Creating a CasC bundle for the operations center

The configuration of the operations center is described in a collection of YAML files referred to as a CasC bundle.

CloudBees does not recommend adding your CloudBees CI license or certificate to the CasC bundle for the operations center because these values are hardcoded. If you do add a license key or certificate to your CasC bundle, you must manually ensure they are always up-to-date, because they will be the only license and certificate the operations center can read.

Manually creating a configuration bundle

To create a new configuration bundle, create each of the files listed below. A CasC bundle consists of the following files:

bundle.yaml: This file is an index file that describes the bundle, and references the other files in the bundle.
jenkins.yaml: This file contains the Jenkins configuration, as defined by the Configuration as Code plugin.
plugins.yaml: (Optional) This file contains a list of all plugins that should be installed.
items.yaml: (Optional) This file contains the items to be created.
rbac.yaml: (Optional) This file contains all Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) groups and roles defined at the root level.
variables.yaml: (Optional) This file defines the variables that can be used in the jenkins.yaml, items.yaml, and rbac.yaml files.

For the bundle to be valid, the above files must use these exact filenames.
Any property not set in a bundle is created with a default value based on the plugins implemented for CasC. The default values can be:
- Null
- Empty lists
- A default value of the Java type. For example, a default integer would be 0.
- A specific value set for a property. For example, a default integer set to 1 instead of 0.

You can have a configuration bundle without the optional files. If you do not include these files in your bundle, they should not be listed in your bundle.yaml file.

bundle.yaml

The bundle.yaml file is an index file that describes the bundle and references the other files in the bundle.

Property Type Description

string

Required. This bundle’s unique identifier.

The id property is a legacy property that is no longer used. However, it must be included in the bundle.yaml file for backward compatibility.

version

string

Required. The bundle’s version. This value should be incremented whenever the bundle is modified.

When using the CasC Bundle Retriever for the operations center, you can activate auto-versioning, which replaces the version attribute with the commit hash obtained from your source control management (SCM) system.

apiVersion

string

Required. This is the bundle’s API version. Valid values are apiVersion:1, and apiVersion:2 for CasC plugin management 2.0; otherwise, the bundle would be invalid.

Changes in the apiVersion values must be done with caution, as your CasC bundle may become invalid when updating this value. To understand these risks, refer to Risk while updating your CasC bundle. To learn more about how this property affects plugin management with CasC bundles, refer to Plugin management with CasC.

description

string

Optional. A helpful description of the bundle.

jcasc

list of strings

Optional. This indicates the bundle contains a jenkins.yaml file.

jcascMergeStrategy

string

Optional. Defines the merge strategy when multiple Jenkins Configuration as Code files are included in a CasC bundle. For more information, refer to Merge Strategy.

errorOnConflict: (default) Returns an exception if there is a conflict in multiple YAML files.
override: Overrides the configuration files according to the loading order. This indicates the bundle contains a jenkins.yaml file.

plugins

list of strings

Optional. This indicates the bundle contains a plugins.yaml file.

items

list of strings

Optional. This indicates the bundle contains a items.yaml file.

itemRemoveStrategy

object

Optional. This property is composed of the removeStrategy for items and the removeStrategy for groups created at the item level.

The itemRemoveStrategy can be specified in the bundle.yaml file and it applies to every item.yaml file in that bundle.
In the bundle.yaml file, itemRemoveStrategy prevails over the removeStrategy defined in the items.yaml.

This property has two sub-elememts: items and rbac. Valid values for these sub-elements are:

items
- none Creates items that do not exist in the instance or updates existing items with the values from the YAML file. Items not declared in the items.yaml file remain as is on the controller or in the operations center.
- sync: Deletes CasC supported items not defined in the items.yaml file. Items in the items.yaml continue in the same way as the none/update strategy.
- remove-supported: Deletes all CasC supported items in the instance and restarts the item creation with the updated bundle.
- remove-all: Deletes all items in the instance and restarts item creation.
rbac The values for this sub-property only apply on groups created for items and not for general groups.
- sync: If the groups already exist but the configuration changes, the new configuration is applied to the groups created for items and the existing groups not present in the new configuration are deleted.
- update: If the groups already exist but the configuration changes, only the existing groups are updated and replaced with the new groups.

If the itemRemoveStrategy is declared, then the items and rbac sub-elements are required. The itemRemoveStrategy property prevails over the removeStrategy property in the items.yaml file.

rbac

list of strings

Optional. This indicates the bundle contains a rbac.yaml file.

rbacRemoveStrategy

object

Optional. Valid values for this property are:

sync: If the role or group already exists, it is updated with the new configuration.
update: If the role or group already exists but the configuration changes, the existing role or group is updated and replaced with the new role or group.

The rbacRemoveStrategy property defined in the bundle.yaml prevails over removeStrategy in the rbac.yaml file.

Example bundle.yaml file

id: "bundle-1"
version: "1"
apiVersion: "2"
description: "My CloudBees Configuration as Code (CasC) bundle"
jcasc:
  - "jenkins.yaml"
jcascMergeStrategy: "errorOnConflict"
plugins:
  - "plugins.yaml"
items:
  - "items.yaml"
rbac:
  - "rbac.yaml"
variables:
  - "variables.yaml"▼

jenkins.yaml

This file is the main CasC configuration file that describes the operations center. For more information on how to format this file, refer to the Jenkins Configuration-as-Code plugin documentation.

Example jenkins.yaml file

jenkins:
  systemMessage: "Operations center configured using CloudBees CasC"
  numExecutors: 0
    securityRealm:
    ldap:
      configurations:
      - displayNameAttributeName: "cn"
        groupMembershipStrategy:
          fromGroupSearch:
            filter: "member={0}"
        groupSearchBase: "ou=Groups"
        inhibitInferRootDN: false
        managerDN: "cn=admin,dc=example,dc=org"
        managerPasswordSecret: ${LDAP_MANAGER_PASSWORD}
        rootDN: "dc=example,dc=org"
        server: "ldap://ldap-openldap:389"
        userSearchBase: "ou=People"
      disableMailAddressResolver: false
      groupIdStrategy: "caseInsensitive"
      userIdStrategy: "caseInsensitive"
  authorizationStrategy: "cloudBeesRoleBasedAccessControl"(1)
security:
  securitySettingsEnforcement:
    global:
      realmAndAuthorization:
        canCustomMapping: false
        canOverride: true
        defaultMappingFactory: "restrictedEquivalentRAMF"
  controllerExecutorCount:
    enforce:
      canOverride: false
      count: 0
cloudBeesCasCServer:
  visibility: true(2)
unclassified:
  cascAutoControllerProvisioning:
    provisionControllerOnCreation: true(3)
    fireAndForget: true(4)
    initialDelay: 15 (5)
    timeout: 600(6)
    duration: 60(7)
  location:
    url: https://operations-center:8888/(8)
  bundleStorageService:(9)
    activated: true
    activeBundle:
      name: "local-folder"
      retriever:
        SCM:
          scmSource:
            git:
              id: "acf88621-05a0-4d50-9166-d7767868dc43"
              remote: "https://github.com/my-company/repo.git"
              traits:
              - "gitBranchDiscovery"
    pollingPeriod: 0
    purgeOnDeactivation: false▼

1	Required to use CloudBees RBAC configured using CasC.
2	Optional if using the `items.yaml` file to create a controller item. When `visibility` is set to `true`, all CasC bundles that do not have an availability pattern defined can be used by any controller. This option provides more flexibility, but is less secure.
3	When `provisionControllerOnCreation` is set to `true`, all managed controller items are provisioned automatically after they are created using CasC.
4	When `fireAndForget` is set to `true`, the automatic provisioning process starts immediately, and does not wait for the controller to be connected.
5	The amount of time, in seconds, to wait before starting the automatic provisioning process.
6	The amount of time, in seconds, to complete the automatic provisioning process. If `fireAndForget` is set to `false`, this timeout may prevent queued provisioning requests from being blocked.
7	The provisioning duration, in seconds. After the initial delay, controllers are provisioned at random in batches of 20 controllers, for this time period. Increase this value to increase the amount of time between controller provisioning requests. If provisioning more than 20 controllers, the provisioning process will exceed the specified duration.
8	Required to create client controller items. The `url` is the operations center URL.
9	Required if using a local folder on the operations center server or an SCM tool as the Configuration as Code bundle location.

plugins.yaml

This file lists all of the plugins to be installed on the controller or the operations center.

The content in the file changes depending on the value of the apiVersion field.

For CasC bundles using apiVersion:1, this file should be a list of plugin IDs for CAP and non-CAP plugins to be installed.

For CasC bundles that use apiVersion:2, this file has a more complex structure and can include the following:

A list of plugin IDs for CAP plugins.
Non-CAP plugins, in three different ways:
- Using only the plugin ID if the Non-CAP plugin is downloaded from the CloudBees Update Center or using a plugin catalog.
- Using the plugin ID and a URL if the Non-CAP plugin is directly downloaded from an URL.
- Using the plugin ID, the groupId, the version, and the repositoyId if the Non-CAP plugin is downloaded from a Maven repository.

CloudBees CI ignores URLs and GAV coordinates for those plugins that are also part of the plugin-catalog.yaml file. In those cases, the configuration in plugins.yaml is ignored, and the configuration in plugin-catalog.yaml prevails.

Find many popular plugins and their IDs at the following sites:

For more information, review the Plugin management with CasC page.

items.yaml

The items.yaml file contains a list of items to create or update within the instance.

