Tableau Gold Study Flashcards
How do you know how has seen a particular view?
It’s below the comments section at the bottom of the view. You must be an admin to view.
Explain how the Resulting Permissions works, what info does it convey?
Number of users in the group and the resulting permissions that they have acquired at the user/group level.
Can you configure Tableau Server to support non-English speaking users?
Yes. Each user can set the Language and Locale of the Tableau Server interface. This will change all of the non-content language on Tableau Server.
Suppose a user has View permission for a workbook. Are they guaranteed the ability to view that workbook?
Unanswered
Case: User is using Trusted Ticket authentication to achieve SSO and is having a hard time exposing the Tableau Server navigation to my users. What is going wrong?
Tickets are only valid for navigating to views. To enable unrestricted tickets issue the unresticted ticket tabadmin command.
How do I embed a view without the toolbar?
Add to the end of the URL: ?:embed=yes&:toolbar=no
Case: I’m not sure if my user’s views are rendering properly. Can I check this?
Yes. Add to the end of the URL: ?:render=false
What Tableau Utility found in both Tableau Desktop and Server help identify how a workbook is performing?
The performance recorder tracks the time elapsed for an individual workbook to execute queries.
What is the Javascript API?
Allows you to implement Tableau visualizations into your own web applications.
What is the REST API?
Allows you to automate many Server Admin tasks.
What is the Extract API?
Use to connect to data that is not currently supported as a Tableau Data Source. Allows you to make a program that accesses/processes data to create a TDE.
What is the repository?
It stores application data, file data, TWBs and TDSs. It is based on PostgreSQL.
What is VizQL Server?
Creates visualizations in server. It takes simple visual interactions and creates database specific SQL or MDX.
What is the Backgrounder?
Responsible for extract refreshes, fulfilling subscriptions and keeping the Server healthy.
What is the Base Install?
Consists of coordination (Apache Zookeeper) and the cluster controller (takes action on server health issues). Installs 1 instance of each on each server in the cluster.
What is a Gateway?
Receives incoming client HTPP requests and directs them to the appropriate service. Acts as an internal load balancer.
What is the Data Server?
Data Server serves meta-data and connections to desktop and serves authors. Invoked when a data source is published via Tableau Desktop. Proxy between requests for data and individual data sources.
What is the Cache Server?
Keeps data hot. Acts as a shared cache across all Tableau processes in a cluster.
What is the File Store?
Repository and replication of TDE files.
What is the Data Engine?
Used to manage storage for Extracts and queries. Creates TDEs and manages them.
What is Search and Browsing process?
Handles the search feature, queries meta-data from TWBs and TDSs; based on Apache SOLR.
What are some ways that you can add interactivity to your dashboards?
What kind of interactivity do you need?-Use as Filter-Apply to All Sheets-Add Dynamic Titles-Use filter actions for filter, URL and highlighting
How is Tableau breaking out of the BI box?
By putting humans, not databases, at the center of the design.
What is a cube? Does Tableau support them?
Yes. But the pre-aggregation of the multi-dimensional data sources may limit drilling-down within Tableau. Tableau absolutely supports them though.
What’s the difference between using ODBC connections versus Tableau’s named connections?
Named connections are optimized and tuned by Tableau to assure performance and robust functionality. ODBC connections rely on the vendor’s driver capabilities.
I have a Mac and need to connect to a cube, can I?
Native connectors are limited to the driver capabilities of our database vendors. You could run a VM inside your mac or use a PC to access the data source.
Is Tableau easy to scale-out?
You can easily install workers nodes by downloading the package from our site. Each one takes about 30 minutes.
Why can’t you create a forecast from a bar chart of Category and Sales?
You have to include at least one date and one measure in the view. If there are not enough data points in the view then you can’t build a forecast.
Why is 10 the recommended maximum for unique colors categorical data?
8 colors max is recommended as a visual best practice. Anything more and color loses its impact.
Who defines the measures and dimensions?
For relational - Tableau determines them automatically. All numeric fields are measures and everything else is a dimension.For cubes - Explicitly defined by author of the cube.
Are calculations performed locally in Tableau?
