How to Setup Jenkins on AWS Using CloudFormation

Mohammad Abu Mattar
Cloud Computing , DevOps
11 Dec, 2022
04 Mins read

Introduction

In a previous blog post, we setup Jenkins on AWS using the AWS CLI (How to Install Jenkins on AWS EC2 Instance). In this blog post, we will be using CloudFormation to setup Jenkins on AWS. CloudFormation is a service that helps you model and set up your AWS resources so that you can spend less time managing those resources and more time focusing on your applications that run on AWS.

Prerequisites

AWS CLI installed and configured
IAM user with the following permissions:
- AmazonVPCFullAccess
- AmazonEC2FullAccess
- AmazonS3FullAccess

Create a CloudFormation

Step 1: Create a Key Pair

Create a key pair to access the EC2 instance via SSH.

# Create a key pair
aws ec2 create-key-pair \
  --key-name jenkins-server-key-pair \
  --query 'KeyMaterial' \
  --output text > jenkins-server-key-pair.pem

# Change the permission of the key pair
chmod 400 jenkins-server-key-pair.pem

Note: Store the key pair at a safe place. You will need it to access the EC2 instance via SSH.

Step 2: Create a CloudFormation Template

Create a file named jenkins-server.yml and add the following content:

touch jenkins-server.yml

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AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
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Description: >-
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  This template creates a VPC with a public subnet and an EC2 instance with
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  Jenkins installed. The EC2 instance is accessible via SSH and HTTP.
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Parameters:
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  VPCCidrBlock:
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    Description: CIDR block for the VPC
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    Type: String
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    Default: 15.0.0.0/16
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    AllowedPattern: (\d{1,3})\.(\d{1,3})\.(\d{1,3})\.(\d{1,3})/(\d{1,2})
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    ConstraintDescription: must be a valid IP CIDR range of the form x.x.x.x/x.
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  VPCName:
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    Description: Name of the VPC
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    Type: String
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    Default: jenkins-server-vpc
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    AllowedPattern: ^[a-zA-Z0-9-]*$
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    ConstraintDescription: must be a valid VPC name.
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  PublicSubnetCidrBlock:
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    Description: CIDR block for the public subnet
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    Type: String
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    Default: 15.0.1.0/24
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    AllowedPattern: (\d{1,3})\.(\d{1,3})\.(\d{1,3})\.(\d{1,3})/(\d{1,2})
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    ConstraintDescription: must be a valid IP CIDR range of the form x.x.x.x/x.
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  PublicSubnetAvailabilityZone:
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    Description: Availability zone for the public subnet
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    Type: String
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    Default: us-east-1a
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  PublicSubnetName:
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    Description: Name of the public subnet
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    Type: String
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    Default: jenkins-server-public-subnet
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    AllowedPattern: ^[a-zA-Z0-9-]*$
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    ConstraintDescription: must be a valid subnet name.
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  InternetGatewayName:
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    Description: Name of the internet gateway
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    Type: String
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    Default: jenkins-server-internet-gateway
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    AllowedPattern: ^[a-zA-Z0-9-]*$
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    ConstraintDescription: must be a valid internet gateway name.
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  PublicRouteTableName:
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    Description: Name of the public route table
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    Type: String
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    Default: jenkins-server-public-route-table
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    AllowedPattern: ^[a-zA-Z0-9-]*$
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    ConstraintDescription: must be a valid route table name.
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  SecurityGroupName:
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    Description: Name of the security group
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    Type: String
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    Default: jenkins-server-security-group
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    AllowedPattern: ^[a-zA-Z0-9-]*$
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    ConstraintDescription: must be a valid security group name.
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  KeyPairName:
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    Description: Name of an existing EC2 KeyPair to enable SSH access to the instances
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    Type: AWS::EC2::KeyPair::KeyName
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    Default: jenkins-server-key-pair
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    ConstraintDescription: must be the name of an existing EC2 KeyPair.
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  InstanceImageId:
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    Description: Image ID of the instance
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    Type: String
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    Default: ami-0b0dcb5067f052a63
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    AllowedPattern: ami-[a-z0-9]*
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    ConstraintDescription: must be a valid AMI ID.
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  InstanceType:
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    Description: Enter the instance type for the instance
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    Type: String
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    Default: t2.micro
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    AllowedValues:
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      - t1.micro
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      - t2.nano
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      - t2.micro
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      - t2.small
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      - t2.medium
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      - t2.large
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      - m1.small
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      - m1.medium
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      - m1.large
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      - m1.xlarge
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      - m2.xlarge
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      - m2.2xlarge
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      - m2.4xlarge
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      - m3.medium
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      - m3.large
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      - m3.xlarge
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      - m3.2xlarge
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      - m4.large
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      - m4.xlarge
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      - m4.2xlarge
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      - m4.4xlarge
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      - m4.10xlarge
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      - c1.medium
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      - c1.xlarge
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      - c3.large
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      - c3.xlarge
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      - c3.2xlarge
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      - c3.4xlarge
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      - c3.8xlarge
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      - c4.large
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      - c4.xlarge
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      - c4.2xlarge
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      - c4.4xlarge
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      - c4.8xlarge
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      - g2.2xlarge
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      - g2.8xlarge
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      - r3.large
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      - r3.xlarge
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      - r3.2xlarge
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      - r3.4xlarge
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      - r3.8xlarge
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      - i2.xlarge
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      - i2.2xlarge
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      - i2.4xlarge
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      - i2.8xlarge
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      - d2.xlarge
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      - d2.2xlarge
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      - d2.4xlarge
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      - d2.8xlarge
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      - hi1.4xlarge
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      - hs1.8xlarge
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      - cr1.8xlarge
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      - cc2.8xlarge
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      - cg1.4xlarge
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    ConstraintDescription: must be a valid EC2 instance type.
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  InstanceName:
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    Description: Name of the instance
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    Type: String
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    Default: jenkins-server-instance
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    AllowedPattern: ^[a-zA-Z0-9-]*$
