DevOps4UA

CI/CD with Jenkins, Docker & Git – A Simple Guide for Junior Developers

Jenkins

Source: Dev.to | Jan 21, 2026 (UTC)

Easy CI/CD Setup with Jenkins, Docker & Git

What You’ll Need

Before we start, make sure you have:

  • Basic GitHub knowledge
  • A Linux server (or VM)
  • Some Docker experience

Overview

Hey! If you’re a junior developer looking to learn CI/CD, you’re in the right place! This guide is specifically written for beginners who want to understand how to automate their deployment process.

Today I’m going to walk you through setting up CI/CD with Docker and Jenkins from scratch. Don’t worry if this sounds intimidating – it’s actually pretty straightforward! With modern tools (and a bit of AI help), anyone can build a solid pipeline without too much hassle.

So, without further ado, let’s dive in!

Step 1: GitHub Setup

First things first – let’s get your GitHub ready:

  1. Create a repository on GitHub for your project
  2. Go to Settings → Developer settings → Personal access tokens
  3. Generate a new token (make sure to save it somewhere safe – you’ll need it later!)

Step 2: Local Development

Now let’s work on your local machine:

  1. Write your code – use whatever language you prefer (Java, Python, Go, Node.js – anything works!)
  2. Create a Dockerfile for building your app
  3. Test the Docker build locally to make sure everything works:

docker build -t your-app:latest .

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

If it builds successfully, you’re good to go!

Step 3: Server Setup

Time to prep your deployment server:

  1. Update your package manager:

sudo apt update -y

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

  1. Install Docker and docker-compose:

sudo apt install docker.io docker-compose-plugin -y

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

  1. Create a docker-compose file for Jenkins:

Here’s a simple setup that works:

services: jenkins: image: jenkins/jenkins:lts user: root # avoid permission errors ports: - "8080:8080" volumes: - ./jenkins_home:/var/jenkins_home - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

Important tips:

– Pro tip: Store this compose file in a GitHub repo for version control!

Step 4: Jenkins Configuration

Alright, now for the fun part – setting up Jenkins:

  1. Add GitHub credentials:

  2. Create a Pipeline with these stages:

Your pipeline should look something like this (don’t worry, you can use AI to help write the Jenkinsfile!):

  1. Checkout – Pull your code from GitHub
  2. Build – Build your Docker image
  3. Login – Authenticate with Docker Hub
  4. Push – Push your image to Docker Hub
  5. SSH to server – Connect to your deployment server

  6. Deploy – Run your updated container

    1. Set up automatic triggering:

You have two options here:

Option A: Webhooks (if you have a public IP)

Option B: Poll SCM (if you don’t have a public IP)

Bonus: Easy Log Viewing with Dozzle

Want to see your container logs easily? Let me introduce you to Dozzle – it’s a game changer!

  1. Go to the Dozzle homepage
  2. Copy the docker installation command
  3. Run it on your Linux server:

docker run -d --name dozzle -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -p 9999:9999 amir20/dozzle:latest

Enter fullscreen mode

Exit fullscreen mode

That’s it! Now you can view all your container logs in a nice web interface at http://your-server:9999 🎉

No more SSH-ing into your server just to check logs!

Wrapping Up

Congrats! You now have a fully working CI/CD pipeline. Every time you push code to GitHub, Jenkins will automatically build and deploy your app. Pretty cool, right?

The best part? Once it’s set up, you can pretty much forget about it and focus on writing code. Your deployments will just… happen.

Happy coding! 🚀

For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse

Залишити відповідь

Ваша e-mail адреса не оприлюднюватиметься. Обов’язкові поля позначені *

Читайте також