Although we recommend using the Cx Server, you can also run project "Piper" on your own Jenkins installation. In this case, however, you have to care for some settings the Cx Server gives you for free. Also, the support of non-Cx Server installations is challenging.
Most of the tools project "Piper" uses to build, test, and deploy your application are available as out-of-the-box Docker images. You don't need to manually install them on your Jenkins server or Jenkins nodes, nor care for updates. Instead, these are automatically pulled from *hub.docker.com*.
If your Jenkins server already runs as Docker container, make sure the tools container can run on the Docker host. Extend the Docker call in the following way:
Project "Piper" requires a set of plugins installed on your Jenkins server. This set may evolve in the future. Make sure that all plugins of the appropriate versions are installed.
The Cx server repository contains an [up-to-date list][devops-cxs-plugins] of the required plugins. To ease the installation, download the list with the following command and use the [Jenkins client][jenkins-doc-client]:
Shared libraries extending the Jenkins pipeline are defined within the Jenkins system configuration. A library is defined by a link to its source repository and an appropriate version identifier. To add the project "Piper"s library, execute the following steps:
1. Open the Jenkins UI under `http://<jenkins-server-address>:<http-port>`, login with administration privileges, and choose **Manage Jenkins > Configure System**.
Your native Jenkins installation defines the user `jenkins` as a service user. If it doesn't exist, it is created. In this case, the user ID is the next free number determined by `/etc/passwd` - probably starting from `100`.
In contrast, the official [Jenkins Docker image][jenkins-docker-image] defines the user `jenkins` with the user ID `1000` as a service user inside the container.
Project "Piper" runs many pipeline steps as Docker images. If a Docker container is created, the Jenkins Docker plugin passes the Jenkins user and group ID as a process owner into the Docker container.
Binding a folder from the host machine into the container - used to exchange files between steps - results in file permission issues, if the user inside the container doesn't have rights for the folder on the host machine or vice versa.
Although you won't face this issue with images of project "Piper" , some 3rd-party Docker images follow this convention and expect to be executed under userid `1000`, like [node.js][dockerhub-node], which is used by a set of additional steps.
- [Create your own images][docker-getstarted] and solve the permission issues by removing the file system restrictions. Adjust the configuration accordingly, for example, adjust the `npmExecute` step of your project's YAML:
- Set up a namespace. The user permission [issue 781][piper-issue-781] of the project "Piper" repository describes how to set up a Linux kernel user namespace to prevent the mismatch of user IDs. **Note:** This solution is experimental and should be well-considered.