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    ConstraintDescription: must be a valid instance name.
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  ElasticIPAddressName:
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    Description: Name of the elastic IP address
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    Type: String
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    Default: jenkins-server-elastic-ip
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    AllowedPattern: ^[a-zA-Z0-9-]*$
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    ConstraintDescription: must be a valid elastic IP address name.
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Resources:
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  VPC:
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    Type: AWS::EC2::VPC
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    Properties:
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      CidrBlock: !Ref VPCCidrBlock
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      EnableDnsSupport: true
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      EnableDnsHostnames: true
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      Tags:
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        - Key: Name
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          Value: !Ref VPCName
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  PublicSubnet:
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    Type: AWS::EC2::Subnet
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    Properties:
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      VpcId: !Ref VPC
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      CidrBlock: !Ref PublicSubnetCidrBlock
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      AvailabilityZone: !Ref PublicSubnetAvailabilityZone
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      MapPublicIpOnLaunch: true
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      Tags:
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        - Key: Name
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          Value: !Ref PublicSubnetName
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  InternetGateway:
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    Type: AWS::EC2::InternetGateway
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    Properties:
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      Tags:
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        - Key: Name
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          Value: !Ref InternetGatewayName
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  InternetGatewayAttachment:
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    Type: AWS::EC2::VPCGatewayAttachment
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    Properties:
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      VpcId: !Ref VPC
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      InternetGatewayId: !Ref InternetGateway
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  PublicRouteTable:
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    Type: AWS::EC2::RouteTable
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    Properties:
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      VpcId: !Ref VPC
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      Tags:
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        - Key: Name
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          Value: !Ref PublicRouteTableName
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  PublicRoute:
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    Type: AWS::EC2::Route
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    DependsOn: InternetGatewayAttachment
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    Properties:
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      RouteTableId: !Ref PublicRouteTable
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      DestinationCidrBlock: 0.0.0.0/0
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      GatewayId: !Ref InternetGateway
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  PublicSubnetRouteTableAssociation:
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    Type: AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation
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    Properties:
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      SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet
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      RouteTableId: !Ref PublicRouteTable
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  SecurityGroup:
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    Type: AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup
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    Properties:
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      GroupDescription: Jenkins
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      VpcId: !Ref VPC
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      SecurityGroupIngress:
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        - IpProtocol: tcp
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          FromPort: 22
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          ToPort: 22
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          CidrIp: 0.0.0.0/0
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        - IpProtocol: tcp
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          FromPort: 80
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          ToPort: 80
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          CidrIp: 0.0.0.0/0
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        - IpProtocol: tcp
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          FromPort: 443
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          ToPort: 443
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          CidrIp: 0.0.0.0/0
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        - IpProtocol: tcp
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          FromPort: 8080
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          ToPort: 8080
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          CidrIp: 0.0.0.0/0
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      Tags:
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        - Key: Name
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          Value: !Ref SecurityGroupName
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  Instance:
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    Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
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    Properties:
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      ImageId: !Ref InstanceImageId
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      InstanceType: !Ref InstanceType
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      KeyName: !Ref KeyPairName
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      NetworkInterfaces:
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        - DeviceIndex: 0
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          SubnetId: !Ref PublicSubnet
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          GroupSet:
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            - !Ref SecurityGroup
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      UserData:
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        Fn::Base64: !Sub |
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          #!/bin/bash
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          sudo yum update -y
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          sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/jenkins.repo https://pkg.jenkins.io/redhat-stable/jenkins.repo
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          sudo rpm --import https://pkg.jenkins.io/redhat-stable/jenkins.io.key
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          sudo yum upgrade
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          sudo amazon-linux-extras install java-openjdk11 -y
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          sudo yum install jenkins -y
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          sudo systemctl start jenkins
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          sudo systemctl enable jenkins
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          sudo yum install git -y
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      Tags:
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        - Key: Name
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          Value: !Ref InstanceName
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  ElasticIP:
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    Type: AWS::EC2::EIP
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    Properties:
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      Domain: vpc
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      NetworkBorderGroup: !Ref AWS::Region
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      Tags:
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        - Key: Name
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          Value: !Ref ElasticIPAddressName
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  ElasticIPAssociation:
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    Type: AWS::EC2::EIPAssociation
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    Properties:
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      InstanceId: !Ref Instance
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      EIP: !Ref ElasticIP
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Mappings:
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  AWSRegionArch2AMI:
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    us-east-1:
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      HVM64: ami-0b69ea66ff7391e80
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      HVMG2: ami-0b69ea66ff7391e80
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    us-east-2:
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      HVM64: ami-0b69ea66ff7391e80
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      HVMG2: ami-0b69ea66ff7391e80
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Outputs:
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  GetJenkinsDashboard:
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    Description: URL to use for Jenkins dashboard
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    Value: !Join
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      - ''
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      - - 'http://'
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        - !GetAtt Instance.PublicDnsName
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        - ':8080'
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  GitHubWebhookURL:
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    Description: URL to use for GitHub webhooks
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    Value: !Join
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      - ''
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      - - 'http://'
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        - !GetAtt Instance.PublicDnsName
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        - ':8080/github-webhook/'

