Time for action – installing PDI

These are the instructions to install PDI, for whatever operating system you may be using.

The only prerequisite to install the tool is to have JRE 6.0 installed. If you don’t have it, please download it from www.javasoft.com and install it before proceeding. Once you have checked the prerequisite, follow these steps:

1. Go to the download page at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pentaho/files/Data Integration.
2. Choose the newest stable release. At this time, it is 4.4.0, as shown in the following screenshot:
   
3. Download the file that matches your platform. The preceding screenshot should help you.
4. Unzip the downloaded file in a folder of your choice, that is, c:/util/kettle or /home/pdi_user/kettle.
5. If your system is Windows, you are done. Under Unix-like environments, you have to make the scripts executable. Assuming that you chose /home/pdi_user/kettle as the installation folder, execute:

   cd /home/pdi_user/kettle
   chmod +x *.sh

6. In Mac OS you have to give execute permissions to the JavaApplicationStub file. Look for this file; it is located in Data Integration 32-bit.app\Contents\MacOS\, or Data Integration 64-bit.app\Contents\MacOS\ depending on your system.

What just happened?

You have installed the tool in just a few minutes. Now, you have all you need to start working.

Pop quiz – PDI prerequisites

Q1. Which of the following are mandatory to run PDI? You may choose more than one option.

1. Windows operating system.
2. Pentaho BI platform.
3. JRE 6.
4. A database engine.