Installing Pentaho 1.6 and MySQL on Ubuntu 7.10

In my previous post, I documented how I created a virtual machine using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, and installed Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop on it. I'm going to be using this virtual machine for some work with the Pentaho BI Suite. This post documents the steps I used to install the Pentaho suite of business intelligence software on my Ubuntu 7.10 system.

First, you will need to install MySQL and the Sun Java development kit. To do this, you will use the Synaptic Package Manager to download MySQL and Java, conveniently packaged for Ubuntu.

The Synaptic Package Manager is found in the System menu, as shown in this screenshot:


After launching, Synaptic will display a lengthy list of packages that are available for installation.


To find the MySQL package, click on the Search button in the toolbar at the top of the Synaptic window, and use the dialog to search for mysql.


Many packages related to mysql will be found. The package that you want to install is "mysql-server". This is a meta-package, meaning that it does not install anything, but instead depends on another package. Installing the meta-package will cause all of it's dependencies to be installed. As of this post, mysql-server depends on mysql-server-5.0, so version 5.0 of mysql will be installed.


To install mysql-server, left click and choose "Mark for installation" from the menu.


The entire dependency tree for mysql-server needs to be installed. Synaptic will display a dialog similar to the following to confirm that you want to install of the dependencies. Click on the "Mark" button in the bottom right to mark all of them for installation.


The checkboxes for all of the required packages will now be marked with an icon indicating that they will be installed.


Next, click on the Search button again, and search for "Java 5". Several packages will be found; the one you will need to install is "sun-java5-jdk". Follow the same steps that you did with "mysql-server" to mark the JDK for installation.

Click on the Apply button in the Synaptic toolbar. You will be prompted with a dialog summarizing the packages that are being installed; click on "Apply" to start the installation process.


Synaptic will then download and install the packages. Depending on your connection speed, this may take a few minutes.


Eventually, you will be presented with a dialog box that will allow you to set the password for the MySQL "root" user. Be careful in typing this password, as the configuration dialog does not prompt you to enter it twice.


You will also be prompted with a dialog box asking for confirmation of the Java license agreement. Review it, and if you accept, click on the checkbox and then "Forward".


When the installation is complete, you will be presented with a confirmation dialog. Close this window, and then exit Synaptic.


Next, you will install the Pentaho BI Suite. Download the Pentaho 1.6 for MySQL demo archive. Extract the contents of the archive to a directory on your system; I chose to extract it to a subdirectory of my home folder: ~/pentaho-demo.

To create and configure the MySQL databases that the Pentaho platform will use, open a terminal and navigate to the pentaho-demo directory. Execute the following command:

mysql -u root -p -e \
"source data/SampleDataDump_MySql.sql"

You will be prompted for the password of the MySQL root user; it is the password that you created when prompted by the Synaptic package manager. The script should run for a few seconds, and then drop back to the terminal prompt.

To start the demo, open a terminal (or use the same one that you used to create the databases) and navigate to the pentaho-demo directory. This directory contains a shell script that can be used to start the server. Execute this command in the terminal:

./start-pentaho.sh

The script will display a notification that the platform contains a version checker that will communicate with Pentaho's servers to determine if newer versions of the software are available. Read the notification, and press Enter if you wish to continue.

Depending on your system, it may take a few minutes for the server to start. When it has finished starting, you will see a message similar to the following:

14:32:11,508 INFO [STDOUT] Pentaho BI Platform server is ready. (Pentaho BI Platform 1.6.0.GA.863) Base Url = http://localhost:8080/pentaho/, Solution Path = /home/codespin/pentaho-demo/pentaho-solutions

To start playing with the demo, navigate to http://localhost:8080/pentaho/ in your browser. Choose one of the users in the dropdown, and then click "Login". To start learning more about the Pentaho BI platform, visit the Pentaho website and wiki.