Launching inbound TCP agents

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CloudBees CI provides a number of ways to connect remote agents. Two of the most popular are outbound SSH agents and inbound TCP agents. SSH agents are most commonly used on Unix platforms, and they are initiated by the controller. The controller creates the connection when it is needed. Inbound TCP agents are most commonly used on Windows platforms, and they are initiated by agents. The agent connects to the controller first, and then the controller sends commands as needed.

For security reasons, it is important to run jobs on agents and not controllers. Builds that run on the controller can read or modify files in $JENKINS_HOME. This access can be used to perform activities that impact the entire installation, such as installing plugins, reading credentials, and creating new jobs. You should generally configure the controller to have no executors, and run builds only on build agents. For more information, refer to Security implications of building on controllers in the Jenkins documentation.

This topic describes some of the primary mechanisms for launching inbound TCP agents.

Launch mechanisms

The agent status page for TCP agents contains the following information:

Launch mechanisms

If you use a mechanism other than the Launch button, this page contains the information you need to launch the agent. The string of hex digits is a secret key the client uses to establish the connection. Depending on how you connect, you may also need the agent name, "AgentName" in this example, or the jnlpURL.

Launch button

The Launch button is the only launch mechanism that uses JNLP. When you click the button, a JNLP file is downloaded and launched with Java WebStart.

While this is the simplest method, it has many drawbacks and is not recommended. This is an outdated technology that has been deprecated. It requires an interactive user, and if the agent terminates, you have to select the button again.

Download JNLP file

Another launch mechanism runs the agent from a script or command line to retrieve the JNLP file. This mechanism does not use JNLP or WebStart. Instead, it obtains the connection information from the downloaded file. Internally, this is a two-step process, first the file connects to an HTTP(S) port to retrieve the connection information, and then it extracts the information and connects to the TCP port.

Before you use the command to launch an agent, you must download the agent.jar file. You can obtain the correct version from your Jenkins server from a link similar to https://myjenkins.example.com/jnlpJars/agent.jar. The operations can be combined in a script, cron job, or service.

A typical example of this command is:

java -jar agent.jar \ -jnlpURL <jnlp url> \ -secret <secret key> \ -workDir <work directory>

Connect directly to TCP port

You can also connect directly to the TCP port. Connecting directly to the TCP port lets you skip downloading the connection information file. However, you must provide some of the information that the downloaded file contains. If you use this method, you must pull the information together into a single, complete value from its multi-line display representation.

You must provide the following information:

  • Agent name.

    You can obtain the agent name from the agent status page.

  • Host and port, provided in a standard HOST:PORT format.

    The host can be whatever name or address resolves to the server. You can obtain the port value by examining the JNLP file or looking at the Agents section of the server’s Configure Global Security page.

  • Jenkins instance identity.

    Each Jenkins instance has its own instance identity. The agent needs this key to complete the connection. You can obtain the instance identity from the script console. Refer to the Jenkins documentation for more information about using the script console.

    Using the script console, execute the following command:

    hudson.remoting.Base64.encode(org.jenkinsci.main.modules.instance_identity.InstanceIdentity.get().getPublic().getEncoded())

    Then, capture the result to pass into the agent invocation. For more information about using the script console, refer to Script console in the Jenkins documentation.

    Alternatively, you can view the instance identity value by visiting the Instance Identity page from your Jenkins server at a link similar to https://myjenkins.example.com/instance-identity.

You also must download the agent.jar file from your Jenkins server from a link similar to https://myjenkins.example.com/jnlpJars/agent.jar.

Once you have obtained the prerequisite files and data, you can launch the agent with a command like this:

java -cp agent.jar hudson.remoting.jnlp.Main \ -headless \ -workDir <work directory> \ -direct <HOST:PORT> \ -protocols JNLP4-connect \ -instanceIdentity <instance identity> / <secretString> <agentName>

The protocols parameter is optional, but it is useful to limit the agent to protocols that are supported by the server. The only currently supported and recommended protocol is JNLP4-connect.

Entering the secret string in plain text on the command line means that this information could be retrieved by someone with access to the active processes list. If you are concerned about someone accessing your secret string, CloudBees recommends downloading the JNLP file as the more secure launch method. You can alternatively use a variable when you enter the secret string.

