Chapter 2. Distributed Builds – Master/Slave Mode

A basic Jenkins installation operates as a standalone entity. A single Jenkins master can be responsible for source control polling, LDAP authentication, job execution, test report parsing, and more. As the role Jenkins plays in an organization expands, we may be asked to provide support for additional build environments, automated test execution solutions, configuration management solutions, and even deployments. To extend Jenkins and support these types of additional responsibilities, Jenkins features an elegant distributed build solution. This feature can be leveraged to help offload some of the work and to position Jenkins as a scalable, cross-platform solution.

	"If you always give, you will always have."
	--Chinese proverb

Distributed builds in Jenkins are supported by slave agent services running on unique devices, which coins the term master and slave mode. The master/slave mode architecture can assist us in scaling Jenkins from a single...