By default, items that are present on the instance in the UI but not included in the items.yaml file will remain. However, you can change this behavior using different RemoveStrategy options.
You must install the prerequisite CloudBees CI software and plugins based on the item type you are creating.
If you want to customize your items.yaml file using environment variables or using the variables.yaml file in your bundle, you must install the Jenkins Configuration-as-Code plugin.

For more information, refer to Creating items with CasC for the operations center.

Property Type Description

removeStrategy

object

Optional. It specifies the strategy to be followed when you apply a new configuration to an existing instance.

The removeStrategy property is optional for the items.yaml file; however, it is required in the bundle.yaml file.

Valid values are:

none Creates items that do not exist in the instance or updates existing items with the values from the YAMLfile. Items not declared in the items.yaml file remain as is on the controller.
sync: Deletes CasC supported items not defined in the items.yaml file. Items in the items.yaml will continue in the same way as the none/update strategy.
remove-supported: Deletes all CasC supported items in the instance and restarts the item creation with the updated bundle.
remove-all: Deletes all items in the instance and recreates them based on the contents of the items.yaml.

If a removeStrategy option is not declared, the default option none is used. When a removeStategy is declared in the parent bundle but not the child bundle, the child bundle uses the removeStrategy of the parent. If both the parent and the child bundle declares a removeStrategy then the parent bundle uses the removeStrategy of the child bundle.
If the removeStrategy property is declared for the items.yaml file, the items and rbac properties should also be defined.

Property Type Description

items

string

Required. It specifies the strategy to be followed when you apply a new configuration to an existing instance.

Valid values for this property are:

none Creates items that do not exist in the instance or updates existing items with the values from the YAML file. Items not declared in the items.yaml file remain as is on the controller or in the operations center.
sync: Deletes CasC supported items not defined in the items.yaml file. Items in the items.yaml continue in the same way as the none/update strategy.
remove-supported: Deletes all CasC supported items in the instance and restarts the item creation with the updated bundle.
remove-all: Deletes all items in the instance and then creates the items defined in the items.yaml file.

Variable resolution is disabled by default. This prevents items that contain embedded variable expressions from being replaced during import or export.

Property Type Description

rbac

string

Required. Specifies how an existing configuration is handled when a new configuration is applied.

sync: If the role or group already exists but the configuration changes, the new configuration is applied and the existing groups or roles are deleted.
update: If the role or group already exists but the configuration changes, only the existing role or group is updated and replaced with the new role or group.

Variable resolution is disabled by default. This prevents items that contain embedded variable expressions from being replaced during import or export.

items

list of objects

Required. The list of items.

kind

string

Required. It defines the kind of item created. Supported items:

backupAndRestore
clientController
clusterOpProject
folder
freeStyle
managedController
sharedAgent
sharedCloud

name

string

Required. The name of the item.

displayName

string

Optional. The display name of the item.

description

string

Optional. The description of the item.

groups

list of objects

Optional. The list of RBAC groups included in the item.

name

string

Required. The name of the group.

members

object

Required.

users

list of strings

Optional. A list of user ids of users that belong to the group.

roles

list

Required. A list of RBAC roles that are assigned to this group.

name

string

Required. The name of the assigned role.

filteredRoles

list of strings

Optional. The list of roles to filter.

Configure the `items.yaml` file to handle variable expressions

To escape variable expressions during an import, apply the cascItemsConfiguration to the CasC bundle or enable the setting on the System configuration page.

To configure the cascItemsConfiguration value in the items.yaml file:

unclassified:
  cascItemsConfiguration:
    variableInterpolationEnabledForAdmin: true (1)
    variableInterpolationEnabledForNonAdmin: true (2)▼

1	Set the value to `true` to allow administrators to use the variable resolution for items imported into the `items.yaml` file. The value is set to `false` by default.
2	Set the value to `true` to allow non-adminstrators to use the variable resolution for items imported into the `items.yaml` file. The value is set to `false` by default.

To configure CasC item configuration in the operations center:

From the dashboard, select Manage Jenkins System.
Navigate to CasC Items configuration.

Figure 1. Enable variable resolution
Select one of the following:
1. Enable or disable the variable resolution in the item creation for administrator: This allows administrators to use the variable resolution for items imported into the items.yaml file.
2. Enable or disable the variable resolution in the item creation for non-administrator: This allows non-administrators to use the variable resolution for items in the items.yaml file.
  
  These settings are disabled by default.
Select Save.

