problems with 'mvn deploy wagon:upload' when invoked from jenkins

[Sampath.Rajagopal]

I have ftp configured using vsftp in linux x86_64 (vm) environment,
running 

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.2 (Santiago)

 

POM.xml as follows -

<distributionManagement>

                <repository>

                        <id>ftp-repository</id>

                        <name>Repository</name>

                        <url>ftp://192.123.456.789/repository/</url>

                </repository>

 

</distributionManagement>

 

<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>

     <artifactId>wagon-maven-plugin</artifactId>

     <version>1.0-beta-3</version>

     <configuration>

          <fromDir>${project.build.directory}</fromDir>

           <includes>*.war</includes>

           <url>ftp://192.123.456.789/</url>


           <toDir>repository</toDir>

           <serverId>ftp-repository</serverId>

     </configuration>

 

 

My settings.xml has user id, passwd and the server id.

 

When I do 'mvn deploy wagon:upload' with my user id from the command
line, it works.

When I run the same command from Jenkins, it does not work and ends up
with the following error -

 

[ERROR] Failed to execute goal
org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-deploy-plugin:2.5:deploy (default-deploy)
on project v-a-sample-main: Failed to retrieve remote metadata
v.a.sample.main:v-a-sample-main:1.0-SNAPSHOT/maven-metadata.xml: Could
not transfer metadata
v.a.sample.main:v-a-sample-main:1.0-SNAPSHOT/maven-metadata.xml from/to
a-samples-ftp-repository (ftp://192.123.345.567/repository/):
NullPointerException -> [Help 1]

[ERROR]

 

Why is the 'deploy wagon:upload' command not working from Jenkins gui. ?
any suggestions