Troubleshooting

Question 1

What three things need to be in place for users to connect to data?

Answer 1

• Permissions to the data source
• Ability to authenticate to the database
• Database drivers

Question 2

What are the 5 most common data source errors users encounter?

Answer 2

• Permission to access this Tableau Server data source denied.
• Data source not found.
• Unable to connect to this Tableau Server data source.
• Unable to list Tableau Server data sources.
• Can’t connect with a cube data source.

Question 3

Error: Data source not found.

Explain.

Answer 3

Connect to Data Source page may need to be updated

or

Data Source has been removed from Tableau Server.
You can hit refresh on the data source page to update.

Question 4

Error: Unable to connect to Tableau Server data source.

Explain.

Answer 4

This can happen when information about the connection has changed (i.e. publisher’s password expired / db name change).

Make sure this information is correct.

Question 5

Error: Unable to list Tableau Server data source.

Explain.

Answer 5

This happen when users are trying to access TS data sources and there are connectivity issues between Tableau Desktop and the server.

Question 6

Error: Can’t connect to cube data source.

Explain.

Answer 6

To connect to a published cube data source the users must download it locally for use in Tableau Desktop.

Question 7

” The view snapshot in this subscription could not be properly rendered”.

What happened?

Answer 7

• Missing or expired credentials. View being sent out may have been published with embedded credentials that are now out of date.
• Database temporarily down during the time the subscription was sent. This could happen with live connections. Retry of subscription should work as long as the db is back up.
• Backgrounder process timed-out. Default timeout is 30 minutes. Complex dashboards may cause timeout, but unlikely. Can be modified.

Question 8

What are some examples of data sources that don’t rely on credentials?

Answer 8

A data source pointing to an extract that is not being refreshed.

A data source embedded within a workbook at time of publishing.

Question 9

What two things must be in place for subscriptions to be available to a user?

Answer 9

1. Must be configured on server.

2. Data source being used must have embedded credentials or not rely on credentials at all.

Question 10

What are some reasons you wont be able to subscribe even if you see the icon?

Answer 10

Not configured correctly on server.

Data source used in view does not run with embedded credentials.

Question 11

What reasons are there for not being able to see the subscription icon at all?

Answer 11

• No subscriptions have been scheduled.
• The view uses a live database connection that prompts for password. These live connections are not supported by subscriptions.
• Tableau Server is configured for Trusted Authentication.

Question 12

What reasons are there for subscriptions not arriving?

Answer 12

You may see this error in the Windows Event Viewer

• Service may be trying to use an encrypted SMTP server. Tableau subscriptions only support unecrypted SMTP connections.

Question 13

What may be happening when a VizQL server process shows up as unlicensed?

How to fix?

Answer 13

The process was unable to communicated with the licensing service.

This may have happened because of network connectivity issues.

There is the possibility that the licensing request may have been crowded out by excessive load on the process.

Stop and start the service.

Question 14

What are Extract Refresh Alerts and how does TS handle refresh errors?

Answer 14

When TS cannot complete an extract refresh, an alert appears indicating that the refresh has failed.

If a scheduled refresh fails five times, TS will suspend the refresh and will not try to run it again until a user has taken action to address the cause of failure.

Question 15

Top-level projects

Who can change ownership?
Who can be given ownership?

Answer 15

• Server admins
• Site admins
• Server admins
• Site admins
• Creator

Question 16

Child (nested) projects

Who can change ownership?
Who can be given ownership?

Answer 16

• Server admins
• Site admins
• Project leader or owner
• Any administrator or user of the site, excluding users with Read-only site role.

Question 17

Workbooks and data sources

Who can change ownership?
Who can be given ownership?

Answer 17

• Server admins
• Site admins
• Workbook or data source owner
• Project leader or owner of the project that contains the content in it.
• Any administrator or user of the site, excluding users with a Read-only site role.

Question 18

What happens if you try to remove a user on TS without first reassigning the content they own to someone else?

Answer 18

They will not be deleted from TS. their site role will say “Unlicensed”

Question 19

What happens if you change the owner of a data source with embedded credentials for the underlying connection?

How would you fix this?

Answer 19

The embedded credentials will be deleted and connecting to that source will fail.

The new owner should download the workbook, update the credentials, and republish it.

Question 20

What are the capabilities of the server admin?

Answer 20

Server administrators are allowed all capabilities on all content on the server.

Question 21

What are the capabilities of the site admin?

Answer 21

Site admins are allowed all capabilities on content published to the site they administer.

Question 22

What are the capabilities of users who have been assigned Project Leader?

Answer 22

The have full capabilities within their project.

Question 23

What are the capabilities of regular publishers?

Answer 23

Publishers become the owners of content they publish, and, by default, they are allowed all capabilities on that content. If they publish to a locked project hierarchy, they cannot set permissions on their content after publishing, unless they also are the top-level project owner or leader.