If you've been following our blog post series on investigating build failures with the CloudBees Pipeline Explorer, you're already familiar with its basic use cases and JUnit integration. Today, we're diving deeper and demonstrating how CloudBees Pipeline Explorer integrates with the Build Failure Analyzer (BFA) plugin.
Jenkins Build Failure Analyzer (BFA) Plugin Overview
What is this BFA plugin you ask? It's a user-managed database of known error messages coupled with a scanner that checks these error messages against failed build logs. The Jenkins Build Failure Analyzer (BFA) plugin scans build logs and other files in the workspace for recognized patterns of known causes for build failures. It displays these on the build page to help you quickly pinpoint why it failed. The CloudBees Pipeline Explorer takes that data and provides visualization in the pipeline explorer.
For fun, read more about the Jenkins BFA plugin integrated with the CloudBees Pipeline Explorer.
Benefits of BFA Integration into CloudBees Pipeline Explorer
Integrating BFA into CloudBees Pipeline Explorer means less clicking outside of the explorer. It consolidates your visualization in one place, making it easier to access and analyze information.
The Build Failure Analyzer (BFA) panel in the pipeline explorer displays results from the BFA plugin, presenting a list of identified problems. The annotated lines updated in the log view can be viewed. The identified problems display the name, description, categories configured in the BFA plugin, and related lines in the build.
Want to access failed BFA builds? Just select the "Scan with Build Failure Analyzer" option. Here, you can scan either the non-scanned builds (the default) or all recurrent builds.
Note: The Build Failure Analyzer plugin must be installed in your Jenkins environment to leverage these benefits. The Build Failure Analyzer icon only appears if the plugin is installed. The orange circle indicates the number of identified problems
The BFA plugin solves the painful process of sifting through logs to find error messages. You input a list of patterns to look for in the log and when a build fails, the plugin scans the log, looking for your input patterns. If it finds one of these patterns, it displays a message you've also input along with the pattern.
The beauty of this lies in its simplicity. If you have a long-standing build with specific error messages that are not easily identifiable or understandable, you can input a pattern like “error 2057”. This could mean something like "switch the knob three times and rerun the build" or "contact this specific team to fix this specific problem." You can even include contact info (like an email address) in the database.
Conclusion
Integrating the Build Failure Analyzer (BFA) plugin into the CloudBees Pipeline Explorer offers users a streamlined, efficient way to identify and address build failures. By centralizing visualization and simplifying error identification, the BFA plugin is a powerful tool in any developer's arsenal.
Stay tuned for more features and integrations with the CloudBees Pipeline Explorer by checking out our newsletter - Technical Tuesdays.
Read all other 2 blogs in this series Investigating Build Failures with CloudBees Pipeline Explorer :