​
Purpose of Job Agents

The primary purposes of job agents in Ctrlplane are:
  1. Triggering Jobs: Initiate processes in external CI/CD systems when Ctrlplane determines a job needs to run.
  2. Status Synchronization: Keep the job status in Ctrlplane updated with the latest information from the external system.
  3. Cross-Platform Integration: Enable Ctrlplane to work with multiple CI/CD tools seamlessly.

​
How Job Agents Work

  1. Job Initiation: When Ctrlplane determines a job needs to run (e.g., due to a new release or resource addition), it communicates with the appropriate job agent.
  2. External System Interaction: The job agent then triggers the corresponding job in the external CI/CD system using that system’s API or other integration methods.
  3. Status Monitoring: The job agent continuously or periodically checks the status of the job in the external system.
  4. Status Updates: As the job progresses, the agent reports status changes back to Ctrlplane, ensuring the Ctrlplane dashboard reflects the current state of all jobs.

​
Types of Job Agents

Ctrlplane supports various job agents to integrate with popular CI/CD tools, including:
  • GitHub Actions Agent
  • GitLab CI/CD Agent
  • Jenkins Agent
  • Kubernetes Jobs Agent
  • Argo Workflows Agent
  • Custom Job Agents (for integrating with other CI/CD tools)

​
Benefits of Using Job Agents

  1. Unified View: Job agents allow Ctrlplane to provide a centralized view of all deployment activities across different CI/CD platforms.
  2. Automation: They enable automatic job triggering based on various events in Ctrlplane.
  3. Flexibility: Support for multiple job agents allows organizations to use their preferred CI/CD tools while still benefiting from Ctrlplane’s orchestration capabilities.
  4. Scalability: As your CI/CD ecosystem grows, you can add new job agents to integrate with additional tools.

​
Best Practices for Job Agents

  1. Regular Updates: Keep job agents updated to ensure compatibility with both Ctrlplane and the external CI/CD systems.
  2. Monitoring: Implement monitoring for job agents to ensure they’re functioning correctly and to quickly identify any issues.
  3. Security: Ensure that job agents have the necessary permissions to interact with external systems, but follow the principle of least privilege.
  4. Error Handling: Implement robust error handling in job agents to manage potential issues with external system communication.
By leveraging job agents effectively, you can create a seamless integration between Ctrlplane and your existing CI/CD tools, enabling more sophisticated and coordinated deployment strategies across your entire infrastructure.