pentaho/pentaho-kettle · error · KettleException

No metadata available to determine connection information…

Error message

No metadata available to determine connection information from.

What it means

getMonetDBConnection() refuses to build a MapiSocket when the step's meta (MonetDBBulkLoaderMeta) is null, since connection host/port/user/password can only be derived from that metadata. The message 'No metadata available to determine connection information from.' signals a lifecycle bug: the step is being used before init()/setMeta ran.

Solutions

1. Ensure the step is initialized: call init(StepMetaInterface, StepDataInterface) with a fully loaded MonetDBBulkLoaderMeta before using connection methods
2. When testing, construct and assign meta explicitly instead of using a bare instance
3. Check for code paths that create a second MonetDBBulkLoader instance bypassing the normal Kettle lifecycle

Example fix

// before
MonetDBBulkLoader loader = new MonetDBBulkLoader();
loader.getMonetDBConnection(); // meta is null
// after
loader.init( meta, new MonetDBBulkLoaderData() );
loader.getMonetDBConnection();

// ensure initialization before any connection use
if ( loaderNotInitialized( loader ) ) { loader.init( meta, new MonetDBBulkLoaderData() ); }

boolean usable( MonetDBBulkLoader l ) { return l != null && l.getData() != null && l.meta != null; }

try { socket = getMonetDBConnection(); } catch ( Exception e ) { if ( e.getMessage().contains( "No metadata available" ) ) { initialize step and retry once; } else rethrow; }

When it happens

Trigger: getMonetDBConnection() is invoked (directly or via mserver-related paths) while this.meta is null - typically the step was never initialized through init(smi, sdi) or the meta was never assigned on the instance being used.

Common situations: Programmatic/ unit-test usage of MonetDBBulkLoader that skips init(); calling connection helpers on a fresh instance without loading step metadata from XML/repository.

Understand the failure class

Background: "This is a bug, please report it": internal invariant violations, unreachable panics, and SNH errors explained — this error's family across 47 libraries.

Related errors

• Error invoking lifecycle listener
• Properties, Kettle systems settings, not initialised!
• The Properties systems settings are already initialised!
• The properties systems settings are already initialised!
• Unable to obtain a IUnifiedRepository instance

AI-assisted analysis of pentaho/pentaho-kettle@f3058517a1 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/86f2447cf5ea6f76. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/monet-db-bulk-loader/impl/src/main/java/org/pentaho/di/trans/steps/monetdbbulkloader/MonetDBBulkLoader.java:618

    }
    return false;
  }

  @Override
  public void dispose( StepMetaInterface smi, StepDataInterface sdi ) {
    meta = (MonetDBBulkLoaderMeta) smi;
    data = (MonetDBBulkLoaderData) sdi;

    super.dispose( smi, sdi );
  }

  protected MonetDBBulkLoaderData getData() {
    return this.data;
  }

  protected MapiSocket getMonetDBConnection() throws Exception {
    if ( this.meta == null ) {
      throw new KettleException( "No metadata available to determine connection information from." );
    }
    DatabaseMeta dm = meta.getDatabaseMeta();
    String hostname = environmentSubstitute( Const.NVL( dm.getHostname(), "" ) );
    String portnum = environmentSubstitute( Const.NVL( dm.getDatabasePortNumberString(), "" ) );
    String user = environmentSubstitute( Const.NVL( dm.getUsername(), "" ) );
    String password = Utils.resolvePassword( variables, Const.NVL( dm.getPassword(), "" ) );
    String db = environmentSubstitute( Const.NVL( dm.getDatabaseName(), "" ) );

    MapiSocket mserver = getMonetDBConnection( hostname, Integer.valueOf( portnum ), user, password, db, log );
    return mserver;

  }

  protected static MapiSocket getMonetDBConnection( String host, int port,
      String user, String password, String db ) throws Exception {
    return getMonetDBConnection( host, port, user, password, db, null );
  }

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