Docker compose in pipelines in Jenkins - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Using Docker Compose in Jenkins Pipelines

📖 Scenario: You are working as a DevOps engineer. Your team uses Jenkins to automate builds and tests. You want to run multiple Docker containers together using Docker Compose inside a Jenkins pipeline. This helps you test your application with all its services running.

🎯 Goal: Build a Jenkins pipeline script that uses Docker Compose to start services, run tests, and then stop the services.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Jenkins pipeline script with a pipeline block

Define an agent to run the pipeline

Add a stage to start Docker Compose services using docker-compose up -d

Add a stage to run a test command inside the pipeline

Add a stage to stop Docker Compose services using docker-compose down

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Teams use Jenkins pipelines with Docker Compose to automate testing of applications that need multiple services running together, like databases and web servers.

💼 Career

Knowing how to integrate Docker Compose in Jenkins pipelines is a key skill for DevOps engineers to automate and streamline continuous integration and delivery.

1

Create the Jenkins pipeline skeleton

Write a Jenkins pipeline script starting with pipeline and an agent any block. Inside the stages block, add an empty stage named Start Services.

Jenkins

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Start Services') {
            steps {
                // Your code here
            }
        }
    }
}

Need a hint?

Start by writing the basic Jenkins pipeline structure with pipeline, agent any, and a stages block containing a stage named Start Services.

2

Add Docker Compose start command

Inside the Start Services stage's steps block, add a sh step that runs docker-compose up -d to start the services in detached mode.

Jenkins

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Start Services') {
            steps {
                // Run docker-compose up -d here
            }
        }
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use the sh step to run shell commands. Write sh 'docker-compose up -d' inside the steps block.

3

Add a test stage to run commands

Add a new stage named Run Tests after Start Services. Inside its steps block, add a sh step that runs echo "Running tests..." to simulate test execution.

Jenkins

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Start Services') {
            steps {
                sh 'docker-compose up -d'
            }
        }
        stage('Run Tests') {
            steps {
                // Run test command here
            }
        }
    }
}

Need a hint?

Add a new stage named Run Tests and inside its steps, use sh 'echo "Running tests..."' to simulate running tests.

4

Add a stage to stop Docker Compose services

Add a final stage named Stop Services after Run Tests. Inside its steps block, add a sh step that runs docker-compose down to stop and remove the containers.

Jenkins

pipeline {
    agent any
    stages {
        stage('Start Services') {
            steps {
                sh 'docker-compose up -d'
            }
        }
        stage('Run Tests') {
            steps {
                sh 'echo "Running tests..."'
            }
        }
        stage('Stop Services') {
            steps {
                // Stop docker-compose services here
            }
        }
    }
}

Need a hint?

Add a stage named Stop Services and inside its steps, run sh 'docker-compose down' to stop the containers.