MDCMS Jenkins Interface Manual

MDCMS-Jenkins Interface Guide

Published June 17, 2025

Overview

The primary objective of the Jenkins interface is to invoke pipeline jobs defined on Jenkins servers to build, test, deploy, review and rollback artifacts on remote platforms from within an MDCMS RFP and to then capture the result and job details from those jobs.

This way, MDCMS acts as a centralized deployment manager across all platforms for an organization.

Prerequisites

• MDCMS v8.4 or higher must be installed and licensed on at least one IBM i partition

• MDOpen v8.4 or higher must be licensed on the same IBM i partitions

• MDWorkflow Base + Pipeline must be licensed on the same IBM i partitions

• The user(s) responsible for configuring the interface must have access to MDOpen v8.4 or higher installed in MDOpen for RDi, MDOpen for VS Code or MDOpen for Web.

• The user(s) responsible for configuring the interface in MDOpen must be authorized to MDSEC Code 5 (Attribute Maintenance) and MDSEC Code 10 (Server Location Maintenance).

• The user(s) responsible for configuring the interface in Jenkins must have access to the Jenkins Dashboard and sufficient knowledge and privileges in Jenkins to:

  • create service users and add API tokens
  • add and update Jenkins Project Plans

• The network firewall must allow bi-directional http(s) traffic between the MDCMS partitions and Jenkins servers. The port to allow on the Jenkins side is the port that the Jenkins server listens to. The port to allow on the MDCMS side is either the port defined for the MD REST API server or the port defined for the http server that forwards requests to the MD REST API server.

• The following Jenkins Plugins are required to be installed for the bi-directional interface with MDCMS to work:

  • Pipeline: Basic Steps

  • Pipeline: Declarative

  • Pipeline: Nodes and Processes

  • Http Request

  • Timestamper

  • Skip-certificate-check

• The following Jenkins plugins are optional:

  • Declarative Pipeline Migration Assistant – if projects you need to trigger from MDCMS are Freestyle Jobs, you will need to migrate them to declarative pipeline jobs. This “Declarative Pipeline Migration Assistant” plugin can be used to create the necessary job scripts.

Configure Connection to an API Server

Before MDCMS can communicate with a Jenkins server, the location and credentials must be defined. The user that will configure this must have MDSEC authority to code md/10 – Server Location Maintenance.

Take the following steps to add an API Server connection:

1. Within MDOpen, connect to the repository for a partition and then expand Settings/DevOps Settings

2. Left-click on API Servers. The API Servers view will open and list any already defined servers

3. Within the view,select option Add (or Copy if a similar item already exists)

4. An editor will open with the following fields:

Once the field values have been entered, click the Save button

Test Connection to API Server

The connection can be tested by clicking on the Test Connection icon on a row in the API Server view.

The pass/fail message will be displayed in MDOpen and the detailed logging can be viewed by clicking on the Connection Logs icon.

The API consumer logs are stored as IFS files (one per day per server) in folder /MDCMS/logs/<instance>/pipeline. A log file is deleted after n days, based on the retention settings in the MDCMS Log maintenance screen. The default is to retain these IFS files for 10 days.

Configure *PIPE Attributes

There is a special MDCMS Object Type, *PIPE, that can be assigned to an attribute. Attributes of this type indicate to MDCMS that 0 or more Pipeline jobs will be invoked for object requests assigned to the attribute when an RFP runs for a target level.

The same attribute ID should be defined for each level in a migration path so that the object requests will migrate from level to level. Then, for each level, Attribute Pipelines will be defined if any pipeline jobs should be invoked for that level. If no pipeline execution is required for a specific level, MDCMS will simply migrate the request records in the RFP without performing activity on them.

If certain artifacts will require a different set of Pipeline jobs then other artifacts, then a separate attribute should be created for them.

The user that will configure an attribute must have MDSEC authority to code 5 – Attribute Maintenance for the target Appl/Lvl.

Take the following steps to add a *PIPE Attribute:

• Within MDOpen, expand the repository for a partition and then expand Settings

• Left-click on Attributes. The Attributes view will open and list any already defined attributes based on the filter values.

• Within the view, right-click and select option Add (or Copy if a similar item already exists)

• An editor will open with many fields. Only the following fields are relevant for *PIPE attributes:

• Once the field values have been entered, click the OK button

Configure Attribute Pipelines

Once a Pipeline Server and a *PIPE attribute is defined, Attribute Pipelines can be defined to specify which Pipeline Jobs should run for which attribute at each promotion level.

The user that will configure an Attribute Pipeline must have MDSEC authority to code 5 – Attribute Maintenance for the target Appl/Lvl.

