Server Plugins
Installation of Pentaho User Console Plugins ..
Plugin Manager
To make deployment of the Pentaho Server plugins easier there's a modern PUC with a built-in Plugin Manager.
From the Plugin Manager UI you can now manage your plugin lifecycle:
Update Available - check for updates
Installed - list installed plugins
Not Installed - list plugins not installed
for both Server and Client side EE plugins.
Log in:
Select Plugin Manager.
Or
Log in & Switch to Modern Design.
NEW - Pentaho User Console
The left panel displays the main navigation options including Home (currently active), Browse Files, Plugin Manager, Scheduler, Data Connections, Settings, Semantic Model Editor, and Pipeline Designer.
The Home page features a Quick Access section with four tiles: Data Sources for managing project data sources, Browse Files for exploring files to use with Pentaho, Semantic Model Editor for viewing or creating semantic models, and Pipeline Designer for creating transformations and jobs in the new web-based editor.
At the bottom, the Recently Opened section displays two .ktr files—tr_write_output and tr_hello_world (marked as favorite) - both last modified on December 12, 2025, and owned by the admin user.
Analyzer
Pentaho Analyzer is a web-based business intelligence tool that's part of the Pentaho Business Analytics platform. It provides an interactive, drag-and-drop interface for analyzing data and creating visualizations without requiring SQL or technical coding knowledge.
The tool allows users to explore data through OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) cubes, enabling multidimensional analysis with features like drill-down, slice-and-dice, and pivot operations. Users can quickly create charts, graphs, and reports by dragging dimensions and measures onto a canvas, making it accessible for business users who need to perform ad-hoc analysis.
Pentaho Analyzer supports various visualization types including bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, and heat grids, and integrates with the broader Pentaho platform for sharing reports and embedding analytics into dashboards. It's particularly useful for organizations that want to empower business users to independently explore and visualize their data warehouse or mart information.
Select: Analyzer
From the drop-down box, select : Version
Click Install.
Optional: Verify Analyzer is installed.
Restart Pentaho Server and verify in the UI.
Interactive Reporting
Pentaho Interactive Reporting (PIR) is a web-based ad-hoc reporting tool within the Pentaho Business Analytics platform that enables users to create and customize reports through an intuitive interface without requiring technical expertise.
The tool provides a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) drag-and-drop environment where users can build reports by selecting data sources, adding fields, applying filters, and formatting output. Unlike traditional report design tools that require developer skills, PIR is designed for business users who need to quickly generate operational reports and answer specific business questions.
Key capabilities include the ability to create tabular reports with grouping, sorting, filtering, and calculated fields. Users can add charts, apply conditional formatting, and create prompts for parameterized reports. The tool supports various output formats including HTML, PDF, Excel, and CSV, making it easy to distribute reports across the organization.
PIR connects to relational databases and Pentaho data sources, allowing users to work with live data. It's particularly valuable for organizations that want to democratize reporting capabilities and reduce the bottleneck of relying solely on IT or developers to create standard operational reports.
Select: Interactive Reporting.
From the drop-down box, select : Version
Click Install.
Optional: Verify Interactive Reporting is installed.
Restart Pentaho Server and verify in the UI.
Dashboard Designer
Pentaho Dashboard Designer (also known as CDE - Community Dashboard Editor in the community edition) is a web-based tool for creating interactive, customizable dashboards within the Pentaho Business Analytics platform.
The tool provides a comprehensive environment for building dashboards that combine multiple visualizations, reports, and interactive components into a single unified interface. Users can create dashboards by assembling various elements including charts, tables, filters, selectors, and other widgets that work together to provide a complete analytical experience.
Dashboard Designer uses a three-panel approach: Layout (for defining the dashboard structure using HTML/CSS), Components (for adding data-driven elements like charts and tables), and Data Sources (for connecting to queries and data). This architecture allows for significant flexibility and customization, though it does require some technical knowledge, particularly for advanced layouts and styling.
