Set Up for Metrics
Retirement of the legacy metrics feature
Tableau's legacy metrics feature was retired in Tableau Cloud in February 2024 and will be retired in Tableau Server version 2024.2. In October 2023, Tableau retired the ability to embed legacy metrics in Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server version 2023.3. With Tableau Pulse, we've developed an improved experience to track metrics and ask questions of your data. For more information, see Create Metrics with Tableau Pulse to learn about the new experience and Create and Troubleshoot Metrics (Retired) for the retired feature.
Metrics are a type of Tableau content that tracks the value of an aggregate measure, such as sum of sales. Because metrics refresh frequently and display their current value in an easy-to-glance format, they are useful for monitoring data. To learn more about how users work with metrics, see Create and Troubleshoot Metrics (Retired).
As a Tableau Server administrator, you have the ability to control how often metrics refresh and how failing refreshes are handled. You can also make sure that users are able to create metrics or disable metrics for particular sites or for the entire server.
Ensure that users can create metrics
When metrics are enabled for a site, all users with a Creator or Explorer (can publish) site role can create metrics, if they have the correct permissions.
Metrics are created from existing views on a Tableau site. To ensure that users can create metrics on a view, verify that:
- Users have the Create/Refresh Metrics permission capability for the workbook that the view belongs to. For more information, see Permissions.
- The password for the data source is embedded, if it is required. For more information, see Edit Connections on Tableau Server.
Disable metrics for a site
Metrics are enabled on all sites by default. You can disable metrics on a per-site basis.
- On the site where you want to disable metrics, from the navigation panel, click Settings.
- Under Metrics Content Type, untick Enable metrics.
- Click Save.
When you disable the metrics content type, metrics no longer appear on the site. The data for any existing metrics is retained, but these metrics will no longer refresh. If you re-enable metrics, these metrics will reappear and resume refreshing.
You can also disable metrics on a specific workbook by denying the Create/Refresh Metrics permission capability. For more information, see Permissions.
Disable metrics for a server
In addition to disabling metrics for specific sites, you can disable metrics server-wide. When disabled at the server level, metrics don't refresh or appear on any sites, metrics processes don't run, and the site settings for metrics aren't available. Existing metric data is retained, so that if you re-enable metrics, those metrics will be restored.
Metrics are enabled by default. To disable metrics, use the tsm configuration set option metricsservices.enabled.
Configure how often metrics refresh
When a metric refreshes, it checks for new data via the view it was created from, known as the connected view. You might want to increase the time between refreshes if you notice a performance impact on your server – or decrease it if your users require more up-to-date data.
Metrics that rely on live data refresh every 60 minutes, by default. To adjust the refresh interval for live data, use the tsm configuration set option metricsservices.checkIntervalInMinutes. This is a server-wide setting.
Metrics that rely on extract-based data refresh when the extracts refresh. To control how often these metrics refresh, change the extract refresh frequency. For more information, see Extract Refresh Schedules.
Configure failure notifications for metric refreshes
If a metric is not able to connect to the data it needs to refresh, the refresh will fail. When a metric refresh fails 10 times in a row, the metric owner receives an email notification.
To adjust the number of consecutive failures before a warning email is sent, use the tsm configuration set option metricsservices.failureCountToWarnUser. This is a server-wide setting.
Configure when metric refreshes are suspended
If a metric refresh fails 175 times in a row, the refresh is suspended. Once a metric refresh is suspended, the server will no longer attempt to check for new data, until the refresh is manually resumed.
To adjust the number of consecutive failures before a refresh is suspended, use the tsm configuration set option metricsservices.maxFailedRefreshAttempts. This is a server-wide setting.
Manage metrics
Though metrics are created from a view, they are not tied to the view like alerts or subscriptions. This means you can manage metrics similar to how you manage workbooks, by renaming, moving, tagging, deleting or setting permissions on a metric.
Find metrics to manage either by navigating the project hierarchy or via the following paths.
- To see all metrics on a site: Navigate to the Explore section, then select All Metrics.
- To see metrics created from all the views in a workbook: Navigate to the workbook, then select the Connected Metrics tab.
- To see metrics created from a single view: Open the view, then select Watch > Metrics from the toolbar.
Address failing and suspended metric refreshes
Metric refreshes may fail for one of the following reasons.
- The connected view was deleted or modified.
- Permissions changed for the connected view.
- The password for the data source is no longer embedded or is no longer valid.
- The metric owner doesn’t have the required site role to refresh the metric. A site role of Creator or Explorer (can publish) is required.
- There was a temporary connectivity issue, which will resolve itself.
Note: If the metric refresh is suspended because the owner doesn’t have the required site role for it to refresh, you won’t be able to resume the refresh unless you change the owner.
For more information on why metric refreshes fail and what users can do to fix them, see Fix failing refreshes.
Encourage users to overwrite a metric if the connected view was modified in a way that caused the refresh to fail, but the view is still available. Users can overwrite a metric by creating a metric with the same name in the same project as the existing metric.
Resume suspended refreshes
If the cause of the failure is fixed, for example by embedding the correct password for the data source, you can resume the metric refresh.
- Locate the affected metric. Metrics with suspended refreshes display the text Refresh Suspended, instead of the time of last refresh, in grid and list view.
- On the warning message, click Resume refresh.
Tableau attempts to perform the refresh. If this attempt succeeds, you’ll receive a confirmation, and the refresh will resume on schedule. If the attempt doesn’t succeed, the refresh remains suspended. You or the metric owner can delete or overwrite the metric, or keep it to reference historical data.
Monitor metric activity with administrative views
Use the administrative views for Tableau Server to monitor metric refreshes and see which users are creating and viewing metrics.
- Navigate to the site you want to monitor, or monitor server-wide activity by selecting All Sites from the site picker.
- From the navigation panel, click Site Status or Server Status.
- Select the dashboard you want to inspect.
To monitor metric refresh activity, open the Background Tasks for Non Extracts dashboard.
Filter for the tasks Find Metrics to Update or Update All Metrics on a View.
To see which users are creating metrics, open the Actions by All Users or Actions by Specific User dashboard.
Filter for the action Create Metric.
To see recent activity involving metrics, open the Actions by Recent Users dashboard.
Look at the list of actions under What Actions Were Recently Performed?