After years of maintaining Jenkins servers, we finally made the switch to GitHub Actions. Here’s why it was worth the effort.
The Problem
Jenkins served us well for a decade, but the maintenance burden grew unsustainable. Plugin updates broke builds. Java version conflicts caused headaches. The controller needed constant babysitting. Every organisation running Jenkins knows the drill: someone becomes the “Jenkins person” and spends significant time keeping it alive.
Security was another concern. Self-hosted CI servers are attractive targets. Keeping Jenkins patched, managing credentials securely, and auditing access required dedicated attention.
We needed CI that just worked, without becoming a product we had to operate.
Our Solution
GitHub Actions offered several advantages for our workflow. The YAML syntax felt familiar. Runners are managed by GitHub. Secrets handling is built-in. Most importantly, the CI configuration lives alongside the code it builds.
The migration wasn’t trivial. Jenkins pipelines don’t translate directly to Actions workflows. We had to rethink some patterns:
- Shared libraries became reusable workflows and composite actions
- Agent labels became runner labels and matrix strategies
- Credential bindings became repository and organisation secrets
- Pipeline stages became jobs with dependencies
We kept Jenkins running in parallel during the transition, migrating repositories gradually over three months.
The Benefits
No more Jenkins maintenance. No more “the build server is down” messages. GitHub handles runner availability, security patches, and scaling.
Developers can now debug CI issues themselves. The workflow file is right there in the repo. No special Jenkins access required, no Groovy expertise needed.
Build times improved too. GitHub’s hosted runners are faster than our aging Jenkins agents were. For repositories needing custom tooling, self-hosted runners remain an option.
The CI configuration is now version-controlled with the code. Branch protection rules enforce that tests pass. Pull requests show check status inline. The feedback loop tightened considerably.