Gradle Enterprise Administration Manual for Helm Installations

Prerequisites

This manual assumes that you have previously installed Gradle Enterprise using one of the above installation methods, and can access its web interface. If your installation is not at this point, please refer to the installation manual for your chosen installation type.

Application Configuration

Basic installation settings for Gradle Enterprise are configured via Helm values. This includes how Gradle Enterprise is accessed via the network, and how it stores its persistent data. These settings are covered in the installation manuals linked-to above.

Other configuration aspects are configured via the Gradle Enterprise application. Only users with the administration permission can do this, and they can do so by using the user menu in the top right of the application and choosing “Administration”. Until user accounts have been created, or in the case that no user accounts will be used, the system user can be used for this purpose.

Please read each of the following sections for information on recommended configuration.

System user password

The “system user” is an ever-present local user account that can be used to bootstrap the configuration of an installation, or for emergency local access in case of a failure with an external authentication provider once configured. The system user is hardcoded to have the “Administer Gradle Enterprise” permission (see Access control).

The system user has a username of system and a default password that is randomly generated for new installations.

The system user password can also be set in an unattended configuration.

The first time a user logs in (as the system user) using the default password, they will be prompted to change the password. The new password should be recorded and kept secret as it can be used to access Gradle Enterprise as an administrator.

It is recommended that the system user account not be used regularly. Instead, real administrator user accounts should be created by configuring access control.

There are several ways to find the default password:

1. Get the password using the Admin CLI

The Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI also has a command to get the default system password: (admin-cli) system get-default-system-password.

2. Set the password using the Admin CLI

In addition to the get-default-system-password command, the Admin CLI also has a system reset-system-password command that will set the system password to a value you provide. This can be used as an alternative to looking up the default system password, and skips having to choose a new password after the first login. The new password should be recorded and kept secret as it can be used to access Gradle Enterprise as an administrator.

3. Get the password using `kubectl`

If you have kubectl installed and configured, you can view the default system password using the following command:

$ kubectl -n gradle-enterprise get secret gradle-default-system-password-secret --template={{.data.password}} | base64 --decode

If you installed Gradle Enterprise in a namespace other than gradle-enterprise, adjust the command accordingly.

4. Find the default password in the app logs

The gradle-enterprise-app-* pods log the system password on startup when the default system password is used. It can be found by searching for Using default system password:.

While kubectl logs can be used to get the app logs, it does not have an option to get the beginning of the log, only the end. As such, this method likely won’t be of much use except with an external log aggregator or viewer.

Access control

Gradle Enterprise allows locally managed user accounts and permissions, and externally managed via an LDAP service or SAML 2.0 identity provider.

Initial setup can be performed by the system user. Subsequently, any user with the “Administer Gradle Enterprise” permission can configure access control by using the user menu in the top right of the application to access “Administration” and then “Access control”.

The following permissions are available to grant access to the described function:

Permission

Config value

Description

View Build Scans and build data

viewScan

Allows viewing of Build Scans and associated build data and use of Predictive Test Selection

Publish Build Scans

publishScan

Allows publishing of Build Scans

Access build data via the API

exportData

Allows access to the Gradle Enterprise API

Use Test Distribution

testDistribution

Allows use of Test Distribution

Read build cache data

readCache

Allows reading of Build Cache data

Read and write build cache data

writeCache

Allows reading and writing of Build Cache data

Read build cache data and write Bazel CAS data

readCacheWriteCas

Allows reading of Build Cache data as well as writing data to the content-addressable storage exposed by the Build Cache’s Bazel functionality. If you typically assign read-only access to the cache for developers and write access only for the CI, consider assigning developers using Bazel this permission instead. The readCacheWriteCas permission allows developers using Bazel to benefit from richer local Build Scans while maintaining a similar level of security.

Access all data without an associated project

accessDataWithoutAssociatedProject

Allows users to access and push data that is not associated with a project

Access all data with or without associated project

accessAllDataWithOrWithoutAssociatedProject

Allow users to access and push all data for all projects, as well as data that is not associated with a project.

Configure build caches

administerCache

Allows configuration of Build Cache functionality

Configure projects

administerProjects

Allows configuration of projects and project groups for project-level access control from the Administration console, or by using the Gradle Enterprise API.

Administer Gradle Enterprise

administerGe

Allows general administration of Gradle Enterprise (e.g. access control).

“Administer Gradle Enterprise” does not imply the “Configure build caches” or “Configure projects” permissions.

The “Access all data without an associated project” and “Access all data with or without associated project” permissions are granted to all users automatically when project-level access control is disabled.

Users' permissions are managed via assigning roles to them, either in Gradle Enterprise or by mapping an external Identity Provider’s roles. Both methods are described later in this section.

Gradle Enterprise comes with a basic set of roles pre-configured, which are shown in the table below. They should be enough for many use-cases. Custom roles can be created and managed by going to “Administration” via the top right hand user menu, then “Access control” → “Roles”, or by using unattended configuration.

Role

Display name

Description

Permissions

admin

Administrator

Administer Gradle Enterprise

Configure build caches
Configure projects
Administer Gradle Enterprise

ci-agent

CI Agent

Use Gradle Enterprise for CI builds

Publish Build Scans
Use Test Distribution
Read build cache data
Read and write build cache data

developer

Developer

Use Gradle Enterprise

View Build Scans and build data
Publish Build Scans
Use Test Distribution
Read build cache data

Users migrating from a version before 2023.1 will also have the legacy single-permission roles. However, we generally recommend using semantic roles like the ones above.

For externally managed user accounts (LDAP or SAML 2.0), roles can be managed locally or by group/role membership defined by the provider. When using provider-defined membership, each Gradle Enterprise role can be mapped to one external group/role.

Changes to access control settings may take up to 20 minutes to propagate through the various components of Gradle Enterprise.

Anonymous access

By default, Gradle Enterprise allows anonymous viewing and creation of Build Scans. This makes it easier to get started by reducing build configuration, but may not be suitable for your environment. Anonymous access to the built-in Build Cache node is not enabled by default.

Permissions for anonymous users can be changed by going to “Administration” via the top right hand user menu, then “Access control” → “Anonymous access”.

Changes to access control settings may take up to 20 minutes to propagate through the various components of Gradle Enterprise.

Assigning the “Configure build caches” permission to anonymous users has been deprecated in 2023.1 and removed in 2023.2.

Authenticated build access

Builds can authenticate with Gradle Enterprise by supplying an “access key”.

Please consult the Gradle Enterprise Gradle Plugin User Manual or Gradle Enterprise Maven Extension User Manual for guidance on how to configure builds to authenticate with Gradle Enterprise.

Local users

Locally managed user accounts can be created to allow users to access Gradle Enterprise. They are not mutually exclusive with externally managed user accounts and both can co-exist provided the usernames and emails are unique.

Setup

From the Administration page, navigate to “Access control” → “Users”
Click Add.
Enter details for the user and set an initial password.
Assign the required roles for the user.
Click Save.

SAML 2.0

A SAML 2.0 identity provider can be configured to allow users to access Gradle Enterprise using their organization credentials. User accounts for users authenticating with the SAML provider will be created on first login. A user cannot login via a SAML provider if a locally defined account exists for the same username or email.

Signing out from Gradle Enterprise does not log users out of the SAML identity provider.

Setup

From the Administration page, navigate to “Access control” → “Identity provider”
Check ”Enable external identity provider”
Choose “SAML 2.0” from Identity provider type options
Enter a name for the identity provider
Create a SAML application at your identity provider using the displayed “Service provider SSO URL” and “Service provider entity ID”.
Download the metadata for the SAML application from your identity provider, and select this file for the “Identity provider metadata file” field.
Configure signing/encryption options
Configure attribute mapping (described below)
Configure role management (described below)
Click Save.

If any signing or encryption is being used, use “Download service provider config” to obtain a configuration file that will need to provided your identity provider.

Attribute mappings

User’s “first name”, “last name” and “email” attributes can be obtained from the identity provider or prompted for on first login.

To obtain an attribute from the identity provider, select “Manage in identity provider” for the attribute and specify the name of the SAML attribute that will provide the value. Attribute changes made at the SAML identity provider will only take affect after either a user initiated logout, administrator force logout, or session expiry.

Locally managed attributes can be updated for a user by an administrator.

Roles

User role membership can be defined by the identity provider or managed locally.

To use identity provider specified role membership, select “Defined by identity provider” in the “Role membership” section. The name of the SAML attribute that defines the roles for a user must be specified, along with the values to map to Gradle Enterprise access roles.

When using “Defined by Gradle Enterprise” as the “Role membership” option, the default roles for users can be specified. Users will be assigned the default roles when they first sign in. Changing the default roles will change the role membership of users with default roles enabled. Administrators can change role membership for individual users after they have signed in for the first time, including whether the default roles should be enabled for the user.