Example items.yaml file

If creating a new controller item, refer to Creating a new controller item using CasC for the operations center.
By default, shared agent and shared cloud agent items are configured to be taken online. To configure the shared agent or shared cloud agent item to be taken offline, add the takeOnline property to the items.yaml and set it to false. For example: takeOnline: false.

removeStrategy:
  items: "none"
  rbac: "sync"

items:
  - kind: "folder"
    name: project-${team_group}
    displayName: "Project Alpha"
    description: "Project Alpha is going to change the world!"
    properties:
      - folderCredentialsProperty:
          folderCredentials:
            - credentials:
                - usernamePassword:
                    password: ${secret_location}
                    scope: GLOBAL
                    description: description
                    id: test-id
                    usernameSecret: false
                    username: test-user
              domain: {}
    groups:
      - name: "Project Alpha Developers"
        members:
          external_groups:
            - ldap-project-${team_group}
        roles:
          - name: "developer"
    items:(1)
      - kind: "folder"
        name: "project-alpha-tests"
        displayName: "Project Alpha Tests"
        items:
          - kind: "folder"
            name: "test-1"
          - kind: "folder"
            name: "test-2"
  - kind: "folder"
    name: "project-beta"
    displayName: "Project Beta"
    description: "Secret project! Only Admins can see this!"
    filteredRoles:(2)
      - "developer"
      - "browser"▼

1	Items can be nested within other items, enabling users to create a folder structure.
2	Roles can be filtered, for example to allow only administrators to view certain projects.

removeStrategy:
  items: "none"
  rbac: "sync"

items:(1)
  - kind: "folder"
    name: project-${team_group}
    displayName: "Project Alpha"
    description: "Project Alpha is going to change the world!"
    groups:
      - name: "Project Alpha Developers"
        members:
          external_groups:
            - ldap-project-${team_group}
        roles:
          - name: "developer"
    items:
      - kind: "folder"
        name: "project-alpha-tests"
        displayName: "Project Alpha Tests"
        items:
          - kind: "folder"
            name: "test-1"
          - kind: "folder"
            name: "test-2"
    properties:
      - envVars:
          vars:
            FOO: "BAR"
            BAR: "BAZ"
      - folderLibraries:
          libraries:
            - libraryConfiguration:
                implicit: false
                allowVersionOverride: true
                retriever:
                  modernSCM:
                    scm:
                      github:
                        traits:
                          - gitHubBranchDiscovery:
                              strategyId: 1
                          - gitHubPullRequestDiscovery:
                              strategyId: 1
                          - gitHubForkDiscovery:
                              trust:
                                gitHubTrustEveryone: {}
                              strategyId: 1
                        repoOwner: "company"
                        id: "library-id"
                        repository: "project-alpha"
                        configuredByUrl: true
                        repositoryUrl: "https://github.com/company/project-alpha"
                name: "my-library"
                includeInChangesets: true
      - folderCredentialsProperty:
          folderCredentials:
            - credentials:
                - usernamePassword:
                    password: ${secret_location}
                    scope: GLOBAL
                    description: description
                    id: test-id
                    usernameSecret: false
                    username: test-user
              domain: {}
      - itemRestrictions:
          allowedTypes:
            - "org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.job.WorkflowJob"
            - "hudson.matrix.MatrixProject"
            - "hudson.model.FreeStyleProject"
            - "com.cloudbees.hudson.plugins.modeling.impl.jobTemplate.JobTemplate"
            - "com.cloudbees.hudson.plugins.folder.Folder"
            - "com.cloudbees.hudson.plugins.modeling.impl.builder.BuilderTemplate"
            - "com.cloudbees.hudson.plugins.modeling.impl.auxiliary.AuxModel"
            - "org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.multibranch.WorkflowMultiBranchProject"
            - "com.cloudbees.hudson.plugins.modeling.impl.publisher.PublisherTemplate"
            - "com.cloudbees.hudson.plugins.modeling.impl.folder.FolderTemplate"
            - "com.infradna.hudson.plugins.backup.BackupProject"
          filter: true
    items:
      - kind: "freeStyle"
        name: "project-alpha-freestyle"
        displayName: "Freestyle job in the Project Alpha folder"
  - kind: "folder"
    name: "project-beta"
    displayName: "Project Beta"
    description: "Secret project! Only Admins can see this!"
    filteredRoles:(2)
      - "developer"
      - "browser"▼

1	Items can be nested within other items, enabling users to create a folder structure.
2	Roles can be filtered, for example to allow only administrators to view certain projects.

removeStrategy:
  items: "none"
  rbac: "sync"

items:
  - kind: "freeStyle"
    name: "project-alpha-freestyle"
    displayName: "Project Alpha Freestyle"
    description: "This is Project Alpha's Freestyle job!"
    disabled: false
    scm:
      gitSCM:
        extensions:
          - checkoutOption:
              timeout: 4
        gitTool: git
        userRemoteConfigs:
          - userRemoteConfig:
              name: "developer-a"
              credentialsId: "credentials-id"
              url: "git@github.com:company/project-alpha.git"
        browser:
          githubWeb:
            repoUrl: "https://github.com/company/project-alpha"
        doGenerateSubmoduleConfigurations: false
        branches:
          - branchSpec:
              name: "*/main"
    buildDiscarder:
      logRotator:
        artifactDaysToKeep: 3
        daysToKeep: 1
        numToKeep: 2
        artifactNumToKeep: 4
    scmCheckoutStrategy:
      standard: { }
    builders:
      - shell:
          command: "pwd"▼

removeStrategy:
  items: "none"
  rbac: "sync"

items:
  - kind: clusterOpProject
    name: "project-alpha-cluster-operations"
    displayName: "Project Alpha - Cluster operations"
    description: "These are Project Alpha's cluster operations!"
	disabled: false
    concurrentBuild: true
	operations:
      - masterClusterOperation:
          failureMode: IMMEDIATELY
          clusterOpSteps:
            - backupClusterOpStep:
                subjects:
                  - buildRecordSubject: {}
                  - jobConfigurationSubject: {}
                format:
                  zipFormat: {}
                retentionPolicy:
                  exponentialDecayRetentionPolicy: {}
                safeDelaySeconds: 10
                store:
                    s3Store:
                        bucketName: ' mybucket'
                        sse: true
                        bucketFolder: somefolder
                        credentialsId: 'my-aws-credentials-id'
                        region: us-east-1
          timeoutSeconds: 0
          itemSource:
              jenkinsRootItemSource: {}
          filters:
            - isMasterOnlineFilter: {}
          inParallel: 0
          noRetries: 0▼

removeStrategy:
  items: "none"
  rbac: "sync"

items:
  - kind: managedController
    displayName: "managed-controller-alpha"
    name: "managed-controller-alpha"
    description: "This is Project Alpha's managed controller!"
    groups:
      - name: "Project Alpha Developers"
        members:
          users:
            - developer-1
        roles:
          - name: developer
    properties:
      - configurationAsCode:
          bundle: bundle-1
      - healthReporting:
          enabled: false
      - owner:
          delay: 5
          owners: ''
      - envelopeExtension:
          allowExceptions: false
      - sharedConfigurationOptOut:
          optOut: false
      - licensing:
          strategy:
            perUserLicensingStrategy: {}
    configuration:
      kubernetes:
        allowExternalAgents: false
        replication:(1)
          config:
            maxReplicas: 5
            replicas: 3
            targetCPUUtilizationPercentage: 80
        terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 1200
        #image: cloudbees/mc-foo-image # uncomment to use a non-default image
        memory: 3072(2)
        fsGroup: '1000'
        cpus: 1.0
        readinessTimeoutSeconds: 5
        livenessInitialDelaySeconds: 300
        readinessInitialDelaySeconds: 30
        clusterEndpointId: default
        disk: 50
        readinessFailureThreshold: 100
        livenessTimeoutSeconds: 10
        domain: managed-controller-alpha
        livenessPeriodSeconds: 10
        javaOptions: -DfooSystemProperty="foo" -Dbar="bar"
        yaml: |-
          ---
          apiVersion: apps/v1
          kind: StatefulSet
          metadata:
            labels:
              my-label: my-value▼

1	Settings for a managed controller with CloudBees High Availability (HA), with 3 replicas, autoscaling enabled allowing up to 5 replicas, and a CPU threshold of 80% to trigger upscaling. `maxReplicas` and `targetCPUUtilizationPercentage` are not required if autoscaling is disabled. Then `maxReplicas` is set to `0` by default.
2	Some settings, such as controller memory, require the controller to be reprovisioned for the setting to take effect. If the managed controller is running in High Availability (HA) mode, these changes trigger a rolling restart without reprovisioning.

removeStrategy:
  items: "none"
  rbac: "sync"

items:
  - kind: clientController
    displayName: "client-controller-beta"
    name: "client-controller-beta"
    description: "This is Project Beta's client controller!"
    groups:
      - name: "Project Beta Developers"
        members:
          users:
            - developer-1
        roles:
          - name: developer
    properties:
    - configurationAsCode:
        bundle: bundle-2
    - healthReporting:
        enabled: false
    - owner:
        delay: 5
        owners: ''
    - envelopeExtension:
          allowExceptions: false
    - sharedConfigurationOptOut:
          optOut: false
    - licensing:
        strategy:
          perUserLicensingStrategy: {}
    - webSocket:
        enabled: true▼

removeStrategy:
  items: "none"
  rbac: "sync"

