenkinsci-docs/67764157-dbd4-401a-b726-77fb1076d140n%40googlegroups.com.

[Vlad Silverman]

Option of upgrading inside Jenkins looks quite attractive to me due to ability of keeping previous work without complex transitions.

As to upgrading installer itself in my case latest edition of Jenkins installer for 2.235.3 was not able to start Jenkins service ans installation was unfinished.

Reason - not "sufficient privileges to start system services".

---Vlad