Upgrading to Java 11 and installing new Alterian Kettle
- Ben Clark
Customers using local Pentaho Kettle to edit and build Templates and Rules will need to upgrade to Java 11 to continue to use our steps from our next release.
The rules running in Alterian Journey Orchestration are executed on Java. In the upcoming release scheduled for July 2023, we will upgrade the Java version used in the product from version 8 to version 11. This upgrade aims to leverage the new features offered by Java 11.
The internal transition to Java 11 will be transparent to our customers. There will be no need for you to modify any rules or templates currently in use.
For users employing our preferred Template and Rule editing solution, Template Builder, no changes will be required on their part. The upgrade will be applied automatically.
However, some of our older customers rely on a local version of Pentaho Kettle as their chosen Template editing solution. With our migration to Java 11, our steps will be built using Java 11. Consequently, users who wish to continue utilizing our steps or editing rules that contain our steps will need to upgrade to Java 11 as well.
The process of upgrading to Java 11 is straightforward and is documented below:
Before we upgrade to Java 11 we need to unistall the current local version fo Kettle that was written on Java 8 and install the new version that has been created for Java 11.
Locate the Kettle folder and delete it.
Download our pre-packaged version of spoon with all the Alterian plugins pre-installed from
https://ddepdi.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdi.zip
Extract the zip to your download folder, create a folder to hold it where you want.
Usually have C:\Program Files\Kettle but it doesn’t matter where it is.
Run spoon.bat to launch Kettle and check this has installed correctly. Close Kettle.
Browse to https://adoptium.net/en-GB/temurin/releases/?version=11 ,
identify the solution you are using and if using Microssoft Windows download both the .zip and .msi files. For other solutions download as appropriate.
When the files have been downloaded copy both fileinto an appropriate folder and unzip the .zip file.
Double click on the “OpenJDK11U-jdk_x64_windows_hotspot_11.0.19_7” to start the installation process.
Click “Next” to start the installation process.
Set Java_Home Variable to "Will be installed on local hard drive".
Click Install
The process has been completed.
These changes will ensure your version of Kettle continues to work following upgrade.
If you encounter a situation where Kettle opens and immediately closes after installing Java 11, it is possible that there are compatibility issues between the version of Java being used to launch Kettle. The straightforward solution is to uninstall Java 8 if you don't require it for any other solutions you utilize. By doing so, your system will default to using Java 11. However, if you still need Java 8, please reach out to Alterian support, and we can provide instructions on how to enforce the use of Java 11.
Also If you do not download the latest version of Spoon provided by Alterian then we may need to adjust your setup to make it work with Java 11. We would always encourage our customers to use the latest version of Spoon we provide or for highest levels of ease of use Template Builder.
If you have any questions on this process please raise a ticket with the Alteiran support team. However we would strongly recommend our customers move to our Template Builder solution which is continually upgraded and always available. The Alterian support team will be able to advise on how to get Template builder setup if not already available.