items:
  - kind: "sharedAgent"
    displayName: "Shared Agent for this cluster"
    name: "shared-agent-1"
    description: "Shared Agent for this cluster"
    remoteFS: "/tmp/remote"
    properties:
      - sharedAgent:
          customizers:
            - envVars:
                value:
                  SKIP_RELEASE: "TRUE"
                  JENKINS_VERSION: "2.303"
            - toolLocation:
                value:
                  - name: "git"
                    type: "git"
                    home: "/usr/local/git"
                  - name: "maven3"
                    type: "mvn"
                    home: "/usr/local/mvn"
    labels: "ubuntu"
    launcher:
      inboundAgent:
        webSocket: true
        workDirSettings:
          remotingWorkDirSettings:
            internalDir: "/path/to/directory"
            disabled: false
            failIfWorkDirIsMissing: true
            workDirPath: "/path/to/directory"
        agentStartupOptions: "-noCertificateCheck"
        vmargs: "-Xms2G -Xmx2G"
        tunnel: "192.1.1.45:22"
    mode: EXCLUSIVE
    numExecutors: 10
    retentionStrategy:
      sharedNodeRetentionStrategy: {}▼

removeStrategy:
  items: "none"
  rbac: "sync"

items:
  - kind: "sharedCloud"
    displayName: "Shared Cloud Agent for this cluster"
    name: "shared-cloud-1"
    description: "Shared Cloud Agent for this cluster"
    properties:
      - sharedCloud:
          customizers:
            - envVars:
                value:
                  SKIP_RELEASE: "TRUE"
                  JENKINS_VERSION: "2.303"
            - toolLocation:
                value:
                  - name: "git"
                    type: "git"
                    home: "/usr/local/git"
                  - name: "maven3"
                    type: "mvn"
                    home: "/usr/local/mvn"
    cloud:
      inboundAgents:
        mode: EXCLUSIVE
        numExecutors: 10
        remoteFS: "/path/to/directory"
        labels: "ubuntu"
        launcher:
          inboundAgent:
            webSocket: true
            workDirSettings:
              remotingWorkDirSettings:
                internalDir: "/path/to/directory"
                disabled: false
                failIfWorkDirIsMissing: true
                workDirPath: "/path/to/directory"
            agentStartupOptions: "-noCertificateCheck"
            vmargs: "-Xms2G -Xmx2G"
            tunnel: "192.1.1.45:22"▼

removeStrategy:
  items: "none"
  rbac: "sync"

items:
  - kind: backupAndRestore
    name: project-alpha-backup
    displayName: "Project Alpha backup"
    description: "This is Project Alpha's backup job!"
    buildersList:
      - backupBuilder:
          subjects:
            - buildRecordSubject:
                excludes: foo
            - jobConfigurationSubject:
                excludes: bar
            - systemConfigurationSubject:
                excludes: baz
                omitMasterKey: true
          format:
            zipFormat: {}
          exclusive: false
          store:
            s3Store:
              bucketName: bucket
              sse: true
              bucketFolder: bucketFolder
              credentialsId: testCredential
              region: us-east-1
          retentionPolicy:
            exponentialDecayRetentionPolicy: {}
          safeDelaySeconds: 42
    label: agent-for-backup
    triggers:
      - cron:
          spec: 0 0 * * *
    buildDiscarder:
      logRotator:
        numToKeep: 5▼

rbac.yaml

The rbac.yaml file contains all files used to configure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) within an instance. This file defines groups and roles at the root level.

For more information, refer to Configuring RBAC with CasC for the operations center.

Only roles and groups can be managed and only a subset of fields are supported.
Roles and groups present on the instance in the UI but not included in the items.yaml file will be removed.

Property Type Description

removeStrategy

object

Optional. It specifies the strategy to be followed when you apply a new configuration to an existing instance.

The removeStrategy property is optional for the rbac.yaml file. However, this property is required if the rbacRemoveStrategy property is not set in the bundle.yaml file.

Valid values for this property are:

rbac:
- sync: If the role or group already exists but the configuration changes, the new configuration is applied and the existing groups or roles are deleted.
- update: If the role or group already exists but the configuration changes, only the existing role or group is updated and replaced with the new role or group.

The removeStrategy property is declared in the bundle descriptor in the bundle.yaml file. If a removeStrategy property is not declared, the default option none is used. When a removeStategy is declared in the parent bundle but not the child bundle, the effective bundle uses the removeStrategy of the parent. If the child bundle also declares a removeStategy property in the bundle descriptor, the effective bundle uses the removeStategy of the child bundle.
If removeStrategy is declared for the rbac.yaml file, the rbac property values must be defined.

rbac

string

Required. Specifies how an existing configuration is handled when a new configuration is applied.

sync: If the role or group already exists but the configuration changes, the new configuration is applied and the existing groups or roles are deleted.
update: If the role or group already exists but the configuration changes, only the existing role or group is updated and replaced with the new role or group.

groups

list of objects

Required. The list of RBAC groups available on the controller.