Take the following steps to add an Attribute Pipeline:

• Within the MDOpen API servers view, select option Attribute Pipelines for the server in question.
• Within the view, select option Add (or Copy if a similar item already exists)
• An editor will open with the following fields:

Once the field values have been entered, click the OK button

Attribute Pipeline Parameters

Click the Pipeline Parameters icon on a row in the Attribute Pipelines view to manage parameters that are passed to the Pipeline job on the API server.

Attribute Pipeline Parameters are passed as Parameter/Value pairs to the job when it is requested to be executed.
These coincide with parameters that are defined for the Pipeline job that are then used within the Pipeline script instead of hardcoded values.

There are 2 String Parameters that are always passed by MDCMS and MUST NOT be additionally defined within MDOpen in the list of parameters for the Attribute Pipeline. Those 2 parameters are:

• MD_TRANS

• MD_CALLBACK

Any other parameters that are required by your script should be defined in Jenkins and in MDOpen.

Attribute Pipeline Parameter fields:

Options to manage Parameters across Attribute Pipelines

Apply attribute pipeline parameter – when this option is selected, every Attribute Pipeline will be listed where the Parameter doesn’t exist or the Parameter exists, but with a different description or value. Check the description or value checkbox for each Attribute Pipeline that you wish to apply the values of the parameter to.

Delete attribute pipeline parameter – when this option is selected (multi-select is enabled for this option), the current Attribute Pipeline will be shown at the top of the parameter deletion list with the Delete checkbox checked by default. Below that entry will be every other Attribute Pipeline where the parameter(s) are defined and the option to delete them from those entries as well.

Jenkins Pipeline Job Examples When Jenkins is the Slave

In these examples, MDCMS orchestrates the requests and triggers a Jenkins Pipeline job to carry out build, test and/or deployment tasks.

Example of Mandatory String Parameters for use with MDCMS

Example of Jenkins Pipeline Script with MDCMS Callback Including Passthru Parameter

// Mandatory – required to build JSON requestBody for MDCMS Callback
import groovy.json.JsonOutput

pipeline {
  agent any
  environment {
    // Optional/Example Variables
    REPODIR = "${env.WORKSPACE}/repo/"
  }
//  Optional/Example Stages. All stages in template are examples.
//  Any stage can be added with any name.  
    stages {
    stage('BUILD') {
      steps {
        echo 'Building..'
        dir("$REPODIR") {
          checkout([$class: 'GitSCM', 
            branches: [[name: GITREF]], 
            userRemoteConfigs: [[credentialsId: GITCRED, url: GITREPO]]])
        }
        echo 'Successful checkout of commit: ' + GITREF
      }
    }
    stage('TEST') {
      steps {
        echo 'Testing....'
      }
    }
  }
// START - Mandatory post section for MDCMS Interface
post {
   // START - Mandatory always condition for MDCMS Interface do not remove
    always {
      script {
        MD_REQ = JsonOutput.toJson([
            md_trans: MD_TRANS, 
            build_num: env.BUILD_NUMBER, 
            summary_msg: currentBuild.currentResult,
// Optional - the passthru_name_1 contains the name of a passthru parameter for the MDCMS RFP to use in subsequent pipeline jobs.
  // The passthru_value_1 contains the value of that parameter that the RFP will store and reuse.
 // up to 90 passthru parameter name/value pairs (_1 to _90) can be passed back to MDCMS.
// remove the passthru name and value pairs if you do not require passthru variables returned from this job
            passthru_name_1: "ARTIFACT_DIRECTORY",
            passthru_value_1: REPODIR,
            build_url: env.BUILD_URL
        ])
      }
      echo 'CallBack to MDCMS using : ' + MD_REQ
      timeout(unit: 'SECONDS', time: 60) {
        httpRequest consoleLogResponseBody: true,
        contentType: 'APPLICATION_JSON_UTF8',
        httpMode: 'POST',
        ignoreSslErrors: true,
        quiet: false,
        requestBody: MD_REQ,
        validResponseCodes: '200',
        responseHandle: 'NONE',
        url: MD_CALLBACK,
        wrapAsMultipart: false
      }
      // END - Mandatory always condition for MDCMS Interface do not remove
      // Additional steps can be added to post.always condition
    }
// END - Mandatory post Section for MDCMS Interface
// Addtional post conditions can be added to the post section
  }
}

Jenkins Pipeline Job Examples When MDCMS is the Slave

In this example, Jenkins builds an archive file destined for the IFS on the IBM i and triggers MDCMS to create an object request for that file as well as passing that file to MDCMS for deployment. Through the use of input stages in the Jenkins job, MDCMS can update the status of the deployment in Jenkins.

