Tableau Server Messaging Service
The Tableau Server messaging service uses Apache ActiveMQ beginning with version 2019.4. This is a publish/subscribe platform that enables secure, scalable, performant and highly available message-oriented communication for microservices. The Messaging Service is used to support communication between microservices in Tableau Server.
The server runs a single instance of the Messaging Service by default. In version 2020.1 and later, if you have a multi-node instance of Tableau Server, you can configure a second instance of the Messaging Service.
| Process | Messaging Service |
| Status | Status of the Messaging Service is visible on the Status Page and from the command line using the tsm status -v command. For more information, see View Server Process Status |
| Logging | Logs generated by the gateway process are located in |
Impact if Messaging Service is not running properly
If the Messaging Service stops or fails to start the consequences depend on whether you have one or two instances of the Messaging Service configured.
Multiple instances of Messaging Service (multi-node, version 2020.1 and later)
You can configure two instances of the Messaging Service configured if you have version 2020.1 or later and you have a multi-node installation of Tableau Server. In this case, if one instance fails, the other instance handles all traffic and you can remove and reinstall the failed instance.
One instance of Messaging Service
If you have a single-node installation of Tableau Server, you are limited to a single instance of the Messaging Service. In this case, if the configured instance fails, Tableau Server will continue to function, but the status will appear as "Degraded", and any event message that was sent to the Messaging Service while it was down may be lost, even if the service restarts. Event messages include permission changes to projects.
If the Messaging Service stops, it is automatically restarted as long as the computer itself is otherwise healthy.
Messaging Service in a multi-node cluster
How you configure the Messaging Service in a multi-node cluster depends on what version of Tableau Server you are running. In all cases, you must run one instance of the Messaging Service.
Starting with version 2020.1, you can run two instances of the service in a multi-node environment. We recommend you run two instances as this provides redundancy. You can add a second instance to any node that does not already have the Messaging Service configured. You cannot add more than a combined total of two instances in your multi-node cluster.