Selecting an AWS Instance Type and Size
This is archived content
Deployments on public clouds continue to be supported but the content for third-party public cloud deployments is no longer updated.
For the latest Tableau Server deployment content, see the Enterprise Deployment Guide(Link opens in a new window) and the Deploy(Link opens in a new window) section of Tableau Server help.
For those customers who have access, we recommend Tableau Cloud. For more details, see:
- Tableau Cloud Manual Migration Guide
- Tableau Cloud Trial for Admin(Link opens in a new window)
- Tableau Cloud: Get Started for Admin(Link opens in a new window)
Introduction
Choosing the right instance for your workload is an important factor for a successful Tableau Server deployment. You can choose from a wide range of Amazon EC2 instance types. For a complete list of all available instance types and sizes, see Amazon EC2 Instance Types(Link opens in a new window) at the AWS website.
At minimum, a 64-bit Tableau Server requires a 4-core CPU (the equivalent of 8 AWS vCPUs) and 64 GB RAM. However, a total of 8 CPU cores (16 AWS vCPUs) and 128 GB RAM are strongly recommended for a single production Amazon EC2 instance.
An AWS vCPU is a single hyperthread of a two-thread Intel Xeon core for M5, M4, C5, C4, R4 and R4 instances. A simple way to think about this is that an AWS vCPU is equal to half a physical core. Therefore, when choosing an Amazon EC2 instance size, you should double number of cores you have purchased or wish to deploy with. Example: You have purchased an 8 core licence for Tableau Server (or need to support enough active users where 8 cores are warranted). You should choose an Amazon EC2 instance type with 16 vCPUs. For more information about how many vCPUs equal a physical core, see Physical Cores by Amazon EC2 and RDS DB Instance Type at the AWS website.
The Windows Operating system will recognise these 16 vCPU as 8 cores, so there is no negative licensing impact.
Typical instance types and sizes for development, test and production environments
C5.4xlarge (suitable for development environments only)
m5.4xlarge (suitable for development or testing environments only)
r5.4xlarge (suitable for development, testing or production environments)
Note: Installing Tableau Server on Amazon EC2 T2 instances is not supported.
For a performance comparison of various Amazon EC2 instance types that have been tested with Tableau Server, see Tableau at the Speed of EC2(Link opens in a new window).
Recommended specifications for a single production instance
| Component/Resource | Amazon Web Services | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CPU | 16+ vCPU | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Operating System |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory | 128+ GB RAM (4 GB RAM per vCPU) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Storage | Two volumes: 30-50 GiB volume for the operating system 100 GiB or larger volume for Tableau Server | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Storage type | EBS recommended (SSD (gp2) or Provisioned IOPS) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Disk latency | Less than or equal to 20ms as measured by the Avg. Transfer disk/sec Performance Counter in Windows. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
