Develop your BA environment

Use this workflow to build a Business Analytics (BA) development environment. You set up a Pentaho Server, then build, refine, and test BA content.

Work with your admins, analysts, and data scientists. Consider Pentaho professional services for architecture and rollout.

Pentaho training classes can help you ramp faster.

This topic was consolidated on 2026-01-22.

• Set up your Pentaho Server

• Import data sources and data models

• Create reports and refine data models

• Test environment quality

• Next steps

Set up your Pentaho Server

Use this checklist to verify requirements, install, and configure. Skip BA design tool tasks if you will not use those tools.

Checklist	Steps	Notes
Verify system requirements	Consult the following references to verify requirements: Components Reference JDBC drivers reference	In preparation for this task, make sure that you: Acquire one or more servers that meet the requirements. Obtain the correct drivers for your system.
Obtain software and install the Pentaho Server	Perform the following actions: Download the Pentaho software. Install all Pentaho components Access the User Console	After you have the hardware, you will need to: Get the software from your Sales Support representative. Install the software. Access the User Console, tour the Administration page, and change the default administrator password.
Change the Pentaho Server fully qualified URL	See the Administer Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics document for instructions on changing the Pentaho Server URL.	If you have many machines pointing to one server, change the fully qualified URL and verify connectivity.
Configure the Pentaho Server	Perform the following actions: Manage licenses. See Administer Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics. Specify data connections for the Pentaho Server. See Install Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics. Set up email for scheduled reports. See Pentaho Business Analytics. Manage schedules. See Pentaho Business Analytics.	After the first login to the User Console, you will need to: Set up data connections. Configure an email server through the Administration page. Learn how to manage schedules through the Schedules page. You typically finalize schedules during production rollout.
Configure BA design tools	Perform the following actions: Configure design tools and utilities. See Install Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics. Specify data connections for BA tools. See Install Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics.	If you plan to use BA design tools, complete these tasks. Important: Do not configure BA design tools on your production server. Configure and test them on development first, then migrate to production.

Import data sources and data models

Follow this checklist to create data sources and models for agile BA development.

Task	Steps	Notes
Choose data source types	Choose a data source type. See Pentaho Business Analytics for instructions.	Review information about data sources. Compare relational versus multidimensional models.
Create data sources and models	Tour the Data Source Wizard. See Pentaho Business Analytics for instructions.	Learn how the Pentaho Server and Data Source Wizard work together.
Create database table data sources	Create a database table source. See Pentaho Business Analytics for instructions.	Create data sources and preliminary models using the Data Source Wizard.
Learn about Mondrian schemas	Create and modify Mondrian schemas. See Pentaho Schema Workbench for instructions.	Create Mondrian schemas and add a Mondrian data source. Adapt the schema to work with Analyzer. Modify the schema in Schema Workbench.

Create reports and refine data models

Work with data scientists and business analysts at this stage. As you approach production, use sources created in Schema Workbench or Metadata Editor.

Task	Steps	Notes
Create Analysis Reports, Interactive Reports, and Dashboards	See the Pentaho Business Analytics document for instructions.	Create Interactive and Analysis reports, and a dashboard. Verify the reports show the expected data. Refine your model if results are not correct.
Create a report with Report Designer	See the Pentaho Report Designer document for instructions.	(Optional) Create a report in Report Designer.
Refine your data source model	Edit multidimensional models. See Pentaho Business Analytics. Refine multidimensional models in Pentaho Schema Workbench. Refine relational models in Pentaho Metadata Editor.	Refine models to get the data you want in reports. Recreate reports to validate results. Repeat as needed.

Test environment quality

If you perform QA, upload your content to the Pentaho Repository. Then download it to the QA server.

See Administer Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics for instructions.

Some organizations add User Acceptance Testing after QA.

Next steps

• Investigate security. Decide which security solution fits your environment. See Administer Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics.

• Learn about scheduling. Decide which schedules to set up in production. See Pentaho Business Analytics.

• Plan which content you will move to production. See Administer Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics.

• Use the Support Portal to check for service packs.

• Prepare to Go live for production - BA.