Skip to main content

Pentaho+ documentation has moved!

The new product documentation portal is here. Check it out now at docs.hitachivantara.com. 

 
Version Data Integration and Analytics
Hitachi Vantara Lumada and Pentaho Documentation

Work with transformations

  1. Last updated
  2. Save as PDF
 

Parent article

In the PDI client (Spoon), you can develop transformations, which are data workflows representing your ETL activities. The steps used in your transformations define the individual ETL activities. The transformations containing your steps are stored in KTR files. You can access these KTR files through the PDI client.

Parent Topic
Child Topics

Open a transformation

 

The method you use to open an existing transformation depends on if you are using PDI locally on your machine or if you are connected to a repository. If you are connected to a repository, then you are remotely accessing your file on the Pentaho Server. Optionally, you can open a transformation on a Virtual File System (VFS).

NoteIf you get a message indicating that a plugin is missing, see the Troubleshooting transformation steps and job entries section for more details.

If you recently had a file open, you can also use File Open Recent.

Parent Topic
Child Topics

On your local machine

 
Follow these instructions to open a transformation on your local machine.

Procedure

  1. In the PDI client, perform one of the following actions:

    • Select File Open.
    • Click the Open file icon in the toolbar.
    • Click the OPEN Files tile from the Welcome screen.
    • Hold down the CTRLO keys.

  2. Select the file from the Open window, then click Open.

    NoteBy default, the folder from where the last file was accessed is opened.

Results

The Open window closes when your transformation appears in the canvas.
Parent Topic

In the Pentaho Repository

 
Follow these instructions to access a transformation in the Pentaho Repository.

Procedure

  1. Verify that you are connected to a repository, which establishes remote access to the Pentaho Server.

  2. In the PDI client, perform one of the following actions to access the Open repository browser window:

    • Select File Open.
    • Click the Open file icon in the toolbar.
    • Click the OPEN Files tile from the Welcome screen.
    • Hold down the CTRLO keys.
    NoteBy default, the folder from where the last file was accessed is opened.

  3. To use a recently opened file, use the Recents option to navigate to your transformation.

  4. Use either the search box to find your transformation, or use the left panel to navigate to a repository folder containing your transformation.

    NoteIf the PDI is already connected to the Pentaho Repository, then only the Recents and Pentaho Repository options appear in the left pane. If the PDI is not connected to a Pentaho Repository, then the following options appear in the left pane:
    • Recents
    • Local
    • VFS Connections
    • Hadoop Clusters

  5. If you are not connected to Pentaho Repository, then perform one of the following actions to access the transformation:

    • Double-click on your transformation.
    • Select it and press the Enter key.
    • Select it and click Open.

  6. If you are connected to the Pentaho Repository, click Open to access the transformation.

Results

The Open window closes when your transformation appears in the canvas.
Parent Topic

On Virtual File Systems

 

From the menu bar in the PDI client, select File Open to open a PDI transformation on a Virtual File System (VFS). See Connecting to Virtual File Systems for details.

Parent Topic

Rename a folder

 

You can rename a folder from the Open. You can rename a folder or file only if you are not connected to the Pentaho Repository.

Procedure

  1. Select a folder or file in the Open window.

  2. Right-click on it.

  3. Select the Rename option from the context menu to rename it.

Parent Topic

Save a transformation

 

The method you use to save a transformation depends on if you are using PDI locally on your machine or if you are connected to a repository. If you are connected to a repository, you are remotely saving your file on the Pentaho Server. Optionally, you can save a transformation on a Virtual File System (VFS) if you are not connected to the Pentaho Repository.

Parent Topic
Child Topics

On your local machine

 
Follow these instructions to save a transformation on your local machine.

Procedure

  1. In the PDI client, perform one of the following actions:

    • Select File Save or File Save as.
    • Click the Save current file icon in the toolbar.
    • Hold down the CTRLS keys.
    The Save As window opens.