name

string

Required. The name of the RBAC group.

members

list of lists

Required. The list of users included as members of the RBAC group. There are several types of members including: users, internal_groups, and external_groups.

users

list of strings

Optional. The list of user ids of users who belong to the RBAC group.

internal_groups

list of strings

Optional. The list of groups created in the CloudBees CI instance that belong to the RBAC group.

external_groups

list of strings

Optional. The list of groups imported from an identity provider (such as LDAP) that belong to the RBAC group.

roles

list of objects

Required. The list of RBAC roles that are assigned to this RBAC group.

name

string

Required. The name of the RBAC role assigned to the RBAC group.

grantedAt

string

Optional. The level the RBAC role is applicable. Available values include: current, child, or grandchild. The default level is current.

propagates

boolean

Optional. The setting for if the role propagates. The default value is true.

roles

list of objects

Required. The list of RBAC roles available on the controller.

name

string

Required. The name of the RBAC role.

filterable

boolean

Optional. The setting for if the role is filterable. The default value is true.

permissions

list of strings

Optional. The list of permissions authorized for members assigned this RBAC role. Can be empty if a member has no permissions assigned.

Example rbac.yaml file

removeStrategy:
  rbac: "SYNC"(1)

roles:
  - name: administer
    permissions:
      - hudson.model.Hudson.Administer
  - name: developer
    permissions:
      - hudson.model.Hudson.Read
      - hudson.model.Item.Read
      - hudson.model.Item.Create
      - hudson.model.Item.Configure
    filterable: "true"(2)
  - name: browser
    permissions:
    - hudson.model.Hudson.Read
    - hudson.model.Item.Read
    filterable: "true"
  - name: authenticated
    filterable: "true"
    permissions:
    - hudson.model.Hudson.Read

groups:
  - name: Administrators
    roles:
      - name: administer
        grantedAt: current(3)
    members:
      users:
        - admin
      external_groups:
        - ${external_admin_group}
  - name: Developers
    roles:(4) (5)
      - name: developer
    members:
      users:
        - developer
      internal_groups:
        - "some-other-group"
      external_groups:
        - "ldap-cb-developers"
  - name: Browsers
    roles:
      - name: browser
    members:
      users:
        - read▼

1	For security reasons, SYNC is here to remove groups/roles from CloudBees Continuous Integration when they are removed from this file.
2	If filterable is not included, the default value is “false”.
3	Other options that could be used here include: "child" or "grandchild".
4	If propagates is not included, the default value is "true".
5	If grantedAt is not included, the default value is "current".

variables.yaml

The variables.yaml file defines the variables that can be used in the jenkins.yaml, items.yaml, and rbac.yaml files with the placeholder ${}, for example ${team_name}. Variables are not supported for the plugins.yaml file.

To escape a string from variable substitution, the literal ^ must be placed in front of the expression. For example, ^${variableName} resolves to ${variableName}. For more information, refer to Passing secrets through variables.

Example variables.yaml file

  variables:
    - key: value
    - long_text: |-
        multiline string without
        quotes
    - another: text
    - team_name: Team Alpha
    - team_group: alpha
    - external_admin_group: ldap-cb-admins▼

Exporting a CasC configuration

You can export a CasC configuration from an existing operations center instance to create a template bundle. You can use the template bundle to set up a new operations center instance using CasC. However, the exported configuration should not be used as is and must be manually updated.

You can also export an individual CasC item and use it to create a new item by adding it to the items.yaml file.

For more information, refer to Exporting an individual CasC item.

The export feature relies on Jenkins LTS - Configuration as Code export, which has limitations. Therefore, the exported configuration is not a complete, correct, and ready-to-use CasC bundle. For more information, refer to the JCasC Jenkins LTS documentation.
The exported configuration is incomplete because some plugins are only partially compatible with Configuration as Code. They can read and load the CasC configuration, however, they do not generate the correct YAML files when exporting. In addition, the jenkins.yaml file may include extraneous default values for some properties that can be removed.
When exporting CasC bundles from existing operations center instances, you must verify there are no BeeKeeper plugin warnings, as the export logic relies on the CloudBees Assurance Program (CAP) to generate a consistent plugins.yaml file. If there are BeeKeeper warnings, the export still returns content, but the consistency of the plugins.yaml file cannot be guaranteed. The files may be unusable and require modifications due to warning comments in the files for plugin conflicts.