Tableau pushes most calculations back to the database. All aggregations are performed on the database.
Are my calculations written back to the database?
No. Tableau is a safe environment - it never changes your data. Calculations are computed on the fly based on current values in the database.
Does Tableau have to import data to run queries?
Nope, you can connect live and leverage your investment in your existing database.
Tableau doesn’t support Gauge views, like Qlik - Why not?
It’s generally harder to read a radial measure. Bullet graphs are a much easier to read alternative.
What is multi-threaded?
Within a process, being able to perform multiple tasks simultaneously across multiple CPUs.
Is data blending within a single database the same as using multiple tables in the connection dialog?
No, joins happen in the database with raw data as part of one universal query. Blends happen in Tableau with the already aggregated data.Joins - 1 queryBlends - 2 queries
What is availability?
The ability to be resistant to component failures. Increasing the availability of a solution will increase the complexity and total cost.
What is scalability?
Architecturing a Tableau Server environment to handle a growing amount of simultaneous requests.
What multi-process?
Adding more throughput by running multiple instances of a process or service. These can be on a single or distributed servers.
Why doesn’t Tableau support 3D? What’s the alternative?
What do you like about 3D charts? Use small multiples as multi-dimensional alternative. Easier to read.
How do I find the number of days/seconds/etc. between two date dimensions in my data set?
- DATEDIFF(‘Year’,[Date 1],[Date 2])2. [Date 2] - [Date 1]
How do I find all my customers that have bought a product in “Technology” but not “Office Supplies”?
Conditional filtering
What is the cluster controller?
Monitors components, detects failures and executes failover when needed.
What is the coordination service?
Responsible of ensuring there is a quorum for making decisions during failover.
Can I deploy a single Tableau Server distributed across the server zones in my IT infrastructure?
No. You must deploy Tableau Server in the same zone whether it is a single or multi-node.
How do I sync my Active Directory with my Tableau server?
Using the command line utility to run the “syncgroup” command.
What are the most common ways to refresh my extracts?
Using Data Server to schedule extract refreshes or run an on-demand refresh through the CLU.
What kind of Server admin tasks can I do with Tableau’s Command Line Utility?
- Add/Delete/Modify Users
- Add/Delete/Modify Groups
- Add Projects
- Add/Delete Permissions
What is a reverse proxy?
A reverse proxy is a server that sits “in front” of the Tableau Server. This is useful for allowing requests without making the IP of the server visible and load balancing.
Do I need to enable Kerberos? What is that used for?
Kerberos enables companies to leverage their database security model with ease.
Case: The majority of my employees are not very technically inclined and I don’t want to have them worrying about data connections? Solution for this?
Data server will allow the admin to define data sources, add metadata and author entirely new calculations and data fields. Do data governance securely!
What levels of security does Tableau Server author?
- Sites
- Projects
- Workbooks/Views
- Users/Groups Permissions
- Data Server Security
- Data Sources VS Data Connections
- Row Level Security
What are limits on the dimensionality expression in LOD calculations?
Only dimension fields; no sets, combined-fields, parameters, table calculations, aggregate calculations, exclude/include keywords, or date expressions; no IF statements
Can I bring fields from disparate data sources into the same LOD expression?
No. All fields must come from the same data source in LOD expressions.
What happens if I use the same LOD expression on multiple worksheets?
The LOD expression will me evaluated multiple times. It is not cached outside of the worksheet result cache.
What data sources don’t support LOD expressions?
Cubes, Google Big Query, Microsoft JET, Splunk, Actian Vectorwise, DataStax, Informatica Data Services.
Are LOD expressions materialized in extracts?
No, LODs are always calculated on the fly.
What is the 1st quartile, median and 3rd quartile?
The values observed at 25%, 50%, and 75%
What is the standard deviation?
Measures the amount of dispersion or variation in a set of values.
What is skewness?
Measures the asymmetry of the distribution of values around the mean. Left is positive, Right is negative.
What is excess kurtosis?
A description of the flatness or skinniness of the distribution.
Under what circumstances do blended fields return an asterisk value?
If there are multiple matching members you will see an asterisk in the view.