Step 3: Create a CloudFormation Stack

Now that you have created a template, you can create a stack using the AWS CLI.

aws cloudformation create-stack \
    --stack-name jenkins-server \
    --template-body file://jenkins-server.yml

Step 4: Check the Status of the Stack

You can check the status of the stack using the AWS CLI.

aws cloudformation describe-stacks \
    --stack-name jenkins-server

Step 5: Access the Jenkins Server

You can access the Jenkins server using the public IP address of the instance.

# Get the public IP address of the Jenkins server instance
AWS_PUBLIC_IP=$(aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=jenkins-server-instance" \
  --query "Reservations[*].Instances[*].PublicIpAddress" \
  --output text)

# Open the Jenkins dashboard in the browser
echo "http://${AWS_PUBLIC_IP}:8080"

Connect to the Jenkins Server, and Setup Jenkins

Step 1: Connect to the Jenkins Server

Connect to the Jenkins server using SSH.

# Get the public IP address of the Jenkins server instance
AWS_PUBLIC_IP=$(aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=jenkins-server-instance" \
  --query "Reservations[*].Instances[*].PublicIpAddress" \
  --output text)

# Connect to the Jenkins server instance via SSH
ssh -i jenkins-server-key-pair.pem ec2-user@${AWS_PUBLIC_IP}

Step 6: Configure Jenkins

Connect to EC2 instance using SSH and run the following commands to configure Jenkins.

sudo cat /var/lib/jenkins/secrets/initialAdminPassword

jenkins-initial-password

Copy the initial password and paste it in the Jenkins login page.

jenkins-login

Select the recommended plugins and click on the Install button.

jenkins-install-plugins

Create an admin user and click on the Save and Finish button.

jenkins-create-admin-user

Done! You have successfully setup Jenkins on AWS using CloudFormation.

jenkins-dashboard

Cleanup

You can delete the stack using the AWS CLI.

# Delete the stack
aws cloudformation delete-stack \
    --stack-name jenkins-server

# Check the status of the stack
aws cloudformation describe-stacks \
    --stack-name jenkins-server

# Delete the key pair
aws ec2 delete-key-pair \
    --key-name jenkins-server-key-pair

Conclusion

In this article, we have learned how to setup Jenkins on AWS using CloudFormation. We have also learned how to create a CloudFormation template and create a stack using the AWS CLI.