Remove Tableau Server from Your Computer


Warning: The steps below completely remove Tableau Server on Windows, and delete all related data, users, and configuration information. This includes any files in \temp. Tableau Server licenses are also deactivated if you include the -l option when running the command shown below and the computer is connected to the internet.

As a best practice, copy any backup files you want to save to a location that is not related to Tableau. This will preserve the files when you remove Tableau. You should copy any backup files to a separate computer for safety, including backup files created when you uninstall Tableau. By default these are created in C:\ProgramData\Tableau\Tableau Server with a name similar to uninstall-2018.1.tsbak. Saving backup files on a separate computer will allow you to reinstall the version of Tableau Server that created the backup, and have the data contained in the backup, even after running the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script.

If you want to uninstall a particular Tableau Server package to free up disk space (after upgrading, for example), see Uninstall Tableau Server.

As part of the regular installation of Tableau Server, a script is installed that provides you a way to completely remove Tableau and all associated files from your computer. This is something you would only do if you did not care about your Tableau data, configuration, or log files, or if you are working with Tableau Technical Support and need to reinstall Tableau Server after an installation or upgrade attempt fails. The obliterate script will not remove any drivers you installed separately, even those you installed to use with Tableau Server.

The tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script is intended for when you want to completely remove Tableau Server from your computer. You might want to do this for a couple of different reasons:

  • You no longer want Tableau Server installed on the computer. Use the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script to remove Tableau Server completely. If this is the case, and the computer is connected to the internet, you can include a -l option to deactivate the Tableau Server license.

  • Troubleshooting Tableau Server installation problems—If you run into issues installing Tableau, you may need to use the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script to completely remove Tableau Server from your computer before reinstalling. Doing this will clean up any older settings or states and allow you to reinstall on a "clean" computer. If you are doing this, you can leave off the -l option to preserve licensing information on the computer. When you omit the -l option, you will not need to activate your license when you reinstall Tableau Server.

Important: You must run the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script from a 64-bit command prompt. For example, run cmd.exe in the C:\Windows\System32 folder. If you run the script from a 32-bit command prompt, the script will not completely remove Tableau, and subsequent installations may fail. To determine if you are running a 64-bit command prompt, type echo %processor_architecture% in your command window. If the result includes "64" (AMD64 for example), the command prompt is a 64-bit prompt. If the result includes "x86" you are running a 32-bit prompt. For more information, see the appropriate Microsoft documentation for your versions of Windows.

What tableau-server-obliterate does

The intent of the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script is to completely remove Tableau Server from your computer. This includes files, system settings and configurations, and, if you specify, licensing information.

When you run tableau-server-obliterate.cmd, the following steps are taken:

  • Uninstall is run for all installed versions of Tableau Server (Control Panel uninstall).
  • Most contents of the data directory is removed (by default C:\ProgramData\Tableau\Tableau Server). Backup and log files are preserved by default. See the section below, "Preserving Tableau Server backup and log files."
  • All registry entries related to Tableau Server are removed.
  • All server licenses are deactivated if you use the -l option and the computer is connected to the internet. This option does not work in offline situations.

Preserving Tableau Server backup and log files

Prior to version 2020.1 of Tableau Server, running the tableau-server-obliterate script deleted all content from the Data directory. Beginning with version 2020.1, the default behavior of the tableau-server-obliterate script has changed: the script copies and saves Tableau Server backup and log files to the logs-temp directory. The default location for the logs-temp directory is at \ProgramData\Tableau\logs-temp. You can set options on the script to disable this new functionality.

To change the default behavior and to remove backup or log files, include on of the following options when running the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script:

  • -k Do not copy backups to logs-temp directory.
  • -g Do not copy logs to logs-temp directory.
  • -a Do not copy anything to logs-temp directory.

Running the tableau-server-obliterate script

You can completely remove Tableau Server from a computer, either preserving the licensing information, or removing the licensing information along with all other aspects of Tableau Server. You might want to preserve licensing if you are going to reinstall Tableau Server on the same computer.

An older version of tableau-server-obliterate.cmd may miss files from new versions of Tableau Server. Always run the obliterate script for the version of Tableau Server that is installed on the computer.

To completely remove Tableau Server without removing server licensing

The example script in this procedure also includes the -a option to remove Tableau Server backup and log files.

Note: If you plan to reinstall Tableau Server and Activate Tableau Server Using the Authorization-To-Run (ATR) Service, we recommend that you remove licensing information before reinstalling and activating Tableau Server using Server ATR.

  1. On the initial node, open a command prompt as administrator.

  2. Run the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script:

    By default: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\packages\scripts.<version_code>\tableau-server-obliterate.cmd -a -y -y -y

    Note: If you have already uninstalled Tableau Server using Control Panel and now you want to completely remove it, run the copy of the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script located in the \Tableau Server\temp folder (by default: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\temp) . If the script is not in that directory, reinstall the Tableau Server package and then run the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script from the scripts folder (By default: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\packages\scripts.<version_code>\).

    You can also get a copy of the script from this Knowledge Base article: Obliterate Script Unavailable(Link opens in a new window).

    If you have a multi-node (distributed) installation of Tableau Server, run the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script on each node in the cluster.

  3. Restart each computer you ran the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script on.

To completely remove Tableau Server and licensing

The example script in this procedure also includes the -a option to remove Tableau Server backup and log files.

  1. On the initial node, open a command prompt as administrator.

  2. Deactivate any active product keys.

    tsm licenses deactivate -k <product_key>

  3. Run the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script:

    By default: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\packages\scripts.<version_code>\tableau-server-obliterate.cmd -a -y -y -y -l

    The -l option for the obliterate script removes all licensing files from the computer if the computer is connected to the internet. The script first attempts to deactivate any active licenses, but it will remove all licensing information whether or not deactivation was successful. This is why we recommend you run the tsm licenses deactivate command before running the obliterate script.

    Note: If you have already uninstalled Tableau Server using Control Panel and now you want to completely remove it, run the copy of the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script located in the \Tableau Server\temp folder (by default: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\temp) . If the script is not in that directory, reinstall the Tableau Server package and then run the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script from the scripts folder (By default: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\packages\scripts.<version_code>\).

    If you have a multi-node (distributed) installation of Tableau Server, run the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script on each node in the cluster. You do not need to deactivate licenses on any additional nodes.

  4. Restart each computer you ran the tableau-server-obliterate.cmd script on.

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