Assume somebody familiar with DevOps and mainframes, but new to Jenkins, wants to get started with Jenkins, e.g. to:
- investigate the feasibility of managing data stored in personal files (PDSes, i.e. partitioned data sets) on the mainframe (so not, yet, managed by any of the typical SCM solutions exist for managing mainframe software).
- to run Jenkins in some type of personal development environment, e.g. in a Linux environment in Virtual Box (if that would make sense).
After some kind of (minimal) Jenkins installation and configuration got completed, the actual question becomes "Which of the typical Jenkins plugins, if any, would be needed?
". From the various Jenkins plugins that appear to make sense in my case, it seems that these are possible candidates (quotes are from the linked pages):
-
... provides its functions via FTP connection to IBM z/OS LPAR. You can configure your SCLM project on z/OS and then check for the changes via Jenkins.
Features include:
- Submission of user JCL job (with optional log collected upon finish).
- Introduction of SCLM as SCM for your projects allowing to checkout SCLM changes.
- The ability to build SCLM projects currently can be performed only via 'Submit zOS Job' build action.
Compuware Source Code Download for Endevor, PDS, and ISPW Plugin.
... allows Jenkins users to download Endevor, PDS, or ISPW members from the mainframe to the PC. Source can then be accessed on the PC, for example, for SonarQube analysis and reporting.
Since the 1st plugin is about SCLM (which is all about PDSes), and the 2nd plugin explicitly states support for PDSes (in its name), I trust both are possible candidates.
So assuming my shortlist is complete (is it?), what are the pros and cons of either one that should help me decide which one is best for my case?
Ps: Something like a "Jenkins Kickstart" package doesn't seem to exist (at least I've not found it yet).