Install Jenkins on Kubernetes with Helm

This guide walks you through installing Jenkins in a Kubernetes cluster using Helm, with:

A pre-created PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC)
Custom admin credentials
Traefik Ingress for public access
Persistent data even after reinstallation

Prerequisites

Kubernetes cluster (self-managed or on AWS EC2)
helm and kubectl installed
Traefik and StorageClass (e.g., ebs-sc) already set up
DNS pointing jenkins.maksonlee.com to your cluster
Namespace jenkins not yet used

Create a PersistentVolumeClaim

Save this as jenkins-pvc.yaml:

# jenkins-pvc.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: jenkins-pvc
  namespace: jenkins
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 2Gi
  storageClassName: ebs-sc

Apply it:

kubectl create namespace jenkins
kubectl apply -f jenkins-pvc.yaml

Prepare Helm values.yaml

Save this as jenkins-values.yaml:

controller:
  initializeOnce: true

  admin:
    username: "admin"
    password: "admin123"
    createSecret: true

  additionalPlugins:
    - credentials-binding
    - cloudbees-folder

  ingress:
    enabled: true
    annotations:
      traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.entrypoints: websecure
      traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.tls: "true"
      traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.tls.certresolver: dns
    hostName: jenkins.maksonlee.com
    tls:
      - hosts:
          - jenkins.maksonlee.com

persistence:
  existingClaim: jenkins-pvc

Install Jenkins via Helm

Add the Jenkins chart repo:

helm repo add jenkins https://charts.jenkins.io
helm repo update

Install:

helm install jenkins jenkins/jenkins \
  -n jenkins \
  -f jenkins-values.yaml

Access Jenkins

Once deployed, visit: https://jenkins.maksonlee.com

Reinstall Without Data Loss

If you uninstall Jenkins:

helm uninstall jenkins -n jenkins

Your PVC (jenkins-pvc) will still remain. Reinstall using the same steps to retain all your data.

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