  2. Specify the transformation's name in the window and select the location.

    By default, the folder from where the last file was accessed is opened.

    NoteThe file types allowed are .ktr or.kjb.

  3. Click Save.

    The transformation is saved.

Results

The window closes when your transformation is saved.
Parent Topic

In the Pentaho Repository

 
Follow these instructions to save a transformation to the Pentaho Repository.

Procedure

  1. Verify that you are connected to a repository, which establishes remote access to the Pentaho Server.

  2. In the PDI client, perform one of the following actions:

    • Select File Save or File Save as.
    • Click the Save current file icon in the toolbar.
    • Hold down the CTRLS keys.
    The Save As window opens. By default, the folder from where the last file was accessed is opened.
    NoteThe file types allowed are .ktr or.kjb.

  3. Navigate to the repository folder where you want to save your transformation.

  4. Specify the transformation's name in the File name field.

  5. Click Save.

Results

The window closes when your transformation is saved. If the transformation already exists, an overwrite warning message appears. Click OK to overwrite the existing transformation.
Parent Topic

On Virtual File Systems

 

From the menu bar in the PDI client, select File Open to save a PDI transformation on a Virtual File System (VFS). See Connecting to Virtual File Systems for details.

Parent Topic

Run your transformation

 

After creating a transformation as a network of steps (a data workflow) that performs your ETL tasks, you should run it in the PDI client to test how it performs in various scenarios. With the Run Options window, you can apply and adjust different run configurations, options, parameters, and variables.

When you are ready to run your transformation, you can perform any of the following actions to access the Run Options window:

  • Click the Run icon on the toolbar.
  • Select Run from the Action menu.
  • Press F9.

The Run Options window appears.

Run Options Window

In the Run Options window, you can specify a Run configuration. To set up run configurations, see Run configurations .

NoteThe default Pentaho local configuration runs the transformation using the Pentaho engine on your local machine. You cannot edit this default configuration.

The Run Options window also lets you specify logging and other options, or experiment by passing temporary values for defined parameters and variables during each iterative run.

Always show dialog on run is set by default. You can deselect this option if you want to use the same run options every time you execute your transformation. After you have selected to not Always show dialog on run, you can access it again through the dropdown menu next to the Run icon in the toolbar, through the Action main menu, or by pressing F8.

After running your transformation, you can use the Execution panel to analyze the results.

Parent Topic
Child Topics

Run configurations

 

Some ETL activities are lightweight, such as loading in a small text file to write out to a database or filtering a few rows to trim down your results. For these activities, you can run your transformation locally using the default Pentaho engine. Some ETL activities are more demanding, containing many steps calling other steps or a network of transformation modules. For these activities, you can set up a separate Pentaho Server dedicated for running transformations using the Pentaho engine. Other ETL activities involve large amounts of data on network clusters requiring greater scalability and reduced execution times. For these activities, you can run your transformation using the Spark Submit job entry.

You can create or edit run configurations through the Run configurations folder in the View tab as shown below:

Run Configurations Folder

To create a new run configuration, right-click on the Run configurations folder and select New. To edit or delete a run configuration, right-click on an existing configuration.

NotePentaho local is the default run configuration. It runs transformations with the Pentaho engine on your local machine. You cannot edit this default configuration.

Selecting New or Edit opens the Run configuration dialog box that contains the following fields:

Field Description
Name Specify the name of the run configuration.
Description Optionally, specify details of your configuration.
Parent Topic
Child Topics

Select an Engine

 

You can select the Pentaho Engine to run transformations in the default Pentaho (Kettle) environment.

You can also use the Spark Submit job entry to run big data transformations on your Hadoop cluster to coordinate large amounts of data over multiple nodes. See Spark Submit for details.

Parent Topic
Child Topics
Pentaho Engine
 

The Pentaho engine does not execute sub-transformations or sub-jobs when you select the Pentaho server or Slave server option. If you want to run a sub-transformation on the same server where your parent job runs, select Local for the Run Configuration type.

