Windows Installer Upgrades

Published on 2020-08-12 by Vlad Silverman, Alex Earl

This article describes the transition from the old Jenkins Windows installer 2.235.2 (32 bit) to the new Jenkins Windows installer 2.235.3 (64 bit)

Let’s take a look how Jenkins installation on Windows happened before release of this upgrade.

Step 1

Installer Startup

It’s evident that branding information is not present here.

Step 2

Installation Directory

Jenkins would be installed into the 32 bit programs directory along with a 32 bit Java 8 runtime environment.

Step 3

Install It

There was no option to select the user that would run the Jenkins service or the network port that would be used.

Issues

The previous installer had issues that needed to be resolved:

  • Only supported 32-bit installations

  • Bundled an outdated Java 8 runtime environment

  • No support for Java 11

  • No port selection during installation

  • No choice of account for the Jenkins service

  • The Program Files (x86) directory was used for the Jenkins home directory

Road Forward

The new Jenkins Windows Installer resolves those issues

  • Supports 64 bit installations and drops 32 bit support

  • Supports 64 bit Java 8 and 64 bit Java 11

  • Port selection and validation from the installer

  • Service account selection and validation from the installer

  • Program is installed in Program Files with Jenkins home directory in %AppData% of the selected service account

  • The JENKINS_HOME directory is placed in the LocalAppData directory for the user that the service will run as, this aligns with modern Windows file system layouts

  • The installer has been updated with branding to make it look nicer and provide a better user experience

Screenshots

You may see below the sequence of screenshots for the new installer:

Step 1

Installer Startup

We can see now the Jenkins logo as a prominent part of the installer UI.

Step 2

Installation Directory

Jenkins installs by default in the 64 bit programs folder rather than in the 32 bit folder. Now the Jenkins logo and name are in the header during entire process of installation.

Step 3

Account Selection

Now the installer allows both specifying and testing the credentials by validating that the account has LogonAsService rights.

Step 4

Port Selection

Now the installer also allows specifying the port that Jenkins should run on and will not continue until a valid port is entered and tested.

Step 5

JRE Selection

Now instead of bundling a JRE, the installer searches for a compatible JRE on the system (in the current search no JRE was installed). In case you would like to use a different JRE from the one found by the installer, you can browse and specify it. Only Java 8 and Java 11 runtimes are supported. In case the selected JRE is found to be version 11 the installer will automatically add the necessary arguments and additional jar files for running under Java 11.

Step 6

Install It

All of the items that users can enter in the installer should be overridable on the command line for automated deployment as well. The full list of properties that can be overridden will be available soon.

Next Steps

Windows users have alternatives for their existing Jenkins installations:

Upgrade from inside Jenkins

The "Manage Jenkins" section of the running Jenkins will continue to include an "Upgrade" button for Windows users. You may continue to use that "Upgrade" button to update the Jenkins installation on your Windows computer. Upgrade from inside Jenkins will continue to use the current Java version. Upgrade from inside Jenkins will continue to use the current installation location.

Upgrade with the new Jenkins MSI installer

If you run the new Jenkins MSI installer on your Jenkins that was installed with the old Jenkins MSI installer, it will prompt for a new port and a service account.

  1. Stop and disable the existing Jenkins service from the Windows Service Manager

  2. Run the new installer to create the new installation with desired settings

  3. Stop the newly installed Jenkins service

  4. Copy existing Jenkins configuration files to the new Jenkins home directory

  5. Start the newly installed Jenkins service

After the new Jenkins MSI installer has run, the "Manage Jenkins" section of the running Jenkins will continue to include an "Upgrade" button for Windows users. You may continue to use that "Upgrade" button to update the Jenkins installation on your Windows computer.

About the Authors
Vlad Silverman

Vlad is an active user of Jenkins and at the beginning of 2020 he also started actively contributing to the Jenkins project. He resides in Silicon Valley and for 10+ years had been involved in building/testing business processes for large enterprises and mid-size companies.
Alex Earl

Alex comes from a .NET background but likes to get his hands dirty in many different languages and frameworks. He currently does embedded development in a silicon validation group. He is an internal evangelist for Jenkins at his company. Alex is a community contributor to Jenkins, working on plugin hosting and maintaining several plugins. He is also involved in a few SIGS. Alex enjoys working on open source software in his "free" time as well as spending time with his family.