LDAP

An LDAP identity provider can be configured to allow users to access Gradle Enterprise using their organization credentials. User accounts for users authenticating with the LDAP identity provider will be created on first login.

A user cannot login via an LDAP provider if a locally defined account exists for the same username or email.

Setup

From the Administration page, navigate to “Access control” → “Identity provider”
Check ”Enable external identity provider”
Choose “LDAP” from Identity provider type options
Complete the connection details for your LDAP provider.
Configure user attributes (described below)
Configure role management (described below)
Click Save.

Attribute mappings

There are five required fields in Gradle Enterprise: “username”, ”first name”, “last name”, “email“, and “UUID”. These fields are required to be mapped to fields in your LDAP identity provider.

Commonly, the “UUID” attribute is “entryUUID”, however for LDAP providers where this is missing, another sensible unique persistent ID should be used. For Active Directory, this is usually called “objectGUID”.

Roles

User role membership can be defined by the identity provider or managed locally.

To use identity provider specified role membership, select “Defined by identity provider” in the “Role membership” section. Details on where to find roles and how they are defined must be provided.

For most LDAP providers it is common for the role object class to be “groupOfNames”, however for Active Directory this is usually “group”.

When using “Defined by Gradle Enterprise” as the “Role membership” option, the default roles for users can be specified. Users will be assigned the default roles when they first sign in. Changing the default roles will change the role membership of users with default roles enabled. Administrators can change role membership for individual users after they have signed in for the first time, including whether the default roles should be enabled for the user

Recursive group membership is supported, via an opt-in option.

SCIM 2.0

Gradle Enterprise supports integration with other systems via the System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM 2.0) protocol. This allows for automating management of users and groups.

Setup

By default, SCIM support is disabled. To enable it:

From the Administration page, navigate to “Access control” → “SCIM”
Check “Enable SCIM integration”
Click Generate token.
- If you have enabled SCIM previously, a “Regenerate token” button will be present instead.
Copy the “Base URL” and “SCIM token” values to a secure location for later use.
Click Save.
A header will appear alerting you to pending configuration changes. Click Apply and confirm again by clicking Apply.
In your system that uses SCIM (often an identity provider), use the “Base URL” and “SCIM token” values saved earlier to configure the SCIM integration.

Specific instructions for the following SCIM-capable systems are available:

Azure Active Directory
Okta

Limitations

Authentication is only supported via Bearer Tokens.
Usernames will always be normalized to lowercase.
Users created via SCIM are local to Gradle Enterprise and will block using that “userName” with an identity provider.
Identity providers create users on first login; attempts to update a user before first login will fail.
The following User attributes are supported (others may work):
- active
- emails
- id
- name.familyName
- name.givenName
The following Group attributes are supported (others may work):
- displayName
- id
- members

Azure Active Directory

This section assumes you have a pre-existing application for Gradle Enterprise in Azure Active Directory, and the application is already configured for SAML single sign on. If not, configure an application before proceeding.

Navigate to your Gradle Enterprise application in Azure Active Directory
Navigate to “Manage” → “Provisioning”
Navigate to “Manage” → “Provisioning” (again)
In the “Provisioning Mode” field, select “Automatic”
Set the “Tenant URL” field to the “Base URL” value from the Gradle Enterprise application (should look like https://«hostname»/identity/scim/v2)
Set the “Secret Token” field to the “SCIM token” value from the Gradle Enterprise application
Click Save.
Navigate to “Mappings” → “Provision Azure Active Directory Groups”
Set “Enabled” to “No”
Click Save and confirm by clicking Yes.
Navigate to “Provisioning”
Navigate to “Mappings” → “Provision Azure Active Directory Users”
In the “Target Object Actions” section, uncheck “Create”
Click Save and confirm by clicking Yes.
Navigate to “Provisioning”
In the “Settings” section, set “Provisioning Status” to “On”
Click Save.

The default attribute mappings should work without modification.

Users who have been assigned to the application but have not yet logged in will not show in the Gradle Enterprise interface and will be skipped during provisioning operations.

Azure Active Directory performs provisioning on a fixed cycle, which may cause noticeable delays before changes take effect. See How long will it take to provision users? for more information.

For more information, refer to the Azure Active Directory documentation:

How Application Provisioning works in Azure Active Directory

Okta

This section assumes you have a pre-existing app integration for Gradle Enterprise in Okta, and the app integration is already configured for SAML 2.0 single sign on. If not, configure an app integration before proceeding.

Navigate to your SAML 2.0 app integration
Navigate to the “General” tab
In the “App Settings” section:
1. Click Edit.
2. In the “Provisioning” field, check “Enable SCIM provisioning”
3. Click Save.
Navigate to the “Provisioning” tab (will not be visible if you missed the previous step)
In the “Settings” → “Integration” section:
1. Click Edit.
2. Set the “SCIM connector base URL” field to the “Base URL” value from the Gradle Enterprise application (should look like https://«hostname»/identity/scim/v2)
3. Set the “Unique identifier field for users” field to “userName”
4. In the “Supported provisioning actions” section, check Push New Users and Push Profile Updates.
5. In the “Authentication Mode” field, select “HTTP Header”
6. Set the “HTTP Header”, “Authorization”, “Bearer” field to the “SCIM token” value from the Gradle Enterprise application
7. Click Test Connector Configuration.
8. Review the results and click Close.
9. Click Save.
In the “Settings” → “To App” section (will not be visible if you missed the previous step):
1. Click Edit.
2. In the “Update User Attributes” field, check Enable.
3. Click Save.

The default attribute mappings should work without modification.

Users who have been assigned to the application but have not yet logged in may cause an error message like "Automatic provisioning of user … to app … failed: Matching user not found" to be shown. This is expected and not harmful. If you wish to clear the error, go to Okta’s “Dashboard” → “Tasks” page after the user has logged in, select the relevant app assignments, and click “Retry Selected”.

Okta does not delete users via SCIM. Rather, it will set the active attribute to false.

For more information, refer to the Okta documentation:

Project-level access control

Gradle Enterprise supports limiting the visibility of data from certain projects to certain users. Projects can be created in Gradle Enterprise, used by builds, and associated with users. Once enabled, the following user actions are limited to the projects to which the user has access:

Viewing Build Scan data, including in dashboards or via the Gradle Enterprise API
Publishing Build Scans
Reading or writing build cache data (including Bazel cache data)
Using Test Distribution
Using Predictive Test Selection

To use project-level access control with the build cache, you must use access keys for authentication with the build cache, not credential authentication.

Once a build specifies a project, access to that project will be required to take any of these actions. Additionally, builds will only have access to data from their own project. For example, a build associated with project “A” will only be able to read cache entries that were stored by builds associated with project “A”.

The Test Distribution Administration page shows usage data for all projects, regardless of a user’s access.

Whether a user can interact with data that does not have an associated project is determined by the “Access all data without an associated project” permission.

When project-level access control is enabled, builds that do not specify a project will only be able to publish Build Scans and use Gradle Enterprise features if the user running the build is granted the “Access all data without an associated project” permission. See Migrating to project-level access control for details.

Gradle Enterprise stores projects and project groups in the application database, rather than in the Gradle Enterprise configuration file. Use database backups to restore projects and projects groups just as you would users, access keys, and other app configuration data migrated with the database.

Configuring project access

To configure access to a project in Gradle Enterprise, it first has to be created.

Gradle Enterprise automatically creates any projects referenced in published builds, However, users cannot access those projects because they are not associated with any users. To avoid this, we recommend creating and assigning projects in Gradle Enterprise before using them in your builds.

To manage projects:

Navigate to “Administration” via the top right hand user menu.
Navigate to the “Access control” page, then the “Projects” tab.
Scroll to the “Projects” section.

In the “Projects” section you can:

View and search the projects known to Gradle Enterprise.
Create projects using the “Add project” button.
Edit a project, by clicking on it in the project list. The display name, description, and the project groups the project is part of can all be edited.

The project’s ID is what builds will use to identify with the project.

Projects can not be deleted.

To associate projects to users, Project Groups are used. Project groups are to projects as roles are to permissions - each group contains a set of projects, and when assigned to a user, will give the user access to all of its projects.

Navigate to “Administration” via the top right hand user menu.
Navigate to the “Access control” page, then the “Projects” tab.
Scroll to the “Project Groups” section.

In the “Project Groups” section you can:

View and search the project groups known to Gradle Enterprise.
Create project groups using the “Add project group” button.
Edit project groups, by clicking on the project in the project list. The display name, description, and the projects the group contains can all be edited.

Assigning project groups to users is done when editing a user, identically to how roles are assigned. Like roles, project groups can also be mapped from an external identity provider.

The “Access all data without an associated project” and “Access all data with or without associated project” permissions can be used to circumvent some level of per-project access control, as described in the access control section. Frequently using these permissions reduces the usefulness of project-level access control. However, they may be useful for bot accounts or CI agents, or to maintain visibility of past data that does not have an associated project.

