Impersonate with Embedded SQL Credentials


You can also perform impersonation by having the person who publishes a view embed their SQL Server account credentials in the view. Tableau Server can be running under any type of account, but it will use these credentials, supplied by the publisher, to connect to the database.

This may be the right choice for your site if the account that handles the impersonation cannot be an Active Directory (AD) account and if you’re comfortable giving workbook publishers an account with a potentially high permission level on SQL Server.

Note:

To use this approach, Embedded Credentials must be enabled on the server Settings page in Tableau Server:

To impersonate with the workbook publisher’s SQL account:

  1. In Tableau Desktop, create a workbook. When you create the data connection, select Use a specific username and password for the workbook's live connection to a SQL Server database:

  2. Publish the workbook to Tableau Server (Server > Publish Workbook).

  3. In the Publish dialog box, click Authentication, then in the Authentication dialog box, select Impersonate via embedded password from the drop-down list:

  4. Click OK.

  5. Test the connection by signing in to Tableau Server as a user. When you click a view, you should not be prompted for database credentials and you should only see the data the user is authorised to see.

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