Step 1 (New Install): Install Tableau Server with Tableau Prep Conductor

Applies to: Tableau Data Management, Tableau Prep

This topic describes how to Tableau Prep conductor on a new installation of Tableau Server.

Tableau Prep Conductor is supported only on Tableau Server versions 2019.1 or later.

Tableau Prep Conductor is licensed through Data Management, on a per-Deployment basis. A Deployment includes a licensed production Tableau Server installation and licensed non-production Tableau Server installations that support the production installation. For more information on Deployment, see the Tableau Deployment Guide(Link opens in a new window).

Before you install

The recommended topology for a production Tableau Server installation is a dedicated node for running flows. If you are currently planning to have a single node Tableau Server installation, it is recommend that you add a second node and dedicate it to run flows.

Install Tableau Server and enable Tableau Prep Conductor

Use the instructions provided in the following topics to install Tableau Server.

Windows: Install Tableau Server(Link opens in a new window)

Linux: Install Tableau Server topic(Link opens in a new window)

When you get to the Activate step, use the Tableau Server product keys to activate Tableau Server.

All product keys are available through the Customer Portal(Link opens in a new window).

Configure public gateway settings

If your Tableau Server is set up with one of the following:

  • Load balancer to distribute requests across gateways.

  • Reverse proxy to authenticate external (internet) client requests and offloading SSL-based encryption.

You must configure the following public gateway settings:

tsm configuration set -k gateway.public.host -v <name> (This should be the URL that your users are using to access Tableau Server)

tsm configuration set -k gateway.public.port -v 443

For more information on configuring gateway settings, see Configuring Proxies for Tableau Server(Link opens in a new window).

Enable Tableau Prep Conductor

Use the following steps to add the Data Management product key to your Tableau Server:

Note: This process requires a restart of the Tableau Server.

Note: If you are using core-based licensing, you must apply both the Data Management product key and the Resource Core product key to your Tableau Deployment. The first key allows flows to be run on Tableau Server though the Tableau Prep Conductor and the second key adds the additional cores for the Tableau Prep Conductor nodes. All product keys are available through the Customer Portal(Link opens in a new window).

  1. If the computer where you are running Tableau Server has been configured to connect to the internet through a forward proxy, follow the procedure in the topic, Configure Product Key Operations with Forward Proxy(Link opens in a new window), before continuing.

  2. Open TSM in a browser:

    https://<tsm-computer-name>:8850

  3. Click Licensing on the Configuration tab and click Activate Licence.

  4. Enter or paste your Data Management product key and click Activate.

  5. On the Register page, enter your information into the fields and click Register.

  6. Follow the prompts and restart Tableau Server after registration is complete.

Verify Tableau Prep Conductor is enabled and running

When you activate the Data Management product key, a single instance of Tableau Prep Conductor is automatically enabled on any node that has Backgrounder enabled.

Use the following steps to verify that it is enabled and running:

  1. Open a browser and enter the Tableau Server URL, and append the dedicated TSM web UI port. Here are some examples of what the URL might look like:

    https://localhost:8850/ (if you're working directly on the server computer)

    https://MarketingServer:8850/ (if you know the server's name)

    https://10.0.0.2:8850/ (if you know the server's IP address)

    In the sign-in page that appears, enter your administrator user name and password.

    Note: Tableau Server creates and configures a self-signed certificate during the installation process. This certificate is used to encrypt traffic to the TSM Web UI. Because it's a self-signed certificate, your browser will not trust it by default. Therefore, your browser will display a warning about the trustworthiness of the certificate before allowing you to connect.

  2. In the Tableau Services Manager web interface, click the Status tab to see the status.

    • If Tableau Prep Conductor is enabled and running, you should see Tableau Prep Conductor in the list of processes as Active on at least on one node. If Tableau Prep Conductor is not enabled, you will see Tableau Prep Conductor in the list of processes, but with no status information for any of the nodes.

      Tableau Prep Conductor not enabled:

      Tableau Prep Conductor not enabled

      • Tableau Prep Conductor enabled and running. In the image below Tableau Prep Conductor is enabled on node1 and node3:

Dedicate a node for Tableau Prep Conductor

 

On the node you are planning to dedicate to running flows, enable Backgrounder process if it is not already enabled. It is recommended that you do not run other processes like VizQL server on this node.

Because you are dedicating this node to running flows, you must configure Backgrounder to run only flow tasks. By default, the Backgrounder process runs tasks of all types, including flows, extract refreshes and subscriptions. For more information, see Node Roles in Tableau Server(Link opens in a new window).

Run the following tsm commands on that dedicated node to run only flow tasks:

  1. Run the following command to allow Backgrounders on this node to run only flow tasks.

    tsm topology set-node-role -n node1 -r flows

  2. Set the node role on the initial node to no flows. The backgrounder on this node will run all jobs except flows:

    tsm topology set-node-role -n node1 -r no-flows

  3. Apply the changes and restart Tableau Server:

    tsm pending-changes apply

Multi-node installations

If you have more than 2 nodes in your Tableau Server installation, you can choose to configure other nodes to run all tasks other than flows:

  1. Restrict a node to not allow flows. This command removes Tableau Prep Conductor from this node and Backgrounders on this node will not run flow tasks.

    tsm topology set-node-role -n node1 -r no-flows

  2. Apply the changes and restart Tableau Server:

    tsm pending-changes apply

Next step

Step 2: Configure Flow Settings for your Tableau Server

Who can do this

Server administrators can install Tableau Server and enable Tableau Prep Conductor.

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