Changes to access control settings may take up to 20 minutes to propagate through the various components of Gradle Enterprise.

Using the API

Project configuration using the Gradle Enterprise API is in beta, and may change without notice in future releases.

In addition to the manual configuration outlined above, the Gradle Enterprise API can be used to manage projects and project groups. Project groups are still assigned to users manually or using an identity provider mapping.

The API is documented in the Gradle Enterprise API documentation. All of the project related API endpoints require the “Configure projects” permission.

The API can be used to automate project creation and association (using an IdP or pre-assigned project groups) from an external source of truth, such as an internal “project registry”.

Using in a build

For project-level access control to be useful, builds must self-identify as a project. Otherwise, they will be accessible by all users with the “Access all data without an associated project” permission. For information on how to configure a project ID, please consult the links below.

Gradle: Gradle Enterprise Gradle Plugin User Manual
Apache Maven™: Gradle Enterprise Maven Extension User Manual
sbt: Gradle Enterprise sbt plugin User Manual

Enabling project-level access control

By default, project-level access control is disabled and Gradle Enterprise does not enforce project-level access for builds associated with a project. You can configure project access before enabling project-level access control.

To enable project-level access control:

Navigate to “Administration” via the top right hand user menu.
Navigate to the “Access control” page, then the “Projects” tab.
Check “Enable project-level access control”.
Save your settings.

Project-level access control will take effect once the configuration is applied.

The “Administration” > “Projects” page is only visible to users with the “Configure projects” permission.

Once you enable project-level access control, the “Allow data without an associated project” checkbox appears. The “Allow data without an associated project” setting controls whether data without an associated project can be submitted to Gradle Enterprise. It is enabled by default, and we recommend keeping it that way at least until all of your builds specify a project ID.

This setting controls whether new data without project associations will be accepted by Gradle Enterprise. The “Access all data without an associated project” permission controls users' access to that data, and the ability to submit it.

Migrating to project-level access control

When enabling project-level access control, it is important to do so carefully, otherwise existing builds could begin to fail and users could unintentionally lose access to data. There are two paths to enabling project-level access control that we recommend: an all at once path that enables project-level access control for all builds and all projects at the same time, and a progressive path that enables projects one by one.

To use project-level access control with the build cache, you must use access keys for authentication with the build cache, not credential authentication.

Changes to access control settings may take up to 20 minutes to propagate through the various components of Gradle Enterprise.

All at once

For this path, you configure all project-level access control related settings before enabling it, and then enforce it everywhere.

Create all projects you wish to use.
Use those projects in all of your builds. All of your builds should be associated with a project.
Assign all users the necessary projects using project groups.
Enable project-level access control.
Disable “Allow data without an associated project”.

It is important to ensure that all of your builds use a project in step 2. Otherwise, once you complete step 4, builds without a project will fail to authenticate with Gradle Enterprise. This is because while data without an associated project is still accepted, no users have permission to work with it.

Once you complete step 4, users will lose access to historical data that does not have an associated project. To avoid this, you can wait long enough between steps 2 and 4 to ensure that all relevant data has a project associated, or grant users who should have access to the historical data the “Access all data with or without associated project” permission.

Progressive

For this path, you configure and enforce project-level access control one build at a time.

Enable project-level access control.

At this point, no builds should specify projects, but all builds will continue to work. This is because despite project-level access control being enabled, data without an associated project is allowed and all users have permission to work with it.

When you wish to enable project-level access control for a build, do the following:

Create the project you wish to use, if it does not already exist.
Assign it to all users that should have access using project groups.
Use the project in the build.

Project-level access control will now be enforced for that build. If this has been done for all existing builds, and you wish to prevent the submission of new data that is not associated with a project, disable “Allow data without an associated project”. You can then remove “Access all data with or without associated project” from any users. However, it is required to view historical data that is not associated with a project, and by itself does not allow the creation of any new data that isn’t associated with a project, so you may with to leave it in place for some time.

Build Scan storage

Build Scans can be stored in the Gradle Enterprise database, or in an object store. By default, Build Scans are stored in the database that Gradle Enterprise is configured to connect to.

Disk space management

In most installations, storage space usage is dominated by the storage of Build Scan data. The amount of space used is dependent on how many scans are being published and how much information is being recorded for each build.

When Build Scan data is stored in the database, compression and deduplication techniques are used. This means that data growth is non-linear; storing data for twice as many builds does not mean that twice the space will be required.

When Build Scan data is stored in S3, each scan is stored as a compressed, self-contained object. This makes estimation of required storage easier: twice as many scans results in roughly twice as much storage being used.

To control the amount of storage space used, Gradle Enterprise can be configured to remove Build Scans based on their age. To avoid running out of disk space, you can configure automatic deletion of old Build Scans when the amount of free space drops below a specified percentage, as well as automatic rejection of incoming data when free space drops below a specified percentage. Additionally, the system can be configured to send warning emails when free space drops below a specified percentage.

These settings can be changed by going to “Administration” via the top right-hand user menu, then “Build Scans”.

Recommended Build Scan storage configuration

A configuration that maintains a predictable Build Scan retention period is:

Specify a maximum Build Scan age
Send a warning email when there is less than 10% of space free
Reject incoming data when there is less than 5% of space free

When storing scans in the database, an alternative configuration that stores as much Build Scan history as space permits is:

Do not specify a maximum Build Scan age
Automatically delete old Build Scans when there is less than 15% of space free
Send a warning email when there is less than 10% of space free
Reject incoming data when there is less than 5% of space free

When enabling automatic deletion of old Build Scans when disk space is low, be mindful that the result of another process filling the volume that Gradle Enterprise is using will be that all Build Scan data will be deleted.

If backups are created on the same volume, make sure to leave enough room for them in your thresholds. For example, if the total space that your backups take up is 40% of the disk, the above recommended settings would be 55%, 50% and 45%. Store backups on a separate volume to simplify space management.

Configuring disk space management percentage thresholds is currently only supported when using the embedded database. Please consult your database provider for monitoring and alerts on database disk space when using a user-managed database.

When storing Build Scans in object storage, the space used will not be taken into account in the above calculations. This means that if your installation is running low on database space, the likely cause will not be Build Scan data, so automatic deletion of Build Scans wil not recover much space. It is not recommended to set an auto-deletion threshold when storing Build Scan data in S3.

Build Scan object storage

It is possible to store Build Scans in an object store such as Amazon S3.

While this is a more complex setup, there are a number of benefits:

High traffic installations typically see an improvement in Build Scan processing and cleanup performance.
S3 is a highly scalable and fault tolerant service, typically more so than an individual database.
It is cheaper to store more Build Scans.
With the vast majority of Build Scan data in S3, the main Gradle Enterprise database typically requires much less storage, and the installation (for embedded databases) or the user-managed database can be provisioned with fewer resources.
Database backup management is easier when the database is much smaller, and backups themselves take up less space and are cheaper to store.

There are some downsides:

Installation is more complex.
More memory must be allocated to the Gradle Enterprise application (2GB is the increase we recommend).
The persistent data of Gradle Enterprise is no longer fully contained within a database backup, because Build Scans are no longer stored in the database. This makes it more complicated to clone a Gradle Enterprise instance.
S3 storage is only supported for AWS installations.

See the Kubernetes Helm Chart Configuration Guide or Standalone Helm Chart Configuration Guide for object storage configuration details.

Build Scan storage configuration

Once object storage is configured in your helm chart, perform the following steps to store incoming Build Scan data in the store:

Go to the "Administration" → "Build Scans" page.
Select "Store incoming Build Scans in object storage".
Click "Save".
You will be prompted to restart to allow the configuration changes to be applied. Do not do this yet.
Go to the "Administration" → "Advanced".
Increase the "App" → "Heap memory" setting by 2048 MiB.
Click "Save".
You will be prompted to restart to allow the configuration changes to be applied. Do so.

If writing a Gradle Enterprise configuration file by hand to do an unattended installation, please see here for configuration examples.

If you are using EKS service account based credentials, ensure that you have configured Helm with the necessary service account annotation and redeployed.

Once Gradle Enterprise has restarted, all new Build Scans will be stored in the configured object store. Any existing Build Scan will be loaded from the database, and will eventually be evicted according to the configured age-based retention period. If one of your reasons for adopting object storage was to reduce the size of your database, note that you will only start to see the size of your database reducing once Build Scan data starts aging out after the retention window. To reduce the size of the database, Build Scan data needs to be deleted, and the space it took up needs to be reclaimed - a process which happens regularly, both daily and weekly.

Scheduled backups

User-managed database

When Gradle Enterprise is configured to connect to a user-managed database, backups are the responsibility of the user or database provider. Please consult your database service provider or database administrator for details on how to schedule backups regularly.

Embedded database

For embedded database installations, the backup schedule and settings can be configured by going to “Administration” via the top right-hand user menu, then “Backups”.