Key features include interactivity through parameter passing between components, allowing filters and selectors to dynamically update multiple visualizations simultaneously. The tool supports various charting libraries (CCC - Community Chart Components being the most common), and can integrate content from other Pentaho tools like Analyzer and Interactive Reporting.
Pentaho Dashboard Designer is particularly useful for creating executive dashboards, operational monitoring screens, and analytical applications where users need to see multiple related metrics and visualizations in context, with the ability to drill down and filter data interactively.
Select: Dashboard Designer.
From the drop-down box, select : Version
Click Install.
Optional: Verify Dashboard Designer is installed.
Restart Pentaho Server and verify in the UI.
Browse the various plugins:
Pipeline Designer
The Pentaho Pipeline Designer is a visual tool that lets you build data transformation workflows through a drag-and-drop interface. The left panel contains a searchable library of pre-built components (like CSV inputs, MongoDB operations, data generators), the center canvas is where you visually connect these components into a flow diagram to create your pipeline, and the bottom logging console shows real-time execution details and performance metrics when you run the transformation.
It's essentially a no-code environment for designing data pipelines, and it's one of the plugin components that gets deployed in your Pentaho Server setup.
Select: Pipeline Designer.
From the drop-down box, select : Version
Click Install.
Optional: Verify Pipeline Designer is installed.
Restart Pentaho Server and verify in the UI.
Log in:
Select: Pipeline Designer.
Create a test Transformation.
Semantic Model Editor
The Semantic Model Editor (SME) helps you create data models that define how your data should be organized and analyzed for business intelligence. It defines a semantic layer between your raw data and your reports, ensuring everyone in your organization uses consistent business logic and definitions.
Select: Semantic Model Editor.
From the drop-down box, select : Version
Click Install.
Optional: Verify semantic model editor is installed.
Restart Pentaho Server and verify in the UI.
Log in:
Select: Model Editor.
Scheduler
The Pentaho Scheduler provides centralized management and automation of scheduled tasks across your Pentaho system. It displays a table of all scheduled jobs showing their source files, execution frequency (like "Every day at 3:15 PM"), current status (active/paused), last run times, and output locations.
You can view all schedules or filter by active/paused status, manually execute jobs on-demand, set blockout times when jobs shouldn't run, and pause/resume the entire scheduler - essentially giving you complete visibility and control over automated data transformation workflows and their execution timing.
Stop Pentaho Server.
Confirm the plugin archive exists.
Extract
pas-scheduler-*.zipinto thesystemfolder.
Verify directory structure.
Start Pentaho Server and verify in the UI.
Log in:
Select: Scheduler
Pipeline Carte Server
The Pentaho Carte Server is the execution engine that runs and monitors Pentaho transformations and jobs. It provides a web-based status dashboard showing all running and completed transformations/jobs with their execution details (status, timestamps, unique IDs), detailed step-by-step performance metrics (rows read/written, processing speed, errors), and configuration settings for log management and object lifecycle. The server tracks real-time execution stats for each transformation step, displays visual canvas previews of the pipeline flow, and maintains comprehensive execution logs - essentially serving as both the runtime engine and monitoring console for your workflows.
Verify directory structure.
Restart Pentaho Server and verify in the UI.
RUN your test Transformation - see Pipeline Designer.
Data Connections
Data Connections manages data sources for the system.
The interface features a search bar for filtering data sources by name and an "Add connection" button in the upper right corner for configuring new data sources.
Each data source entry includes a checkbox for selection, displays the source name with an icon indicating the database type, and provides an "Open" button for accessing the data source along with additional configuration options accessible via a menu.
To view the connection details, Click: Open
The connection details panel enables you to 'tune' the connection.
Create new will enable you to create a new database connection - in this example, Hypersonic.
Add Connection
Click: Add Connection - in the main panel
Click: Connect - to configure the connection.
Remember to copy over the supported JDBC driver to:
/opt/pentaho/server/pentaho-server/tomcat/lib directory & restart the Pentaho server.
Analyzer
Interactive Reporting
Dashboard
Pipeline Designer
Semantic Model Editor
Pipeline Designer
Pipeline Designer Carte
Elastic MapReduce
x
Last updated
Was this helpful?