Answers: <p>I think the major deciding factor is the expertise of you and the rest of your company in the chosen OS. If you are a Windows shop, and your company is willing to leverage the cost of the node, it's probably best choice to host it on a Windows VM. For choosing a Linux distro, I would see what is most common across your company. In my opinion, it is not worth the benefit of creating a vm with a one off distro just because of a few particular features, unless those features of the distro are absolutely necessary. </p>
  
Answers: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers: 2017-09-22T04:23:04.997Z
Answers: Or to put it more concisely: stick with what you know.
Answers: jayhendren
Answers: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers: 2017-09-22T09:34:17.867Z
Answers: While I agree with the overall idea, some tools have more 'affinity' with one distro than another and using this one could be useful and avoid problems. But it's a matter of checking if there's bugs specific to a distro.
Answers: Tensibai
Answers: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers: 2017-09-22T13:47:07.600Z
Answers: @Tensibai I totally agree with that. I also believe it's a tradeoff though. Would you rather have an OS that has an affinity towards a tool that makes it slightly easier to configure, or would you rather have the overhead of managing the config, patching, etc. of a distro for a single node? I think it's a both a preference and a matter of choice that needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis.
Answers: Preston Martin
Answers: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers: 2017-09-22T13:57:02.857Z
Answers: @PrestonM I agree but, for example, running a jenkins master on a windows host makes some plugin to fail and sometimes raise some unexpected errors. So it *may* worth having one linux host for this. you're totally right it's a case by case basis.
Answers: Tensibai
Answers: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers: 2017-09-22T14:20:27.373Z
Answers: @Tensibai Right. That would definitely be a good case for considering a different OS.
Answers: Preston Martin
Answers: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers: 2017-09-21T15:11:20.957Z
Answers: 2017-09-21T15:11:20.957Z
Answers: Preston Martin
Body: <p>Say you are developing a new CI/CD system, deploy builds across Linux, Windows and Mac, and have now reached the point of wanting to deploy a master node which hosts your chosen CI tool. How do you choose what OS and version your master node VM should be?</p>
  
  <p>For example with <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/installation/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Gitlab</a>, I can have the VM with Ubuntu, Debian or CentOS, or with <a href="https://jenkins.io/download/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Jenkins</a>, the VM could be Mac, Windows, Ubuntu, Debian etc...</p>
  
  <p>What's the major deciding factor when choosing an OS and version for the master node of the CI system?</p>
  
Tags: <jenkins><continuous-integration><continuous-delivery><gitlab>
Title: What OS should a master node CI virtual machine be?
UserDisplayName: Rekovni
ThreadText: # What OS should a master node CI virtual machine be?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-09-21)
  
  Say you are developing a new CI/CD system, deploy builds across Linux, Windows and Mac, and have now reached the point of wanting to deploy a master node which hosts your chosen CI tool. How do you choose what OS and version your master node VM should be?
  
  For example with [Gitlab](https://about.gitlab.com/installation/), I can have the VM with Ubuntu, Debian or CentOS, or with [Jenkins](https://jenkins.io/download/), the VM could be Mac, Windows, Ubuntu, Debian etc...
  
  What's the major deciding factor when choosing an OS and version for the master node of the CI system?
  
  **Tags:** jenkins, continuous-integration, continuous-delivery, gitlab
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2017-09-21. Score: 5 | Accepted answer
  
  I think the major deciding factor is the expertise of you and the rest of your company in the chosen OS. If you are a Windows shop, and your company is willing to leverage the cost of the node, it's probably best choice to host it on a Windows VM. For choosing a Linux distro, I would see what is most common across your company. In my opinion, it is not worth the benefit of creating a vm with a one off distro just because of a few particular features, unless those features of the distro are absolutely necessary.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_2**: Or to put it more concisely: stick with what you know.  
  > **username_3**: While I agree with the overall idea, some tools have more 'affinity' with one distro than another and using this one could be useful and avoid problems. But it's a matter of checking if there's bugs specific to a distro.  
  > **username_1**: @username_3 I totally agree with that. I also believe it's a tradeoff though. Would you rather have an OS that has an affinity towards a tool that makes it slightly easier to configure, or would you rather have the overhead of managing the config, patching, etc. of a distro for a single node? I think it's a both a preference and a matter of choice that needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis.  
  > **username_3**: @PrestonM I agree but, for example, running a jenkins master on a windows host makes some plugin to fail and sometimes raise some unexpected errors. So it *may* worth having one linux host for this. you're totally right it's a case by case basis.  
  > **username_1**: @username_3 Right. That would definitely be a good case for considering a different OS.  
  
  ---
  
  