Skill Belt Study Guide Flashcards
What is Tableau’s ‘Golden Circle?
The Tableau WHY: Tableau amplifies human intellect. People are smart. People are creative. We enable people to unlock their ideas and contribute in ways they consider to be the highest use of their skills, intellect, and capabilities. When this happens, they improve their lives, their organizations, and the world. The Tableau HOW: We do this by making software that helps people. Regardless of technical skill, see and understand their data. This liberates people’s natural curiosity and creative energy. It enables them to have conversations with their data that were impossible before- leading to discover that collectively transform their organization. The Tableau WHAT: We make this software for people everywhere, at every level of the organization. This allows business and IT professionals to work together in beautiful symbiosis. This is transforming the way companies think.
How is Tableau breaking out of the Business Intelligence Box?
As Henry Ford said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they have said faster horses.” Tableau is different than traditional BI because we put humans at the center of the center of design instead of the database. This is a fundamental shift in thought in BI; Tableau doesn’t let itself be defined by pre-existing ideas in business intelligence like limiting who can access data and create and share insight from data.
How does Tableau help its users find success?
Today we consider Tableau successful when the software fades into the background, and you are in flow. Discoveries happen naturally; you’re thinking about the problem, not the product in your hand. We strive to enable this data Zen for everyone, at every level of an organization. Now let’s be clear – we’re not trying to make everyone a data scientist. We love data scientists, but exploration and curiosity shouldn’t belong to a select few with “data” in their titles. What we’re trying to do is enable the data enthusiast in all of us. Because when people have access to facts and data and information, even people who claim they have no interest in numbers, suddenly they can see the world very differently.
Why does Tableau stick to the 25% maintenance fee on its software?
Tableau invests a significantly higher percentage of top line revenue into Research & Development than pretty much all other major software vendors. This has a direct impact on our clients and why our products continue to provide significant value for our clients. Secondly, we continue to receive high accolades our customer service and support as noted by Gartner in the Magic Quadrant (http://www.tableausoftware.com/reports/gartner-quadrant-2014) with above average scores for customer experience. Lastly, because of our investment in R&D, again as noted by Gartner, we have the lowest migration complexity with a much higher percentage of clients moving to our new versions, and much faster than other technologies, reducing the overall cost of ownership. Our standard level of support and maintenance fees allows us to continue to innovate and be a partner for our customers in the long term.
Explain the services or process layout of a Tableau Server?
What is a highly available installation of Tableau Server?
Installing Tableau Server to make it highly available means adding redundant machine(s) with an inactive Tableau Server installed into a cluster with an active machine of Tableau Server. If the active Tableau Server fails, the inactive redundant machine(s) will become active. A highly available solution ensures an instance of Tableau Server can withstand a failure of a single machine. At least 3 machines are recommended to implement high availability for Tableau 9.0 Mariner.
Bonus tech information:
Tableau 9.0 uses Apache Zookeeper to create a single source of truth and decision making working with Cluster Controller. Cluster Controllers communicate to Zookeeper to tell it which machine is the active, primary Tableau Server and which is the inactive secondary Tableau Server. In previous versions PostgreSQL tracked the status of machine, but it could fail itself. Plus each machine effectively watched the other machines in the cluster for failure. This could cause confusion over which machine is primary and which is secondary. The combo of Zookeeper and Cluster Control solves both issues.
Additionally, Rsync has been replaced by a File Store process. The advantage of File Store is near automatic replication of folders onto all File Store nodes associated with the Data Engine. The issue of secondary vs primary doesn’t matter since all File Store nodes are essentially the same within seconds across the Tableau Server cluster. When failure does happen there’s already a copy of the data ready to for the Data Engine to use. Data Engine isn’t slowed down by File Store like it was with the comparatively sluggish Rsync.
A basic Tableau Server is a ‘black box’ installation. What does this mean? What are some advantages and disadvantages?
A black box installation means that all the components to run a Tableau Server are included within a Tableau Server. Advantages are the installation of Tableau Server is really easy. Extra components like an external load balancer can be added later for performance, but are not necessary. Some disadvantages are some traditional BI customers want to know specifically what’s in a Server or customize their server. Tableau is transparent about the components and the degree of customization for a Tableau Server. Refer them to resources on Tableau.com.
What Run-As User should I use on a local vs. distributed environment?
On a single local installation on a computer for testing/demo use the default NT-Authority Run-As User.
On a distributed (like HA) local installation use a specific Run-As User account. A specified Run-As User account is needed for the cluster to connect to the same unique network account instead of different NT-Authority accounts of the different machines in the cluster.
In a more robust environment with Active Directory (AD), add an account into the AD specifically for Tableau Server. This new Tableau Server user can be given the correct permissions within AD to connect to protected data.
What is the difference between scaling up a Tableau Server vs. scaling out a Tableau Server?
Scaling up means adding more hardware resources to a single machine. This might mean adding more hardware to support more process instances, storing or processing larger extracts, or handling more users.
Scaling out means adding Tableau worker machines distribute the workload. These worker machines can be configured to handle one specific process. A common example is adding a worker machine to handle extract refreshes. The point is all the hardware on that worker is now dedicated to processing those extracts instead of being in hardware resource contention with the other processes within Tableau Server.
To create a highly available Tableau Server that can handle all the requests made of its hardware, it’s pretty typical to scale up and scale out.
What is Single Sign On?
A user signs in to some other application which contains Tableau content. They should be able to see the Tableau Server content without having to log in again.
What are my options for Single Sign On? Which should I use?
Active Directory + SSPI, SAML, Kerberos, Trusted Authentication
The rule of thumb on AD, SAML, Kerberos is that you should use them if you already have them installed for other purposes. It is almost never worth the effort to start from scratch with those. If you do not already have any of those than you should use Trusted Authentication, which is a feature specific to Tableau but which can integrate with any other authentication mechanism.
If you are going to use AD or SAML then that is system-wide and all of your users must have accounts with those systems.
What are the options for searching a workbook or view in Tableau Server?
In the search box at the top of a Tableau Server web page run a global search for views, workbooks, projects, data sources, and users. Run a search in the context of the view pane on left hand side of the server web page. In these search boxes the search can be refined to a specific owner, project, modification date, favorite, recently viewed or has an alert. Not every column is searchable, but there are additional fields.
Bonus tech information:
Tableau Server search uses Apache SOLR.
Tableau Server uses sites to create a multi-tenant server (separate spaces within a server for a collection of related users, workbooks and data that will not leak into another collection). As a user it’s possible to belong to multiple sites on one Tableau Server. As a user how do you know which site you’re in? What’s one way to switch from one site to another?
If a user has access to multiple sites upon signing into Tableau Server they will have to choose one specific site to enter from a pop up list. Once signed into a Tableau Server the top of the web page lists the site in orange letters.
In 9.0 change sites by clicking on the twisty arrow. A list of the other sites the user belongs to appears. Click on one site to navigate to its contents.
Bonus tech information:
When a user is added to a Tableau Server they must be given a site role by an administrator. These roles are unrelated to user licenses and include roles like server administrator, site administrator, publisher, interactor, viewer and unlicensed. http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/users_site_roles.htm
Is it possible to customize the name of a Tableau Server in the browser tab? Is it possible to alter the logo of a Tableau Server on the sign-page and in the server to be for another company?
Yes! These customization are possible. To change the logo or the name use the Tab Admin command prompt. http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/help.htm#customize_namelogo.htm
How do I assign users to multiple groups?
In a Tableau Server site create group for users who will have the same permissions or perform the same function (permission vs role based groups). Once the group is created click on it, at the top of the page will be an orange plus button to add users.
How are permissions assigned to a group or user?
Permissions are assigned on a workbook or project level. To assign a permission, click on the permission link at the top that’s next to the workbook details, views, data sources and subscriptions. A highlight chart will show the permissions for groups and users. Assign permissions by clicking the link at the bottom of this chart to add a user or group rule.
Best practice bonus:
For the easiest server user management a best practice is to assign group permissions only.
What is the permission model for Tableau Server?
Tableau’s uses a cascading permission model. By answering a series of questions per user at the user and group level Tableau Server determines if a user is allowed, denied or inherits a specific capability (i.e. viewing a workbook, connecting to a data source, using web editing, or capability through a role).
If a permission is not specified it’s inherited. In the cascading series of questions if Tableau Server cannot determine if the permission is allowed or denied, it assumes the permission is inherited. At the end of the question list if the user inherits the permission, but is not allowed the permission specifically or by role, Tableau Server will equate inherited with deny.
In 9.0 Tableau makes seeing permissions much easier. At the top of any workbook there is a link to its permissions. Click on the link to see a highlight table of which groups and users are allowed, denied, or not specified to have a permission.
What are descriptions for the different roles in a Tableau Server?
Project Leader - Set permissions for all workbooks, view, and data sources in a project.
Data Source Connector - Connect to data sources in the Data Server in the site, server or project.
Data Source Editor - User or group can connect to data in a project. They can also publish, edit, download, delete, and schedule data refreshes.
Editor - Allows all permissions to a user or group for a workbook
Publisher - Allows a user or group to publish, but not view workbooks on a Server
Interactor - Allows a user or group all permission for a workbook except Web Saving, deleting, moving or setting permissions for a workbook.
Viewer - User or group can view a workbook. On the view page in server they can view and add comments, view summary data and export an image of the view. All other permissions are by inheritance.
None - User or group permissions are inherited from other permission grants.
Denied - Specific permission is denied for user or group.
A workbook is being published to Tableau Server. One of the data sources is a Tableau Data Extract. How do you schedule the Tableau Data Extract to refresh on a schedule?
How can a server administrator keep tabs on what’s going on in a Tableau Server? (i.e, know top content, track statuses, and get data to allocate server resources better)
Pre-packaged in every installation of server are admin views to help server administrators monitor and analyze data from their own Tableau server. One way to think of it is BI-on-BI analytics.
For those familiar with our server product, you’ll know that Admin Views have existed for many versions. In the past, these views were designed to monitor a system by providing a quick report with a specific number of metrics. While maintaining all the metrics of the old Admin Views, the new version’s views also allow more freedom, going beyond monitoring. No longer are the Admin Views static screens; now you can interact and chain questions together to gain new insights
What is the order that filters are applied to the Tableau query pipeline? When are filters on LOD expressions applied?