This mechanism uses a different JAR entry point than when you download the JNLP file. The available parameters and default behavior may differ between the two entry points.

Install as a Windows service

On a Microsoft Windows platform, you can install the agent as a Windows service. This allows the Windows infrastructure to manage the process lifecycle.

To configure the agent as a Windows service, launch the agent using one of the other mechanisms that doesn’t require it to run as headless. In the agent GUI, select File  Install as a service.

For additional information, refer to How to install several Windows agents as a service.

Parameters

There are a number of different launch parameters that control how agents connect and behave. The available parameters and default behaviors may vary depending upon the entry point. You can obtain usage information by executing java -cp agent.jar hudson.remoting.jnlp.Main or java -jar agent.jar --help. Not all parameters work together, and some parameters require the use of others.

There are also system or environment variables that control some advanced behaviors documented in the Remoting configuration table below. Many of these must be configured on both the controller and the agent. Changing some of these parameters may result in unreliable behavior.

One of these parameters that is supported with defined behavior is NO_PROXY. Similar to the usage in a number of other applications, this controls which hosts should be excluded from proxy configurations.

Table 1. Remoting configuration
System property Default value Description

hudson.remoting.ClassFilter.DEFAULTS_OVERRIDE_LOCATION

null

The path to a file containing alternative regex patterns for remoting class filtering.

hudson.remoting.FlightRecorderInputStream.BUFFER_SIZE

1048576

Size (in bytes) of the flight recorder ring buffer used for debugging remoting issues.

hudson.remoting.Launcher.pingIntervalSec

0

Seconds between ping checks to monitor health of agent nodes; 0 to disable ping.

hudson.remoting.Launcher.pingTimeoutSec

240

If ping of agent node takes longer than this, consider it dead; 0 to disable ping.

hudson.remoting.RemoteClassLoader.force

null

Class name string. Forces loading of the specified class name on incoming requests.

hudson.remoting.Engine.socketTimeout

30 minutes

Socket read timeout in milliseconds. If timeout happens and the failOnSocketTimeoutInReader property is true, the channel will be interrupted.

hudson.remoting.SynchronousCommandTransport.failOnSocketTimeoutInReader

false

Boolean flag. Enables the original aggressive behavior, when the channel reader gets interrupted by any SocketTimeoutException.

hudson.remoting.ExportTable.unexportLogSize

1024

Defines the number of entries to be stored in the unexport history that is analyzed during the invalid object ID analysis.

${PROTOCOL_FULLY_QUALIFIED_NAME}.disabled, where PROTOCOL_FULLY_QUALIFIED_NAME equals PROTOCOL_HANDLER_CLASSNAME without the Handler suffix.

false

Boolean flag, which allows disabling particular protocols in remoting. Property example: org.jenkinsci.remoting.engine.JnlpProtocol3.disabled

org.jenkinsci.remoting.nio.NioChannelHub.disabled

false

If specified, only the protocols from the list will be tried during the connection. The option provides protocol names, but the order of the check is defined internally and cannot be changed.

NO_PROXY (or no_proxy)

N/A

Provides specifications for hosts that should not be proxied.

The @ argument annotation

If you prepend any command-line argument with the @ symbol, it invokes special behavior. For example, recent versions of Jenkins show in the UI that one form of launching inbound TCP agents is:

echo <secret key> > secret-file java -jar agent.jar -jnlpUrl <jnlp url> -secret @secret-file -workDir <work directory>

This varies from the Download JNLP launch method because the secret key is stored in a file, rather than passed directly through the command line.

The behavior is more general than using the information from the agent status page. Any argument passed to the program (not interpreted by Java) may start with an @. The agent interprets the rest of that argument as the name of a file, "secret file" in the example above. The agent reads this file and augments the command line with an argument for each line in the file.

As an expanded example, you could extract agent configuration information by incorporating this line in command agent management scripts:

java -jar agent.jar \ @agent_options.cfg

with an "agent_options.cfg" file for each agent like this:

-jnlpUrl <jnlp url> -secret <secret key> -workDir <work directory>