Run Configuration Dialog Box

The Settings section of the Run configuration dialog box contains the following options when Pentaho is selected as the Engine for running a transformation:

Option Description
Local Select this option to use the Pentaho engine to run a transformation on your local machine.
Pentaho server Select this option to run your transformation on the Pentaho Server. This option only appears if you are connected to a Pentaho Repository.
Slave server Select this option to send your transformation to a slave (remote) server or Carte cluster.
Location

If you select Slave server, specify its location.

If you have set up a Carte cluster, you can specify Clustered. See Use Carte Clusters for more details.
Send resources to the server If you specified a remote server for your remote Location, select to send your transformation to the specified server before running it. Select this option to run the transformation locally on the server. Any related resources, such as other referenced files, are also included in the information sent to the server.
Log remote execution locally If you specified Clustered for your remote Location, select to show the logs from the cluster nodes.
Show transformations If you specified Clustered for your remote Location, select to show the other transformations that are generated when you run on a cluster.
Parent Topic

Options

 

Errors, warnings, and other information generated as the transformation runs are stored in logs. You can specify how much information is in a log and whether the log is cleared each time through the Options section of this window. You can also enable safe mode and specify whether PDI should gather performance metrics. Logging and performance monitoring describes the logging methods available in PDI.

Option Description
Clear log before running Indicates whether to clear all your logs before you run your transformation. If your log is large, you might need to clear it before the next execution to conserve space.
Log level Specifies how much logging is performed and the amount of information captured:
  • Nothing: No logging occurs.
  • Error: Only errors are logged.
  • Minimal: Only use minimal logging.
  • Basic: This is the default level.
  • Detailed: Give detailed logging output.
  • Debug: For debugging purposes, very detailed output.
  • Row Level: Logging at a row level, which generates a lot of log data.
Debug and Row Level logging levels contain information you may consider too sensitive to be shown. Please consider the sensitivity of your data when selecting these logging levels. Monitoring system performance describes how best to use these logging methods.
Enable safe mode Checks every row passed through your transformation and ensure all layouts are identical. If a row does not have the same layout as the first row, an error is generated and reported.
Gather performance metrics Monitors the performance of your transformation execution through these metrics. Use performance graphs shows how to visually analyze these metrics.
Parent Topic

Parameters and Variables

 

You can temporarily modify parameters and variables for each execution of your transformation to experimentally determine their best values. The values you enter into these tables are only used when you run the transformation from the Run Options window. The values you originally defined for these parameters and variables are not permanently changed by the values you specify in these tables.

Value Type Description
Parameters Set parameter values pertaining to your transformation during runtime. A parameter is a local variable. The parameters you define while creating your transformation are shown in the table under the Parameters tab.
  • Arguments: Set argument values passed to your transformation through the Arguments dialog box.
Variables Set values for user-defined and environment variables pertaining to your transformation during runtime.
Parent Topic

Adjust transformation properties

 

You can adjust the parameters, logging options, dates, dependencies, monitoring, settings, and data services for transformations. To view the transformation properties, click the CTRLT or right-click on the canvas and select Properties from the menu that appears.

Parent Topic

Use the transformation menu

 

Right-click any step in the transformation canvas to view the Transformation menu.

Learn more

Parent Topic

Stop your transformation

 

There are two different methods you can use to stop transformations running in the PDI client. The method you use depends on the processing requirements of your ETL task. Most transformations can be stopped immediately without concern. However, since some transformations are ingesting records using messaging or streaming data, such incoming data may need to be stopped safely so that the potential for data loss is avoided.

To stop a transformation running in the PDI client:

  • Use Stop if your ETL task should stop processing all data immediately.
  • Use Stop input processing if your ETL task needs to finish any records already initiated or retrieved before stopping.
Parent Topic