To prevent the environment configuration from being leaked, the variable expressions within exports are escaped. In the following pipeline example:

pipeline {
  agent any

  environment {
    greeting = 'Hello, World!'
  }

  stages {
    stage('Print Greeting') {
      steps {
        echo "${env.greeting}"
        sh 'echo ${GLOBAL_ENV}'
      }
    }
  }
}▼

The export will render as follows:

kind: pipeline
name: testWithVars
concurrentBuild: true
definition:
  cpsFlowDefinition:
    sandbox: true
    script: |-
      pipeline {
        agent any

        environment {
          greeting = 'Hello, World!'
        }

        stages {
          stage('Print Greeting') {
            steps {
              echo "^${env.greeting}" (1)
              sh 'echo ^${GLOBAL_ENV}'
            }
          }
        }
      }
description: ''
disabled: false
displayName: testWithVars1
resumeBlocked: false▼

1	The user must remove the ^ characters where it applies.

Prerequisites

The following plugins must be installed to export the current configuration:

If using CloudBees CI 2.289.3.2 - 2.303.3.3: CloudBees CasC API (Deprecated) plugin, version 1.14 - 1.41
If using CloudBees CI 2.319.1.5 or later: CloudBees CasC Client plugin, version 1.44 or later
Configuration as Code plugin

Exporting the current configuration

To export the current configuration from a test operations center instance:

Install operations center as a test instance.
Configure the plugins and global configuration using the UI.
Select Manage Jenkins in the left pane.
Select CloudBees Configuration as Code export and update.

Figure 2. CloudBees Configuration as Code export and update
Select Current configuration.

Figure 3. Current configuration
Select Download to export the configuration. You can export individual YAML files or export all files in zip format.

You can have a configuration bundle without the plugins.yaml, items.yaml, and rbac.yaml files. If you do not include these files in your bundle, do not list them in your bundle.yaml file.
Save the files using the following file names:
- bundle.yaml
- jenkins.yaml
- plugins.yaml
- items.yaml
- rbac.yaml
- variables.yaml
  
  For the bundle to be valid, the above files must use these exact filenames. If you rename these files, you must update them in your bundle.yaml file.
Uninstall the original operations center test instance; it is no longer needed.

If the operations center has not been configured using a CasC bundle, the exported bundle uses apiVersion:1 in the bundle.yaml file. However, if a CasC bundle has been used to configure the operations center, when exporting the current configuration, the value for the apiVersion property in the bundle.yaml is the value for the calculated effective bundle.

Using YAML anchors

If a YAML file contains repetitive elements, you can replace them with YAML anchors. Any part of the YAML file can be defined as an anchor and used as the reference if the anchor name has a prefix of x-.

Example of YAML anchors

The following example items.yaml file has the x-colors-declaration anchor that is used in the choice parameter element.

  x-colors-declaration: &colors
  - red
  - green
  - blue

  removeStrategy:
    items: "none"
    rbac: "sync"

  items:
  - kind: "freeStyle"
    name: "project-alpha-freestyle"
    displayName: "Project Alpha Freestyle"
    description: "This is Project Alpha's Freestyle job!"
    disabled: false
    blockBuildWhenDownstreamBuilding: false
    blockBuildWhenUpstreamBuilding: false
    concurrentBuild: false
    parameters:
    - choice:
        name: foreground-color
        choices: *colors
    - choice:
        name: background-color
        choices: *colors
    scm:
      none: {}
    scmCheckoutStrategy:
      standard: {}▼

This produces the following result:

  removeStrategy:
    items: "none"
    rbac: "sync"

  items:
  - kind: "freeStyle"
    name: "project-alpha-freestyle"
    displayName: "Project Alpha Freestyle"
    description: "This is Project Alpha's Freestyle job!"
    disabled: false
    blockBuildWhenDownstreamBuilding: false
    blockBuildWhenUpstreamBuilding: false
    concurrentBuild: false
    parameters:
    - choice:
        name: foreground-color
        choices:
        - red
        - green
        - blue
    - choice:
        name: background-color
        choices:
        - red
        - green
        - blue
    scm:
      none: {}
    scmCheckoutStrategy:
      standard: {}▼

In August 2020, the Jenkins project voted to replace the term master with controller. We have taken a pragmatic approach to cleaning these up, ensuring the least amount of downstream impact as possible. CloudBees is committed to ensuring a culture and environment of inclusiveness and acceptance - this includes ensuring the changes are not just cosmetic ones, but pervasive. As this change happens, please note that the term master has been replaced through the latest versions of the CloudBees documentation with controller (as in managed controller, client controller, team controller) except when still used in the UI or in code.

Creating a CasC bundle for the operations center

Manually creating a configuration bundle

bundle.yaml

Example bundle.yaml file

jenkins.yaml

Example jenkins.yaml file

plugins.yaml

items.yaml

Configure the items.yaml file to handle variable expressions

Example items.yaml file

rbac.yaml

Example rbac.yaml file

variables.yaml

Example variables.yaml file

Exporting a CasC configuration

Prerequisites

Exporting the current configuration

Using YAML anchors

Example of YAML anchors

Configure the `items.yaml` file to handle variable expressions