Running Jenkins Jobs on Windows Virtual Machine

testing jenkins virtual-machine automated-tests jenkins-plugins

I'm doing just that in my environment using the vSphere Cloud Plugin. Here's a basic step-by-step guide:

Install the plugin
Configure your ESX/ESXi server as a new "vSphere Cloud"
Create a new Jenkins node, of type "Slave virtual computer running under vSphere Cloud" (which becomes available after Installing the plugin).
When configuring the new node, optionally specify a snapshot name. This will revert the VM to this snapshot when the node launches.
Use the node in a pipeline script: node("node-name-or-label") { ...your code here... }

I use the method above with about 10 Windows nodes, reverting each to a "Clean" snapshot to start each build with a known state.

CodeHunter