How to deploy scheduled Kettle jobs on Pentaho BI server v6 CE

Question

I have a server running Pentaho BI server v6 Community Edition. We've developed a Kettle job to extract from one database to another, exported as a KJB file. I would like to run this job every 12 or so hours.

I noticed that the BI server already included Kettle, and has the ability to upload and schedule jobs. Do I need to install the DI server if the BI server already has Kettle installed?

If not, how can I publish the KJB file into the BI server? I'd like to use a file system repository. If I upload the file directly through the user console the log shows that the import was a success, but I cannot select or run the job anywhere.

Answer 1

I use Pentaho BI server 5, but it should work same on Pentaho BI 6.

My Kettle job runs many sub-transformations. Transformation files are stored on file system directory e.g. /opt/etl.

So lets say I have one job (daily_job.kjb) with two sub-transformations.

To run a Kettle job on Pentaho BI CE I use those steps:

1. set up a transformation location properly in job file
2. upload sub-transformations to proper directory on server (/opt/etl)
3. create xaction file which executes Kettle job on BI server (daily.xaction)
4. upload daily.xaction and daily_job.kjb files to Pentaho BI server (same folder)
5. schedule daily.xaction file on Pentaho BI server

Job settings in daily_job.kjb:

Xaction code daily.xaction (simply it executes daily_job.kjb located in same folder in BI server as where xaction is):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<action-sequence> 
  <title>My scheduled job</title>
  <version>1</version>
  <logging-level>ERROR</logging-level>
  <documentation> 
    <author>mzy</author>  
    <description>Sequence for running daily job.</description>  
    <help/>  
    <result-type/>  
    <icon/> 
  </documentation>

  <inputs> 
  </inputs>

  <outputs> 
    <logResult type="string">
      <destinations>
        <response>content</response>
      </destinations>
    </logResult>
  </outputs>

  <resources>
    <job-file>
      <solution-file> 
        <location>daily_job.kjb</location>  
        <mime-type>text/xml</mime-type> 
      </solution-file>     
    </job-file>
  </resources>

  <actions> 
    <action-definition>
      <component-name>KettleComponent</component-name>
      <action-type>Pentaho Data Integration Job</action-type>
      <action-inputs>   
      </action-inputs>
      <action-resources>
        <job-file type="resource"/>
      </action-resources>
      <action-outputs> 
        <kettle-execution-log type="string" mapping="logResult"/>  
        <kettle-execution-status type="string" mapping="statusResult"/> 
      </action-outputs>   
      <component-definition>
        <kettle-logging-level><![CDATA[info]]></kettle-logging-level>           
      </component-definition>
    </action-definition>

  </actions> 
</action-sequence>

Scheduling Kettle job (xaction file) on Pentaho BI CE: