Lab Note: Jenkins Agent Setup — Go, MinGW, and NSSM on Windows

Overview

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Notes for setting up Jenkins build agents across all three lab nodes (Oroid N2+/arm64, Beelink/Windows, MiniMac/macOS). Covers Go installation per platform, MinGW gcc on Windows for CGO builds, and running the Jenkins agent as a persistent Windows service via NSSM.

Installing Go

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Windows — beelink

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winget install -e --id GoLang.Go

Open a new cmd prompt after install (PATH won’t update in the existing window).

go version

Expect: go version go1.24.x windows/amd64

Check the module cache paths are writable. This matters if the Jenkins agent runs as a service account rather than the interactive user:

go env GOPATH
go env GOCACHE

Both should point inside the service account’s profile. If not, set GOPATH and GOCACHE explicitly in the Jenkins node environment variables.

macOS — miniMac

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brew install go

Or download the .pkg installer from https://go.dev/dl/ and run it.

go version

Linux ARM64 — ODroid N2+

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Download the ARM64 tarball from https://go.dev/dl/ (filename: go1.24.x.linux-arm64.tar.gz).

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.24.x.linux-arm64.tar.gz

Add to PATH permanently:

echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/go/bin:$PATH' | sudo tee /etc/profile.d/go.sh
sudo chmod +x /etc/profile.d/go.sh
source /etc/profile.d/go.sh
go version

Jenkins caveat: The Jenkins agent process does not source /etc/profile.d/. The Go binary path must be hardcoded in the Jenkinsfile environment block:

environment {
    PATH = '/usr/local/go/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin'
}

Installing MinGW-w64 gcc on Windows — beelink

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Required for mattn/go-sqlite3 which uses CGO_ENABLED=1 and needs a C compiler. Pure-Go SQLite alternatives (e.g. modernc.org/sqlite) would avoid this, but The Moment uses mattn/go-sqlite3.

Option A — Chocolatey (simplest):

choco install mingw

Option B — MSYS2:

winget install -e --id MSYS2.MSYS2

Then in the MSYS2 MinGW64 shell:

pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc

Add C:\msys64\mingw64\bin to the system PATH (not user PATH — the Jenkins service account needs it).

Verify:

gcc --version

Expect: gcc (x86_64-posix-seh-rev..., Built by MinGW-W64...) 13.x

Running the Jenkins Agent as a Windows Service — NSSM

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NSSM (Non-Sucking Service Manager) wraps any executable as a proper Windows service with restart-on-failure and log capture. Much cleaner than Task Scheduler for a Jenkins agent.

1. Install Java 21 (Temurin)

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Download the Windows x64 MSI from https://adoptium.net/temurin/releases/?version=21

Run the installer. On the optional features screen, tick:

• Add to PATH
• Set JAVA_HOME variable

Verify:

java -version

Expect: openjdk version "21.x.x" ... Temurin-21

2. Install NSSM

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Download from https://nssm.cc/download — get the latest release zip.

Extract to C:\tools\nssm. Add C:\tools\nssm\win64 to the system PATH.

Verify:

nssm version

3. Download agent.jar

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In Jenkins UI: Manage Jenkins → Nodes → beelink → Agent (or the node’s status page). The page shows a launch command containing the secret and a download link for agent.jar.

Save to: C:\jenkins-agent\agent.jar

Also create the log directory:

mkdir C:\jenkins-agent\logs

4. Create the service

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nssm install JenkinsAgent

This opens a GUI. Fill in the Application tab:

Switch to the I/O tab:

Click Install service.

5. Start and verify

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nssm start JenkinsAgent

Check Jenkins UI: Manage Jenkins → Nodes → beelink — the node should show as online within a few seconds.

Check the logs if it doesn’t connect:

type C:\jenkins-agent\logs\stderr.log

NSSM quick-reference

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nssm status  JenkinsAgent        # Running / Stopped / paused
nssm restart JenkinsAgent        # Restart the service
nssm stop    JenkinsAgent        # Stop without removing
nssm edit    JenkinsAgent        # Re-open the GUI to change settings
nssm remove  JenkinsAgent confirm  # Permanently remove the service

To update the agent secret (e.g. after re-registering the node in Jenkins):

nssm edit JenkinsAgent

Change the Arguments field, save, then nssm restart JenkinsAgent.