An administrator can be notified of the backup process outcome, which is particularly important in the case of failures. This requires administrator email details and SMTP server settings to be configured for the Gradle Enterprise instance.

Backup location configuration

The backup location is currently configured separately during installation. For standalone installations please see the Gradle Enterprise Helm Standalone Installation Manual. For Kubernetes installations please see the Gradle Enterprise Helm Kubernetes Installation Manual.

See below for details on restoring backups.

Email notifications

Email server settings can be configured by going to “Administration” via the top right-hand user menu, then “Email server”.

With an email server specified, Gradle Enterprise can send email notifications on completion of backups or when disk space is low. See the Disk space management and Creating backups sections for more details.

Once configured, it is possible to test email configuration by running the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI system test-notification command.

Proxy configuration

Gradle Enterprise can be configured to use a proxy by going to “Administration” via the top right-hand user menu, “Network” page and then “HTTP proxy”.

With a proxy configured, Gradle Enterprise will use the configured proxy to make all outbound HTTP/HTTPS requests (to external endpoints on the internet). Both HTTP and HTTPS are supported as proxy protocols.

Proxy can also be configured during installation using the unattended configuration mechanism, see the Proxy configuration section of the installation guide (the instructions are identical for standalone installations).

Untrusted SSL certificates

Gradle Enterprise can be configured to trust additional SSL certificates by going to “Administration” via the top right-hand user menu, “Network” page and then “SSL trust”.

As the page notes, certificates should be added as X509 certificates in PEM format, newline seperated if there are more than one.

Additional trusted certificates can also be configured during installation using the unattended configuration mechanism, see the Untrusted SSL certificates section of the installation guide (the instructions are identical for standalone installations).

Operation

Backup and disaster recovery

Embedded database

Gradle Enterprise provides system backup and restore capabilities to facilitate disaster recovery. Backups can be triggered manually or scheduled to be done automatically on a periodic basis, and require no system downtime.

The backup process produces a single compressed archive which can be used to restore all user data to a state at the time of the backup. It is highly recommended that this archive additionally be copied to an off-host location, in the case of a complete loss of the host system or volume used to store backup archives.

In addition to disaster recovery, backup archives can be used to migrate your Gradle Enterprise data to a new host system. This can be useful in scenarios where a trial instance is promoted to a production one.

Creating backups

See Scheduled backups for details on configuring automated backups

In addition to configuring automatic scheduled backups, you may trigger a manual backup at any time by running Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI commands:

To create a backup, run the backup create command.
You can download the newly created backup locally by running the backup copy command.

The backup archive will be copied to the directory in which the command is executed. If multiple backups exist you will be prompted to select the backup you would like to copy.

Restoring from a backup

Once a backup archive is created you may use it to restore a Gradle Enterprise instance to the backup state at any time, by running the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI backup restore command.

This command will require some downtime on Gradle Enterprise until the restore has finished.

If horizontal scaling is enabled, this command will reset the current replica count on all scalable resources to the value set in the configuration UI.

User-managed database

When data is stored in a user-managed database, backups and recovery is the responsibility of the user or database provider.

When Gradle Enterprise is using a user-managed database, customer support may not be able to assist with configuring the database for disaster recovery or restoring the database from a backup. We strongly recommend you ensure you have a working and tested disaster recovery procedure for the Gradle Enterprise database.

Creating backups

Please see your database provider for details on how to make backups and schedule them regularly.

Restoring from a backup

Restoring a database in-place

To restore a backup to the same database, overwriting the existing data, perform the following steps:

Stop the application by running the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI system stop command.
Follow your database provider’s instructions on restoring a backup. This may be running a tool like pg_restore or restoring a database snapshot, depending on your database provider and backup type.
If you are not providing superuser credentials to Gradle Enterprise, run the current database setup script used during database setup (see your installation manual) on the database and ensure that working application and migrator passwords are configured in the configuration interface or Secret resources being used.
Restart Gradle Enterprise by running the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI system start command.

Restoring to a new database instance

To restore a backup to a new database instance, perform the following steps:

Stop the application by running the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI system stop command.
Follow your database provider’s instructions on restoring a backup to a new instance. This may be running a tool like pg_restore or restoring a database snapshot, depending on your database provider and backup type.
Configure Gradle Enterprise with the new instance connection details and superuser credentials if those are being provided. This will mean re-running Helm, or updating the specified ConfigMap and Secret resources.
If you are not providing superuser credentials to Gradle Enterprise, run the current database setup script used during database setup (see your installation manual) on the database and ensure that working application and migrator passwords are configured in the configuration interface or Secret resources being used.
Restart Gradle Enterprise by running the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI system start command.

Troubleshooting

Support

If you are experiencing issues with Gradle Enterprise or related components please submit a support ticket at support.gradle.com, including details of the issue and an attached support bundle.

Support bundles assist our engineers in troubleshooting your issue by providing the following information about your Gradle Enterprise installation:

Server logs
System performance metrics
Gradle Enterprise database statistics

To generate a support bundle:

From the Administration page, navigate to “Support”.
Enter the system user password, and click “Generate”.
Download the support bundle.

It is also possible to generate a support bundle using the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI, by executing the support-bundle command. This method should be used when the Gradle Enterprise user interface is not available.

Example downloading a support bundle using Admin CLI JAR file:

$ java -jar gradle-enterprise-admin-<VERSION>.jar \
    --kube-ns=gradle-enterprise \
    support-bundle

Example downloading a support bundle using Admin CLI Docker image:

$ docker run --rm -it \
    -v "${HOME}/.kube/config:/kube-config:ro" \
    -v "${HOME}/bundles:/home" \
    gradle/gradle-enterprise-admin-cli \
    --kube-ns=gradle-enterprise \
    support-bundle

The generated support bundle will be stored in the mounted directory (in this case it will be ${HOME}/bundles).

Generation of the support bundle may take several minutes to complete.

If you have questions about a particular Build Scan, please submit a support ticket at support.gradle.com, and attach a dump of the Build Scan.

To generate one, replace /s/ with /scan-dump/ in the Build Scan url, e.g. https://dv.mycompany.com/scan-dump/vbdei7xhyojq2

Licensing

Running Gradle Enterprise requires a valid license, which is initially provided by the user as a license file during installation.

Gradle Enterprise’s current license can be viewed by going to “Administration” via the top right-hand user menu, then “License”.

License expiration

In the event your license expires, Gradle Enterprise will continue to function. However, it will be read-only. In practice, this means that the following permissions are not granted to any users:

Publish Build Scans
Read and write build cache data
Use Test Distribution

The Read build cache data permission will continue to function as normal for users who have it. However, it will not be automatically granted to users who had "Read and write build cache data".

In some cases, Kubernetes may fail to pull Gradle Enterprise docker images and may fail to start new Gradle Enterprise instances.

Full functionality will be restored if the Gradle Enterprise license expiration date is updated (see below), and users' permissions will be restored automatically.

To extend or renew your Gradle Enterprise license, reach out to your Gradle sales or customer success representative. If the expiration date on your license does not match the date on your contract, please submit a support ticket at support.gradle.com.

Online updates

Online installations automatically check Gradle’s license server for license updates. It does so both on startup and every hour thereafter. If a license update requires a restart to take effect, a notification is displayed to administrators.

If license checks fail for 72 hours, the instance will fail to restart.

For online installations, all that is needed to avoid expiration is to ensure that your customer success representative has extended your license. There is no need to obtain or install a new license file, as the update will be applied automatically. If the application has failed to start due to license expiration, restart it after your customer success representative has extended your license.

In online installations, the “Administration” section “License” tab can also be used to:

verify the current license’s information, such as expiration date
compare the current license and updated license (when an updated license has been downloaded)
restart Gradle Enterprise to apply the updated license (when an updated license has been downloaded)
check whether license checks are functioning properly
initiate an on-demand license check

Airgap updates

Airgap installations do not receive automatic license updates. If you need an updated license file, contact your customer success representative. When you receive an updated Gradle Enterprise license file, it can be applied using helm upgrade. Further details can be found in the “Changing configuration values” section of the Gradle Enterprise Upgrade Guide.

Using Gradle Enterprise

Build Scans

A Build Scan is a shareable record of a build that provides insights into what happened and why.

For information on how to create Build Scans, please consult the links below.

Gradle: the Gradle Enterprise Gradle Plugin User Manual and the Getting Started with Gradle Enterprise guide for Gradle users
Apache Maven™: the Gradle Enterprise Maven Extension User Manual and the Getting Started with Gradle Enterprise guide for Maven users

Compatibility between versions of Gradle Enterprise and the Gradle Build Scan plugin or the Gradle Enterprise Maven extension can be found here.

Build Cache

Build caching dramatically decreases build times for both local development and continuous integration builds. Build Caches store outputs from Gradle tasks and Maven goal executions and serve them to later builds to reuse, instead of the outputs being built again.

Gradle Enterprise provides a built-in Build Cache node as part of each installation, and allows optionally connecting one or more remote nodes to use as discrete caches or replicas for reducing network latency.

For information on how to use the Gradle Enterprise Build Cache, please consult the Getting Started guides for Gradle or Maven.

Build Cache administration is available at /cache-admin of your Gradle Enterprise installation.

Configuration

The built-in Build Cache is configured with the following defaults:

All cache access is disabled.
Target cache size of 10 GiB (how much data to retain in the cache).
Free space buffer size of 1 GiB (how much free disk space to ensure is available at all times, reducing cache size if necessary).
Maximum artifact size of 100 MiB (the largest cache artifact to accept).
No limit on cache entry age.

To change this configuration, click the Nodes item in the left menu to access the node listing, then click View built-in node details.

If you are using an installation method that gives the built-in build cache node an exclusive data volume (like Ship), the "Target cache size" section may instead look like this:

Access control

By default, access to the built-in cache node is disabled. There are two access control mechanisms that can be used. Which one you should use depends on the version of the Gradle Enterprise Gradle plugin or Gradle Enterprise Maven extension you will be using.

Version 3.11+ of the Gradle Enterprise Gradle plugin and version 1.15+ of the Gradle Enterprise Maven extension can authenticate to the build cache with Gradle Enterprise access keys. Permissions for these users are managed via the same access control mechanism used for other functions. Users with the “Build cache read” permission can read data from any connected build cache, while users with the “Build cache write” permission can read and write data from any connected build cache.

To control access for earlier versions, separate username and password credentials can be specified in the “Build Cache” section of Gradle Enterprise, in the details section for each build cache node. This section of Gradle Enterprise is only accessible by users with the "Build cache admin" permission.

How to configure your builds to supply credentials is described in the Gradle Enterprise Gradle Plugin User Manual for Gradle, and in the Gradle Enterprise Maven Extension User Manual for Maven.

Anonymous access control can also be configured using the same anonymous access control mechanism used for other functions, or by configuring node-specific anonymous permissions in the details section for each build cache node. When both are configured, the most permissive setting is used.

When the anonymous access level is set to Read and Write, writing to the build cache does not require credentials which may allow anyone to write malicious cache entries.

Remote nodes

Remote build cache nodes are installed separately from Gradle Enterprise. They can be used to separate cache artifacts, distribute load, or improve build performance by having a better network link between the build and the node.

By connecting remote nodes to a Gradle Enterprise instance, you are able to configure them centrally from Gradle Enterprise, and have them replicate entries from other cache nodes.

Installation and operation of remote build cache nodes is documented in the dedicated Build Cache Node User Manual.

Connecting with Gradle Enterprise

To connect a remote node to your Gradle Enterprise installation, you first need to create a record for the node with Gradle Enterprise by following either of these options:

Manual registration
Unattended registration

Manual registration

Visit /cache-admin of your Gradle Enterprise installation, and select Nodes from the left menu. In the Remote nodes > Create new node section, enter the name for your node and click Create new node.

The node will now be listed in the Existing nodes section. Each node is assigned a key and a secret. To view it, click in the View button on the Secret column for the newly created node.

The secret is only viewable for 5 minutes after node creation. If the node secret is lost, use the regenerate function to issue a new secret which will then be viewable for 5 minutes.

As a last step you need to update the node configuration with the assigned key and secret.

Unattended registration

In case nodes are required to be managed by provisioning software (e.g., Terraform) Gradle Enterprise offers an unattended option to register the node via the Gradle Enterprise API. Please consult the access control section of the API manual on how to connect to the Build Cache section of the Gradle Enterprise API.

Once you have access to the Gradle Enterprise API, we can start with the registration of a node via the Gradle Enterprise API.

The following example uses ge.mycompany.com as the installation host, 7asejatf24zun43yshqufp7qi4ovcefxpykbwzqbzilcpwzb52ja as the access key of the user which has the Cache admin role, and cURL as the HTTP client.

First, a new node (referred to as node-1) is registered in Gradle Enterprise using the Create/Update endpoint by specifying a unique descriptive value for the name of the node, e.g.:

$ curl -X PUT https://ge.mycompany.com/api/build-cache/nodes/node-1 \
    -d '{"enabled":true}' \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer 7asejatf24zun43yshqufp7qi4ovcefxpykbwzqbzilcpwzb52ja" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json"

If applicable, a replication configuration (in this example a preemptive replication from parent-node-1 is configured) can be specified at creation time:

$ curl -X PUT https://ge.mycompany.com/api/build-cache/nodes/node-1 \
    -d '{"enabled":true,"replication":{"source":"parent-node-1","preemptive":true}}' \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer 7asejatf24zun43yshqufp7qi4ovcefxpykbwzqbzilcpwzb52ja" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json"

Second, a request to the secret endpoint is made using the name of the node used in the previous step. This generates a key-secret pair that the node requires for connecting to Gradle Enterprise:

$ curl -X POST https://ge.mycompany.com/api/build-cache/nodes/node-1/secret \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer 7asejatf24zun43yshqufp7qi4ovcefxpykbwzqbzilcpwzb52ja"

{
  "key":"fqysvmfd3u5dcgis5reunrxjce",
  "secret":"cpgovxdo6f6phkdyxdrfzyy43q5hflatc2umzgguxv6adap2qyyi"
}

As a last step you need to update the node configuration with the returned key and secret. Please consult the reference documentation of the Gradle Enterprise API for further functionality with regard to node management.

Update node configuration

The node must also be configured with details of the server to connect with, including the assigned key and secret. Please consult the Gradle Enterprise Registration section of the Build Cache Node User Manual for information on how to do this.

Replication

The bandwidth and latency of the network link between a build and a build cache significantly affects build performance. Replication allows users to use a cache node that they have a better network link to, while reusing artifacts from another cache node that is further away. This is particularly effective for geographically distributed teams.

The replication settings for each node can be configured via the node’s configuration page in Gradle Enterprise. They can not be configured for remote nodes via the remote node’s user interface or configuration file.

A typical arrangement is to have continuous integration builds push to a cache node on a local network, and have other nodes used by developers in different locations, ideally on their local network, use it as their replication source.

Replication is one-way (i.e. replication sources do not copy artifacts from nodes using them as a source). Furthermore, a node that is acting as a replication source cannot itself use a replication source.

Replication is not supported with remote nodes earlier than 3.0. This setting will not be shown for such nodes.

By default, cache entries are replicated on demand. Nodes will copy a cache entry from their replication source when that particular cache entry is requested for the first time. This avoids copying entries between nodes that will never be used, but forces builds to wait for the transfer on first use.

Preemptive replication enables better build cache performance, at the expense of more network transfer between nodes. When preemptive replication is enabled, nodes will copy cache entries from their replication source as soon as they are added. The downside of this approach is that entries may be copied that are never used. If network bandwidth usage between nodes is not a concern, this is the best configuration.

Only cache entries that are added to the replication source after the node has connected are copied preemptively. Any already existing entries will be copied on demand.

Preemptive replication is only supported for nodes of version 4.0 or later. If the node or its replication source is older than this, replication will be on demand.

Health monitoring

The Health page provides an overview of the operational status of all enabled build cache nodes.

Each node may have a status of OK, WARN or ERROR. If all nodes are reported as OK, you can be assured that your build cache network is operating well.

WARN indicates that there is a non-critical issue, or that there is a problem that is expected to resolve itself soon. If the issue does not resolve itself, or for immediately critical issues, the ERROR status is used.

A monitoring tool friendly version of this page is available via the Monitoring page link towards the bottom of the page. This endpoint returns the statuses in plain text. If there are any ERROR statuses, the HTTP response status code for this page will be 503. Otherwise, it will be 200.

Test Distribution

Gradle Enterprise Test Distribution takes your existing test suites and distributes them across multiple compute resources to execute them faster. It requires connecting one or more test execution “agents” to Gradle Enterprise. Builds that have enabled Test Distribution connect to Gradle Enterprise, which then distributes the tests to be executed on connected agents.

Connecting builds

Please consult the Gradle Enterprise Test Distribution User Manual for information on build configuration.

Gradle Enterprise users must be granted the “Test Distribution” access control role to be able to use Test Distribution.

Builds and agents connect to the Gradle Enterprise server using a WebSocket connection. Thus, you need to ensure WebSocket support is enabled on every load balancer or proxy that is used in between the build/agent and the Gradle Enterprise server.

The “Jobs” tab provides an overview of the currently active jobs, where each row represents a running test task or goal in a Gradle or Maven build, respectively.

The first part of the label indicates the root project name of the build, while the second part identifies the particular task or goal. The count of assigned/desired agents shows how many agents are currently assigned to/desired by the job. More agents may be assigned as they become available. The count of compatible agents shows how many currently connected agents have capabilities that satisfy the requirements of the job.

API keys

API keys are used by agents to authorize their connection to Gradle Enterprise, and for authorizing connections to Test Distribution APIs provided by Gradle Enterprise.

API keys can be generated on the “Configuration” tab. A single API key may be used my multiple agents. Multiple can be created to facilitate a rolling update if required. Revoking an API key prevents it from being used for future registrations and API access. Connected agents will be forcibly disconnected one hour after the API key they used to connect is revoked.

Agents

Utilizing Test Distribution requires connecting additional compute resources, called agents, to Gradle Enterprise. The Test Distribution agent is available as a Docker image or standalone JAR and is easy to deploy and operate via Kubernetes or any modern compute platform. Please consult the Gradle Enterprise Test Distribution Agent User Manual for more on deploying and operating agents.

The “Agents” tab shows all currently connected agents.

Auto scaling agents with pools

An agent pool is a group of agents that are to be scaled up and down based on demand. Each pool has a generated unique ID that is specified by an agent when connecting to indicate its pool, and can be used by compute platform auto scalers to determine the desired number of agents at any time for that pool.

Please refer to the Gradle Enterprise Test Distribution Agent User Manual for step-by-step instructions for auto scaling with Kubernetes.

Minimum and maximum size

The minimum and maximum size of an agent pool is used to determine the desired number of agents at a given moment.

Ultimately, the actual number of agents is determined by the compute platform, which may impose incompatible limits. Where possible, ensure that the limits imposed by the compute platform are either identical to or compatible with those configured in Gradle Enterprise.

To temporarily disable a pool, set both minimum and maximum to zero.

Capabilities

Agents in a pool are expected to provide a certain set of capabilities. While an agent may provide additional capabilities, it will be rejected when connecting without at least the mandatory capabilities configured on its agent pool.

While computing the number of desired agents for a pool its capabilities are matched against the requirements of the current jobs. A pool is only utilized if it satisfies all of a job’s requirements. Therefore, you should at least add a jdk=… capability to each agent pool since such a requirement is added implicitly to each job. Moreover, each agent has an implicit os=… capability which should be added to the agent pool for the sake of consistency and in case it’s an explicit requirement of any job.

Already connected agents that don’t provide all mandatory capabilities will stay connected for up to 4 hours after adding capabilities to an agent pool. Any agent in the pool that has capabilities that do not exactly match the ones of the poll is shown with a warning indicator on the “Agents” tab.

In order to add a new capability to an existing pool, it is recommended to first add the capability to all connected agents and then edit the agent pool. This way agents connecting will not be rejected while the change is being applied (e.g. due to a rolling update).

In order to remove a capability from an agent pool, we recommend to first remove the capability from the pool before removing it from connected agents. Agents in the pool that still provide the capability will no longer match the corresponding build requirement and not be assigned.

Priority

Pools with higher priority are utilized before pools with lower priority. If tests to be executed can be executed by agents from different pools, agents of the pool with the highest priority are requested. When scaling to meet demand, higher priority pools are scaled to their configured maximum before scaling lower priority pools.

You can change the priority of agent pools by dragging them on the “Configuration” tab. Pools that are higher on the list are prioritized over those below.

Deletion

Agent pools can be deleted at will when they are no longer needed. It is recommended to stop all agents in the agent pool before deleting it.

Already connected agents will stay connected for up to 4 hours after deleting an agent pool. During that time they will be shown with a warning indicator on the “Agents” tab.

Querying pool status

Agent auto scaling relies on auto scaling machinery of a compute platform regularly querying Gradle Enterprise for a pool’s desired size and starting/stopping agents to match the desired size.

The https://«hostname»/api/test-distribution/agent-pools/«pool-id»/status endpoint conveys a pool’s desired size at the moment, along with other information about the pool, as a JSON document.

Accessing the endpoint requires an access key provided via an Authorization: Bearer «access-key» HTTP header, with the user having the Test Distribution permission. It can also be accessed in a browser when signed in to Gradle Enterprise and having the Test Distribution permission.

To create an access key, log into Gradle Enterprise and go to https://«hostname»/settings/access-keys and click on the Generate button.

The following demonstrates using curl to access the endpoint:

$ curl -H "Authorization: Bearer «access-key»" https://«hostname»/api/test-distribution/agent-pools/«pool-id»/status

Which will produce output of the following form:

{
  "id": "«pool-id»",
  "name": "Linux",
  "capabilities": [
    "jdk=11",
    "os=linux"
  ],
  "minimumAgents": 1,
  "maximumAgents": 100,
  "connectedAgents": 25,
  "idleAgents": 9,
  "desiredAgents": 16
}

Auto scalers need only consider the desiredAgents field and adjust the number of running agents to match this number.

The old https://«hostname»/distribution/agent-pools/«pool-id» endpoint is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. See Querying pool status (2022.3 and earlier) for its documentation.

Historical usage

The “Usage” tab provides a historical overview of workload in terms of number of active jobs, agent utilization, and agent pool metrics, for the last hour, 24 hours, or 7 days.

By default, all jobs, agents, and agent pools are shown. Adding requirement/capability criteria shows only the jobs with at least the specified requirements, only the agents with at least the specified capabilities, and only the agent pools with at least the specified capabilities.

Predictive Test Selection

Gradle Enterprise Predictive Test Selection allows developers to get faster feedback by running only tests that are likely to provide useful feedback on a particular code change using a probabilistic machine learning model. It is available for Gradle and Apache Maven™ builds.

Builds that have enabled Predictive Test Selection connect to Gradle Enterprise to select relevant tests. Gradle Enterprise users must be granted the “Build Scan view” access control role to be able to use Predictive Test Selection. For information on how to use Predictive Test Selection, please consult the Predictive Test Selection User Manual.

Appendix A: Upgrade notes

Please see the Gradle Enterprise Upgrade Guide.

Appendix B: Gradle Enterprise distributions

Gradle Enterprise comes in two distribution options. These are referred to as the Gradle Enterprise standalone distribution and the Gradle Enterprise Kubernetes distribution. You might notice that the two installation manuals (standalone, Kubernetes) are named accordingly.

To find out which installation you are using, you can check the name of the Helm chart you used to install Gradle Enterprise by e.g. looking at the output of helm ls --namespace <the namespace where your gradle enterprise instance is installed>. The Helm chart for your installation will be prefixed with "gradle-enterprise-standalone" if you are using the standalone distribution, whereas it will be prefixed only with "gradle-enterprise" if you are using the Kubernetes distribution.

Standalone distribution

The standalone distribution is an installation of Gradle Enterprise that runs on a single host, using K3s, a lightweight Kubernetes distribution. It is designed for administrators who want an "out-of-the-box" experience.

Kubernetes distribution

The Kubernetes distribution is an installation of Gradle Enterprise that is intended for use by organizations with existing Kubernetes infrastructure and administrators who are comfortable operating a Kubernetes cluster.

Appendix C: Unattended configuration

Administrators often need to configure and deploy applications without user intervention. Gradle Enterprise enables unattended configuration with scripts and configuration management tools, such as Helm.

Gradle Enterprise applies a unique unattended configuration only once, then stores it in the database. Configuration changes made with the Gradle Enterprise UI persist between startups unless the configuration file is updated and applied, typically by an upgrade. When configured for unattended configuration, Gradle Enterprise starts up with the configuration file stored in the database.

Making changes to the unattended configuration will overwrite any configuration changes made in the user interface when it is applied with a helm install or helm upgrade command. If you make configuration changes in the user interface, be sure to update your unattended configuration so that important settings are not lost the next time the unattended configuration is applied.

Administrators may export their current configuration and then re-import later to roll back to a prior state and restore configuration changes. If you keep a copy of your Gradle Enterprise configuration for disaster recovery or creating test installations, you should regularly export your configuration from your instance, or have a policy that disallows changing settings via the UI.

Configuring Gradle Enterprise for unattended configuration

Administrators configure Gradle Enterprise by running the helm install or helm upgrade command and passing the configuration options in one of two files:

values.yaml
unattended-config.yaml

The first option is the Helm configuration file, values.yaml. Include the unattended configuration under the global.unattended.configuration property. If the file contains encrypted secrets, include the key under the global.unattended.key property. The second option is also a well-formed .yaml file, but of any name and passed to Helm commands as the global.unattended.configuration Gradle Enterprise CLI option. Unlike using values.yaml, an encryption key cannot be included in an unattended configuration file, but must also be passed to Helm as a CLI option. Changes made to an unattended configuration file are not applied to Gradle Enterprise until the administrator runs the helm install or helm upgrade command. For examples, see the Gradle Enterprise Kubernetes Helm Installation Manual for Kubernetes cluster installations or the Gradle Enterprise Helm Standalone Installation Manual for installation onto a single host.

Administrators may use separate methods to pass the configuration and key. They may opt to provide the configuration in values.yaml, but pass the key separately with the global.unattended.key CLI option. They may also opt to provide the configuration in an unattended configuration file set with the global.unattended.configuration CLI option, but pass the key separately in values.yaml.

When editing the file, use the latest JSON schema for code completion and validation. You can also use schemastore support on your preferred editor. In addition, administrators may validate their configuration file by running the config-file validate command from the latest Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI tool.

The easiest way to get a functional configuration yaml file is to download the Gradle Enterprise configuration file from a running installation by visiting the Administration page, then navigating to Import/export and then Export. Below is an example of minimal, valid Gradle Enterprise configuration file with only the two required properties, the configuration schema version and the hashed password of the system user.

version: 9
systemPassword: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX==

See Gradle Enterprise config reference for other common properties.

Hashing the system password

To hash the value for the system password, use the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI config-file hash command:

$ echo "secret-password" | gradle-enterprise-admin config-file hash -o secret.txt -s -

$ cat secret.txt

JPUFnmELA2i39tDNWSdhCizAfooGr/+5Nf6syHEt73w==

If using the Docker form of the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI, the shell alias recommended in the guide does not allow piping input as above. To make it work, omit the -t parameter from the alias, or just run the docker command directly:

$ echo "secret-password" | docker run --rm -i gradle/gradle-enterprise-admin-cli config-file hash -o - -s -

If you encrypted secrets in the file with a key, keep this key available to provide to Helm.

Encrypting secret values

The system password must be hashed, but other secrets in this file can optionally be symmetrically encrypted. It is recommended to use only plain text for secrets if the values will be securely injected as part of your automation. Encrypted values will have a prefix of aes256:, as shown in the snippet from a configuration file below:

email:
  authentication:
    password: aes256:aExYdWTRU24ZZ4Yo:wKcjYYRJajU4J4B5:Uz66aGkDDZqI2kNQ81mj4/q1oyi2Q88=

Secrets that are included in the configuration file as plain text must be prefixed with “plain:”, as shown in the snippet from a configuration file below:

email:
  authentication:
    password: plain:MySecretPassword

The Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI can be used to generate a new encryption key, and to encrypt secret configuration values using the generated key.

$ gradle-enterprise-admin config-file generate-key -o key.txt
$ echo "secret_value" | gradle-enterprise-admin config-file encrypt -k key.txt -o encrypted.txt -s -

$ cat key.txt

aes256:7l1odtTnuza0B9aa:1q2Bx/E7yz1zronpuJpOxAsgos5qpq4CtDsE2K5QnRs=

$ cat encrypted.txt

aes256:7l1odtTnuza0B9aa:VFVkWB9OBsXz79Ue:njXgHpQJIVDCkqZgUUJXl6X2eItkJndW4vT762TesaY=

Configuration values which are applicable for encryption have the type EncryptedSecret in the JSON schema.

Admin CLI Docker image usage

As with hashing values, if using the Docker form of the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI, the shell alias recommended in the guide does not allow piping input as above. To make it work, either omit the key and secret from the command and enter the values interactively:

$ gradle-enterprise-admin config-file generate-key -o -

aes256:bCy08OAN8tIbwMbW:EobFycmy1VtAGX/0motfSpVZzex3cHHf4sr6pmOrwWo=

$ gradle-enterprise-admin config-file encrypt

Enter key:
Enter secret:

aes256:bCy08OAN8tIbwMbW:XbOx4IFZ/LtMBINV:RZ4z75rcl0F94WSyIljRd/a8aw==

Or run the Docker command directly:

$ gradle-enterprise-admin config-file generate-key -o - > key.txt
$ echo "secret-password" | docker run --rm -i -v $(pwd)/key.txt:/key.txt \
    gradle/gradle-enterprise-admin-cli config-file encrypt -k /key.txt -o - -s -

aes256:bCy08OAN8tIbwMbW:XbOx4IFZ/LtMBINV:RZ4z75rcl0F94WSyIljRd/a8aw==

Migrating a configuration file to a new schema version

When administrators want to enable a configuration setting not supported by their current version of the application, they must update the configuration file for the latest schema version. Migrating a configuration file to an updated schema version by hand is difficult. However, Gradle Enterprise automatically updates every exported configuration file to the latest version of the schema.

To automatically migrate a configuration file to an updated schema:

Upgrade to the newer version of Gradle Enterprise with the desired configuration setting.
Export the configuration file using the UI.
Edit the file for the new setting.
Set the global.unattended.configuration CLI option to the updated unattended configuration file.
Check your configuration file into source control.

Appendix D: Gradle Enterprise config reference

The JSON schema describes all configuration options. Some common settings are described in more detail here.

Additionally, you can learn more about what these configuration options do by reading above, and exploring the administration page of your Gradle Enterprise instance.

Attribute Description

version

Required.

systemPassword

Required.

dailyMaintenanceTime

Every day, Gradle Enterprise runs maintenance operations on the database to keep things running smoothly. This maintenance temporarily effects Gradle Enterprise’s performance, so you should set this to a time of day (UTC) in which you anticipate low Build Scan ingest traffic.

network.additionalTrust

A newline-separated list of certificates which Gradle Enterprise should trust when communicating with servers using certificates not trusted by default, for example if they are signed by an internal CA.

network.proxy.protocol

The protocol used to connect to the proxy. Supported values are http and https, default value is http.

network.proxy.host

HTTP proxy host name.

network.proxy.port

HTTP proxy port.

network.proxy.excludedHosts

A comma-delimited list that controls what hosts should not be proxied. The list can contain individual host names as well as domain patterns (e.g. '*.internal') which match all hosts for a particular domain. Any requests sent to these hosts will be sent directly rather than being sent through the HTTP proxy.

network.proxy.auth.username

A username used to authenticate with the HTTP Proxy.

network.proxy.auth.password

A password used to authenticate with the HTTP Proxy.

email.administratorAddress

Some events related to Gradle Enterprise may warrant a notification to the administrators of your installation. For example, if your installation’s disk space is running low, or if a backup was created. The email.administratorAddress configuration value determines which email address such administrator notifications are sent to. Note that in order for Gradle Enterprise to send such emails, the other options under email need to be correctly filled in.

auth.anonymousPermissions

Determines the permissions of users of your Gradle Enterprise instance who are not logged in. For example, you may want only authenticated developers to be able to publish Build Scans, in which case you should not enable the buildScanPublish anonymous permission. On the other hand, you may want to allow anybody to administrate build cache nodes that are connected to Gradle Enterprise, even if they aren’t logged in, in which case you should allow the cacheAdministration anonymous permission.

auth.roles

Configures the roles that can be used to assign permissions to users, and how those roles are mapped from any external identity providers. For example, you could create a superuser role that grants all permissions. You can also configure the user-facing name and description of the roles here.

auth.external

Configures external identity providers, using either LDAP or SAML. For example, your organization might use a Google or Microsoft product to manage permissions for all tools centrally and globally. You can configure auth.external in order to integrate Gradle Enterprise with your identity provider. This allows users to access Gradle Enterprise by clicking a button such as "Log in with SomeIdP".

backup.schedule

Can be set to one of daily, weekly or cron. The other properties to set under backup depend on which of these you choose for the schedule.

For a daily scheduled backup, you need to set the dailyTimeOfDay e.g. 04:00.
For a weekly scheduled backup, you need to set timeOfDay e.g. 04:00, and also dayOfWeek e.g. sunday.
For a cron scheduled backup, you need to set cronExpression to something like 0 1 * * 0, which translates to 1AM every Sunday.

advanced

You should not configure any values under advanced unless you have been directed to do so by Gradle Enterprise support.

Build Scans object storage Gradle Enterprise configuration reference

To configure Gradle Enterprise to store incoming Build Scan data in object storage, add the following snippet to your configuration file:

unattended-config.yaml

buildScans:
  incomingStorageType: objectStorage

If using a static Access Key ID / Secret Access Key pair, you should first encrypt the secret key.

You should increase the heap memory allocated to the Gradle Enterprise application. If you already have a heap memory setting, increase this by 2048. If you do not, set the value to 5632 by adding the following snippet to your configuration file:

unattended-config.yaml

advanced:
  app:
    heapMemory: 5632

You will also need to increase Gradle Enterprise’s memory requests and limits by the same amount in your Helm values file:

values.yaml

enterprise:
  resources:
    requests:
      memory: 6Gi (1)
    limits:
      memory: 6Gi (1)

1	If you have already set a custom value here, instead increase it by `2Gi`.

If you are using EKS service account based credentials, ensure that you have configured Helm with the necessary service account annotation and redeployed.

Deprecated S3 bucket prefix configuration

Releases prior to 2023.2 allowed specifying a prefix to use within a bucket when storing Build Scan data. This is now deprecated, and all Build Scan data will be stored under the prefix build-scans, which was the previous default value used if not specified.

Installations that store significant Build Scan data under a custom prefix can add that prefix as an advanced app parameter by adding the following snippet to your configuration file:

unattended-config.yaml

advanced:
  app:
    params:
      buildScanStorage.prefix: my/prefix

This override will be removed in a future release. Administrators using a custom prefix are encouraged to copy their data to the build-scans prefix and remove the override.

Migrating Build Scan data to the standard prefix

To migrate Build Scan data to the standard build-scans prefix, follow these steps:

Decide on a copying strategy. A basic approach suitable for < 10GB of data would just use the AWS CLI s3 sync command, something like aws s3 sync --delete s3://example-bucket/custom-prefix s3://example-bucket/build-scans. This AWS resource lists strategies suitable for transferring larger volumes of data. Ensure that the strategy chosen will allow deleting files from the destination if they are not at the source.
While the app is running, copy most data to the new location by running the copy process chosen.
If configuring through the UI, remove the buildScanStorage.prefix advanced parameter described above. Save and restart the app if prompted.
Stop the Gradle Enterprise by running the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI system stop command, or by manually scaling all deployments to zero.
Run the copy process again to sync any last additions and deletions.
If configuring through unattended configuration, remove the buildScanStorage.prefix advanced parameter described above and rerun helm upgrade. This should restart the app. Further details can be found in the “Changing configuration values” section of the Gradle Enterprise Upgrade Guide.
If configuring through the UI, restart Gradle Enterprise by running the Gradle Enterprise Admin CLI system start command, or by manually scaling all deployments back up to their original number of replicas.
Verify that data is in the expected place by viewing some recent Build Scan pages.
At this point, Build Scan data under the custom prefix can be deleted using aws s3 rm --recursive s3://example-bucket/custom-prefix or equivalent.

Appendix E: Migrating object storage configuration to Helm

In releases prior to 2023.3, Gradle Enterprise connection settings for S3 object storage were configured by the Administration interface or via unattended configuration. From Gradle Enterprise 2023.3 onwards, object storage settings are configured as Helm values.

To migrate object storage configuration to Helm, follow these steps:

Add object storage settings to your Helm values file. See the Kubernetes Helm Chart Configuration Guide or Standalone Helm Chart Configuration Guide for details.
Redeploy Gradle Enterprise by running helm upgrade. See Changing standalone configuration values or Changing Kubernetes configuration values.
Verify that you can list and view new Build Scans.
If you were using unattended configuration to configure object storage previously, remove the configuration:
- For version 8 configuration used by Gradle Enterprise 2023.3, remove the top-level legacyObjectStorage node and migrate advanced parameters from legacyS3.xxx to s3.xxx.
- For version 7 configuration used by Gradle Enterprise 2023.2, remove the top-level objectStorage node.
- For configuration versions 5 and 6 used by Gradle Enterprise versions 2022.3-2023.1, remove the buildScans.storage.s3 node.
- Redeploy Gradle Enterprise as in step 2.
If you use the Administration interface to configure object storage:
- Export the current configuration from the Administration Import/export page.
- Remove the object storage settings as in step 4.
- Import the result via the Administration Import/export page.
- Restart when prompted.
Verify that you can list and view new Build Scans.

Appendix F: Amazon S3 Build Scan storage

Create an S3 bucket for object storage

You will need to know the AWS region that your Gradle Enterprise installation is running in.

If using the AWS web console:

Go to S3 in the AWS console
In the navigation pane, choose Buckets and then choose Create bucket.
Enter the name you want for your bucket e.g. gradle-enterprise-build-scans. Make sure the bucket is in the same region as your Gradle Enterprise installation. Leave the other settings as their default values.
Click Create bucket.

Alternatively, use the AWS command line utility:

$ aws s3 mb s3://«your-bucket-name»

Create a policy allowing access to the S3 bucket

The following policy allows access to the S3 bucket. Granting the policy to a user or role that Gradle Enterprise will access it as is a separate step.

If using the AWS web console:

Go to IAM in the AWS console
In the navigation pane, choose Policies and then choose Create policy.
Click on the JSON tab to define the policy using JSON directly.

Enter the following policy JSON, replacing «your-bucket-name» with the name of your bucket:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:ListBucket"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::«your-bucket-name»"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "VisualEditor1",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:PutObject",
                "s3:GetObject",
                "s3:DeleteObject", (1)
                "s3:AbortMultipartUpload"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::«your-bucket-name»/*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

1

see Required permissions when using separate background processor for details on when this permission can be omitted

Click Next: Tags.
Add any tags that your organization requires, and click Next: Review.
Enter a name for this policy e.g. GradleEnterpriseBuildScanStorage, and optionally also a description
Click Create policy.

Alternatively, use the AWS command line utility:

First, save the above JSON policy to a file policy.json.

Run the following command:

$ aws iam create-policy \
    --policy-name "«your-policy-name»" \
    --policy-document file://policy.json

It is possible to add tags and a description using the CLI, see the documentation.

Note the policy ARN.

Required permissions when using separate background processor

If enterpriseBackgroundProcessor is enabled in values.yaml:

the policy attached to the role of enterprise does not require s3:DeleteObject permission
the policy attached to the role of enterpriseBackgroundProcessor requires the s3:DeleteObject permission

If enterpriseBackgroundProcessor pod is not enabled in values.yaml:

the policy attached to the role of enterprise requires the s3:DeleteObject permission.

See Appendix A: Background processing configuration in the Gradle Enterprise Kubernetes Helm Chart Configuration Guide for more information.

Create an AWS user to access S3 for Build Scan storage

If using the AWS web console:

Go to IAM in the AWS console
In the navigation pane, choose Users and then choose Add users.
Enter a user name e.g. gradle-enterprise-build-scans.
Select Access key - programmatic access for the AWS credential type.
Click Next: Permissions.
Select Attach existing policies directly.
Select the IAM policy you created above, and no others.
Click Next: Tags* and add any tags that your organization requires.
Click Next: Review, then Create user
At this point, you will be shown the access key credentials for your new user, the Access key ID and the Secret access key. Store these somewhere secure. They will be needed to configure Gradle Enterprise for S3 Build Scan storage.

Alternatively, use the AWS command line utility:

$ aws iam create-user --user-name "«your-user-name»"
$ aws iam create-access-key --user-name "«your-user-name»"

It is possible to add tags using the CLI, see the documentation.

The output will contain the access key credentials for your new user in the AccessKeyId and SecretAccessKey fields. Store these somewhere secure. They will be needed to configure Gradle Enterprise for S3 Build Scan storage.

Create an AWS role for EC2 instance profile access to S3 for Build Scan storage

If you already have a role that your EC2 instances are launched with, skip these steps and instead attach the policy to the existing role directly.

If using the AWS web console:

Go to IAM in the AWS console
In the navigation pane, choose Roles and then choose Create role.
For the Trusted Entity type, choose AWS service, then EC2 for the Use case.
Click Next.
Find and select the IAM policy you created above.
If you are running Gradle Enterprise in Amazon EKS and wish to use node-associated roles, also add the built-in AmazonEKSWorkerNodePolicy and AmazonEC2ContainerRegistryReadOnly policies, and an applicable network policy. See here for full steps on finding these in the console.
Click Next.
Add a role name, e.g. gradle-enterprise-build-scans.
Add any tags that your organization requires.
Click Create role.

Alternatively, use the AWS command line utility:

Create a file ec2-role-trust-policy.json and save it with the following content:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": { "Service": "ec2.amazonaws.com"},
      "Action": "sts:AssumeRole"
    }
  ]
}

Run the following commands, using the ARN of the policy created above:

$ aws iam create-role \
    --role-name "«your-role-name»" \
    --assume-role-policy-document file://ec2-role-trust-policy.json

$ aws iam attach-role-policy \
    --role-name "«your-role-name»" \
    --policy-arn "«your-policy-arn»"

$ aws iam create-instance-profile \
    --instance-profile-name "«your-role-name»"

$ aws iam add-role-to-instance-profile \
    --instance-profile-name "«your-role-name»" \
    --role-name "«your-role-name»"

It is possible to add tags using the CLI, see the documentation.

If you already have Gradle Enterprise installed on an EC2 instance, please follow these instructions to associate the instance with the new profile.

Create an AWS role for EKS service account access to S3 for Build Scan storage

You will need to know several pieces of information for the following instructions:

The service account name: gradle-enterprise-app
The namespace that Gradle Enterprise is installed in.
The EKS cluster name.
The ARN of the policy created above.

Once you have these, perform the following steps:

Create an IAM OIDC provider for your EKS cluster if one doesn’t already exist.
Create an IAM role associated with the Gradle Enterprise service account and attach the IAM policy created above. You will want to use the --role-only flag, since you will configure Gradle Enterprise’s service account to use the role via Helm. AWS’s documentation for the same process contains some more details.
Note the created role ARN.
Configure Helm with the necessary service account annotation and redeploy.