Example Jenkins Pipeline script

import groovy.json.JsonOutput
pipeline {
      agent any
  environment {
        // Optional/Example Variables
        WARDIR = "/var/www/jenkins-dev"
        WARFILE = "sample.war"
        APPDIR = "${env.WORKSPACE}/app/"
        MDCMS_URI = "https://dev.mdcms.ch/mdcmst84/object-request"  
  }
//  Optional/Example Stages. All stages in template are examples.
//  Any stage can be added with any name.  
// the BUILD stage can be triggered by a push to a git repo or manually
    stages {
        stage('BUILD') {
          steps {
            echo 'Building..'
        dir("$WARDIR"){
                echo 'test this first'
            sh 'rsync -avr $WARFILE $APPDIR'
        }
        echo 'Successful build of file: ' + WARFILE
      }
    }
// the MDCMS-PUSH stage invokes the MDCMS REST API object-request to create an 
// object request for the archive file and attach the file to the request
    stage('MDCMS-PUSH') {
          steps {
            echo 'Pushing WAR file to MDCMS....'
        script {
            MD_REQ = JsonOutput.toJson([
                appl: 'TEST01', 
            lvl: 100,
            objt: '*IFS',
            attr: 'WEBSPHERE',
            objn: 'sample.war',
            user: 'MMORGAN',
            folb: '/home/mmorgan',
            proj: 'DEMOUK1',
            task: 5,
            arfp: '*AUTO',
            rfpd: 'deploy war from jenkins',
            pipe: 'JENKINS',
            pipa: 'JENKSLAVE',
            tkey: env.BUILD_NUMBER
        ])
      }
        dir("$APPDIR"){
                // echo 'CURL will happen here'
            sh "curl -v POST -H \'Expect:\' -H \'Content-Type: multipart/mixed\' -F 
'payload=${MD_REQ};type=application/json\' -F file=@sample.war ${MDCMS_URI}"
        }
      }
    }
// the MDCMS-DEV stage goes into a waiting for input state after the push to MDCMS is complete
// MDCMS will post an ok to the job once the RFP is installed into the DEV environment using MDUPDPIPE
// the id parameter must match the STAGE parameter on MDUPDPIPE and the ok parameter must be defined and set // to “ok”
    stage('MDCMS-DEV') {
          input {
            message "Installed to DEV "
        id "DEV"
        ok "ok"
        parameters {
                string(name: 'MD_STATUS', defaultValue: 'Success', description: 'MD Status Value', trim: true)
            string(name: 'MD_MESSAGE', defaultValue: 'RFP ##### Installed Successfully ', description: 'MD Return 
Message')
        }
      }
      steps {
              script {
                  if (MD_STATUS == 'Abort') {
                    echo 'MD Status is: ' + MD_STATUS 
                currentBuild.result='ABORTED'
                error('Aborted by MDCMS for: ' + MD_MESSAGE)
              }
              else {
                    echo 'MD Status is: ' + MD_STATUS
                echo 'RFP Status is: ' + MD_MESSAGE
              }
          }
      }
    }
  }
}

Example MDUPDPIPE command to update Jenkins

The following command would be defined as a *RFP command for the target level with command type of Q:

MDUPDPIPE JOB('MD-mdcms-slave-example') STAGE('DEV') RSVR(*RFP) AGP(##APPLIC##)
RFP(##RFPNBR##) VAR((MD_STATUS Success)
(MD_MESSAGE '##OBJNAM## deployed by RFP ##APPLIC##/##RFPNBR## into level ##PROLVL##'))

Requesting *PIPE Object Requests When Jenkins is the Slave

Now that everything is configured, it’s time to start requesting items and having them built and deployed via Jenkins.

The most common way for files and folders to get requested is through Continuous Integration triggered by a push to a Git repository. This process is defined in MDOpen and full instructions on that configuration is available in the Continuous Integration Knowledge Guide.

If the Continuous Integration definition is set to create *PIPE request records, then those records will be created automatically for each new/changed/deleted file if for diffs, or for all folders and files if for contents.

Each record will contain the Repository type of *GIT, the Repository ID defined in MDOpen and the revision hash of the Git commit.

If manually creating *PIPE Object Requests, you can manually add the repository information to the Object Request Detail record in the Repository fields near the bottom of the Object Request editor.

If the pipeline job requires information about the SCM repository in order to pull artifacts from it, you can pass that information dynamically as wildcards on Attribute Pipeline Parameters.

SCM Wildcards:

MDCMS does NOT physically store and migrate actual files for *PIPE object requests, keeping the MDCMS process very light and fast. Instead, it utilizes best practices to expect the pipeline jobs to retrieve the files from the SCM themselves when they need it.

If using Continuous Integration or Cross-Platform impact analysis, MDCMS will clone the SCM repository onto the IBM i partition to perform tree-walking or diff-walking, but those files don’t proceed further in the promotion process.

Other Object Request-Specific Wildcards that may be useful as parameters: