Jenkins powershell plugin is running 32 bit Powershell and I need 64bit

Question

I\'m pretty new to powershell integration in Jenkins and my scripts won\'t run because (I believe) I need powershell to be executed in 64 bit. Running:

[Env         


        

Answer 1

Environment

• Jenkins on Windows (mine happens to run as a service)
• plus Powershell plugin (for running Powershell scripts as "build steps")

Jenkins will typically call upon the correct version of powershell.exe. However, the executor/slave process must be running a 64-bit JRE so that PowerShell can also operate in 64-bit mode.

A simple tester project with the following Powershell script can show the above 32-bit vs 64-bit nature:

$env:Path               # Path will have the right Powershell available
[intptr]::size          # outputs: 4 = 32-bit, 8 = 64-bit
Stop-WebAppPool FOOBAR  # fails when 32-bit, succeeds when 64-bit

Console output example (extra blank lines for clarity):

[Powershell Test] $ powershell.exe -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy ByPass "& 'C:\Windows\TEMP\hudson123456789.ps1'"

C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\

4

Stop-WebAppPool : Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID 
{688EEEE5-6A7E-422F-B2E1-6AF00DC944A6} failed due to the following error: 
80040154 Class not registered (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040154 
(REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG)).

At C:\Windows\TEMP\hudson123456789.ps1:7 char:1

---

Solution

tl;dr... Install 64-bit JRE, and configure Jenkins to be 64-bit.

I used chocolatey to install a fairly recent JRE, via "Administrator" PowerShell:

First, install chocolatey:

iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

Looked for the latest version available https://chocolatey.org/packages?q=java (chocolatey has multiple packages for the same thing, often not kept fully up to date).

Then, install JRE (using the one with the higher JRE number):

choco install -y javaruntime

Or:

choco install -y jre8

Finally, I edited my jenkins.xml configuration so that it would run using the 64-bit JRE instead of the built-in JRE.

Changed:

%BASE%\jre\bin\java

To (set the path as appropriate for your instance):

C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_66\bin\java

This one should be an "always fresh" symlink (handled by system updates) that ought to allow your Jenkins instance to survive Restart and Update events:

C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath\java.exe

Then I restarted Jenkins. Powershell execution woke up to the might of 64-bits. Note: I am using a single Jenkins instance that does double duty as the "server" and "execution slave" at the same time. For fully autonomous slaves, I would suppose doing whatever to get the slave-agents processes in 64-bit mode would result in a similar success.

Full automation? According to the chocolatey "jre8" package documentation, using command line switches, it's even be possible to force fixed destination paths for JRE, and exclude 32-bit and/or 64-bit editions, if fully automated non-interactive steps are needed. https://chocolatey.org/packages/jre8