3.4. The Jenkins Home Directory

Before we install Jenkins, however, there are some things you need to know about how Jenkins stores its data. Indeed, no matter where you store the Jenkins WAR file, Jenkins keeps all its important data in a special separate directory called the Jenkins home directory. Here, Jenkins stores information about your build server configuration, your build jobs, build artifacts, user accounts, and other useful information, as well as any plugins you may have installed. The Jenkins home directory format is backward compatible across versions, so you can freely update or reinstall your Jenkins executable without affecting your Jenkins home directory.

Needless to say, this directory will need a lot of disk space.